http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/ Posts for misc.activism.environment Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:22:42 PST http://www.nnseek.com/ http://www.nnseek.com/img/64.png 64 64 NNSeek http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/pope_condemns_the_climate_change_prophets_82459437t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/pope_condemns_the_climate_change_prophets_82459437t.html
blythe.org> wrote in message
news:1197496978.3102668648.1004835085@servebbs.org...
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> Pope condemns the climate change prophets
>
> Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
>
> [Wonderful. Now this ignoramus is claiming expertise, if not
> "infallibility," on global warming. "What, me worry?" The planet's
> survival is up to the alleged god, apparently. Pretty amusing to see
> Alexander Cockburn in the same camp as Pope Rat on this issue. -NYTr]
>
> sent by Tim Murphy - activ-l
>
>
> Daily Mail - Dec 11, 2007
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id...
>
>
> The Pope condemns the climate change prophets
>
> By SIMON CALDWELL
>
> Attack:
>
> Pope Benedict criticised climate-change prophets of doom
>
> Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change
> prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming
> must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.
>
> The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears
> over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of
> unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.
>
> The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it
> was vital that the international community based its policies on
> science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.
>
> His remarks will be made in his annual message for World Peace Day on
> January 1, but they were released as delegates from all over the world
> convened on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali for UN climate change
> talks.
>
> The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment
> but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given
> a greater priority than that of mankind.
>
> "Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of
> tomorrow," he said in the message entitled "The Human Family, A
> Community of Peace".
>
> "It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out
> prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by
> ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the
> aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable
> of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental
> balances.
>
> "If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be
> justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of
> development of various countries and the need for solidarity with
> future generations.
>
> "Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and
> postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint
> decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken."
>
> Efforts to protect the environment should seek "agreement on a model of
> sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while
> respecting environmental balances", the Pope said.
>
> He added that to further the cause of world peace it was sensible for
> nations to "choose the path of dialogue rather than the path of
> unilateral decisions" in how to cooperate responsibly on conserving the
> planet.
>
> The Pope's message is traditionally sent to heads of government and
> international organisations.
>
> His remarks reveal that while the Pope acknowledges that problems may
> be associated with unbridled development and climate change, he
> believes the case against global warming to be over-hyped.
>
> A broad consensus is developing among the world's scientific community
> over the evils of climate change. But there is also an intransigent
> body of scientific opinion which continues to insist that industrial
> emissions are not to blame for the phenomenon. Such scientists point
> out that fluctuations in the earth's temperature are normal and can
> often be caused by waves of heat generated by the sun. Other critics of
> environmentalism have compared the movement to a burgeoning industry in
> its own right.
>
> In the spring, the Vatican hosted a conference on climate change that
> was welcomed by environmentalists.
>
> But senior cardinals close to the Vatican have since expressed doubts
> about a movement which has been likened by critics to be just as
> dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion.
>
> In October, the Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of
> Sydney, caused an outcry when he noted that the atmospheric temperature
> of Mars had risen by 0.5 degrees celsius. "The industrial-military
> complex up on Mars can't be blamed for that," he said in a criticism of
> Australian scientists who had claimed that carbon emissions would force
> temperatures on earth to rise by almost five degrees by 2070 unless
> drastic solutions were enforced.
> *
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]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:22:42 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/world_social_forum_global_day_of_action_jan_26_200_82218029t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/world_social_forum_global_day_of_action_jan_26_200_82218029t.html Hash: SHA1

World Social Forum Global Day of Action - Jan 26, 2008

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by Riaz K Tayob - Jan 13, 2008

26 Jan WSF day of action
http://www.wsf2008.net

Act locally to change globally!

A week of Mobilization on Campaigns, culminating in a
Global Day of Action on January 26th 2008.

Why a Global Day of Action?

Movements around the world have been holding actions in response
to the emerging issues of neo-liberal globalization, war, patriarchy,
racism, colonialism and environmental. These movements such as the
Zapatistas uprising in 1995 and, the Seattle demonstrations in 1999
were perhaps the best known defining actions of our times.

In this initial phase, movements focused their action at the
international level such as such the ones in Genoa against the G8
or Cancun against the WTO. The coordinated international demonstration
against the war on Iraq on February 15th 2003 was the apogee of
this phase. In recent years the movement grown in strength and have
continued to root their struggles within national and local realities.
Everywhere in the world, mobilizations on action has been taking
different forms and addressing different issues: student movements,
workers rights, poverty, violence against the women, environment
and climate change, indigenous people and migrants' rights etc.

The main challenge of these actions, perhaps to date, has been to
begin link local and national struggles within an international
framework and global movement of solidarity so as to give more
strength to our struggles, alternatives and campaigns and to enlarge
our alliances. The purpose, therefore, of the WSF2008 Global Day
of Action is to fulfill the objective of acting locally to change
globally. The day of action will give visibility to our local
struggles through a common day of solidarity on our actions and
struggles.

Why now, and why January 26th?

Previously, there have been several attempts for the emerging
movements to set up a unique day for action, inline with its
predecessors, e.g.

May 1 for the labour movement or March 8th for the Women's Day. The
World Social Forum as a movement of movements has continued to be
a space where social movements converge for joint actions and as a
methodology for WSF2008, the International Council decided to focus
on people's struggles and actions at the local and national level.
This is in recognition of the WSF as a process, which lives through
the local, national, regional and thematic Forums, in the many and
plural struggles, campaigns, alternatives for another world as they
unfold all over the planet.

January 26th as a preferred date therefore emerged as a day that
coincides with the period of the World Economic Forum meeting in
Davos.

The evaluation of the impact of the Global Day of Action 2008 will
determine follow-up actions and further specific or thematic
mobilization actions.

Get Involved!

The Global Day of Action will be promoted by all the organizations
and movements at the global, national and local level. Each network,
movement or organization will decide the methodology, forms or
issues their actions will take. They will also be free to connect
with other regional or global social movements for solidarity at
international level. All organizations or individuals who wish to
take part in the Global Day of Action Can:

Sign the Global Call to Action at http://www.wsf2008.net
Organize campaigns, events and activities towards this date.
Give visibility to their planned actions and campaigns in any form.
Engage with other groups at the international level and propose issues
and campaigns for solidarity;

The World Social Forum Secretariat has prepared an online tool at
the WSF2008 website to enable you register your campaign/action,
connect with other groups and propose joint campaigns and also give
visibility to these joint actions.

