NEWS AND VIEWS

Archive 1 March 2005 - 22 June 2006

Items I find interesting or important - not directly connected with my business. Recent items are on the main NEWS AND VIEWS page, other older items are listed at the FULL NEWS ARCHIVE INDEX. Index shows date of posting on this website.

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INDEX 2006 -INDEX 2005  -  OTHER NEWS WEBSITES - ZNN ALTERNATIVE NEWS

OTHER NEWS WEBSITES; Common Dreams "News and views for the progressive community" - US based. Complementary Healthcare Information Service (CHIS-UK) Friends Of The Earth UK (Press releases) From The Wilderness Mike Ruppert's excellent site. What's wrong with official story on Sept. 11 2001, US plans for war in Colombia, CIA, USA politicians and the drugs trade, peak oil....No longer updates, but archives are still online. Mirror site was at http://www.copvcia.com Globalinfo.org "Daily news service of the developing world" - news on site, also offers free news feed to your website. Indymedia UK  "network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues". Some good impartial comment, and some total pillocks. ZNet "A community for people committed to social change". Includes articles by Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Robert Fisk and many more.

INDEX 2006

22 June WORLD GRAIN STOCKS FALL TO 57 DAYS OF CONSUMPTION: GRAIN PRICES STARTING TO RISE

8 May UNDER MARGARET BECKETT, FARMERS HAVE BEEN THE VICTIMS OF INCOMPETENCE TO MATCH ANYTHING AT THE HOME OFFICE

21 April FACING DOWN IRAN

4 April IS IT MURDER OR ISN'T IT?

28 March EVENING CLASSES TO DOUBLE CHARGES

24 March FOOD, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS

17 March WHY ALL THE FOREIGN BASES?

16 March MI5, CAMP DELTA, AND THE STORY THAT SHAMES BRITAIN

15 March THE SECRET WAR AGAINST THE DEFENSELESS PEOPLE OF WEST PAPUA

7 March BUSH, CHAVEZ AND HITLER

3 March AMERICA'S GLORIOUS EMPIRE OF DEBT

2 March CANNABIS AND THE BRAIN: A USER'S GUIDE

22 February STATELESS IN SOMALIA, AND LOVING IT

20 February STATE OF WAR: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CIA AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

20 February A HALF-DOZEN QUESTIONS ABOUT 9/11 THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO ASK

20 February CHURCHILL, HITLER, AND NEWT - GINGRICH AND THE PUSH FOR WAR ON IRAN

15 February THE POLITICS OF FEAR (OR HOW TONY BLAIR MISLED US OVER THE WAR ON TERROR)

14 February GREED OF THE HIGHEST ORDER AND THE WORST PRIVATISATION SINCE RAIL 

8 February IT'S CAPITALISM OR A HABITABLE PLANET - YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH 

8 February 2008 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - CHOOSE YOUR FOREIGN POLICY POISON 

6 February ENERGY EFFICIENCY "ONLY WAY" TO CURB SPIRALLING FUEL BILLS

2 February SMALLER FIRMS MAY FACE POLLUTION LIMITS

23 January NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN WITH IRAN

23 January IRAN'S BOMB

19 January EVIDENCE OF A STOLEN ELECTION

INDEX 2005

22 December BOLIVIA ELECTS RADICAL PRESIDENT

19 December  ‘EU AND US FAIL WORLD’S POOR AT WTO SUMMIT’ - MEP

15 November THE US USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ - AND THEN LIED ABOUT IT

2 November CLIMATE CHANGE: 10 WAYS TO SAVE THE WORLD

26 October TASK FORCE URGES £20M GRANTS FOR GREEN FUEL BOILERS

29 September KATRINA - ARMED DOLPHINS TRAINED BY US MILITARY MAY HAVE ESCAPED

22 September 'GET OFF THE FUCKING FREEWAY': THE SINKING STATE LOOTS ITS OWN SURVIVORS - TRYING TO LEAVE NEW ORLEANS

13 September GREENS SAY BROWN DANGEROUSLY SHORT-SIGHTED OVER OIL PROBLEMS

26 August FOOTBALL FANS ARE IDIOTS 

25 July IRAN SITS PRETTY IN WORLD'S HOTTEST REGION

24 July THE END OF OIL - CONFERENCE ON PEAK OIL, FOOD AND THE ECONOMY, LONDON, 11TH OCTOBER 2005

20 July POST-SOVIET LESSONS FOR A POST-AMERICAN CENTURY

19 July REFORMERS AND HARDLINERS - WHAT DO IRAN, VENEZUELA AND BELARUS HAVE IN COMMON?

15 July FLUORIDE FOLLIES

13 July GLASGOW'S DIET WAS HEALTHIER IN 1405

4 June WHY OUR FOOD IS SO DEPENDENT ON OIL

3 June U.S., RUSSIA STILL FACE MUTUAL DESTRUCTION THREAT

6 April DRUGS, BASES AND JAILS - WHAT'S GOING ON IN AFGHANISTAN?

17 March DO HUMANS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING?

17 March COMING TO TERMS WITH CHINA

4 March MICHAEL MEACHER ON THE UKRAINE, OIL, AND GEOPOLITICS

3 March THE DANGEROUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE HARIRI ASSASSINATION AND THE US RESPONSE

1 March NORTH KOREA IN WINTER

 

22 June WORLD GRAIN STOCKS FALL TO 57 DAYS OF CONSUMPTION: GRAIN PRICES STARTING TO RISE

"This year’s world grain harvest is projected to fall short of consumption by 61 million tons, marking the sixth time in the last seven years that production has failed to satisfy demand. As a result of these shortfalls, world carryover stocks at the end of this crop year are projected to drop to 57 days of consumption, the shortest buffer since the 56-day-low in 1972 that triggered a doubling of grain prices. 

