POVERTY

UN Links Poverty, Violence against Women The world will never eliminate poverty until it confronts social, economic and physical discrimination against women, the United Nations said Wednesday. “Gender apartheid” could scuttle the global body’s goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015, the UN Population Fund’s annual State of World Population report said.

Invisible Women - The Fastest Growing Segment of AIDS Epidemic in India “In India, men with HIV get thrown out of their jobs; women with HIV get thrown out of their homes” and become India’s invisible women, said Priti Radhakrishnan of the Bangalore chapter of the non-governmental organization, Lawyers’ Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, which promotes the fundamental rights of people living with the disease.

Creating A Slave Is Easy

It Is An Act Of Government,

They Create The Circumstances That Drive People Into Poverty. Free Trade, WTO, Debt Crisis World Poverty Another Way To Create Slavery

Alarming Rise in Hate Crimes Against Homeless People in US
Street Spirit- Justice News and Homeless Blues

Number of homeless students on the rise
Green Bay district strives to provide stable environment
By Cynthia Hodnett
A student’s family can’t afford to pay his fees to enroll in a woodshop class or to replace his worn-out, tattered tennis shoes.
Another student and his family move from house to house because they can’t find affordable housing. In turn, the student misses a lot of school and falls behind academically. We try to do what we can, but sometimes we have to tell them that there’s nothing we can do,” Draheim said. “A lot of community agencies have had their funding cut. The YWCA did day care for teenage moms, but that funding had been cut. When we have teenage moms, I don’t know how we’re going to help them.” Source: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

What parents need to know
• All children, including those without permanent housing, have the right to attend school and have access to transportation
• Children can enroll in school without a permanent address.
• Children can’t be denied enrollment because school records aren’t available.
• Children may be eligible for free and reduced breakfast and lunch and have their school fees waived.
Source: Green Bay School District

Employed, but homeless
Many homeless adults here and across the country are employed in full-time positions, but they don’t make enough money to cover rent.
A worker must earn $11.29 per hour working full time to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Green Bay, according to a 2004 survey by National Low Income Housing Coalition. Working for the $5.15-per-hour minimum wage, the worker would have to put in 88 hours a week to afford the same apartment.

Homeless students
2004-05: 590 (estimate) A Growing Trend
2003-04: 333
2002-03: 288
2001-02: 271 2000-01: 270
Source: Green Bay School District

Resource Links. The Poor Are Not Who Or What You May Think They Are.

Inequality.org

Poor News Network

Working Poor Become the New Homeless

The Homeless: Working and Still Living on the Streets

People are working and getting an income, but they can’t afford to live here,” said Sandy Baar, executive director of the Sarasota County Coalition for the Homeless. “That is kind of sad. We need to start thinking livable wage.”

“Insuance sharing a piece of mail
washingtonpost.com
Sick and Broke
By Elizabeth Warren
Nobody’s safe. That’s the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy.

Working Poor- workingpoor.org

Medicaid budgets undergo surgery
Medicaid budgets undergo surgery
By Stephanie Simon
Los Angeles Times
SIKESTON, Mo. — Hundreds of thousands of poor people across the nation will lose their state-subsidized health insurance in the coming months as legislators scramble to hold down the enormous and ever-escalating cost of Medicaid.
Here in impoverished southeastern Missouri, nurses at a family health clinic stash drug samples for patients they know won’t be able to afford their prescriptions after their coverage is eliminated this summer. Doctors try to comfort waitresses, sales clerks and others who soon will lose coverage for medical, dental and mental-health care. Health insurance? That didn’t protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.
A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs — until illness struck. About 90 percent of all Americans are mortgaged to the hilt, and would have little or no assets left if all debts and liabilities were to be paid.* Most Americans have taken advantage of low interest rates, and are now paying a mortgage on their homes. The booming real estate market has made every purchase profitable, because the price of a home always rises. The problem is that the price of a home today is incredibly over-inflated, and the real estate boom that_s been keeping the American economy afloat, is about to bust. Interest rates are going to rise, and the price of your home is going to drop drastically, which will leave you stuck paying for a house that probably wouldn’t pay the interest on your debt if you sold it. If you’re lucky enough to remain employed, inflation will shred your paycheck until you can no longer make mortgage payments. This is when you need to remember that when a nation’s economy collapses, the wealth of the nation doesn’ t disappear, it only changes hands.

Millions of Americans are about to be tossed into the street, and because we’re a kinder and gentler America, from the street they’ll be tossed into shelters. Once in the shelter, they’ll be wards of the social service system, which will make sure they all have food, and a bed to sleep in. In exchange for that food and shelter, the “welfare reform” act will put them to work at jobs where they will collect no additional salary. I guess the idea of “welfare reform” is a lot more acceptable to Americans than “forced labor” but regardless of what you call it, many Americans will soon experience slavery once again, and the slaves are not just sweeping public streets. Under the welfare reform act, many Americans are being put to work for private companies for no wages other than the cost of their food and shelter, both of which constitute the bare minimum requirements of survival. By causing the economy to collapse, and then “saving” the poor, our government can legally force millions of Americans into slavery. The new slavery will be blamed on “the economy,” and it will employ a much larger percentage of the population than it did before the civil war.

To understand how they’re accomplishing this, we need to turn our thoughts back to our monetary system, because due to the fact that it is no longer based on the gold standard, our government is in control of the money supply, and that gives them the ability to cause rampant unemployment, which is exactly what they’re doing. The framers of the U.S. constitution protected us from this brand of tyranny, but because Americans were foolish enough to ignore and/or trust their government, they will become slaves, but most of them will blame themselves for their plight.

CAUSES OF POVERTY AROUND THE WORLD

They have Lied about the Saftey of our Food And Still Do

ANIMAL ANTIBIOTICS DISCOVERED IN COMMON VEGETABLES
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found residues from animal antibiotics in common produce, says a new study. Spreading raw manure on fields from animals treated with antibiotics is a common practice on conventional farms. Unfortunately scientists have now discovered that vegetables like corn, cabbage and green onions absorb those antibiotics, which are then ingested by consumers. “Vegetarians may think the huge overuse of antibiotics in livestock and poultry will not affect them, but that’s not true,” stated Margaret Mellon, the director of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Consumers eating vegetables grown on soil fertilized with manure may be unknowingly ingesting antibiotics.” Regular consumption of these antibiotics can then cause bacteria in the body to become resistant.
ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION
6771 South Silver Hill Drive
Finland, MN 55603
Phone: (218)-353-7454 Fax: (21 353-7652

What’s in the Meat You Eat?
Did you know that approximately 70 percent of all antibiotics and related drugs produced in the United States are given to livestock and poultry? These drugs are used for nontherapeutic purposes such as accelerating growth and preventing the diseases caused by overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on “factory farms.” Unfortunately, this practice results in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cause difficult-to-treat diseases in humans.

Overuse leaves drug useless against avian influenza
Farmers in China have been using an antiviral drug meant for humans to control avian influenza in their chickens since the late 1990s. As a result, the subtype of avian influenza that is considered most likely to trigger a human pandemic has developed resistance to the drug. It’s the first time overuse in animal agriculture of an antiviral, rather than an antibiotic, has compromised the efficacy of a human drug in a major way. The Chinese government encouraged farmers to use the drug, called amantadine, although such use is banned in the United States and many other countries. The only remaining drug that could be used to treat humans, oseltamivir, is prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain. The situation is a dramatic example of why UCS advocates against the inappropriate use in animal agriculture of drugs that are valuable in human medicine. Read the Washington Post article about the story.

