Orange drinks with 300 times more pesticide than tap water
By Sean Poulter
Last updated at 12:53 AM on 05th January 2009
* Comments (59)
* Add to My Stories
Fizzy drinks sold by Coca-Cola in Britain have been found to contain pesticides at up to 300 times the level allowed in tap or bottled water.
A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, were at their highest in the UK.
The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market.
The industry denies children are at risk and insists that the levels found by researchers based at the University of Jaen in southern Spain are not harmful.
Fanta
The study uncovered pesticides in some fizzy drinks at up to 300 times the level permitted in tap water
The researchers tested 102 cans and bottles of soft drinks, bought from 15 countries, for the presence of 100 pesticides. The UK products were bought in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and at Gatwick Airport.
The experts said the levels found were low under the maximum residue levels allowed for fruit, but they were 'very high' and 'up to 300 times' the figure permitted for bottled or tap water.
The chemicals detected included carbendazim, thiabendazole, imazalil, prochloraz, malathion and iprodione. They are mainly applied to fruit after harvest to stop it developing fungal infections and rotting.
A total of 19 products were bought in the UK, all made by Coca-Cola.
Two orange drinks bought in the UK contained imazalil at 300 times the limit permitted for a single pesticide in drinking water.
Two similar products contained 98 times the legal drinking water limit for thiabendazole.
The average level of the total pesticide contamination of the British drinks was 17.4 parts per billion - 34.6 times the EU maximum residue level for water.
Coca-Cola GB insisted the products are safe. A spokesman said: 'All of the drinks tested meet the safety regulations relating to food products made from agricultural ingredients, which include drinks with fruit juice as an ingredient.
'The generally miniscule levels that were detected were well within the acceptable daily intake levels and these findings should reassure consumers there is no safety issue here.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1105179/Orange-drinks-300-times-pesticide-tap-water.html#ixzz0dfCXimMJ
Monday, January 25, 2010
Low Vitamin D Levels Linked To Proliferation of H1N1
Prevent Disease
November 16, 2009
According to a recent study, as many as 77 percent of all Americans may be deficient in the vitamin essential for bone health and which may prevent H1N1 (Swine Flu) and seasonal flu, wheezing, winter-related eczema, upper respiratory infections and may help prevent cancer, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, certain infectious diseases, myocardial infarctions – heart attacks – and many other serious diseases.
When subgroups of the population are considered, depending on which of the many reasonable definitions of deficiency are accepted, the picture is even more ominous. For example, an important new study from Children’s Hospital in Boston found that as many as 80 percent of Hispanic children and 92 percent of black children, what the study calls non-Hispanic black children, may also be deficient in this vitamin.
We’re talking about vitamin D, also called the sunshine vitamin and often considered the nutrient of the year, if not the decade. Its power as a determinant of human health can be captured by what happens when someone is D deficient. They are at risk for what is called rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.
In its most extreme form, the bones soften and almost melt, making them so fragile that the simple act of walking up steps may cause bones to fracture and slight movement may cause excruciating pain. In its most severe form, a blood test for vitamin D may show zero. Dr. Fred Kaplan, an eminent orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, whose patient had zero D, said this is rare even in Third World countries.
Why, in the land of plenty and, now, also in the land of over-consumption, overweight and obesity, can there be an epidemic of a vitamin D deficiency or any other nutrient? The reasons may not be fully understood, but the picture is still clear: Over time, we have obtained most of our vitamin D from the sun. When ultraviolet B rays hit the skin they cause the formation of vitamin D. But, in an age of sunscreens and well-placed fear of skin cancer, we tend to either stay out of the sun or use a sunscreen to shield us from its rays, including the ultraviolet B ray.
Even if you stayed in the sun all day in some locations, you would not get enough vitamin D. For example, north of Philadelphia, between November and March, the suns rays are not strong enough to precipitate the formation of vitamin D. And, during early morning and late afternoon, the sun’s rays are not strong enough to generate vitamin D. That’s a big part of the picture, as authorities find that exposure to the sun is the main determinant of vitamin D in humans. This leads us to the next source of vitamin D — our food. Some dairy products, such as milk, are fortified with vitamin D, but we tend to avoid dairy products due to their cholesterol and saturated fat content. Other sources are fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, and herring. Still other sources are fortified cereal and other foods such as orange juice, now, often fortified both with vitamin D and calcium. But, most people don’t eat enough of these foods to get enough vitamin D. So, that leaves supplementation with multi-vitamins that include D, combination calcium and vitamin D pills, or vitamin D stand-alones.
There may be another reason for the epidemic – the epidemic of the overweight and obese, who cannot process vitamin D efficiently and are, consequently, more likely to be vitamin D deficient. One final reason for identifying the epidemic is better testing methods for vitamin D. There is a simple blood test now used to determine vitamin D status.