World carryover stocks of grain, the amount in the bin when the next harvest begins, are the most basic measure of food security. Whenever stocks drop below 60 days of consumption, prices begin to rise. It thus came as no surprise when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected in its June 9 world crop report that this year’s wheat prices will be up by 14 percent and corn prices up by 22 percent over last year’s."

Full article by Lester R. Brown at Earth Policy Institute.

8 May UNDER MARGARET BECKETT, FARMERS HAVE BEEN THE VICTIMS OF INCOMPETENCE TO MATCH ANYTHING AT THE HOME OFFICE

"It's lambing time on the North York Moors, but the dry weather has left fields nibbled to the quick, so sheep farmers such as Mark Graham are having to fork out for feed. That's bad enough for a hill farmer at the best of times, eating into wafer-thin profit margins on their small flocks, but this spring it could be disastrous - thousands of farmers are waiting for government payments they are owed from 2005, which are now nearly five months late. Graham has just got the thick pile of application forms for this year; they are late, and he has just over two weeks to fill in the 30-odd pages, although it is his busiest time of year...."

"David Miliband will have a huge task in his new job at Defra to unravel a monumental mess that bears all the hallmarks of New Labour's style of government: over-centralisation, inflated expectations of IT, ruthless job cuts, overpaid senior executives and ballooning numbers of temporary staff."

Full article by Madeleine Bunting, titled "The Yorkshire moors is the place to learn about our new foreign secretary", at The Guardian.

21 April FACING DOWN IRAN

"Anyone who spends half an hour looking at Iranian foreign policy over the last 27 years sees five things:
contempt for the most basic international conventions;
long-reach extraterritoriality;
effective promotion of radical Pan-Islamism;
a willingness to go the extra mile for Jew-killing (unlike, say, Osama);
an all-but-total synchronization between rhetoric and action.

Yet the Europeans remain in denial. Iran was supposedly the Middle Eastern state they could work with. And the chancellors and foreign ministers jetted in to court the mullahs so assiduously that they’re reluctant to give up on the strategy just because a relatively peripheral figure like the, er, head of state is sounding off about Armageddon."

Fascinating article by Mark Steyn on Iranian policy from the foundation of the Islamic Republic, and the West's response. Well worth reading, especially if you are into understanding the reality of world politics, and are not a right-wing nationalist, Christian supremacist, or racist, but are still very worried by the growing Islamic influence in the West. Full article at City Journal.

4 April IS IT MURDER OR ISN'T IT?

Is it murder to kill on behalf of the state? Article by Laurence M. Vance at LewRockwell.com, with reference to the war on Iraq, and the Jewish and Christian Bible's commandment which has been translated into English as "Thou shalt not kill".

28 March EVENING CLASSES TO DOUBLE CHARGES

"THE cost of evening classes is to double for more than two million people to help to fund job training for low-skilled workers, the Government admitted yesterday. Night classes in everything from flower arranging to foreign languages are expected to close. Leaders of further education colleges estimate that one million places will be lost overall. 

Ministers believe that night courses should not be the preserve of the middle classes keen on self-improvement. They consider that taxpayers’ money would be better spent improving the skills of adults and young people who have left school with few or no qualifications. However, fees for everyone else will rise sharply over the next four years. State subsidies will be cut from 73 per cent to 50 per cent of the cost of courses by 2010. Individuals or their employers will have to pay the other half."

Full article by Tony Halpin at The Times.

24 March FOOD, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS

"The other day, a prominent Canadian journalist paid me a visit to interview me for his book on building a sustainable future. At one point, I expounded on the closed-nutrient cycle of old-school organic farming, contrasting it with what writer Michael Pollan deemed the "industrial-organic" way. In the old-school organic style, which relies on animals, farm wastes are recycled into the soil, providing all the nutrients necessary for the next harvest. The industrial-organic farmer, by contrast, imports his or her soil fertility -- just like the conventional farmer. The difference is that the organic farmer is likely shipping in composted manure from far-flung places, while the conventional grower is hauling in a processed petroleum product.....

The journalist then asked me a question that stopped me short: "Do you think real organic farming could feed the world?" I stammered something like "I hope so," and had him jot down a couple of books to look up.....

To an extent, the problem is one of semantics, centering on the definition of "sustainable." To many green types, places like Whole Foods and Wild Oats teem with "sustainably produced" stuff -- everything from T-shirts to apples, chicken and eggs, even versions of Twizzlers and TV dinners. But the great bulk of it falls under the rubric of industrial-organic -- like the wares on offer at Wal-Mart, only a little less so, these goods depend on a culture of cheap and plentiful crude oil and labor. 

The cheap-oil problem has certainly gained traction among greens. Blogs devoted to "peak oil" abound; this very blog seems like one at times. Most of these discussions, though, devolve into sniping about biofuels and hybrids. It's important to wonder how we'd get around in an era of super-high oil prices. But I don't understand why more people aren't worried about what we'd eat."

Full article by Tom Philpott, plus comments, at Grist Magazine.

17 March WHY ALL THE FOREIGN BASES?

"On May 14, 2005 the Associated Press reported Bulgaria's announcement that it would provide three new military bases to the US. General James Jones, the top commander of US and NATO troops in Europe, said that he would propose to the US Congress "four or five Bulgarian military facilities for use by US forces." More recently, the US announced plans for new bases in Romania. Why does the US need new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania? According to Chalmers Johnson, in his book "The Sorrows of Empire," America already possesses more than 725 overseas bases..."

"Like Sparta, the US has de facto control over the foreign policy of its military alliance, NATO. And presumably, the US would not allow an objectionable form of government to take power in a key strategic ally. In fact, the US has sought to instigate or prevent regime change in many states it has wanted to control, whether strategic or non-strategic, allied or non-allied. Examples include Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Greece, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Haiti, Hawaii, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, Samoa, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, Venezuela, and Vietnam, among others."

Good overview of the American Empire by Sam Baker. Full article at LewRockwell.com.