USDA criticized on mad cow investigation
The second case of mad cow disease in the U.S. – the first in a U.S.-born cow – was confirmed in June. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been criticized for: not releasing the news until last month, although initial tests were done last November; mislabeling the sample; and not running a confirmatory test sooner after one test was positive and another produced an inconclusive result. The positive reading of mad cow was finally confirmed by a laboratory in England. The USDA screens only one cow in 90 for mad cow disease, while Europe screens one cow in four and Japan screens every cow it slaughters. The USDA also allows risky practices to continue, such as feeding chicken litter that may contain cow parts back to cattle. Read the New York Times article about the case here.

Monsanto Corn Study raises safety questions: According to the study, rats that were fed MON 863 had smaller kidneys and elevated levels of white blood cells and lymphocytes compared to those that were fed conventional corn. In the United States and Canada, farmers have been growing MON 863 corn since 2003. (Also Check Dangerous Chemicals for more information)

Also, ¾ way down page is info on MSG.

FDA Lists 92 Symptoms from Nutrasweet (Aspartame)
(including Death!)

Many links to aspartame info.

Support group for aspartame victims.

The information on msgtruth.org is a culmination of the important independent research regarding the food additive Monosodium Glutamate. msgtruth.org is a not-for-profit site created by scientific, caring citizens trained in food science, food processing, and biology, who no longer work for the food industry.

You or someone you care about is suffering from puzzling chronic conditions such as headaches, stomach disorders, fatigue, depression, and many other problems. Tests have come up negative and you want answers.

Definitions & links.

This Web site contains a great deal of information that those who are sensitive to processed free glutamic acid (MSG), or people who simply want to avoid the substance, will find useful. It also contains information about the glutamate industry’s infrastructure, their stable of industry sponsored scientists, their public relations firms, and some of the methods they use to convince the public that neurotoxic MSG is “safe.”

(Splenda) Sucralose Toxicity Info Center

Splenda, or Sucralose, is a chlorocarbon. The chlorocarbons have long been famous for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage.

Articles on many things that we are told are “safe”.

Iowa, North Carolina are top users of antibiotics in livestock
A new report by Environmental Defense ranks antibiotic use in animal agriculture by state. Iowa ranks highest in antibiotic use, with 2.2 million pounds of medically important antibiotics fed to livestock annually, followed by North Carolina with 1.7 million pounds. Delaware is the most intensive user, with 187,000 pounds of antibiotics per thousand square miles. People living in areas with intensive use of antibiotics as feed additives may be at greater risk of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections. The rankings were based on data taken from UCS’s report (2000). Read the new report, Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs (PDF).

The results of our study indicate the following:Tetracycline, penicillin, erythromycin, and other antimicrobials that are important in human use are used extensively in the absence of disease for nontherapeutic purposes in today’s livestock production.

Cattle, swine, and poultry are routinely given antimicrobials throughout their lives. Many of the antimicrobials given to livestock are important in human medicine.

The overall quantity of antimicrobials used in agriculture is enormous.Many consumers will be surprised to find that tens of millions of pounds of antimicrobials are used in livestock systems. We estimate that every year livestock producers in the United States use 24.6 million pounds of antimicrobials in the absence of disease for nontherapeutic purposes: approximately 10.3 million pounds in hogs, 10.5 million pounds in poultry, and 3.7 million pounds in cattle. The tonnage would be even higher if antimicrobials used therapeutically for animals were included.

GM soy hit harder by Brazil’s drought than conventional varieties

English IPS News via NewsEdge Corporation : RIO DE JANEIRO — Drought in southern Brazil has reduced this year’s important soybean harvest dramatically in Rio Grande do Sul state — and added fuel to the heated national debate about transgenic crops.

Genetically modified (GM) soy, which accounts for the majority of soybean production in the southern state, suffered greater losses than conventional soy varieties, according to reports by local growers.

NEW LAW FORCES GENETIC POLLUTERS TO PAY
Following the example of Germany, Denmark has passed a law that will punish farmers planting genetically engineered (GE) crops if they contaminate the crops or fields of organic or non-GE farmers. Because GE crops sell for less than organic or conventional crops, farmers whose fields are contaminated by drifting GE pollen undergo major financial losses. Under the new law, if a farmer is growing conventional or organic crops, and their field is contaminated by drifting GE pollen, the farmer will be compensated for their losses by the government. The Denmark government will then recoup those costs from the farmer whose field the GE pollen originated in.

Monsanto

It is in the Food We Eat. This is a World Problem.

Monsanto Produced Agent Orange, which is a Herbicide and better Known as Lasso which was used and is still being used in some countries by Farmers, I am not positive so don’t quote me on that. It has profound side affects such as Diabetes, cancer and Spina Bifida and other deformities. The side affects are huge in number and has affected millions around the world. If Roundup is comparable we are in trouble. You are what you eat and it does get into food. When it rains the Herbicide or Pesticide goes into the ground and into the plants and into the fruit or whatever the food part of the plant may be. Then you eat it and become ill. Don’t have to be a genius or rocket scientist to know that one.

A pesticide is a Nerve Gas Pure and simple.

New studies: Monsanto’s best selling “safe” pesticide is highly toxic
Source: Organic Consumers Association

Two new peer-reviewed scientific studies have further confirmed the toxicity of glyphosate, the world’s most commonly used herbicide. The June 2005 scientific journal “Environmental Health Perspectives” reports that glyphosate, sold by Monsanto under the brand name “Roundup,” damages human placental cells at exposure levels ten times less than what the company claims is safe. A study in the August journal Ecological Applications found that even when applied at concentrations that are one-third of the maximum concentrations typically found in waterways, Roundup still killed up to 71 percent of tadpoles in the study.

Similar glyphosate studies around the world have been equally alarming. The American Academy of Family Physicians epidemiological research has now linked exposure to the herbicide with increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a life-threatening cancer, while a Canadian study has linked glyphosate exposure with increased risk for miscarriage. A 2002 study linked glyphosate exposure with increased incidence of attention deficit disorder in children. Despite these studies, Monsanto continues to advertise Roundup, sprayed heavily on 140 million acres of genetically engineered crops across the world, as one of the “safest” pesticides on the market.

Organic Consumers Association

Learn more and take action
There is more information in Dangerous Chemicals about Monsanto as well at this site.

Monsanto claims patents on Pigs in 160 countries
Monsanto Petition against Pig Patents

MSG Food Additive is a Slow Poison

This was sent to me by a friend today. I checked out some web sites and found a couple of others on the subject. What a sneaky underhanded way to create sick people. Profiteers.

You are what you eat for sure.

MSG - used in Coffee - (read this for sure) please read

this. It is startling!! Food additive “MSG” is a Slow Poison. Slow Poisoning
MSG hides behind 25 or more names, such as “Natural Flavoring”.

MSG is also in your favorite Tim Horton’s and other
brand coffee shops! Pass this on to those who still may be unaware
or disbelieving of the dangers of MSG. I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity
epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research
assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and
spent years working for the government.
He made an amazing discovery while going through
scientific journals for a book he was writing called “The Slow
Poisoning of America “. In hundreds of studies around the world,
scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or
diabetes test studies.

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the
scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese
creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The
MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates; causing rats
(and humans?) to become obese. They even have a title for the fat
rodents they create: “MSG-Treated Rats”.

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the
cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell ’s
soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top
Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson
frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the
‘healthy low fat’ ones.
The items that didn’t have MSG marked on the product
label had something called ”Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein”,
which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was
shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children
everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many
different names in order to fool those who carefully read the
ingredient list, so they don’t catch on. (Other names for MSG:
‘Accent’ - ‘Aginomoto’ - ‘Natural Meet Tenderizer’ etc)
But it didn’t stop there.