Kenya: For more information, please contact: The Kenya Social Forum at
socialforum@sodnet.or.ke [sic; This might really be
socialforum@sodnet.org.ke -NYTr] (Tel. 020 3860475).

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]]> Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:32:19 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/chaavez_forms_presidential_commission_to_study_ant_82196013t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/chaavez_forms_presidential_commission_to_study_ant_82196013t.html Hash: SHA1

Chaavez Forms Presidential Commission to Study Antarctica

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Venezuela Information Office (VIO)
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com

excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - Jan 10, 2008

[A "Presidential Commission on Antarctica" has been created by President
Chavez to assess current "status reforms" to the Antarctic treaties and
rules. In particular Venezuela hopes to be more involved in the
international environment and climate research, according to
Mercopress. Under the international Law of the Sea, coastal countries
may make presentations before the United Nations to claim rights over
the adjoining sea shelf up to 350 miles.]


Mercopress - January 10, 2008
http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=12364

Venezuela Interested in Antarctica and Its Rich Resources

Venezuela prepares to move into Antarctica following the naming of a
"Presidential Commission on Antarctica" with the purpose of advising
President Hugo Chavez on an official policy on the matter.

According to Caracas sources the Chavez administration feels Venezuela
must be involved in the international environment and climate
scientific research with an open solidarity spirit including the
introduction of the necessary "status reforms" to the current Antarctic
treaties and rules.

A decree published in the Official Gazette states that it is the
responsibility of the Venezuelan state to promote the values of
"freedom, peace, solidarity, the common good, territorial integration,
ecological balance and legal support for environmental assets as a
common and non renounceable asset of Humanity".

The Venezuelan policy is in the framework of the Law of the Sea which
gives coastal countries until May 2009 to make presentations before
United Nations to claim rights over the adjoining sea shelf up to 350
miles.

The possibility of this option in Antarctica is controversial but
several countries have set their eyes and demands on polar regions
which apparently hold vast mineral and energy resources.

A few months ago the United Kingdom announced it was considering making
a presentation regarding the Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf. The
announcement brought immediate reactions from Chile and Argentina who
have anticipated a more active presence in Antarctica.

Press reports from Caracas indicate that none of the ministries
involved in the advisory committee were available for comments on the
decree.
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]]> Sun, 13 Jan 2008 11:08:38 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/preventing_genocide_vietnamese_agent_orange_lawsuit_82046509t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/preventing_genocide_vietnamese_agent_orange_lawsuit_82046509t.html Hash: SHA1

Preventing Genocide: Vietnamese Agent Orange Lawsuit & Yale Neocon

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by Francis Boyle - Jan 10, 2008

[This is a sick joke. Yale Law School's resident Neo-Con Mike Reisman
is currently working for the US Chemical Companies against innocent
Vietnamese civilians who were the victims of Agent Orange during the
genocidal US War against Vietnam in their lawsuit pending in the
Second Circuit. fab. ]

***

Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Frederick K. Cox International Law Center

presents the Klatsky Seminar in Human Rights

Myres S. McDougal Professor of International Law, Yale University

"Before Victims Become Victims:
Preventing Genocide & Mass Murder"


Since World War II, the world has taken an ex-post punishment
approach toward genocide and mass killing, instead of an ex ante
effective policy of prevention Prof. Reisman will examine contemporary
case studies, including Darfur and Burma, and ask how international law
and international institutions can be used to identify situations ripe
for genocide and intervene at an early stage before they devolve into
mass atrocities?

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 4:30 - 5:30 pm
Free & open to the public
School of Law Moot Courtroom (A59)

Free and open to all (One Free hour of CLE credit will be available to
lawyers who attend)

Reception following lecture

* Webcast LIVE at http://law.case.edu/lectures

A world renowned expert in international law, W. Michael Reisman is
author of 18 books. He has been president of the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, president of the Arbitration Tribunal of
the Bank for International Settlements, and a member of the
Erittrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

Past Klatsky lecturers include: Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and human
rights advocate Samantha Power; former Chief Prosecutor of the
Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal Richard Goldstone; and Executive
Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth.

For more information: visit http://law.case.edu/lectures
<blocked::http://law.case.edu/lectures> or call 216-368-3304

*
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]]> Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:14:19 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/the_other_myth_if_it_s_not_al_qaida_it_s_tribalism_81989677t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/the_other_myth_if_it_s_not_al_qaida_it_s_tribalism_81989677t.html Hash: SHA1

The Other Myth: If It's Not al-Qaida, It's Tribalism, or Sectarianism

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

[The imperialists pulled this one in Ireland, and have done it right
along in Iraq, and now are playing the same tune in Kenya. Those
primitive wogs... they fight over their tribal / religious / clannish
loyalties. It's never about occupation, exploitation of resources,
imposition of foreign-chosen leaders, control of land, education,
economy, or anything it's really about. - NYTr]


Dahr Jamail's Mideast Dispatches - Jan 4, 2008
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000716.php

The myth of sectarianism:

The policy is divide to rule

By DAHR JAMAIL

IF THE U.S. leaves Iraq, the violent sectarianism between the Sunni and
Shia will worsen. This is what Republicans and Democrats alike will
have us believe. This key piece of rhetoric is used to justify the
continuance of the occupation of Iraq.

This propaganda, like others of its ilk, gains ground, substance, and
reality due largely to the ignorance of those ingesting it. The snow
job by the corporate media on the issue of sectarianism in Iraq has
ensured that the public buys into the line that the Sunni and Shia will
dice one another up into little pieces if the occupation ends.

It may be worthwhile to consider that prior to the Anglo-American
invasion and occupation of Iraq there had never been open warfare
between the two groups and certainly not a civil war. In terms of
organization and convention, Iraqis are a tribal society and some of
the largest tribes in the country comprise Sunni and Shia.
Intermarriages between the two sects are not uncommon either.

Soon after arriving in Iraq in November 2003, I learned that it was
considered rude and socially graceless to enquire after an individuals
sect. If in ignorance or under compulsion I did pose the question the
most common answer I would receive was, I am Muslim, and I am Iraqi.
On occasion there were more telling responses like the one I received
from an older woman, My mother is a Shia and my father a Sunni, so can
you tell which half of me is which? The accompanying smile said it all.