16 March MI5, CAMP DELTA, AND THE STORY THAT SHAMES BRITAIN

"Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna are among eight British residents who remain prisoners at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are jailed because British officials rendered them into the hands of the CIA in Africa, a fact that may explain why the British government refuses to intercede on their behalf. Bisher and Jamil have been wrongfully imprisoned now for more than three years. This is the story of their betrayal by the British government and their appalling treatment at the hands of the CIA and the U.S. military."

Full article at The Independent.

15 March THE SECRET WAR AGAINST THE DEFENSELESS PEOPLE OF WEST PAPUA

Speaking first of East Timor, John Pilger writes; "... my mind went back to the letters Foreign Office officials wrote to concerned members of the public and MPs following the showing of my film Death of a Nation. Knowing the truth, they denied that British-supplied Hawk jets were blowing straw-roofed villages to bits and that British-supplied Heckler & Koch machine guns were finishing off the occupants. They even lied about the scale of suffering. 

And it is all happening again, wrapped in the same silence and with the "international community" playing the same part as backer and beneficiary of the crushing of a defenseless people. Indonesia's brutal occupation of West Papua, a vast, resource-rich province – stolen from its people, like East Timor – is one of the great secrets of our time.....

An estimated 100,000 Papuans, or 10 per cent of the population, have been killed by the Indonesian military. This is a fraction of the true figure, according to refugees. In January, 43 West Papuans reached Australia's north coast after a hazardous six-week journey in a dugout. They had no food, and had dribbled their last fresh water into their children's mouths. "We knew," said Herman Wainggai, the leader, "that if the Indonesian military had caught us, most of us would have died. They treat West Papuans like animals. They kill us like animals. They have created militias and jihadis to do just that. It is the same as East Timor."

Full article at John Pilger's website.

7 March BUSH, CHAVEZ AND HITLER

"U.S. officials become angry and indignant when someone compares the Bush administration’s policies to those of the Hitler regime. Even government officials at the local level get upset over the comparison, as reflected by the public schoolteacher who is under investigation for comparing Bush’s policies to those of Hitler in his classroom. Ironically, however, the anger and indignation felt by U.S. officials when someone compares Bush’s policies to those of Hitler does not stop U.S. officials from comparing foreign leaders to Hitler....

"Ironically, even as Rumsfeld calls Chavez “Hitler” for consolidating power, no one can deny that ever since 9/11, Bush has done everything he can to “consolidate power,” as evidenced by the USA PATRIOT Act, the unconstitutional assumption of power to declare war, the illegal attack and war of aggression on a country that had never attacked the United States, the illegal spying on Americans by recording their telephone conversations without a judicially issued warrant, the jailing and punishment of Americans without due process of law, illegal kidnapping and “rendition” of prisoners to foreign regimes for the purposes of torture, and of course the illegal torture, sex abuse, rape, and murder of detainees by U.S. forces."

Full article by Jacob G. Hornberger at LewRockwell.com

3 March AMERICA'S GLORIOUS EMPIRE OF DEBT

"Let us take a moment to stand back and gaze at America’s great Empire of Debt. It is the largest edifice of debt ever put up. It sustains the most magnificent world economy ever assembled. It brings more wealth to more people than any system ever before devised.......America’s empire of debt...stands not as a solid pyramid of trust, authority, and power relationships but as a rickety slum of delusion, fraud, and misapprehension."

Full article by Bill Bonner at LewRockwell.com.

2 March CANNABIS AND THE BRAIN: A USER'S GUIDE

Actually, this is a great article for non-users, especially if you believe cannabis is bad for you but have never actually looked at any of the scientific evidence. This is the position my dad took in the late 1960's. He was an intelligent man, but was totally unable (or unwilling?) to overcome the propaganda of moronic newpapers, or to distinguish between the effect of cannabis and other drugs. This was quite a formative experience for me; it played a big part in convincing me that much human behaviour is irrational, as are many political attitudes. I have never wished since then to support political parties which have similar attitudes that totally ignore the facts of the matter, which is one of many reasons why I have never supported the Labour Party. It is also why I get so frustrated that good people continue to expect any sort of radical reform from labour  - not just on drugs, but on any policy area.

Article by Paul Armentano at LewRockwell.com.

22 February STATELESS IN SOMALIA, AND LOVING IT

"Somalia is in the news again. Rival gangs are shooting each other, and why? The reason is always the same: the prospect that the weak-to-invisible transitional government in Mogadishu will become a real government with actual power.

The media invariably describe this prospect as a "hope." But it's a strange hope that is accompanied by violence and dread throughout the country. Somalia has done very well for itself in the 15 years since its government was eliminated. The future of peace and prosperity there depends in part on keeping one from forming." Full article by Yumi Kim at LewRockwell.com.

20 February STATE OF WAR: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CIA AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

"James Risen is one of The New York Times’ major writers on intelligence matters and related subjects. His new book on such topics is State of War: The Secret History Of The CIA And The Bush Administration (Free Press, 2006)." Dean Lawrence R. Velvel reviews the book in some detail at LewRockwell.com. If you don't want all the detail at the start about whether the New York Times knew about the NSA spying on American civilians before the 2004 Presidential election (and thus influenced in Bush's favour the outcome by withholding publication of the story), scroll half-way down to the list of 12 numbered points.

An example; "9. As discussed here many times, but hardly ever mentioned in the media, Saddam’s regime "had planned for guerrilla war before the U.S. invasion by setting up secret weapons caches and stay-behind networks." Indeed, the planning for guerrilla war went so far that "just before the war, Iraqi intelligence agencies had purchased large numbers of garage door openers in Dubai, as crude but effective remote triggering devices for roadside bombs." (Pp. 136-137.) Plainly, as has been said here previously, guerrilla war was the surprise that Saddam said the Americans would get if they invaded."

20 February A HALF-DOZEN QUESTIONS ABOUT 9/11 THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO ASK

Who Is Osama? Where Did He Come From? How Did He Escape? What About Those Anthrax Attacks? Article by Werther at Counterpunch.