When our family went out to eat, we started asking at
the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the
managers, swore they didn’t use MSG. But when we ask for the
ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and
Hydrolyzed
Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King,
McDonalds, Wendy’s, Taco Bell , every restaurant, even the sit down
ones like TGIF, Chilis’, Applebees and Denny’s use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in
every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to
eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!

So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat?.. Is it a preservative or a vitamin??
Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote,
an expose of the food additive industry called “The Slow Poisoning
of America” he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive
effect it has on the human body.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food
manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG explains
that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A
study of the elderly showed that people eat more of the foods that
it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says
eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of
us? ‘Bet you can’t eat just one’, takes on a whole new meaning where
MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight?

The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts
people to their products. It makes people choose their product over
others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG
wasn’t added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity,
it is an addictive substance! Since its introduction into the
American
food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in
larger and larger doses to the pre-packaged meals, soups, snacks and
fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday. The FDA has set no
limits on how much of it can be added to food.

They claim it’s safe to eat in any amount. How can
they claim it safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies
with titles like these? : - The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat
as a model for the study of exercise in obesity’. Gobatto CA, Mello
MA, Souza CT,
Ribeiro IA.Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002.

Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic
serotonin release in both normal and monosodium
glutamate-obese rats’. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori C,
Nascimento CM, Ribeiro Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug.

Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate
treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of
multiple risk factors’.

Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N,
Yoshinari Fujishima Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar.

Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium
glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity’.
Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K, Kusunoki Exp Neurol.
1978 Oct.

Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978.
Both the “medical research community” and “food
manufacturers” have known about MSG’s side effects for decades!
Many more studies mentioned in John Erb’s book link MSG to Diabetes,
Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even
Alzheimer’s. But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from
dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing
the obesity epidemic we now see?

Even as you read this, G. W. Bush and his corporate
supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress called the “Personal
Responsibility in Food Consumption Act” also known as the
“Cheeseburger Bill”, this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food
manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that
they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods.

The Bill has already been rushed through the House of
Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate
level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters
get it through before the media lets everyone know
about ‘MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food’.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his
concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada.
While sitting in the Government office, the official
told him “Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn’t touch the stuff!”
But this top level government official refused to tell the public
what he knew.

The big media doesn’t want to tell the public either,
fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the
fallout on fast food industry may hurt their profit margin. The
food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their
products for years, and now we are paying the price for it. Our
children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive
food additive. But what can I do about it?… I’m just one voice!

What can I do to stop the poisoning of our children,
while our governments are insuring financial protection for the
industry that is poisoning us!

This e-mail is going out to everyone I know in an
attempt to tell you the truth that the corporate owned politicians
and media won’t tell you.

The best way you can help to save yourself and your
children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email
to everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before
politicians can pass the legislation protecting those who are
poisoning us. The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco
industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place
before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine?

If you are one of the few who can still believe that
MSG is good for us, and you don’t believe what John Erb has to say,
see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine

Type in the words “MSG Obese”
and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We the public, do not want to be rats in one giant experiment and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, feeding the food industry’s bottom line, while waiting for the heart transplant, diabetic induced amputation, blindness or other obesity induced, life threatening disorders. With your help we can put an end to this poison. Do your part in sending this message out by word of mouth, e-mail or by distribution of this print-out to all your friends all over the world and stop this ‘Slow Poisoning of Mankind’ by the packaged food industry.

Here is another site with Information about this as well

Information about obesity and other effects of processed free glutamic acid (MSG) and where it is hidden in cosmetics, drugs, dietary supplements, vaccines, infant formula, and food fed to people and animals. Loads of Information at this site.

Depleated Uranium Information

Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
A death sentence here and abroad

Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” - Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation.

And what about our soldiers? Terry Jemison of the Department of Veterans Affairs reported this week to the American Free Press that “Gulf-era veterans” now on medical disability since 1991 number 518,739, with only 7,035 reported wounded in Iraq in that same 14-year period.

This week the American Free Press dropped a “dirty bomb” on the Pentagon by reporting that eight out of 20 men who served in one unit in the 2003 U.S. military offensive in Iraq now have malignancies. That means that 40 percent of the soldiers in that unit have developed malignancies in just 16 months.

Since these soldiers were exposed to vaccines and depleted uranium (DU) only, this is strong evidence for researchers and scientists working on this issue, that DU is the definitive cause of Gulf War Syndrome. Vaccines are not known to cause cancer. One of the first published researchers on Gulf War Syndrome, who also served in 1991 in Iraq, Dr. Andras Korényi-Both, is in agreement with Barbara Goodno from the Department of Defense’s Deployment Health Support Directorate, that in this war soldiers were not exposed to chemicals, pesticides, bioagents or other suspect causes this time to confuse the issue.

This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War. Fourteen years after the introduction of DU on the battlefield in 1991, the long-term effects have revealed that DU is a death sentence and very nasty stuff.

Scientists studying the biological effects of uranium in the 1960s reported that it targets the DNA. Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab and formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers from the 2003 war as “spectacular … and a matter of concern.”

This evidence shows that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems - radiation, chemical and particulate – the particulate effect from nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure and targets the Master Code in the DNA. This is bad news, but it explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases which are difficult to define.

In simple words, DU “trashes the body.” When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Fulk was more specific: “I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.”

Soldiers developing malignancies so quickly since 2003 can be expected to develop multiple cancers from independent causes. This phenomenon has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the U.S. military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.

Just 467 U.S. personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems.

The number of disabled vets reported up to 2000 has been increasing by 43,000 every year. Brad Flohr of the Department of Veterans Affairs told American Free Press that he believes there are more disabled vets now than even after World War II.They brought it home

Not only were soldiers exposed to DU on and off the battlefields, but they brought it home. DU in the semen of soldiers internally contaminated their wives, partners and girlfriends. Tragically, some women in their 20s and 30s who were sexual partners of exposed soldiers developed endometriosis and were forced to have hysterectomies because of health problems.

In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans’ families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has stated that they do not keep records of birth defects occurring in families of veterans.How did they hide it?

Before a new weapons system can be used, it must be fully tested. The blueprint for depleted uranium weapons is a 1943 declassified document from the Manhattan Project.

Harvard President and physicist James B. Conant, who developed poison gas in World War I, was brought into the Manhattan Project by the father of presidential candidate John Kerry. Kerry’s father served at a high level in the Manhattan Project and was a CIA agent.

Conant was chair of the S-1 Poison Gas Committee, which recommended developing poison gas weapons from the radioactive trash of the atomic bomb project in World War II. At that time, it was known that radioactive materials dispersed in bombs from the air, from land vehicles or on the battlefield produced very fine radioactive dust which would penetrate all protective clothing, any gas mask or filter or the skin. By contaminating the lungs and blood, it could kill or cause illness very quickly.

They also recommended it as a permanent terrain contaminant, which could be used to destroy populations by contaminating water supplies and agricultural land with the radioactive dust.

The first DU weapons system was developed for the Navy in 1968, and DU weapons were given to and used by Israel in 1973 under U.S. supervision in the Yom Kippur war against the Arabs.

The Phalanx weapons system, using DU, was tested on the USS Bigelow out of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in 1977, and DU weapons have been sold by the U.S. to 29 countries.

Military research report summaries detail the testing of DU from 1974-1999 at military testing grounds, bombing and gunnery ranges and at civilian labs under contract. Today 42 states are contaminated with DU from manufacture, testing and deployment.

Women living around these facilities have reported increases in endometriosis, birth defects in babies, leukemia in children and cancers and other diseases in adults. Thousands of tons of DU weapons tested for decades by the Navy on four bombing and gunnery ranges around Fallon, Nevada, is no doubt the cause of the fastest growing leukemia cluster in the U.S. over the past decade. The military denies that DU is the cause.