Large mixed neighborhoods were the norm in Baghdad. Sunni and Shia
prayed in one anothers mosques. Secular Iraqis could form lifelong
associations with others without overt concern about their chosen sect.
How did such a well-integrated society erupt into vicious fighting,
violent sectarianism, and segregated neighborhoods? How is one to
explain the millions in Iraq displaced from their homes simply because
they were the wrong sect in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Back in December 2003 Sheikh Adnan, a Friday speaker at his mosque, had
recounted a recent experience to me. During the first weeks of the
occupation, a U.S. military commander had showed up in Baquba, the
capital of Diyala province located roughly twenty-five miles northeast
of Baghdad with a mixed Sunni-Shia population. He had asked to meet
with all the tribal and religious leaders. On the appointed day the
assembled leaders were perplexed when the commander instructed them to
divide themselves, Shia on one side of the room, Sunni on the other.

It would not be amiss, perhaps, to read in this account an implanting
of a deliberate policy of divide and rule by the Anglo-American
invaders from the early days of the occupation.

There have been no statistical surveys in recent years to determine the
sectarian composition of Iraq. However, when the Coalition Provisional
Authority, led by Paul Bremer, formed the first puppet Iraqi
government, a precedent was set. The twenty-five seats in the Iraqi
Governing Council (IGC), were assigned strictly along sectarian lines
based on the assumption that 60 percent of the population is Shia, 20
percent Sunni, and 20 percent Kurds, who are mostly Sunni. For good
measure, a couple of Turkoman and a Christian were thrown in.

It is evident that this puppet troupe deployed at the onset of
democracy in Iraq was mandated to establish to the population that it
was in the larger interest to begin thinking, at least politically,
along sectarian and ethnic lines. Inevitably, political power struggles
ensued and were cemented and exacerbated with the January 30, 2005,
elections.

Mild surface scratching reveals a darker, largely unreported aspect of
the divisive U.S. plan. A UN report released in September 2005 held
Iraqi interior ministry forces responsible for an organized campaign of
detention, torture, and killing of fellow Iraqis. These special police
commando units were recruited from the Shia Badr Organization and Mehdi
Army militias.

In Baghdad during November and December 2004, I heard widespread
accounts of death squads assassinating Sunni resistance leaders and
their key sympathizers. It was after the failure of Operation Phantom
Fury, as the U.S. siege of Fallujah that November was named, that the
Iraqi resistance spread across Iraq like wildfire. Death squads were
set up to quell this fire by eliminating the leadership of this growing
resistance.

The firefighting team had at its helm the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John
Negroponte, ably assisted by retired Colonel James Steele, adviser to
Iraqi security forces. In 1984"86 Steele had been commander of the U.S.
military advisory group in El Salvador. Between 1981 and 1985
Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to neighboring Honduras. In 1994 the
Honduras Commission on Human Rights charged him with extensive human
rights violations, reporting the torture and disappearance of at least
184 political workers. A CIA working group set up in 1996 to look into
the U.S. role in Honduras has placed on record documents admitting that
the operations Negroponte oversaw in Honduras were carried out by
special intelligence units, better known as death squads, of
CIA-trained Honduran armed units which kidnapped, tortured, and killed
thousands of people suspected of supporting leftist guerrillas.
Negroponte was ambassador to Iraq for close to a year from June 2004.

The only public mention of any of this I have seen was in Newsweek
magazine on January 8, 2005. It quotes Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. secretary
of defense at the time, who discussed the use of the Salvador Option
in Iraq. It compared the strategy being planned for Iraq to the one
used in Central America during the Reagan administration:

"Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S.
government funded or supported nationalist forces that allegedly
included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel
leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and
many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a
success"despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent
Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal."

U.S.-backed sectarian death squads have become the foremost generator
of death in Iraq, even surpassing the U.S. military machine, infamous
for its capacity for industrial-scale slaughter. It is no secret in
Baghdad that the U.S. military would regularly cordon off
pro-resistance areas like the al-Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad and
allow Iraqi police and Iraqi army personnel, masked in black
balaclavas, through their checkpoints to carry out abductions and
assassinations in the neighborhood.

Consequently, almost all of Baghdad and much of Iraq is now segregated.
The flipside is that violence in the capital city has subsided somewhat
of late now that the endgame of forming the death squads, that of
fragmenting the population, has been mostly accomplished.

Baghdad resident, retired General Waleed al-Ubaidy told my Iraqi
colleague recently, I would like to agree with the idea that violence
in Iraq has decreased and that everything is fine, but the truth is far
more bitter. All that has happened is a dramatic change in the
demographic map of Iraq. Baghdad today is a divided city.

Ahmad Ali, chief engineer from one of Baghdads municipalities told my
colleague, Ali al-Fadhily, Baghdad has been torn into two cities and
many towns and neighborhoods. There is now the Shia Baghdad and the
Sunni Baghdad to start with. Each is divided into little town-like
pieces of the hundreds of thousands who had to leave their homes.
Al-Adhamiyah, on the Russafa side of Tigris River, is now entirely
Sunni, the other areas are all Shia. The al-Karkh side of the river is
purely Sunni except for Shula, Hurriya, and small strips of Aamil which
are dominated by Shia militias.

Not being privy to the U.S. machinations, Iraqis in Baghdad blame the
Iraqi police and Iraqi army for the sectarian assassinations and wonder
why the U.S. military does little or nothing to stop them. The
Americans ask [Prime Minister Nouri al] Maliki to stop the sectarian
assassinations knowing full well that his ministers are ordering the
sectarian cleansing, says Mahmood Farhan of the Muslim Scholars
Association, a leading Sunni group.

A more recent manifestation of the divisive U.S. policy has been the
purchase of members of the largely Sunni resistance in Baghdad and in
al-Anbar province that constitutes one-third of the geographic area of
Iraq. Payments made by the U.S. military to collaborating tribal
sheikhs already amount to $17 million. The money passes directly into
the hands of fighters who in many cases were engaged in launching
attacks against the occupiers less than two weeks ago. Tribal fighters
are being paid $300 per month to patrol their areas, particularly
against foreign mercenaries. Today the military refers to these men as
concerned local citizens, awakening force, or simply volunteers.