20 February CHURCHILL, HITLER, AND NEWT - GINGRICH AND THE PUSH FOR WAR ON IRAN

"You can always tell when the War Party wants a new war. They will invariably trot out the Argumentum ad Hitlerum. Before the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam had become "the Hitler of Arabia," though he had only conquered a sandbox half the size of Denmark. Milosevic then became the "Hitler of the Balkans," though he had lost Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia, was struggling to hold Bosnia and Kosovo, and had defeated no one. 

Comes now the new Hitler. "This is 1935, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is as close to Adolf Hitler as we've seen," said Newt Gingrich to a startled editor at Human Events." Patrick J. Buchanan takes Gingrich's arguments apart, looks at the push for war on Iran, and concludes;

"Instead of whining about how they were misled into Iraq, why don't Democrats try to stop this new war before it starts? They can begin by introducing a resolution in Congress denying Bush authority to launch any preventive war on Iran, unless Congress first declares war on Iran. Isn't that what the Constitution says? 

Before we go to war, let's have a debate of whether we need to go to war.

Full article at LewRockwell.com.

15 February THE POLITICS OF FEAR (OR HOW TONY BLAIR MISLED US OVER THE WAR ON TERROR)

"The Government has persistently failed to tell the truth either to itself or to the British public about the terror threat in Britain. These failures of diagnosis have led to failures of response. An example is the Prime Minister's denial that there is a connection between the Iraq war and domestic terrorism. That denial is not merely false. It also inhibits the kind of deep understanding of the motives of Muslim terrorists which the Prime Minister presumably wants."

A must-read. Full article by Peter Oborne at The Independent.

14 February GREED OF THE HIGHEST ORDER AND THE WORST PRIVATISATION SINCE RAIL

Re the privatisation of the British government's defence research service, Qinetiq, last week, George Monbiot writes;

"So here we have a privatisation - the first full-scale privatisation Tony Blair's government has carried out - that has allowed a US investment company to walk off with hundreds of millions of pounds of free money, much of which will be tax exempt. It has been assisted by 25 years of guaranteed income from the government and the possible shedding of liabilities. It is overseen by a man who first came to public notice as a result of a defence procurement deal surrounded by controversy, and who now turns up as minister for defence procurement. Does anyone agree that this is a "good model for future privatisations"?

Full article at The Guardian.

8 February IT'S CAPITALISM OR A HABITABLE PLANET - YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH 

"Our economic system is unsustainable by its very nature. The only response to climate chaos and peak oil is major social change..."

"Much discussion of energy, with never a word about power, leads to the fallacy of a low-impact, green capitalism somehow put at the service of environmentalism. In reality, power concentrates around wealth. Private ownership of trade and industry means that the decisive political force in the world is private power. The corporation will outflank every puny law and regulation that seeks to constrain its profitability. It therefore stands in the way of the functioning democracy needed to tackle climate change. Only by breaking up corporate power and bringing it under social control will we be able to overcome the global environmental crisis."

"Solutions need to come from people themselves. But once set up, local autonomous groups need to be supported by technology transfers from state to community level. Otherwise it's too expensive to get solar panels on your roof, let alone set up a local energy grid."

Full article by Robert Newman (originally published 2 February, 2006) at The Guardian. 

8 February 2008 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - CHOOSE YOUR FOREIGN POLICY POISON

"Right now, the 2008 election shapes up like this. The Republican frontrunners are Senator John McCain (Az.) and Senator George Allen (Va.). McCain is ahead of Allen. Giuliani is running third, quite far back.

Hillary Clinton is the Democratic favorite with Governor Mark Warner (Va.) running a distant second. The Republicans are slight favorites to retain the White House. All these rankings are from Tradesports contracts.

Senators McCain and Clinton are competing intensely in an Iran War tournament. First prize goes to whoever stakes out the most pro-war position. Both are hawks. Both are prepared to bomb Iran. Choose your war crimes poison, Republican or Democratic.

In a speech that could have been written and proofread by AIPAC, Clinton loudly clanged all the pro-Israel and anti-Iran bells: "We cannot and should not – must not – permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons." McCain ratcheted up the Iranian confrontation to the most serious since the Cold War and declared that "a nuclear capability in Iran is unacceptable." Is Iran a child in need of correction? Choose your hectoring poison, red or blue."

Full article by Michael S. Rozeff at LewRockwell.com.

6 February ENERGY EFFICIENCY "ONLY WAY" TO CURB SPIRALLING FUEL BILLS

News of an expected increase in prices by British Gas of up to 25% has today been condemned as outrageous by the Green Party. Keith Taylor, Green Party Principal Speaker, commented: "This will be the largest price rise to be forced through by an energy supplier since the market was deregulated at the end of the 1990s, and will be the fourth announced by British Gas in three years. 

"This will inevitably consign millions more to fuel poverty - latest estimates suggest there are 2m pensioner homes without insulation, while Help the Aged estimates that last winter, 28,700 older people in England and Wales died of preventable, cold-related illnesses. How will the most vulnerable to colder weather be able to cope with these new hikes?

"Centrica - parent company to British Gas - claims extortionate costs are a result of the rise in the price of wholesale gas, forcing gas companies to place the burden on customers. But in 2004, they announced an 83% increase in operating profit - to £243 million, in their energy business. The figures don't add up. Clearly, the only way for consumers to curb spiralling fuel bills in the face of an ever increasing drive for profits is to become more energy efficient.

"Over a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions released into the air come from the energy used to run our homes, but a third of the cost of heating our homes and businesses is immediately wasted through energy loss. Simple measures such as loft or cavity wall insulation and switching off machines on standby provide immediate benefits both to the environment as well as our wallets. In the face of supply shortages and resultant price increases, and the loss of UK control of our energy costs due to reliance on foreign supplies, a responsible government would embark on massive investment of homeland energy production from clean, renewable sources."