The medical profession has been active in the cover-up - just as they were in hiding the effects from the American public - of low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear power plants. A medical doctor in Northern California reported being trained by the Pentagon with other doctors, months before the 2003 war started, to diagnose and treat soldiers returning from the 2003 war for mental problems only.

Medical professionals in hospitals and facilities treating returning soldiers were threatened with $10,000 fines if they talked about the soldiers or their medical problems. They were also threatened with jail.

Reporters have also been prevented access to more than 14,000 medically evacuated soldiers flown nightly since the 2003 war in C-150s from Germany who are brought to Walter Reed Hospital near Washington, D.C.

Dr. Robert Gould, former president of the Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has contacted three medical doctors since February 2004, after I had been invited to speak about DU. Dr. Katharine Thomasson, president of the Oregon chapter of the PSR, informed me that Dr. Gould had contacted her and tried to convince her to cancel her invitation for me to speak about DU at Portland State University on April 12. Although I was able to do a presentation, Dr. Thomasson told me I could only talk about DU in Oregon “and nothing overseas … nothing political.”

Dr. Gould also contacted and discouraged Dr. Ross Wilcox in Toronto, Canada, from inviting me to speak to Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), the Canadian equivalent of PSR, several months later. When that didn’t work, he contacted Dr. Allan Connoly, the Canadian national president of PGS, who was able to cancel my invitation and nearly succeeded in preventing Dr. Wilcox, his own member, from showing photos and presenting details on civilians suffering from DU exposure and cancer provided to him by doctors in southern Iraq.

Dr. Janette Sherman, a former and long-standing member of PSR, reported that she finally quit some time after being invited to lunch by a new PSR executive administrator. After the woman had pumped Dr. Sherman for information all through lunch about her position on key issues, the woman informed Dr. Sherman that her last job had been with the CIA.

How was the truth about DU hidden from military personnel serving in successive DU wars? Before his tragic death, Sen. Paul Wellstone informed Joyce Riley, R.N., B.S.N., executive director of the American Gulf War Veterans Association, that 95 percent of Gulf War veterans had been recycled out of the military by 1995. Any of those continuing in military service were isolated from each other, preventing critical information being transferred to new troops. The “next DU war” had already been planned, and those planning it wanted “no skunk at the garden party.”The US has a dirty (DU) little (CIA) secret

A new book just published at the American Free Press by Michael Collins Piper, “The High Priests of War: The Secret History of How America’s Neo-Conservative Trotskyites Came to Power and Orchestrated the War Against Iraq as the First Step in Their Drive for Global Empire,” details the early plans for a war against the Arab world by Henry Kissinger and the neo-cons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That just happens to coincide with getting the DU “show on the road” and the oil crisis in the Middle East, which caused concern not only to President Nixon. The British had been plotting and scheming for control of the oil in Iraq for decades since first using poison gas on the Iraqis and Kurds in 1912.

The book details the creation of the neo-cons by their “godfather” and Trotsky lover Irving Kristol, who pushed for a “war against terrorism” long before 9/11 and was lavishly funded for years by the CIA. His son, William Kristol, is one of the most influential men in the United States.

Both are public relations men for the Israeli lobby’s neo-conservative network, with strong ties to Rupert Murdoch. Kissinger also has ties to this network and the Carlyle Group, who, one could say, have facilitated these omnicidal wars beginning from the time former President Bush took office. It would be easy to say that we are recycling World Wars I and II, with the same faces.

When I asked Vietnam Special Ops Green Beret Capt. John McCarthy, who could have devised this omnicidal plan to use DU to destroy the genetic code and genetic future of large populations of Arabs and Moslems in the Middle East and Central Asia - just coincidentally the areas where most of the world’s oil deposits are located - he replied: “It has all the handprints of Henry Kissinger.”

In Zbignew Brzezinski’s book “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives,” the map of the Eurasian chessboard includes four regions strategic to U.S. foreign policy. The “South” region corresponds precisely to the regions now contaminated permanently with radiation from U.S. bombs, missiles and bullets made with thousands of tons of DU.

A Japanese professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki, has calculated that 800 tons of DU is the atomicity equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The U.S. has used more DU since 1991 than the atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. Four nuclear wars indeed, and 10 times the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from atmospheric testing!

No wonder our soldiers, their families and the people of the Middle East, Yugoslavia and Central Asia are sick. But as Henry Kissinger said after Vietnam when our soldiers came home ill from Agent Orange, “Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used for foreign policy.”

Unfortunately, more and more of those soldiers are men and women with brown skin. And unfortunately, the DU radioactive dust will be carried around the world and deposited in our environments just as the “smog of war” from the 1991 Gulf War was found in deposits in South America, the Himalayas and Hawaii.

In June 2003, the World Health Organization announced in a press release that global cancer rates will increase 50 percent by 2020. What else do they know that they aren’t telling us? I know that depleted uranium is a death sentence … for all of us. We will all die in silent ways.To learn more

Sources used in this story that readers are encouraged to consult:

American Free Press four-part series on DU by

Christopher Bollyn.

Part I: “Depleted Uranium: U.S. Commits War Crime

Against Iraq, Humanity,”

Part II: “Cancer Epidemic Caused by U.S. WMD: MD Says

Depleted Uranium Definitively

Part III: “DU Syndrome Stricken Vets Denied Care:

Pentagon Hides DU Dangers to Deny Medical Care to

Vets”,

Part IV: “Pentagon Brass Suppresses Truth About Toxic

Weapons: Poisonous Uranium Munitions Threaten World”,

August 2004 World Affairs Journal. Leuren Moret:

“Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War,”

August 2004 Coastal Post Online. Carol Sterrit: “Marin

Depleted Uranium Resolution Heats Up - GI’s Will Come

Home To A Slow Death,”

World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, October 16-19, 2004:

International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan.

Written opinion of Judge Niloufer Baghwat:

“Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Nuclear War”

by Akira Tashiro, foreword by Leuren Moret,

DU Information

DU The Human Cost

WHO

Radiation causes cancer and heart problems as many of us know. What Happened In Iraq. How i affected children.

Bring Them Home Now

International Petition to Ban Uranium Weapons
Uranium weapons, often called ‘depleted’ uranium (DU) weapons, are manufactured from radioactive waste materials produced during the nuclear fuel chain and the production of nuclear weapons. They cause widespread and long lasting radioactive contamination of the environment. These weapon systems are radiologically and chemically toxic.

Many people - innocent civilians especially children, military veterans, industry workers - have illnesses and medical problems, which may be due to their exposure to ‘depleted’ uranium. In areas such as southern Iraq, where uranium munitions were used by the US and the UK, there have been reports of increases in cancers, leukemia and birth defects.

At least 18 countries possess these weapons, the use of which is contrary to existing humanitarian law.

We, the people, need to let governments and the United Nations know that these weapons can have no part in a humane and caring world. Every signature counts!

Horror Of US Depleted
Uranium In Iraq Threatens World

The Fourth International Day of Action: 4th - 6th November 2005
November 6th has been set by theUN as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. ICBUW is therefore asking all groups and individuals to organise actions to ban uranium weapons. Just having a small-scale study meeting or doing a one-person petition on the street will contribute a lot to gathering momentum for the international campaign. So please join us!

There are planned events in Glasgow, Manchester and London, if you’d like to organise something in your own area, or join in with one of the three events mentioned already, please get in touch.

CADU have a wide range of campaign resouces available - posters, leaflets and information packs, contact us for bulk purchases on the cheap..