Still another reason for the D epidemic is the aging of the population, as older people — even the middle-aged — are more likely to have D deficiency.
There are other risk factors for a D deficiency, but they probably don’t play a big role in the growing number of people with that deficiency. Consumer Reports catalogued the following risk factors: “Being dark-skinned, middle-aged, or overweight; having a history of gastric-bypass surgery or a condition that interferes with the ability to absorb nutrients from food, such as celiac disease; having a history of kidney or liver disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, or thyroid problems; taking medications that reduce blood levels of vitamin D, such as cholestyralmine (Questran and generic), colestripel (Colestid and generic), certain anticonvulsants; or orlistat (Alli, Xenical)” (Consumer Reports on Health, Nov. 2009).
This epidemic of vitamin D deficiency recently came into focus with the publication of an important study led by Dr. Jonathan Mansbach at Children’s Hospital In Boston. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics. The study looked at vitamin D levels of 5,000 children and, extrapolating to the entire U.S. population of children, found that millions were receiving what the study called suboptimal levels of D. As noted above, depending on the definition of deficiency or suboptimal levels, the study found 80 percent of Hispanics and 92 percent of black children were at the suboptimal levels. Others have previously documented widespread vitamin D deficiency in children. For example, Dr. Babette Zemel, a vitamin D expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), who is Director of the Nutrition and Growth Laboratory of that hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Penn’s medical school, found that 55 percent of children she studied were vitamin D deficient, in a study published in 2007.
The Mansbach study notes that we’re far from knowing everything we should about how to bring children and adults up to optimal levels, how to avoid any long-run adverse consequences and exactly what level of vitamin D is optimal.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
* efoods
It does recommend, in view of its findings, that children take vitamin D supplements because of the clear health benefits from doing so. The study doesn’t make specific recommendations, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children with inadequate sun exposure get a daily intake of at least 400 International Units of vitamin D — vitamin D3 is now recommended as it is better absorbed than D2. The adult recommendations, according to a report in The American Family Physician, as cataloged by www.medscape.com, are as follows:
• In older adults, vitamin D supplementation of 700 to 800 IU per day is associated with a lower risk for falls … and fractures.
• To prevent vitamin D deficiency, adults with inadequate sun exposure should have a vitamin D intake of 400 to 600 IU per day.
• Adults with vitamin D deficiency, except for those with malabsorption syndromes, should receive maintenance dosages of 800 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day.
Dr. Zemel recommends that most adults take vitamin D supplementation of between 1,000 and 2,000 IU of vitamin D, which seems to make the most sense in view of the evidence that I’ve reviewed. Of course, you may want to run this issue past your doctor at your next visit. She said there is some variability in the response to vitamin D so, some may reach optimal levels with 1,000 IU, while others may require more. In severe deficiency cases, more aggressive supplementation may be called for, such as 500,000 IU by injection.
The Medscape report also notes that excessive amounts of vitamin D can be toxic. It states, “Because vitamin D is fat soluble and can be stored in fat, there are concerns regarding toxicity from excessive supplementation. Signs and symptoms of vitamin D toxicity may include headache, metallic taste, nephrocalcinosis or vascular calcinosis, pancreatitis, nausea, and vomiting.” There is a study indicating toxicity is reached at 10,000 I.U. daily. Dr. Zemel told me vitamin D toxicity is extraordinarily rare.
You can be sure there will be continuing and extensive studies of vitamin D to answer many questions. Dr. Mansbach says, “We need to perform randomized controlled trials to understand if vitamin D actually improves these wide-ranging health outcomes. At present, however, there are a lot of studies demonstrating associations between low levels of vitamin D and poor health. Therefore, we believe many U.S. children would likely benefit from more vitamin D.”
Although evidence is not clear on how to prevent H1N1 flu, the suggestions for prevention include taking vitamin D supplements, especially in the winter. In a report in the Examiner.com, five simple steps are recommended to prevent H1N1:
• Get enough vitamin D.
• Use proper hygiene — for example, frequent hand washing, cough into your elbow instead of your hands and avoid contact with public surfaces with your hands whenever possible.
• Adequately rinse the nose and throat.
• Get enough sleep.
• Consume plenty of garlic and other antiviral herbs.
Dr. Zemel believes it is too early to make hard and fast conclusions on the vitamin D/H1N1 connection. Dr. Charlene Compher, an expert on diet and health at Penn, agrees it is too early to draw conclusions on H1N1. But, Dr. Zemel and others note that vitamin D does strengthen the immune response and, therefore, may be useful in preventing H1N1.