2 February SMALLER FIRMS MAY FACE POLLUTION LIMITS

Green Party Sustainable Development Spokesperson John Whitelegg today cautiously welcomed plans that will mean small and medium-sized firms in the UK may face pollution limits. Companies would be allocated a ration of permits to emit CO2. If they overshoot their ration, the firms would have to buy extra permits.

He said: "We have all seen office blocks at night, with lights and computers left on, and been in shops in the summer, with air conditioning on full blast and the doors open. There is no incentive for smaller businesses to reduce their energy use other than the price of electricity, and this is lower than is needed to reflect the environmental cost.

"Becoming more energy efficient and so reducing carbon emissions is a vital first step towards really tackling climate change. Reducing energy usage usually proves a simple and cost effective procedure. However, any scheme that involves trading would have to operate under a 'cap and trade' principle, whereby there would be limits as to how many permits a business could buy. Limits would also have to decrease annually, to ensure that the scheme has a real impact on emissions levels."

23 January NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN WITH IRAN

"In a prime example of the pot calling the kettle black, the US and Israel – both nuclear powers – accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. They offer no confirming proof of this charge, just more so-called leaks from "high-level administration sources" in the US accusing Iran of working on a nuclear delivery system. We saw precisely the same pattern in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Tehran accuses the west of nuclear apartheid and hypocrisy, citing the Bush Administration’s recent pact to provide fuel and technology to India’s nuclear programs, which Washington formerly condemned. India has an estimated 100 nuclear weapons and is building land and sea-launched missiles that can strike the continental United States. Only Muslim nations (Pakistan excepted since it’s a reliable US ally), it seems, are not to be allowed nuclear weapons....

Note: Iran has not violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (which nuclear-armed Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan never even signed). So Iran may be punished for agreeing to international inspection of nuclear facilities while those nations that refused to cooperate with efforts to limit nuclear weapons are being studiously ignored. In fact, the head of the UN nuclear agency was recently in Israel and failed to say anything about its secret nuclear arsenal, estimated at 200 nuclear warheads."

Full article by Eric Margolis at LewRockwell.com.

23 January IRAN'S BOMB

"There's been a lot of talk recently about Israel and/or the United States bombing the nuclear facilities in Iran. I wouldn't worry about that. I believe they are both bluffing.

In the first place, just the talk has kicked up the price of oil. In the second place, there is no proof that Iran really wants to develop nuclear weapons. So far, what the Iranians have done and propose to do are legal. They have a reasonable explanation for why they want to develop nuclear power. Oil is their biggest and most valuable export. The less they use for domestic purposes, the more they will have to export.

On the other hand, they are surrounded by nuclear powers – Israel, Russia, Pakistan, India and the U.S. (through its heavy presence in the Persian Gulf and Iraq). So maybe they do want to develop a nuclear bomb. Personally, I don't care if they do. Having lived most of my life with 30,000 nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them in the Soviet Union, I'm not going to worry about the Iranians having six or seven."

Full article by Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com.

19 January EVIDENCE OF A STOLEN ELECTION

Review by Paul Craig Roberts of Mark Crispin Miller’s new book, "Fooled Again", documenting the Republican theft of the 2004 presidential election.

"The non-partisan US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in response to congressional request investigated a number of complaints regarding the electronic voting machines. 

Here are some of the problems noted in the GAO’s September 2005 report:
Some voting machines did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected.
It was possible to alter the machines so that a ballot cast for one candidate would be recorded for another.
Vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level.
Access was easily compromised and did not require a widespread conspiracy. A small handful of people is sufficient to steal an election.

Curiously, the media has shown no interest in the GAO report. In my opinion, a free press has proven to be inconsistent with the recently permitted highly concentrated corporate ownership of the US media. The electronic voting machines leave virtually no paper trail and their use involves private potentially partisan corporations tabulating the votes with proprietary software that is not transparent."

Full article at LewRockwell.com.

2005

22 December BOLIVIA ELECTS RADICAL PRESIDENT

"Morales 'certain of Bolivia win' - Bolivian socialist leader Evo Morales has won enough votes in the country's presidential election to be installed as leader, electoral officials say......Mr. Morales' win has raised eyebrows in the US, after he expressed his admiration for the Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He has also pledged to fight to remove the coca plant from the United Nations list of poisonous plants, and stressed his keenness to increase state control over Bolivia's lucrative natural gas industry."

Full Article at BBC News.

19 December  ‘EU AND US FAIL WORLD’S POOR AT WTO SUMMIT’ - MEP

THE European Union has betrayed the world’s poor by failing to make serious progress towards the promised ‘development round’ at the World Trade Organisation’s ministerial summit in Hong Kong, according to a member of the European Parliament’s official delegation to the talks.

Green Party MEP (Member of European Parliament) Caroline Lucas said the summit had prioritised opening markets – especially in services – to international competition and failed to put development at its heart. Developing countries were placed under enormous pressure by the EU and US to accept more and freer trade but without ending the export subsidies responsible for keeping millions of the world’s poor in abject poverty.

She said: “The deal emerging from the WTO talks falls well short of even the most pessimistic interpretations of what’s needed for a ‘development round’. The EU and US had promised to deliver a package of world trade rules which would benefit the developed world: but the best they seem to have managed is a non-binding commitment to end farm export subsidies in almost a decade’s time – too late for millions of the world’s poor – and a so-called ‘development package’ based on little more than empty promises and previous commitments.

“The world’s poorest have been denied a deal which delivers on development – and the rich North should be ashamed of itself for prioritising forcing open developing nations’ service sectors against their will over keeping the promises they made in Doha to make progress towards a ‘development round’. This behaviour is more reminiscent of the mercantilist bickering of the last century than of the 21st Century multilateralism needed to advance sustainable development and social justice.”