One Million Reason To Bring Them Home. Write Your Opinion And Reasons To Bring The Soldiers Home

Depleted Uranium Kills

LEUREN MORET: CONNECTING THE DOTS

You really have to watch these. Radiation impairs your intelligence. Among other things. Connecting the Dots is a wealth of information.
6 video series on Du, Nuclear, and Gulf War Syndrome.
The Planet cannot sustain this type of pollution any longer. They go on for an eternity that cigarettes cause cancer. Well Radiation causes a whole lot more. The wind blows and it goes. There is a cancer epidemic on the planet and this is the major cause along with pesticides and other assorted things. But this is truly one of the worst. You can’t see it, you can’t smell it and it is around you every day because it doesn’t go away.

US DU AND Experiments on the American people Gulf War Illness

DEPLETED URANIUM ALERT! Invisible War,
This is also a six part series but one seems to be missing.

POISON DUST tells the story of young soldiers who thought they came home safely from the war, but didn’t. Of a veteran’s young daughter … all » whose birth defect is strikingly similar to birth defects suffered by many Iraqi children. Of thousands of young vets who are suffering from the symptoms of uranium poisoning, and the thousands more who are likely to find themselves with these ailments in the years to come. Of a government unwilling to admit there might be a problem here. Filmmaker Sue Harris skillfully weaves the stories of these young veterans with scientific explanations of the nature of “DU” and its dangers, including interviews with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, New York Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez, noted physicist Michio Kaku, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Dr. Helen Caldicott and Major Doug Rokke- the former U.S. Army DU Project head.

Every American who cares about our troops should watch this film. Everyone who cares about the innocent civilians who live in the countries where these weapons are used should watch this film. And everyone who cares about the hatred of Americans that may result from the effects of our government’s actions in using these weapons, should watch this film. Is there a cover-up?

They also use their military bases around the world for testing their weapons. This video shows a few of their testing grounds I have to wonder out of the over 737 how many more are used for such tests. They are contaminating the world with Radiation. I think it’s time the people of the world all stood up and said no more DU or any other radioactive materials. The US has created more illness around the world then you could ever imagine.

Video Depleted Uranium used in Afganistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia!
Which means our soldiers will come home sick or get sick and many will die. AGAIN

DU Contaminates Europe

This is about how Radiation DU can travel and how it did to the UK because of the War in Iraq. A rather interesting read. Seems the wind blows and it goes. Like one needs to be a rocket scientists to figure that one out. It also travels anywhere else the wind blows. Seems a lot of Europe is now contaminated. I am guessing Bush knew this but like everything else Lied. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out either.

Bunker Busters
This is an animation of a Bunker Buster. It also give an idea of how radiation is easily spread. At this point have apparently been scraped.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Recent reports suggest that the Bush administration is considering
using nuclear weapons against Iran. The very fact that nuclear weapon
use is being discussed as an option—against a state that does not have
nuclear weapons and does not represent a direct or imminent threat to
the United States—illustrates the extent to which the Bush
administration has changed U.S. nuclear weapons policy.

“The Bush administration has explicitly rejected the basic precept
that the sole purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons should be to deter the
use of nuclear weapons. It has assigned a new, and provocative, mission
to U.S. nuclear weapons: to dissuade or prevent other countries from
undertaking military programs that could threaten U.S. interests in the
future. A ‘preventive’ nuclear attack on Iran would fall into this
category. It has also blurred the line between nuclear and conventional
weapons by declaring that nuclear weapons can be used as part of
military operations.

“This nuclear policy increases the likelihood that nuclear weapons
will be used, and ultimately decreases U.S. as well as international
security. Instead, the United States should commit itself to strengthen
the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons that has developed over
the past 60 years.

“Plans to use nuclear weapons against Iran also fail to recognize
the immediate dangers inherent in the use of nuclear weapons. The
administration is reportedly considering using the B61-11 nuclear
‘bunker buster’ against an underground facility near Natanz, Iran. The
use of such a weapon would create massive clouds of radioactive fallout
that could spread far from the site of the attack, including to other
nations. Even if used in remote, lightly populated areas, the number of
casualties could range up to more than a hundred thousand, depending on
the weapon yield and weather conditions.

“Threatening to use nuclear weapons against Iran provides the
strongest of incentives for nuclear proliferation, since it would send
the message that the only way for a country to deter nuclear attack is
to acquire its own nuclear arsenal. The administration cannot have its
cake and eat it, too—it cannot have a viable nuclear non-proliferation
policy while continually expanding the roles for its own nuclear
weapons.”

Depleted Uranium For Dummies

Everything you need to know about depleted uranium. Every day our troops remain in Iraq increases the chances that they will come home sick, produce children with birth defects, and die prematurely.

DU *IS* considered a WMD,

I really didn’t want to look at this page again, but here’s what I’m talking about.
[Warning: heartbreakingly, mindnumbingly, soulscreamingly graphic photos!]
THAT is why DU *IS* considered a WMD, illegal under international law - a full-blown Crime Against Humanity!

In Russia I believe it was after bomb testing near a town these same things happened. I remember a documentary I watched on it. The doctors documented all the cases. Right down to children being born with no eyes. There were tons of cases of deformities. Also mentally challenged children being born. Life expectancy was extremely short as well. Cancer rates etc were over whelming. Those pictures reminded me of that Documentary. Exactly the same thing.

Soviet nuclear testing, August 29, 1949-October 24, 1990

US Nuclear testing

Impact of testing Nuclear Bombs

Triggering of Landslides, Tsunamis and Earthquakes
At least one major test-related landslide and consequent Tsunami in Moruroa, on July 25, 1979. Apparently, the 120kiloton weapon, which was supposed to be lowered into a shaft of 800 meters, got stuck at a depth of 400 meters and could not be dislodged. The French authorities decided to explode the device anyway. This explosion resulted in a major underwater landslide of at least one million cubic meters of coral and rock and created a cavity, probably 140 meters in diameter. The underwater landslide produced a major tidal wave comparable to a tsunami, which spread through the Tuamotu Archipelago and injured

“Hiroshima, 70 Times Over. ”
hey folks, this is, uh, intelligent??
“Hiroshima, 70 Times Over. That is what ONE
so-called “Bunker Buster” bomb would unleash.
Calling this a “Bunker Buster” is like calling the bomb
used on Hiroshima” a few fireworks. ” The US Government decided not to use them right after the recent Earth Quake in Pakistan, Afganistan and India.

Link to another article claiming 11,000 GI’s dead from DU exposure.

Link to article by UK radiation expert.

Link to news on DU exposure

DESERT STORM
Deadlier than Vietnam?

Desert Storm fatalities could surpass those from Vietnam, if present trends
continue

ArmyIn Vietnam, between 1964 and 1975, 47,410 Americans died in combat,
while another 10,788 died from other causes, a total of 58,198.1 During
Operation Desert Storm, the reported combat deaths were 148, with another
235 dying from other causes.2

Veterans’ advocates say statistics from Desert Storm should be much higher,
however, reflecting the impact of Gulf War Illness.

Former U.S. Air Force Captain Joyce Riley, for example, expects that in the
next 10 years - or 22 years after the conflict - deaths among the veterans
deployed to the Persian Gulf will rise to between 80,000 and 100,000.

49,783 - 69,783 Deaths* Gulf War (1990-1991)
47,410 Battle Deaths Vietnam War (1964-1975)
385 Battle Deaths Spanish-American War (1898-1902)
1,733 Battle Deaths Mexican War (1846-184
2,260 Battle Deaths War of 1812 (1812-1815)
4,435 Battle Deaths American Revolution (1775-1783)

* Projected range of Gulf War veterans’ deaths attributable to Gulf War
Illness by 2013, if present trends continue.