Dr. James E. Dowd, a professor of medicine at Michigan State University and Diane Stafford stated, in their book The Vitamin D Cure, about the flu/vitamin D connection, “More respiratory infections during the winter are probably directly related to lower vitamin D production.” They note several factors contribute to the winter infection scenario. In the winter, there aren’t as much ultraviolet B rays, which inactivate many viruses. With less ultraviolet B getting through, humans produce less vitamin D of their own. Finally, vitamin D is important to mobilize the immune system response to infections. As a result of all this, respiratory infections start to rise in late September and peak in February. So, Dr. Dowd’s final advice is to forget the chicken soup with too many noodles, too much salt, and too little chicken and take vitamin D instead. My final advice is to get chicken soup that doesn’t have too much salt, too many noodles, and too little chicken and get someone who can make unsalted chicken soup, with the noodles and chicken you want and, then, take your vitamin D.
Dr. Bruce Kinosian, a geriatrician at Penn and an expert on diet and health, did sound a cautionary note, that vitamins thought to be a magical cure-all often turn out to have quite the opposite effect. He cites a long list of such vitamins of the year, which later fizzled. The most prominent case involved vitamin E, which, in excessive doses, was found to cause lung cancer in a segment of the population.
Perhaps the most fundamental preventive approach was recently recommended by Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Health Research Group. He said take the most powerful and effective drug — a healthy lifestyle. This is the same prescription written over 800 years ago by the eminent Jewish physician and philosopher Maimonides, who said most of us die as a result of our lifestyle. Sometimes ancient wisdom is more powerful than modern technology.
I can’t resist one more observation on Maimonides. He was born In Cordoba, Spain in 1135. But Cordoba was soon taken over by a Muslim sect that demanded all infidels convert to Islam. So the family had to emigrate. He ended up in Cairo, where he practiced medicine. Of course, I doubt, if he were alive today, even the greatest physician of his time would not be allowed to practice medicine there. Does this piece of history suggest, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and does it also after a sad commentary on the state of human progress?
Prevent Disease
November 16, 2009
According to a recent study, as many as 77 percent of all Americans may be deficient in the vitamin essential for bone health and which may prevent H1N1 (Swine Flu) and seasonal flu, wheezing, winter-related eczema, upper respiratory infections and may help prevent cancer, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, certain infectious diseases, myocardial infarctions – heart attacks – and many other serious diseases.
When subgroups of the population are considered, depending on which of the many reasonable definitions of deficiency are accepted, the picture is even more ominous. For example, an important new study from Children’s Hospital in Boston found that as many as 80 percent of Hispanic children and 92 percent of black children, what the study calls non-Hispanic black children, may also be deficient in this vitamin.
We’re talking about vitamin D, also called the sunshine vitamin and often considered the nutrient of the year, if not the decade. Its power as a determinant of human health can be captured by what happens when someone is D deficient. They are at risk for what is called rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.
In its most extreme form, the bones soften and almost melt, making them so fragile that the simple act of walking up steps may cause bones to fracture and slight movement may cause excruciating pain. In its most severe form, a blood test for vitamin D may show zero. Dr. Fred Kaplan, an eminent orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, whose patient had zero D, said this is rare even in Third World countries.
Why, in the land of plenty and, now, also in the land of over-consumption, overweight and obesity, can there be an epidemic of a vitamin D deficiency or any other nutrient? The reasons may not be fully understood, but the picture is still clear: Over time, we have obtained most of our vitamin D from the sun. When ultraviolet B rays hit the skin they cause the formation of vitamin D. But, in an age of sunscreens and well-placed fear of skin cancer, we tend to either stay out of the sun or use a sunscreen to shield us from its rays, including the ultraviolet B ray.
Even if you stayed in the sun all day in some locations, you would not get enough vitamin D. For example, north of Philadelphia, between November and March, the suns rays are not strong enough to precipitate the formation of vitamin D. And, during early morning and late afternoon, the sun’s rays are not strong enough to generate vitamin D. That’s a big part of the picture, as authorities find that exposure to the sun is the main determinant of vitamin D in humans. This leads us to the next source of vitamin D — our food. Some dairy products, such as milk, are fortified with vitamin D, but we tend to avoid dairy products due to their cholesterol and saturated fat content. Other sources are fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, and herring. Still other sources are fortified cereal and other foods such as orange juice, now, often fortified both with vitamin D and calcium. But, most people don’t eat enough of these foods to get enough vitamin D. So, that leaves supplementation with multi-vitamins that include D, combination calcium and vitamin D pills, or vitamin D stand-alones.
There may be another reason for the epidemic – the epidemic of the overweight and obese, who cannot process vitamin D efficiently and are, consequently, more likely to be vitamin D deficient. One final reason for identifying the epidemic is better testing methods for vitamin D. There is a simple blood test now used to determine vitamin D status.
Still another reason for the D epidemic is the aging of the population, as older people — even the middle-aged — are more likely to have D deficiency.