15 November THE US USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ - AND THEN LIED ABOUT IT

Although it was clear from internet sources many months ago that the US had used napalm, or a similar substance, in Iraq, there was no media fuss - appalling! Now it seems there is a push to give this the publicity it deserves. The US has also used white phosphorus. Article by George Monbiot at The Guardian.

2 November CLIMATE CHANGE: 10 WAYS TO SAVE THE WORLD

"Today (Nov. 1st), Tony Blair will address energy ministers from around the world on tackling climate change. But he is failing to meet his own targets, with British carbon emissions on the rise again. There are, though, measures he could adopt..."

E.g. "DECENTRALISE THE ENERGY SUPPLY SYSTEM. Do away with the vast power stations serving the national grid: think microgeneration. Give every city, every town, every village, its own power station, fitted with a combined heat and power (CHP) system, which cuts CO2." Full article at The Independent.

26 October TASK FORCE URGES £20M GRANTS FOR GREEN FUEL BOILERS

"Boilers that burn wood, straw and sewage sludge instead of coal, oil and gas could reduce Britain's carbon dioxide emissions by 3m tonnes a year, experts said yesterday. The government's biomass taskforce criticised ministers' approach to the technology and, in a new report, urged them to release up to £20m a year as grants to help schools, hospitals, local authorities and companies pay for boilers and combined heat and power plants that run on green fuels".

Full article by David Adam at The Guardian.

29 September KATRINA - ARMED DOLPHINS TRAINED BY US MILITARY MAY HAVE ESCAPED

"It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing."

Full article by Mark Townsend Houston at The Observer.

22 September 'GET OFF THE FUCKING FREEWAY': THE SINKING STATE LOOTS ITS OWN SURVIVORS

Two paramedics stranded in New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina give their account of self-organisation and abandonment in the disaster zone. Written (I think) on Sep. 12, they finally got out on Sept. 10.

They were prevented from leaving on foot over one bridge - "As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move."

They had food and water confiscated by the authorities. "This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist. There was more suffering than need be. Lives were lost that did not need to be lost."

Full article by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky at MetaMute.

13 September GREENS SAY BROWN DANGEROUSLY SHORT-SIGHTED OVER OIL PROBLEMS

The Green Party today appealed to the government to show real leadership and foresight in developing more sustainable transport systems for the twenty-first century.

Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor said: "The reality is that oil is a finite resource. As it depletes, and demand grows, it will increase in price, and that is what we are witnessing, prompted by Hurricane Katrina's effects on US supplies. Gordon Brown has said that global issues need global solutions - but these solutions must also be sustainable. With the growing industrialisation of China and India, the situation is only going to get worse. To ask that Opec increase oil production by 500,000 extra barrels a day, as he has done, is dangerously short sighted."

"A responsible government would be planning now for when oil is even more expensive and in short supply. Industry analysts predict crude oil will double from its present price within the next few years. We're seeing the upset petrol pump price rises of a few pence per litre can cause, there is a real potential for huge civil disruption when peak oil predictions come true.

"Cutting the petrol tax is not the answer to the problem. We need to dramatically reduce the oil dependency of our economy - which makes us vulnerable to periodic shocks and disruption such as this, rather than continue to massively subsidise motorists. Official statistics show that between 1987 and 2000, although petrol and oil prices had increased by 45%, and tax and insurance payments by over 40%, the total costs of motoring in real terms had risen by only 5.6-7.2%. [2] The same figures also reveal that bus and coach fares increased by 18%, and rail fares by 21%, in real terms. The Green Party believes this is patently unsustainable and irresponsible.

"Reducing the tax on bio fuels would help stimulate the industry - encouraging drivers to change the types of vehicle they buy and provide more fuel security. It would also help reduce climate change gas emissions and provide a short-term price relief. In the longer term, for the government not to take immediate decisive and positive action now is a betrayal of this and future generations. We cannot afford to wait until petrol stations run out of fuel to act, or the floods caused by global warming are at our door - because that will be too late.

"We must develop alternative and sustainable transport solutions now. This means improving public transport, taking back into public control the rail network, and encouraging the development of low-carbon emitting transport systems. This is the fourth fuel crisis in as many decades - how many do we need to suffer for the government to wake up?"

26 August FOOTBALL FANS ARE IDIOTS

"Football is pricier, more uncompetitive and less atmospheric than ever. So why do supporters still lap it up, asks a bemused Sean Ingle" at The Guardian. Good article as far as it goes, but I had hoped the title promised a more general critique of the idiocy of spending so much of your life concerned about football!

25 July IRAN SITS PRETTY IN WORLD'S HOTTEST REGION

"Despite the best efforts of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to make Iran an international pariah, the Islamic Republic keeps wracking up one diplomatic victory after another. One month after the surprise election victory of hardline President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran finds itself in a substantially stronger position to resist the U.S. campaign to isolate it as part of a strategy of "regime change." 

Last weekend's three-day visit by U.S.-backed Iraqi President Ibrahim Jaafari to Tehran, where he was warmly received by the regime's top religious and government officials, was only the latest, albeit the most spectacular, of a series of events that underlines Iran's growing leverage." 

Full article by Jim Lobe at LewRockwell.com.

24 July THE END OF OIL - CONFERENCE ON PEAK OIL, FOOD AND THE ECONOMY, LONDON, 11TH OCTOBER 2005

A major conference examining the peak oil problem & its impact on climate change, the world's food supply & the world economy. Speakers include Michael Meacher MP, Tim Lang & Andrew Simms (of NEF), chaired by Dr Ian Gibson MP. The conference is organised by East Anglia Food Link, CRed, Sustain and PowerSwitch.

"THE PROBLEM; The world’s oil supply is running out.