Source for battle deaths: “America’s Wars Fact Sheet,” Department of
Veterans Affairs, May 2001.The Atrocities of DU Upon the Unborn and Newbor - Exposure Wednesday, 5:09 PM

These are some of the atrocities that are caused by the DU weapons used in the Middle East since the first Gulf War. The effects of DU are taking their tolls on civilians, as well as U.S. servicemen and their new born children.

FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS LINKED TO US PILOTS ON SPEED

FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS LINKED TO US PILOTS ON SPEED
Now they want to drug even more Troops.
Dexedrine Is A ‘Go-Pill’ Given To Pilots When They Set Off On Missions.

Restoril is a ‘no-go pill’ to help them sleep.

The use of drugs by American pilots is an open secret in the defence world. By Andrew Buncombe AMERICAN PILOTS in Afghanistan, blamed for a series of “friendly fire” incidents and devastating erroneous attacks on innocent civilians, were routinely provided with amphetamines to tackle fatigue and help them fly longer hours.

Pilots were allowed to “self-regulate” their own doses and kept the drugs in their cockpits. The pilots were provided with the stimulant Dexedrine, generically known as dextroamphetamine and referred to as a “go-pill” by the airmen, when they set off on missions.

When they returned, doctors gave them sedatives or “no-go pills” to help them sleep.

Pilots who refused to take the drugs could be banned from taking part in a mission.

The use of the drugs is outlined in a 58-page document seen by The Independent entitled Performance Maintenance During Continuous Flight Operations, produced by the Naval medical research laboratory in Pensacola, Florida. It says: “Combat naps, proper nutrition and caffeine are currently approved and accepted ways … to prevent and manage fatigue.

However, in sustained and continuous operations these methods may be insufficient …”

A statement issued yesterday by the US Air Force Surgeon General’s Office confirmed the use of amphetamines by pilots.

It said: “During contingency and combat operations, aviators are often required to perform their duties for extended periods without rest. While we have many planning and training techniques to extend our operations, prescribed drugs are sometimes made available to counter the effects of fatigue during these operations.” The use of stimulants by American combat pilots appears to be an open secret within the defence world, although it is believed this is the first time the Pentagon has confirmed their use was officially condoned.

The revelation has fuelled speculation that the use of amphetamines may have been a factor in a series of devastating errors by pilots that led to attacks on Afghan civilians as well as so-called friendly-fire incidents. In the worst friendly-fire incident of the campaign, four Canadian soldiers of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry were killed and eight injured in April when an American pilot dropped a 500lb laser-guided bomb on their position. The F-16 pilot, Illinois Air National Guard Major Harry Schmidt, had flown three hours from Kuwait to the combat zone and faced a three-hour flight back afterwards. F-16 missions from Kuwait routinely took up to nine hours. In addition, few of the pilots based in Kuwait - where they were originally deployed to patrol the no-fly zone over southern Iraq - - received the recommended 12 hours rest between missions as they were on double duty. John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a defence think-tank, said: “Better bombing through chemistry.

I think enquiring whether amphetamine use had a role in the bombing errors is an obvious question to ask. I am surprised that the question has not been asked before. “When you look at the original story of the Canadian friendly-fire incident it seems that the pilot was being inexplicably aggressive. It goes beyond fatigue or lack of experience or being a cowboy or trigger happy or any of the standard prosaic explanations. The simplest explanation is that the guy had eaten too much speed and was paranoid.”

Two unpublished reports into the friendly-fire incident reportedly concluded that Mr Schmidt made his error because he failed to properly assess the supposed risk before striking. Mr Schmidt, a former Navy pilot and instructor at its elite “Top Gun” training school, said he saw muzzle flashes on the ground and believed he was acting in self-defence. Moments later he was informed there were “friendlies in the area”. It later emerged the Canadians were taking part in live-firing exercises which America was aware of. Mr Schmidt’s lawyer, Charles Gittins, was unavailable to comment yesterday on whether his client had been taking amphetamines. However, he told the Toronto Star, which revealed the use of amphetamines by pilots: “I don’t know. I never asked my pilot if he was medicated.

But it’s quite common.” The Performance Maintenance manual reveals just how common the use of amphetamines by pilots is. A survey of pilots who took part in the 1991 Desert Storm operation suggests 60 per cent of them took Dexedrine. In units most heavily involved in combat missions, the rate was as high as 96 per cent. During Desert Storm, the standard dosage of Dexedrine was 5mg. In Afghanistan it was 10mg. The manual itself warns of the potential dangers of amphetamine use, particularly from repetitive dosage.

It says: “The risk of drug accumulation from repetitive dosage warrants serious consideration.”

Despite this it appears that pilots are under a considerable degree of pressure to take the drugs.

A consent form that all pilots are required to sign says use of the drug is voluntary.

But it adds: “Should I choose not to take it under circumstances where its use appears indicated … my commander … may determine whether or not I should be considered unfit to fly a given mission.” Last month scores of Afghan civilians were killed in the village of Karakak, 100 miles north of Kandahar, after being bombed by American forces which may have mistook wedding celebrations as hostile fire.

Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War

Pentagon, Big Pharma

Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War
http://www. informationclearinghouse/article19065.htm
By Penny Coleman

14/01/08 “AlterNet” - - - In June, the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health acknowledged “daunting and growing” psychological problems among our troops: Nearly 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines and half of National Guard members are presenting with serious mental health issues. They also reported “fundamental weaknesses” in the U.S. military’s approach to psychological health. That report was followed in August by the Army Suicide Event Report (ASER), which reported that 2006 saw the highest rate of military suicides in 26 years. And last month, CBS News reported that, based on its own extensive research, over 6,250 American veterans took their own lives in 2005 alone — that works out to a little more than 17 suicides every day.

That’s all pretty bleak, but there is reason for optimism in the long-overdue attention being paid to the emotional and psychic cost of these new wars. The shrill hypocrisy of an administration that has decked itself in yellow ribbons and mandatory lapel pins while ignoring a human crisis of monumental proportion is finally being exposed.

On Dec. 12, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called a hearing ..ping Suicides: Mental Health Challenges Within the Department of Veterans Affairs.” At that hearing suggestions were raised and conversations begun that hopefully will bear fruit.

But I find myself extremely anxious in the face of some of these new suggestions, specifically what is being called the Psychological Kevlar Act of 2007 and use of the drug propranalol to treat the symptoms of posttraumatic stress injuries. Though both, at least in theory, sound entirely reasonable, even desirable, in the wrong hands, under the wrong leadership, they could make the sci-fi fantasies of Blade Runner seem prescient.

The Psychological Kevlar Act “directs the secretary of defense to develop and implement a plan to incorporate preventive and early-intervention measures, practices or procedures that reduce the likelihood that personnel in combat will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other stress-related psychopathologies, including substance use conditions. (Kevlar, a DuPont fiber, is an essential component of U.S. military helmets and bullet-proof vests advertised to be “five times stronger than steel.”) The stated purpose of this legislation is to make American soldiers less vulnerable to the combat stressors that so often result in psychic injuries.

On the face of it, the bill sounds logical and even compassionate. After all, our soldiers are supplied with physical armor — at least in theory. So why not mental? My guess is that the representatives who have signed on to this bill are genuinely concerned about the welfare of troops and their families. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., is the bill’s sponsor, and I have no reason to question his genuine commitment to mental health issues, both within and outside of the military. Still, I find myself chilled at the prospects. To explain my discomfort, I need to go briefly into the history of military training.