Arguably, violence in the area has temporarily declined. Those
Americans thought they would decrease the resistance attacks by
separating the people of Iraq into sects and tribes, announced a
thirty-two-year-old man from Ramadi, who spoke with al-Fadhily on terms
of anonymity, They know they are sinking deeper into the shifting
sand, but the collaborators are fooling the Americans right now, and
will in the end use this strategy against them. By the end of November
2007, the U.S. military had enlisted 77,000 of these fighters, and
hopes to add another 10,000. Eighty-two percent of the fighters are
Sunni.

Politically, the U.S. administration maintains its support of the
Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. The fallout has been blatantly
clear. On the first of December, Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the
Accordance Front, which is the Sunni political bloc in the Iraqi
Parliament, was placed under house arrest by Iraqi and U.S. security
forces in the Adil neighborhood, west of Baghdad. Iraqi security forces
also detained his son Makki and forty-five of his guards. They were
accused of manufacturing car bombs and killing Sunni militia members in
the neighborhood who have been working with the U.S. military. Members
of the Accordance Front, which holds 44 of the 275 seats in the Iraqi
Parliament, promptly walked out. Maliki has, several times in the last
several weeks, hurled public accusations and criticisms at al-Dulaimi,
sending political and sectarian shock waves, further crippling the
crumbling political process.

It is important to mention that Maliki, a U.S. puppet par excellence,
acts only as told. After the January 2005 elections, the government
that came into power had chosen Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its prime
minister. When Jaafari refused to toe the U.S./UK line, Condoleezza
Rice and her UK counterpart Jack Straw flew to Baghdad, and before
their short trip ended Jaafari was out and Maliki was in as prime
minister.

In the context of these facts let us now return to the big question:
Will Iraq descend further into a sectarian nightmare if the occupation
ends?

An indicator of how things will likely resolve themselves upon the
departure of foreign troops may be drawn from the southern city of
Basra. In early September, 500 British troops left one of Saddam
Husseins palaces in the heart of the city and ceased to conduct
regular foot patrols. According to the British military, the overall
level of violence in the city has decreased 90 percent since then.

This may or may not be a guarantee of a drop in sectarianism upon the
departure of the invading armies, but it does prove that when the
primary cause of the violence, sectarian strife, instability, and chaos
is removed from the equation of Iraq, things are bound to improve
rapidly.

Are we still going to believe that the occupation is holding Iraq
together?


[Dahr Jamail, who spent eight months in Iraq as an independent
journalist, is author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an
Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Haymarket Books, 2007). The New
York Times Stephen Kinzer describes his writing as international
journalism at its best. Dahr is currently on a national speaking tour
sponsored by Haymarket. ]

(c)2004-2008 Dahr Jamail.

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]]> Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:14:48 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/crashing_economy_china_boom_cushions_world_slump_81943597t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/crashing_economy_china_boom_cushions_world_slump_81943597t.html Hash: SHA1

Crashing Economy: China boom 'cushions world slump'

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

southnews - Jan 9, 2008
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/


BBC - Jan 9, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7177397.stm

China boom 'cushions world slump'

by Steve Schifferes
BBC News economics reporter

The World Bank says global economic growth will slow in 2008 as the
credit crunch hits the richest nations. But it says that the
"resilience" of developing countries will cushion the slowdown, with
China still booming.

Overall, the Bank projects annual world economic growth to slow to 3.3%%
in 2008, compared with 3.6%% in 2007.

Yet it warns that developing country growth, projected at 7.1%% this
year, could still be derailed by further financial turmoil or
over-heating.

Risks remain

The World Bank's Global Economic Prospects is the first economic
forecast to look specifically at how the credit crunch has affected
developing countries.

A sharper US slowdown is a real risk that could weaken medium-term
prospects in developing countries
Uri Dadush, World Bank

It follows other international organisations like the IMF and the OECD
in suggesting a relatively benign scenario, with swift action by
central banks limiting the damage caused by the credit crunch to the US
economy.

It expects US growth to slow sharply to 1%% in the first half of 2008,
but recover quickly by 2009. Overall, the industrialised countries are
expected to grow by 2.2%% this year, down around 0.5%% compared with the
previous year.

In contrast, China is expected to grow by more than 10%% over the next
two years, with India not far behind.

Overall, the two biggest emerging market countries give a strong boost
to total growth in developing nations.

Without their contribution, developing country growth would be a much
more modest 5.5%%, and substantially less on a per capita basis,
Professor Jim Rollo of Sussex University pointed out.

He warned that the World Bank might be too optimistic about the ability
of policy markers to respond to the highly uncertain economic situation.

Decoupled economies?

The World says that so far developing countries have been relatively
insulated from the turmoil in world financial markets.

The stock markets in many developing countries, after an initial slump
in August, have continued their long boom.

And in the bond markets, the interest rates on bonds issued by
developing countries have only risen modestly (by less than 1%%),
compared to a sharp increase in interest rates in corporate bonds in
industrial countries.

But it warns that a bigger slowdown in the US, for example a housing
market crash that pushed the American economy into outright recession,
would have a bigger impact on developing countries.

"A sharper US slowdown is a real risk that could weaken medium-term
prospects in developing countries," says the World Bank's Uri Dadush.

The Bank says that middle income countries such as Brazil would be most
affected, both by a reduction in their trade and a fall in foreign
investment.

However, the Bank points out that less than 20%% of China's exports now
go to the US, so that even a US slowdown would not substantially slow
its rate of growth.

The Bank says there is also a risk on the "upside", with the economic
boom leading to accelerating inflation and an over-valued stock market
in China and other emerging markets.

Commodity boom

In the past few years, oil prices have risen fourfold, while the price
of grains and other internationally traded foodstuffs such as oils has
doubled.

The Bank points out that the commodity boom has had both positive and
negative consequences for developing countries.

The increased price of commodities like oil and copper has boosted the
income of the some of the world's poorest countries in Africa, such as
Sudan and Angola.

However, the higher price of foodstuffs such as grains has also had a
negative impact on the income of non-oil developing countries, with the
urban poor especially hard-hit.

The Bank estimates that this has reduced growth by 0.5%% in non-oil
developing countries.

Poverty and technology

The report also looks at the long-term prospects of developing
countries, and the importance of technology transfer.

It says that over the past 15 years, between 1990 and 2005, developing
countries closed some of the technology gap between rich and poor
countries.