Most analysts agree that once we pass the half-way point in the world’s oil reserves, production will begin to drop off as the remaining reserves are more difficult to extract. Some believe that point will come in the next 12 months, others think we have 10 years or more left. But either way, we need to prepare now by reducing our dependency on this finite resource. Oil and gas supply 85% of the energy used in the UK. By comparison, nuclear supplies 4% and renewables 1%. Can nuclear be expanded by a factor of 20, or renewables by a factor of 85? Will coal fill the gap, and at what cost to global warming? Do we have enough coal left to expand its use 12 times over?

We rely on energy to produce, process and transport food. As energy becomes more expensive, will our food system revert to local production and organic methods? Can the world continue to feed itself at all without cheap energy? What steps should we be taking right now to avert future hunger?"

Full details at East Anglia Food Link.

20 July POST-SOVIET LESSONS FOR A POST-AMERICAN CENTURY

"A decade and a half ago the world went from bipolar to unipolar, because one of the poles fell apart: The S.U. is no more. The other pole – symmetrically named the U.S. – has not fallen apart – yet, but there are ominous rumblings on the horizon. The collapse of the United States seems about as unlikely now as the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed in 1985. The experience of the first collapse may be instructive to those who wish to survive the second....

...The U.S. is desperately dependent on the availability of cheap, plentiful oil and natural gas, and addicted to economic growth. Once oil and gas become expensive (as they already have) and in ever-shorter supply (a matter of one or two years at most), economic growth will stop, and the U.S. economy will collapse."  Article by Dmitry Orlov at From The Wilderness (posted 01.06.05).

19 July REFORMERS AND HARDLINERS - WHAT DO IRAN, VENEZUELA AND BELARUS HAVE IN COMMON?

Article by Neil Clarke at The Guardian. Contrasts establishment media descriptions of the leaders of these three countries as "hardliners" with the description of aggressive privatisers, e.g. the leaders of Bulgaria and Hungary, as "centrist reformers". He concludes that "It is for standing up for the interests of their own people that these three men are labelled "hardliners". For those genuinely concerned with social justice, derailing the US behemoth and creating a world in which people come before profits, the more "hardliners" - and the less "moderates" and "reformers" - that are elected to power, the better."

15 July FLUORIDE FOLLIES

"Doctors and public health officials did not think sodium fluoride, used commercially as a rat and bug poison, fungicide, and wood preservative, should be put in public water. The Journal of the American Dental Association said (in 1936), "Fluoride at the 1 ppm [part per million] concentration is as toxic as arsenic and lead… There is an increasing volume of evidence of the injurious effects of fluorine, especially the chronic intoxication resulting from the ingestion of minute amounts of fluorine over long periods of time."

Good article by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD, at LewRockwell.com on how fluoride first came to be put into public water supplies - a story involving a large aluminium company and Manhattan Project's development of the atomic bomb! Also points out the lack of reliable evidence for its benefits and safety.

13 July GLASGOW'S DIET WAS HEALTHIER IN 1405

"Glaswegians in 1405 had a better diet than the citizens of 2005, eating their "five-a-day" 600 years ahead of its time. Even their light beer was healthier than sugar-laden fizzy concoctions that are today's favourite, according to new archaeological evidence. It reveals a diet of porridge and small amounts of pork and fish made medieval mealtime more nutritious than a visit to the chippy, the pizza parlour or the ubiquitous American fast food joints." Full article at The Scotsman.

4 June WHY OUR FOOD IS SO DEPENDENT ON OIL

Article by Norman Church. Full article at From The Wilderness (posted April 2nd, 2005).

"Not only is the contemporary food system inherently unsustainable, increasingly, it is damaging the environment.

The systems that produce the world's food supply are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilisers and pesticides, and as cheap and readily available energy at all stages of food production: from planting, irrigation, feeding and harvesting, through to processing, distribution and packaging. In addition, fossil fuels are essential in the construction and the repair of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate this industry, including farm machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and roads. The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases."

"Just how energy inefficient the food system is can be seen in the crazy case of the Swedish tomato ketchup. Researchers at the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology analysed the production of tomato ketchup (2). The study considered the production of inputs to agriculture, tomato cultivation and conversion to tomato paste (in Italy), the processing and packaging of the paste and other ingredients into tomato ketchup in Sweden and the retail and storage of the final product. All this involved more than 52 transport and process stages.

The aseptic bags used to package the tomato paste were produced in the Netherlands and transported to Italy to be filled, placed in steel barrels, and then moved to Sweden. The five layered, red bottles were either produced in the UK or Sweden with materials form Japan, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Denmark. The polypropylene (PP) screw-cap of the bottle and plug, made from low density polyethylene (LDPE), was produced in Denmark and transported to Sweden. Additionally, LDPE shrink-film and corrugated cardboard were used to distribute the final product. Labels, glue and ink were not included in the analysis."

3 June U.S., RUSSIA STILL FACE MUTUAL DESTRUCTION THREAT

Interview by Martin Sieff with Helen Caldicott, an Australian physician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 and is the president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute based in Washington.

"The United States and the world came far closer to total nuclear catastrophe in 1995 than anyone seems to remember or realize, even though it was documented and reported in The New York Times. Norway launched a missile near a U.S. Trident submarine deployment. The Kremlin had been notified in advance that the missile would be fired, but just forgot the warning. The Russian radar picked up the Norwegian launch and concluded that they were under attack from a U.S. strategic nuclear missile submarine.

For the first time in history, Russian President Boris Yeltsin opened the "football," the suitcase containing the Russian nuclear launch codes, and he had three minutes to decide whether to authorize an all-out Russian nuclear response. Only 10 seconds before the three minutes ran out, the Norwegian missile veered off course and this was reported to Yeltsin. There had even been a general at his elbow urging a full retaliatory strike. America was just 10 seconds from annihilation. This story was reported on the back page of the New York Times when it should have been on the front page."

Full article at From The Wilderness (reposted from World Peace Herald 18.05.05).

6 April DRUGS, BASES AND JAILS

What has happened since the Americans invaded Afghanistan?