Since World War II, our military has sought and found any number of ways to override the values and belief systems recruits have absorbed from their families, schools, communities and religions. Using the principles of operant conditioning, the military has found ways to reprogram their human software, overriding those characteristics that are inconvenient in a military context, most particularly the inherent resistance human beings have to killing others of their own species. “Modern combat training conditions soldiers to act reflexively to stimuli,” says Lt. Col. Peter Kilner, a professor of philosophy and ethics at West Point, “and this maximizes soldiers’ lethality, but it does so by bypassing their moral autonomy. Soldiers are conditioned to act without considering the moral repercussions of their actions; they are enabled to kill without making the conscious decision to do so. If they are unable to justify to themselves the fact that they killed another human being, they will likely — and understandably — suffer enormous guilt. This guilt manifests itself as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it has damaged the lives of thousands of men who performed their duty in combat.”

By military standards, operant conditioning has been highly effective. It’s enabled American soldiers to kill more often and more efficiently, and that ability continues to exact a terrible toll on those we have designated as the “enemy.” But the toll on the troops themselves is also tragic. Even when troops struggle honorably with the difference between a protected person and a permissible target (and I believe that the vast majority do so struggle, though the distinction is one I find both ethically and humanely problematic) in war “shit happens.” When soldiers are witness to overwhelming horror, or because of a reflexive accident, an illegitimate order, or because multiple deployments have thoroughly distorted their perceptions, or simply because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time — those are the moments that will continue to haunt them, the memories they will not be able to forgive or forget, and the stuff of posttraumatic stress injuries.

And it’s not just the inherent conscientious objector our military finds inconvenient: current U.S. military training also includes a component to desensitize male soldiers to the sounds of women being raped, so the enemy cannot use the cries of their fellow soldiers to leverage information. I think it not unreasonable to connect such desensitization techniques to the rates of domestic violence in the military, which are, according to the DoD, five times those in the civilian population. Is anyone really surprised that men who have been specifically trained to ignore the pain and fear of women have a difficult time coming home to their wives and families? And clearly they do. There were 2,374 reported cases of sexual assault in the military in 2005, a 40 percent increase over 2004. But that figure represents only reported cases, and, as Air Force Brig. Gen. K.C. McClain, commander of DoD’s Joint Task Force for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response pointed out, “Studies indicate that only 5 percent of sexual assaults are reported.”

I have thought a lot about the implications of “psychological Kevlar” — what kind of “preventive and early-intervention measures, practices or procedures” might be developed that would “reduce the likelihood that personnel in combat will develop post-traumatic stress disorder.” How would a soldier with a shield against moral response “five times stronger than steel” behave?

I cannot convince myself that what is really being promoted isn’t a form of moral lobotomy.

I cannot imagine what aspects of selfhood will have to be excised or paralyzed so soldiers will no longer be troubled by what they, not to mention we, would otherwise consider morally repugnant. A soldier who has lost an arm can be welcomed home because he or she still shares fundamental societal values. But the soldier who sees her friend emulsified by a bomb, or who is ordered to run over children in the road rather than slow down the convoy, or who realizes too late that the woman was carrying a baby, not a bomb — if that soldier’s ability to feel terror and horror has been amputated, if he or she can no longer be appalled or haunted, something far more precious has been lost. I am afraid that the training or conditioning or drug that will be developed to protect soldiers from such injuries will leave an indifference to violence that will make them unrecognizable to themselves and to those who love them. They will be alienated and isolated, and finally unable to come home.

Posttraumatic stress injuries can devastate the lives of soldiers and their families. The suicides that are so often the result of such injuries make it clear that they can be every bit as lethal as bullets or bombs, and to date no cure has been found. Treatment and disability payments, both for injured troops and their families, are a huge budgetary concern that becomes ever more daunting as these wars drag on. The Psychological Kevlar Act perhaps holds out the promise of a prophylactic remedy, but it should come as no surprise that Big Pharma has been looking for a chemical intervention.

What they have come up with has already been dubbed “the mourning after pill.” Propranalol, if taken immediately following a traumatic event, can subdue a victim’s stress response and so soften his or her perception of the memory. That does not mean the memory has been erased, but proponents claim that the drug can render it emotionally toothless.

If your daughter were raped, the argument goes, wouldn’t you want to spare her a traumatic memory that might well ruin her life? As the mother of a 23-year old daughter, I can certainly understand the appeal of that argument. And a drug that could prevent the terrible effects of traumatic injuries in soldiers? If I were the parent of a soldier suffering from such a life-altering injury, I can imagine being similarly persuaded.

Not surprisingly, the Army is already on board. Propranolol is a well-tolerated medication that has been used for years for other purposes.

And it is inexpensive.

But is it moral to weaken memories of horrendous acts a person has committed? Some would say that there is no difference between offering injured soldiers penicillin to prevent an infection and giving a drug that prevents them from suffering from a posttraumatic stress injury for the rest of their lives. Others, like Leon Kass, former chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, object to propranolol’s use on the grounds that it medicates away one’s conscience. “It’s the morning-after pill for just about anything that produces regret, remorse, pain or guilt,” he says. Barry Romo, a national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is even more blunt. “That’s the devil pill,” he says. “That’s the monster pill, the anti-morality pill. That’s the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn’t work, what’s scary is that a young soldier could believe it will.”

It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to see the problem with both of these solutions. Though both hold the promise of relief from the effects of an injury that causes unspeakable pain, they do so at what appears to be great cost. Whatever research projects might be funded by the Psychological Kevlar Act and whatever use is made of propranolol, they will almost certainly involve a diminished range of feelings and memory, without which soldiers and veterans will be different. But in what ways?

I wish I could trust the leadership of our country to prioritize the lives and well-being of our citizens. I don’t. The last six years have clearly shown the extent to which this administration is willing to go to use soldiers for its own ends, discarding them when they are damaged. Will efforts be made to fix what has been broken? Return what has been taken? Bring them home? Will citizens be enlightened about what we are condoning in our ignorance, dispassion or indifference? Or will these two solutions simply bring us closer to realizing the bullet-proof mind, devoid of the inconvenient vulnerability of decent human beings to atrocity and horror? And finally, these are all questions about the morality of proposals that are trying to prevent injuries without changing the social circumstances that bring them about, which sidestep the most fundamental moral dilemma: that of sending people to war in the first place.

Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day, 2006. Her blog is Flashback.