But middle income countries still only have reached 50%% of the
technological level of rich countries, it estimates, while low income
countries are at only 25%%.

The Bank says that further technology transfer should allow developing
countries to grow by 3.9%% in per capita terms over the next decade,
which should reduce poverty substantially.

It estimates that the numbers in global poverty (based on the $1 per
day standard) will fall from 1.2 billion people in 1990 to 970 million
in 2004 and 624 million in 2015.

However, 30%% of people in sub-Saharan Africa will still be below that
poverty line, compared with 10%% in the developing world as a whole.

And it says that further technology transfer depends on improvements in
the domestic conditions in developing countries, such as better
education and technical literacy, more support for innovation, and
greater efforts to diffuse technology to rural areas.

Foreign investment and transfers of money and skill from migrants who
returned home have been the most important means of technology transfer
so far, the Bank said.

***

The Age - Jan 9, 2008
http://business.theage.com.au/market-reaches-another-milestone/20080108-1kuz.htm...

Market reaches another milestone

by Vanessa Burrow

AS SHAREMARKET milestones go, a technical correction is not all that
desirable. But the Australian market yesterday had its second in just a
few months, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index now more than 10%%
below its November peak.

The index rose early in the day, but by the close had lost a further
33.5 points, or 0.5%%, to 6128. On November 1 it closed at 6828.7.

Tolhurst technical analyst Violeta Todorova said the S&P/ASX 200 Index
was trading in a long-term up trend, even though the medium and
short-term outlook was negative. "We are very, very far away from the
August lows," she said.

In contrast, Ms Todorova said the Dow Jones Industrial Average was
close to the "critical" August low of 12,518 points.

"A breach of that level would be a very negative sign and officially a
long-term down trend would be under way, with much lower levels ahead
in the coming months," she said.

Benchmark oil fell to $US95.09 on the dimmer growth outlook and
US-reliant Westfield Group lost 34" to $18.95. But plasma supplier CSL
gained 84" to $35.34 as analysts suggested buying stocks that would be
less affected by a US economic downturn.

Centro Retail Group, which has been severely affected by lack of
affordable credit, lost 10.5", or 11.2%%, to 83". And iron ore explorer
Sundance Resources lost 4", or 9.9%%, to 36.5".

Fortescue Metals lost 8", or 1.2%%, to $6.60 but contrary to yesterday's
report, which used incorrect Bloomberg data, its loss on Monday was
only 52".

The banks were mixed. National Australia Bank fell 29" to $36.01 but
Commonwealth Bank rose 53" to $57.73. Westpac gained 10" to $27.25 and
St George and ANZ also gained.

ABN Amro banking analyst Jarrod Martin said the decision by NAB and ANZ
to raise their standard variable rates and the likelihood that other
banks would follow would "restore previous profitability levels".

He said ANZ's decision to raise its standard variable rate by 20 basis
points would probably stop the Reserve Bank from increasing rates on
February 5, whereas NAB's increase of 12 basis point would not.

"I don't think they would see that as a de facto interest rate
increase," he said.

The market's biggest gain was notched by medical technology research
company Benitec, which announced it had agreed to work with US
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to commercialise a drug to fight hepatitis
C. Benitec shares gained 7.5", or 71.4%%, to 18" (see graph below).

On the economic front, November building approvals jumped a better than
expected 8.9%%. Economists expected little change but the number of
apartments approved rose by a stunning 30%% on the previous month. The
total number of houses approved rose just 0.2%%.

The figures, which suggested the economy is growing faster than
anticipated, helped the dollar rise from below US87" to a high of
US87.95".

Construction activity also showed improvement, with the Australian
Industry Group-Housing Industry Association Performance of Construction
Index rising 6 points to 59.2 points. Australian Industry Group
associate director, economics and research, Tony Pensabene said the
non-residential markets were providing a major stimulus to activity
because of a backlog on infrastructure projects and increased
investment in commercial property.



*
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Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
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]]> Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:08:36 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/edmonds_for_sale_west_s_deadly_nuclear_secrets_81782061t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/edmonds_for_sale_west_s_deadly_nuclear_secrets_81782061t.html Hash: SHA1

Edmonds: For Sale - West's Deadly Nuclear Secrets

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by anon@mouse.com - Jan 8, 2008

The Times of London - Jan 6, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece

For sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets

A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how
corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to
steal nuclear weapons secrets.

Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for
the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations
while based at the agency's Washington field office.

She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an
Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of
the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey.

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the
support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive
military and nuclear institutions.

Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard
evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State
Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were
selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The name of the official - who has held a series of top government
posts - is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.

However, Edmonds said: "He was aiding foreign operatives against
US interests by passing them highly classified information, not
only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in
exchange for money, position and political objectives."

She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior
Pentagon officials - including household names - who were aiding
foreign agents.

"If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this
case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal
trials," she said.

Her story shows just how much the West was infiltrated by foreign
states seeking nuclear secrets. It illustrates how western government
officials turned a blind eye to, or were even helping, countries
such as Pakistan acquire bomb technology.

The wider nuclear network has been monitored for many years by a
joint Anglo-American intelligence effort. But rather than shut it
down, investigations by law enforcement bodies such as the FBI and
Britain's Revenue & Customs have been aborted to preserve diplomatic
relations.

Edmonds, a fluent speaker of Turkish and Farsi, was recruited by
the FBI in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Her previous
claims about incompetence inside the FBI have been well documented
in America.

She has given evidence to closed sessions of Congress and the 9/11
commission, but many of the key points of her testimony have remained
secret. She has now decided to divulge some of that information
after becoming disillusioned with the US authorities' failure to
act.

One of Edmonds's main roles in the FBI was to translate thousands
of hours of conversations by Turkish diplomatic and political targets
that had been covertly recorded by the agency.

A backlog of tapes had built up, dating back to 1997, which were
needed for an FBI investigation into links between the Turks and
Pakistani, Israeli and US targets. Before she left the FBI in 2002
she heard evidence that pointed to money laundering, drug imports
and attempts to acquire nuclear and conventional weapons technology.

"What I found was damning," she said. "While the FBI was investigating,
several arms of the government were shielding what was going on."

The Turks and Israelis had planted "moles" in military and academic
institutions which handled nuclear technology. Edmonds says there
were several transactions of nuclear material every month, with the
Pakistanis being among the eventual buyers. "The network appeared
to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United
States," she said.