"The country now qualifies, according to the Human Development Index in the UN's Human Development Report 2004, as the sixth worst off country on Earth.... The power of the new, democratically elected government of Hamid Karzai extends only weakly beyond the outskirts of Kabul. Large swathes of Afghanistan are still ruled by warlords and drug lords, or in some cases undoubtedly warlord/drug lords; and while the Taliban was largely swept away, armed militias dominate much of the country as they did after the Soviet withdrawal back in 1989. In addition, a low-level guerrilla war is still being run by elements of the former Taliban regime for which, in areas of the South, there is a growing "nostalgia." Women, outside a few cities, seem hardly better off than they were under the Taliban..."

"...For our Afghan bases to make much sense, you have to consider as well, those fourteen (or so) permanent bases in Iraq, our many other Middle Eastern bases, our full-scale access to three or more Pakistani military bases, our penetration of the once off-limits former SSRs of Central Asia, including the use of an air base in Uzbekistan and the setting up of a base for up to 3,000 U.S. troops at Manas in impoverished Kyrgyzstan (where "the Tulip Revolution" has just ejected a corrupt pro-Russian regime). In fact, you have to see that from Camp Bondsteel in the former Yugoslavia to the Manas base at the edge of China, the United States now effectively garrisons most of the heartland energy regions of the planet..."

Full article by Tom Engelhardt at LewRockwell.com.

17 March DO HUMANS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING?

Although I have a generally Green leaning in politics, I have occasionally wondered if global warming might be necessary to prevent the next Ice Age. But I have not doubted that the warming is taking place, or that it is caused by greenhouse gases, and I certainly have not trusted the American business establishment and their political front-men when they have claimed that the science is dodgy. Neither have I properly researched the science.

Donald W. Miller Jr.'s article, titled "Toro! Toro! Michael Crichton", is about that film-maker and his suggestions that the science does not stand up. "Most of the rise in temperature in the 20th century occurred before 1940, before CO2 levels started rising. Temperatures fell 0.3° F from 1940 to 1970 while CO2 levels rose, from 310 to 325 ppmv.... The temperature of the planet’s upper atmosphere (which the theory of global warming predicts should warm first), as measured by satellites, beginning in 1979, and weather balloons, has remained unchanged over the last 25 years despite a rise in atmospheric CO2 levels to 370 ppmv." Full article at LewRockwell.com.

17 March COMING TO TERMS WITH CHINA

By Tom Engelhardt and Chalmers Johnson. "A piece that tries to put East Asia together, to lay out for us, in particular, the explosive nature of the U.S./Japan/China triangular relationship, which in various combinations has in the past plunged us all into bloody war." Full article at LewRockwell.com

4 March MICHAEL MEACHER ON THE UKRAINE, OIL, AND GEOPOLITICS

"Yes, our man (Yushchenko) and our system (democracy) won in Ukraine, and once again good triumphed over bad. Yet this presentation, so characteristic of the Western media, misses the point about what the struggle is really about.

If the issue was fair elections, there would have been an equal furore about the grossly rigged elections by which Ilham Aliyev assumed the presidency of Azerbaijan in 2003 from his father, a ruthless KGB hardman in the former Soviet state. In fact the West turned a blind eye, in order to maintain access to Azerbaijan’s oil supplies after a $13 billion contract had been signed with BP in 1998. Equally, there would have been uproar when the pro-Russian Shevardnadze was ousted as President of Georgia in 2003 and the West’s favoured candidate won 96 per cent of the vote to replace him. But nobody raised any complaint.....

What is really at stake is something quite different, almost entirely unmentioned in the Western media. It is rather more prosaic than a ‘people power’ revolution. It is primarily a battle over oil transit routes from the second largest remaining oil deposits in the world, and, more long term, a US attempt to pre-empt Chinese designs on the key strategic space round the southern rim of the old Soviet Union."

Full article by Labour ex-cabinet minister Michael Meacher at LewRockwell.com (reposted from The Spectator).

3 March THE DANGEROUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE HARIRI ASSASSINATION AND THE US RESPONSE

"While Syria remains the primary suspect, no evidence has been presented to support the charge. Damascus has publicly condemned the killings and denied responsibility. Syria's regime, while certainly ruthless enough to do such a thing, is usually not so brazen. They would have little to gain from uniting the Lebanese opposition against them or for provoking the United States and other Western nations to further isolate their government."

"...One major problem is that most charges against the Syrian government by the Bush administration and the Congressional leadership of both parties are rife with hyperbole and double standards.

For example, the United States has demanded that Syria eliminate its long-range and medium-range missiles, while not insisting that pro-Western neighbors like Turkey and Israel – with far more numerous and sophisticated missiles on their territory – similarly disarm. The United States has also insisted that Syria unilaterally eliminate its chemical weapons stockpiles, while not making similar demands on U.S. allies Israel and Egypt – which have far larger chemical weapons stockpiles – to do the same. The United States has demanded an end to political repression and for free and fair elections in Syria while not making similar demands of even more repressive and autocratic regimes in allied countries like Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan."

Full article by Stephen Zunes at LewRockwell.com.

1 March NORTH KOREA IN WINTER

"If you go back to its Nuclear Posture Review of 2001 and its National Security Strategy of 2002, the Bush administration was then keen to posit an American-dominated globe until the end of time. According to those documents, such domination would involve allowing neither potential military rivals, nor rival military blocs, nor "rogue" regional powers armed with nuclear weapons to arise. In the case of the regional rogue states, the new American military stance was to be based on a willingness to launch "preventive" rather than "preemptive" wars – wars, that is, not just against powers believed to be on the verge of attacking the United States, but ones preparing for or simply striving to achieve the potential to do so (even regionally)."

Two detailed articles at LewRockwell.com by Tom Engelhardt and Gavan McCormack on the recent background to US attitudes to North Korea, and the possibility that North Korea has developed nuclear weapons. Looks at the situation from the point of view of the other regional players, including South Korea, China and Japan.

Page updated 24.05.08

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