Plans underway to “Microchip” Newborns in U.S. and Europe

Doctor alleges plans underway to “Microchip” Newborns in U.S. and Europe Compiled by Lucien Desjardins http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/01/08/01290.html Regarding plans to microchip newborns, Dr. Kilde said the U.S. has been moving in this direction “in secrecy.” She added that in Sweden, Prime Minister Olof Palme gave permission in 1973 to implant prisoners, and Data Inspection’s ex-Director General Jan Freese revealed that nursing-home patients were implanted in the mid-1980s. The technology is revealed in the 1972:47 Swedish state report, Statens Officiella Utradninger. Are you prepared to live in a world in which every newborn baby is micro-chipped? And finally are you ready to have your every move tracked, recorded and placed in Big Brother’s data bank? According to the Finnish article, distributed to doctors and medical students, time is running out for changing the direction of military medicine and mind control technology, ensuring the future of human freedom. “Implanted human beings can be followed anywhere. Their brain functions can be remotely monitored by supercomputers and even altered through the changing of frequencies,” wrote Dr. Kilde. “Guinea pigs in secret experiments have included prisoners, soldiers, mental patients,handicapped children, deaf and blind people, homosexuals, single women, the elderly, school children, and any group of people considered “marginal” by the elite experimenters. The published experiences of prisoners in Utah State Prison, for example, are shocking to the conscience. “Today’s microchips operate by means of low-frequency radio waves that target them. With the help of satellites, the implanted person can be tracked anywhere on the globe. Such a technique was among a number tested in the Iraq war, according to Dr. Carl Sanders, who invented the intelligence-manned interface (IMI) biotic, which is injected into people. (Earlier during the Vietnam War, soldiers were injected with the Rambo chip, designed to increase adrenaline flow into the bloodstream.) The 20-billion-bit/second supercomputers at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) could now “see and hear” what soldiers experience in the battlefield with a remote monitoring system (RMS). “When a 5-micromillimeter microchip (the diameter of a strand of hair is 50 micromillimeters) is placed into optical nerve of the eye,”, Dr. Kilde indicates “it draws neuro-impulses from the brain that embody the experiences, smells, sights, and voice of the implanted person. Once transferred and stored in a computer, these neuro-impulses can be projected back to the person’s brain via the microchip to be re-experienced. Using a RMS, a land-based computer operator can send electromagnetic messages (encoded as signals) to the nervous system, affecting the target’s performance. With RMS, healthy persons can be induced to see hallucinations and to hear voices in their heads. “ “Every thought, reaction, hearing, and visual observation causes a certain neurological potential, spikes, and patterns in the brain and its electromagnetic fields, which can now be decoded into thoughts, pictures, and voices, ” Dr. Kilde adds. “Electromagnetic stimulation can therefore change a person’s brainwaves and affect muscular activity, causing painful muscular cramps experienced as torture.” Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory Rodents and Dogs: A Review of the Literature 1990–2006 Also a lot of of other information. At this site as well. http://www.spychips.com/ The below are just a few of the links at the site there are many more. What is RFID? How “spychips” pose a threat to your privacy What should be done? CASPIAN’s Proposed Legislation would require labeling on products containing RFID CASPIAN’s Joint Position Statement requests limits on business and government use of RFID Stop RFIDs in California IDs Tell Your Lawmakers to Vote “YES” to SB 768 California residents, click here to find out more. CASPIAN Launches Worldwide Tesco Boycott! Consumers react as retailer flaunts expanding use of RFID Business Week Article: “Industry is finally getting the message: RFID is fine for pallets of goods in a warehouse, but not for people.” CIO Magazine Article: Customers to Retailers: “Take us Seriously” Privacy Advocates Turn up the Pressure Scandals DHS Wants Beefed up RFID To Silently ID People 25 Feet Away The VeriChip Can be Cloned, May Not Work When Needed Ex-HHS Head Puts Off Being Chipped Despite July Promise Ex-Bush cabinet member praises & recommends VeriChip CASPIAN uncovers Government RFID Promotion Scheme Mexican Chipping Overstated (CASPIAN reveals 18 officials chipped, not 160) FDA letter outlines serious health risks from VeriChip human implants Censored! CASPIAN told to remove incriminating RFID tagging photos Photos of chipped CVS products, Kleenex, Huggies baby wipes Calvin Klein and other clothing labels with hidden RFID tags Mexican Attorney General and staff take RFID implants Wal-Mart is RFID tagging in Texas! Call 1-800-Wal-Mart to complain! Industry Attempt to Smear RFID Activist Katherine Albrecht Grocery Manufacturers of America and Gillette CEO asked to explain CASPIAN finds embarrassing confidential RFID documents Talk of “pacifying” consumers, hoping for “apathy,” and bringing lawmakers into the “inner circle.” CASPIAN asks “How can we trust these people with our personal data?” Metro “Future Store” hides RFID in shopper cards Protest and backlash force a recall Wal-Mart, P&G Caught in Secret RFID Test Consumers used as guinea pigs for controversial technology

US Air Testing Bombs

More lies from Livermore nuclear weapons lab        

by Bob Nichols  

Wednesday, 09 May 2007

San Francisco – “Hundreds of thousands of additional deaths and maimings is the Bay Area’s thanks for being good neighbors to these the ‘good Germans,’ the desk murderers, who are just following orders,” stated Pat Gray, long time San Francisco Bay Area resident and former Green candidate for Congress.

“A group of citizens of the Bay Area are seeking a lawyer to take legal action to stop the open air explosions set off by Livermore Lab in Tracy, California,” she announced. “These open air explosions are sending clouds of depleted uranium oxide gas all over the Bay Area. It is well know that depleted uranium gas is a carcinogen and causes serious birth defects.

“Our nation has signed a treaty to stop doing nuclear explosions in the open air – but this is what Livermore Lab is doing and has been for the last 46 years. Now they have the hubris to request permission to increase the number of explosions. We hope that with legal assistance we can force the testing to be done underground.”

For the rest……….

http://www.sfbayview.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106&Itemid=14

One would think they would have stopped testing  after all the information that has come out over the years.

Current Issues - Depleted Uranium Weapons Tests and Incidents (last updated 14 Apr 2007)  

http://www.wise-uranium.org/dissti.html

Lori Brim cradled her son in her arms for three months before he died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Dustin Brim, a 22-year-old Army specialist had collapsed three years ago in Iraq from a very aggressive cancer that attacked his kidney, caused a mass to grow over his esophagus and collapsed a lung.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/uranium/index.htm

 

DEPLETED URANIUM, ANTHRAX VACCINE AND THE GULF WAR SYNDROME

A physician in Northern California was being trained in the Pentagon with other physicians months before the 2003 Gulf War started. They were told to diagnose and treat soldiers returning from the 2003 war for mental problems only. Medical professionals in hospitals and facilities treating returning soldiers were threatened with $10,000 fines if they talked about the soldiers or their medical problems. They were also threatened with jail[1] terms.

How Much Depleted Uranium Has Been Used?

Depleted uranium weapons were developed by the U.S. Navy in 1968. Depleted uranium weapons were given to and used by Israel with U.S. supervision in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 against the Arabs nations. Military research detailed the use of DU weapons at military testing grounds, bombing and gunnery ranges and civilian labs under contracts between 1974-1999. Presently 42 states have contamination from the manufacture, testing and deployment of depleted uranium. The United States has sold DU weapons to 29 countries.

 http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james29.htm

Fabrication, Assembly, R & D, Test Firing, Storage and Demilitarization Sites involving DU Ammunition in USA 1995

 http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/shisetsu_us_e/shisetsu.html

 

Radiotoxic and Chemotoxic Properties of Depleted Uranium (DU)

A collection of documents on the health effects of Depleted Uranium

 http://www.ratical.org/radiation/DU/index.html

Reports on the affects of DU

http://www.idust.net/

Then there is this Propeganda

http://www.defenselink.mil/DODCMSShare/briefingslide/94/030314-D-9085M-022.pdf

http://fhp.osd.mil/factsheetDetail.jsp?fact=32

Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing December 30, 2004

http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva12302004.html

A dangerous gamble: Nuclear power, earthquakes and tsunamis

http://www.awakenedwoman.com/sherman_gamble.htm

List of Nuclear Tests

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_tests#Alleged_tests

 

Downwinders is a research and educational foundation started by former downwind resident of southwest Utah, and formally established in 1978 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Downwinders takes its name from the residents living in the prevailing wind pattern surrounding the Nevada Test Site, and who have been constantly exposed to radioactive fallout from America’s nuclear testing activities conducted there. Downwinders was founded with two primary goals:

• To expose the plight of downwind residents whose fallout exposures have caused cancers, leukemia, and other illnesses, and to obtain justice for their injuries.
• To fight for an immediate end to all nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and elsewhere.

Since its founding Downwinders has expanded its efforts to other nuclear, military, and environmental projects and issues where the health and safety of residents surrounding them have been placed at risk. Over the years these have included such problems as chemical and biological weapons research and testing at the Dugway Proving Ground. Other issues of concern are high and low-level nuclear waste, uranium mining, milling and tailings disposal, phosphate mining and wastes, groundwater issues, land and air space grabs by the military, and military toxics. Downwinders has also expanded its scope of operations from regional work confined to the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada to one of global outreach.

http://www.downwinders.org/