They were helped, she says, by the high-ranking State Department
official who provided some of their moles - mainly PhD students -
with security clearance to work in sensitive nuclear research
facilities. These included the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New
Mexico, which is responsible for the security of the US nuclear
deterrent.

In one conversation Edmonds heard the official arranging to pick
up a $15,000 cash bribe. The package was to be dropped off at an
agreed location by someone in the Turkish diplomatic community who
was working for the network.

The Turks, she says, often acted as a conduit for the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's spy agency, because they were less
likely to attract suspicion. Venues such as the American Turkish
Council in Washington were used to drop off the cash, which was
picked up by the official.

Edmonds said: "I heard at least three transactions like this over
a period of 2 years. There are almost certainly more."

The Pakistani operation was led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the
ISI chief.

Intercepted communications showed Ahmad and his colleagues stationed
in Washington were in constant contact with attachs in the Turkish
embassy.

Intelligence analysts say that members of the ISI were close to
Al-Qaeda before and after 9/11. Indeed, Ahmad was accused of
sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the
9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.

The results of the espionage were almost certainly passed to Abdul
Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist.

Khan was close to Ahmad and the ISI. While running Pakistan's nuclear
programme, he became a millionaire by selling atomic secrets to
Libya, Iran and North Korea. He also used a network of companies
in America and Britain to obtain components for a nuclear programme.

Khan caused an alert among western intelligence agencies when his
aides met Osama Bin Laden. "We were aware of contact between A Q
Khan's people and Al-Qaeda," a former CIA officer said last week.
"There was absolute panic when we initially discovered this, but
it kind of panned out in the end."

It is likely that the nuclear secrets stolen from the United States
would have been sold to a number of rogue states by Khan.

Edmonds was later to see the scope of the Pakistani connections
when it was revealed that one of her fellow translators at the FBI
was the daughter of a Pakistani embassy official who worked for
Ahmad. The translator was given top secret clearance despite protests
from FBI investigators.

Edmonds says packages containing nuclear secrets were delivered by
Turkish operatives, using their cover as members of the diplomatic
and military community, to contacts at the Pakistani embassy in
Washington.

Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in
for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or
somehow aided the attacks.

Edmonds said the State Department official once again proved useful.
"A primary target would call the official and point to names on the
list and say, `We need to get them out of the US because we can't
afford for them to spill the beans'," she said. "The official said
that he would `take care of it'."

The four suspects on the list were released from interrogation and
extradited.

Edmonds also claims that a number of senior officials in the Pentagon
had helped Israeli and Turkish agents.

"The people provided lists of potential moles from Pentagon-related
institutions who had access to databases concerning this information,"
she said.

"The handlers, who were part of the diplomatic community, would
then try to recruit those people to become moles for the network.
The lists contained all their `hooking points', which could be
financial or sexual pressure points, their exact job in the Pentagon
and what stuff they had access to."

One of the Pentagon figures under investigation was Lawrence Franklin,
a former Pentagon analyst, who was jailed in 2006 for passing US
defence information to lobbyists and sharing classified information
with an Israeli diplomat.

"He was one of the top people providing information and packages
during 2000 and 2001," she said.

Once acquired, the nuclear secrets could have gone anywhere. The
FBI monitored Turkish diplomats who were selling copies of the
information to the highest bidder.

Edmonds said: "Certain greedy Turkish operators would make copies
of the material and look around for buyers. They had agents who
would find potential buyers."

In summer 2000, Edmonds says the FBI monitored one of the agents
as he met two Saudi Arabian businessmen in Detroit to sell nuclear
information that had been stolen from an air force base in Alabama.
She overheard the agent saying: "We have a package and we're going
to sell it for $250,000."

Edmonds's employment with the FBI lasted for just six months. In
March 2002 she was dismissed after accusing a colleague of covering
up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals.

She has always claimed that she was victimised for being outspoken
and was vindicated by an Office of the Inspector General review of
her case three years later. It found that one of the contributory
reasons for her sacking was that she had made valid complaints.

The US attorney-general has imposed a state secrets privilege order
on her, which prevents her revealing more details of the FBI's
methods and current investigations.

Her allegations were heard in a closed session of Congress, but no
action has been taken and she continues to campaign for a public
hearing.

She was able to discuss the case with The Sunday Times because, by
the end of January 2002, the justice department had shut down the
programme.

The senior official in the State Department no longer works there.
Last week he denied all of Edmonds's allegations: "If you are calling
me to say somebody said that I took money, that's outrageous . . .
I do not have anything to say about such stupid ridiculous things
as this."

In researching this article, The Sunday Times has talked to two FBI
officers (one serving, one former) and two former CIA sources who
worked on nuclear proliferation. While none was aware of specific
allegations against officials she names, they did provide overlapping
corroboration of Edmonds's story.

One of the CIA sources confirmed that the Turks had acquired nuclear
secrets from the United States and shared the information with
Pakistan and Israel. "We have no indication that Turkey has its own
nuclear ambitions. But the Turks are traders. To my knowledge they
became big players in the late 1990s," the source said.

How Pakistan got the bomb, then sold it to the highest bidders

1965 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's foreign minister, says: "If
India builds the bomb we will eat grass . . . but we will get one
of our own"

1974 Nuclear programme becomes increased priority as India tests a
nuclear device

1976 Abdul Qadeer Khan, a scientist, steals secrets from Dutch
uranium plant. Made head of his nation's nuclear programme by Bhutto,
now prime minister

1976 onwards Clandestine network established to obtain materials
and technology for uranium enrichment from the West

1985 Pakistan produces weapons-grade uranium for the first time

1989-91 Khan's network sells Iran nuclear weapons information and
technology

1991-97 Khan sells weapons technology to North Korea and Libya

1998 India tests nuclear bomb and Pakistan follows with a series
of nuclear tests. Khan says: "I never had any doubts I was building
a bomb. We had to do it"

2001 CIA chief George Tenet gathers officials for crisis summit on
the proliferation of nuclear technology from Pakistan to other
countries

2001 Weeks before 9/11, Khan's aides meet Osama Bin Laden to discuss
an Al-Qaeda nuclear device

2001 After 9/11 proliferation crisis becomes secondary as Pakistan
is seen as important ally in war on terror

2003 Libya abandons nuclear weapons programme and admits acquiring
components through Pakistani nuclear scientists

2004 Khan placed under house arrest and confesses to supplying Iran,
Libya and North Korea with weapons technology. He is pardoned by
President Pervez Musharraf

2006 North Korea tests a nuclear bomb

2007 Renewed fears that bomb may fall into hands of Islamic extremists
as killing of Benazir Bhutto throws country into turmoil

***

The Huffington Post - Jan 6, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/sibel-edmonds-speaks_b_80077.h...


Sibel Edmonds Speaks...

by Larisa Alexandrovna

Sibel Edmonds, the FBI whistle-blower who has been gagged for years by
the Bush administration over intercepts she translated while at the
bureau, was willing to go to prison to get her story told. She spent
years trying to get her day in court, but the State Secrets gag against
her prohibited her from telling her story even to a FISA judge. After
years of trying to fight her way to through the maze of the US court
system, Sibel Edmonds finally decided to tell her story no matter the
consequences and offered to do so to any interested US media outlets.

Today, part of that story runs, but not in the United States, where not
a single corporate outlet was willing to displease the White House and
give Edmonds a platform. The Sunday Times Online, however, proved up to
the task - somewhat. Here are the snips from that article:

"A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about
how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to
steal nuclear weapons secrets.

Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for
the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations
while based at the agency's Washington field office.

She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an
Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the
9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey.

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the
support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive
military and nuclear institutions.



Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard
evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department
was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the
information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The name of the official - who has held a series of top government
posts - is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.

However, Edmonds said: "He was aiding foreign operatives against US
interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from
the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money,
position and political objectives."

Let me help the Times here. The person against whom these allegations
are being made is Marc Grossman. The Times could have published the
name and also provided the denial from Grossman's camp. I find it
incredibly disturbing that they would not name the official.

"She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior
Pentagon officials - including household names - who were aiding
foreign agents.

"If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this
case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal
trials," she said.

Her story shows just how much the West was infiltrated by foreign
states seeking nuclear secrets. It illustrates how western government
officials turned a blind eye to, or were even helping, countries such
as Pakistan acquire bomb technology."

Those senior DOD officials who are not mentioned in the Times article,
all but one are no longer in government. They are alleged to be Doug
Feith, Richard Perle, among others. There is also one person who is
part of these allegations, still serving in a high level position at
the DOD. His last name begins with an E.

I have tried getting someone in broadcast and print media to run this
story. My sources did not include Edmonds, but because of the sensitive
nature of the information, I was concerned that she would go to jail
anyway, unless I proved she was not a source - which would require me
to reveal my sources.

I thought if I approached a big enough news outlet, the pressure
generated by the public response would spare Edmonds jail time and I
would not be pressured to reveal sources - something I would not have
done anyway. Even a former high ranking CIA officer offered to byline
the article with me if that would help sell a broadcaster/publication
on running the story. No one was interested.

That the Times ran these allegations (she is under a state secrets gag
folks, so it is not like she is gagged for lying) is encouraging. But
that they omitted all names from the allegations is unethical. The
point of a free press is not to protect the powerful against the weak,
but to protect the public from the powerful. The Times was willing to
stick a toe in, but was not willing to risk upsetting a foreign
government (This is, after all, a British paper).

There are more names, including members of Congress and people serving
in the FBI. This is what happens when basic government services as well
as the most sensitive government functions are outsourced to the global
marketplace.

Back to the Times article, which toward the end illustrates that
someone in the editorial offices located a backbone, even if
temporarily:

"She has given evidence to closed sessions of Congress and the 9/11
commission, but many of the key points of her testimony have remained
secret. She has now decided to divulge some of that information after
becoming disillusioned with the US authorities' failure to act.

One of Edmonds's main roles in the FBI was to translate thousands
of hours of conversations by Turkish diplomatic and political targets
that had been covertly recorded by the agency.



The Turks and Israelis had planted "moles" in military and academic
institutions which handled nuclear technology. Edmonds says there were
several transactions of nuclear material every month, with the
Pakistanis being among the eventual buyers. "The network appeared to be
obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States,"
she said.

They were helped, she says, by the high-ranking State Department
official who provided some of their moles - mainly PhD students - with
security clearance to work in sensitive nuclear research facilities.
These included the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which
is responsible for the security of the US nuclear deterrent.

In one conversation Edmonds heard the official arranging to pick up
a $15,000 cash bribe. The package was to be dropped off at an agreed
location by someone in the Turkish diplomatic community who was working
for the network.

Let me again offer help to the good folks at the Times. The person in
question is a Turkish military official who at that time also happened
to sit on the board of a particular defense contracting firm.

"The Turks, she says, often acted as a conduit for the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's spy agency, because they
were less likely to attract suspicion. Venues such as the American
Turkish Council in Washington were used to drop off the cash, which was
picked up by the official.

Edmonds said: "I heard at least three transactions like this over a
period of 2 years. There are almost certainly more."

The Pakistani operation was led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the
ISI chief."

Now, who is General Mahmoud Ahmad?

"Intelligence analysts say that members of the ISI were close to
Al-Qaeda before and after 9/11. Indeed, Ahmad was accused of
sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11
hijackers, immediately before the attacks."

You can see why Edmonds had to be silenced for "diplomatic reasons." As
though diplomatic (read: business) relationships are more important
than national security. Let me give you one more snip from this
incredible article (minus the censorship):

"Khan was close to Ahmad and the ISI. While running Pakistan's
nuclear programme, he became a millionaire by selling atomic secrets to
Libya, Iran and North Korea. He also used a network of companies in
America and Britain to obtain components for a nuclear programme.

Khan caused an alert among western intelligence agencies when his
aides met Osama Bin Laden. "We were aware of contact between A Q Khan's
people and Al-Qaeda," a former CIA officer said last week. "There was
absolute panic when we initially discovered this, but it kind of panned
out in the end."

It is likely that the nuclear secrets stolen from the United States
would have been sold to a number of rogue states by Khan.

Edmonds was later to see the scope of the Pakistani connections
when it was revealed that one of her fellow translators at the FBI was
the daughter of a Pakistani embassy official who worked for Ahmad. The
translator was given top secret clearance despite protests from FBI
investigators.

Edmonds says packages containing nuclear secrets were delivered by
Turkish operatives, using their cover as members of the diplomatic and
military community, to contacts at the Pakistani embassy in Washington.

Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in
for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or somehow
aided the attacks.

Edmonds said the State Department official once again proved
useful. "A primary target would call the official and point to names on
the list and say, 'We need to get them out of the US because we can't
afford for them to spill the beans'," she said. "The official said that
he would 'take care of it'."

Read the whole thing. I urge you to print it, email it, share it with
everyone you know. Edmonds has said enough now that she may very likely
go to prison, but she is a true patriot and she must have our support,
in the media and also in the public sphere.




*
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
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]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:20:58 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/us_corn_subsidies_promote_amazon_deforestation_81771821t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/us_corn_subsidies_promote_amazon_deforestation_81771821t.html Hash: SHA1

US corn subsidies promote Amazon deforestation

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Smithsonian Tropical Resesearch via ENN News - Jan 8, 3008
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/28859


U.S. corn subsidies promote Amazon deforestation

Amazon deforestation and fires are being aggravated by US farm
subsidies, claims STRIs staff scientist William Laurance.

According to Laurance, whose findings are reported this week in Science
(December 14), a recent spike in Amazonian fires is being promoted by
massive US subsidies that promote American corn production for ethanol.
The ethanol is being blended with gasoline as an automobile fuel.

"American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn
producersand this is having some surprising global consequences," said
Laurance.

The US is the world's leading producer of soy, but many American soy
farmers are shifting to corn to qualify for the government subsidies.
Since 2006, US corn production rose 19%% while soy farming fell by 15%%.

The drop-off in US soy has helped to drive a major increase in global
soy prices, which have nearly doubled in the last 14 months. In Brazil,
the world's second-largest soy producer, high soy prices are having a
serious impact on the Amazon rainforest and tropical savannas.

"Amazon fires and forest destruction have spiked over the last several
months, especially in the main soy-producing states in Brazil," said
Laurance. "Just about everyone there attributes this to rising soy and
beef prices."

High soy prices affect the Amazon in several ways. Some forests are
cleared for soy farms. Farmers also buy and convert many cattle ranches
into soy farms, effectively pushing the ranchers further into the
Amazonian frontier. Finally, wealthy soy farmers are lobbying for major
new Amazon highways to transport their soybeans to market, and this is
increasing access to forests for loggers and land speculators.

Laurance emphasized that he was not the first person to suggest that US
corn subsidies could indirectly harm the Amazon. "But now we're seeing
that these predictions-first made last summer-are being borne out. The
evidence of a corn connection to the Amazon is circumstantial, but it's
about as close as you ever get to a smoking gun."

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]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:51:22 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/cuban_efforts_to_protect_ozone_layer_recognized_81771309t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/cuban_efforts_to_protect_ozone_layer_recognized_81771309t.html Hash: SHA1

Cuban Efforts to Protect Ozone Layer Recognized

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles

Cuban Efforts to Protect Ozone Layer Recognized

Havana, Jan 8 (acn) The Secretariat of the Protocol of Montreal has
recognized the efforts made by Cuba in the protection of the ozone
layer, said on Monday Jose Antonio Diaz, Cuban Deputy Minister of
Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA).

Diaz noted that, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of this
international agreement, Cuba - and particularly its Ozone Technical
Office - received the recognition for its constant efforts in the
reduction of substances that deplete the ozone layer.

During a meeting with reporters on Monday, executives from CITMA
commented on the impact of science on economy and society as it is
reflected in the results obtained in sectors like biolotechnology,
energy, agriculture and fishing.

The pentavalent vaccine, the Citoprot-P for the cicatrization of the
diabetic foot and the HRT monoclonal antibody are only a few samples.

Diaz added that pollution has been reduced in the mountainous regions
of the island while woods continue to grow with almost 25%% of the
country's surface covered by forests.

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]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:49:19 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/env_whales_win_one_in_court_vs_us_navy_81698605t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/misc.activism.environment/env_whales_win_one_in_court_vs_us_navy_81698605t.html Hash: SHA1

Env: Whales win one in court vs US Navy

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by Steven L. Robinson -activ-l

Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Jan 4, 2008
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/346011_orcasonar04.html

Judge put limits on Navy sonar use

By Robert Mcclure

A federal judge forbade the Navy on Thursday from using a powerful form
of sonar within 12 miles of the California coast and slapped other
restrictions on naval war exercises in a ruling that could have
repercussions in the Pacific Northwest.

U.S. District Judge Florence Marie-Cooper said noise from the Navy's
midfrequency sonar far outstrips levels at which federal rules require
ear protection for humans on the job. Whales' hearing is extremely
sensitive.

"The court is persuaded that the (protection) scheme proposed by the
Navy is grossly inadequate to protect marine mammals from debilitating
levels of sonar exposure," Marie-Cooper wrote in her ruling.

The Navy offered to reduce the sonar's intensity when whales approached
within about 1,100 yards and power down further before shutting the
sonar off when the creatures got within 200 yards. The judge ordered
sonar shut off when marine mammals are within 2,200 yards.

By the Navy's own estimate, it would harass or harm marine mammals, as
prohibited by the Endangered Species Act, about 170,000 times, the judge
said. The Navy said the series of 14 exercises would temporarily deafen
whales 8,000 times and cause permanent injuries in more than 400 cases.

Environmental groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council,
brought suit as part of a campaign to rein in sonar use, which they
contend violates several federal laws. They had sought a ban on naval
exercises out to 25 miles from shore.

The Navy argued that it must train sailors against a new generation of
quiet submarines that can't be detected by traditional "passive" sonar,
but are picked up by the midfrequency version.

The service said exercises off Southern California are important because
they give sailors training around undersea mountain ranges like those
where they might chase subs elsewhere in the world.

"Despite the care the court took in crafting its order, we do not
believe it struck the right balance between national security and
environmental concerns," said Jeff Davis, a Navy spokesman at the
Pentagon.

The judge also required the Navy to watch for marine mammals for an hour
before using the sonar, among other conditions.

The restrictions could affect the debate in the Northwest over
protecting Puget Sound orcas and other marine mammals.

However, different species are at risk off Southern California. There,
beaked whales sometimes disappear underwater for up to an hour. Orcas
are usually easier to spot.
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