There are other risk factors for a D deficiency, but they probably don’t play a big role in the growing number of people with that deficiency. Consumer Reports catalogued the following risk factors: “Being dark-skinned, middle-aged, or overweight; having a history of gastric-bypass surgery or a condition that interferes with the ability to absorb nutrients from food, such as celiac disease; having a history of kidney or liver disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, or thyroid problems; taking medications that reduce blood levels of vitamin D, such as cholestyralmine (Questran and generic), colestripel (Colestid and generic), certain anticonvulsants; or orlistat (Alli, Xenical)” (Consumer Reports on Health, Nov. 2009).
This epidemic of vitamin D deficiency recently came into focus with the publication of an important study led by Dr. Jonathan Mansbach at Children’s Hospital In Boston. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics. The study looked at vitamin D levels of 5,000 children and, extrapolating to the entire U.S. population of children, found that millions were receiving what the study called suboptimal levels of D. As noted above, depending on the definition of deficiency or suboptimal levels, the study found 80 percent of Hispanics and 92 percent of black children were at the suboptimal levels. Others have previously documented widespread vitamin D deficiency in children. For example, Dr. Babette Zemel, a vitamin D expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), who is Director of the Nutrition and Growth Laboratory of that hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Penn’s medical school, found that 55 percent of children she studied were vitamin D deficient, in a study published in 2007.
The Mansbach study notes that we’re far from knowing everything we should about how to bring children and adults up to optimal levels, how to avoid any long-run adverse consequences and exactly what level of vitamin D is optimal.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
* efoods
It does recommend, in view of its findings, that children take vitamin D supplements because of the clear health benefits from doing so. The study doesn’t make specific recommendations, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children with inadequate sun exposure get a daily intake of at least 400 International Units of vitamin D — vitamin D3 is now recommended as it is better absorbed than D2. The adult recommendations, according to a report in The American Family Physician, as cataloged by www.medscape.com, are as follows:
• In older adults, vitamin D supplementation of 700 to 800 IU per day is associated with a lower risk for falls … and fractures.
• To prevent vitamin D deficiency, adults with inadequate sun exposure should have a vitamin D intake of 400 to 600 IU per day.
• Adults with vitamin D deficiency, except for those with malabsorption syndromes, should receive maintenance dosages of 800 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day.
Dr. Zemel recommends that most adults take vitamin D supplementation of between 1,000 and 2,000 IU of vitamin D, which seems to make the most sense in view of the evidence that I’ve reviewed. Of course, you may want to run this issue past your doctor at your next visit. She said there is some variability in the response to vitamin D so, some may reach optimal levels with 1,000 IU, while others may require more. In severe deficiency cases, more aggressive supplementation may be called for, such as 500,000 IU by injection.
The Medscape report also notes that excessive amounts of vitamin D can be toxic. It states, “Because vitamin D is fat soluble and can be stored in fat, there are concerns regarding toxicity from excessive supplementation. Signs and symptoms of vitamin D toxicity may include headache, metallic taste, nephrocalcinosis or vascular calcinosis, pancreatitis, nausea, and vomiting.” There is a study indicating toxicity is reached at 10,000 I.U. daily. Dr. Zemel told me vitamin D toxicity is extraordinarily rare.
You can be sure there will be continuing and extensive studies of vitamin D to answer many questions. Dr. Mansbach says, “We need to perform randomized controlled trials to understand if vitamin D actually improves these wide-ranging health outcomes. At present, however, there are a lot of studies demonstrating associations between low levels of vitamin D and poor health. Therefore, we believe many U.S. children would likely benefit from more vitamin D.”
Although evidence is not clear on how to prevent H1N1 flu, the suggestions for prevention include taking vitamin D supplements, especially in the winter. In a report in the Examiner.com, five simple steps are recommended to prevent H1N1:
• Get enough vitamin D.
• Use proper hygiene — for example, frequent hand washing, cough into your elbow instead of your hands and avoid contact with public surfaces with your hands whenever possible.
• Adequately rinse the nose and throat.
• Get enough sleep.
• Consume plenty of garlic and other antiviral herbs.
Dr. Zemel believes it is too early to make hard and fast conclusions on the vitamin D/H1N1 connection. Dr. Charlene Compher, an expert on diet and health at Penn, agrees it is too early to draw conclusions on H1N1. But, Dr. Zemel and others note that vitamin D does strengthen the immune response and, therefore, may be useful in preventing H1N1.
Dr. James E. Dowd, a professor of medicine at Michigan State University and Diane Stafford stated, in their book The Vitamin D Cure, about the flu/vitamin D connection, “More respiratory infections during the winter are probably directly related to lower vitamin D production.” They note several factors contribute to the winter infection scenario. In the winter, there aren’t as much ultraviolet B rays, which inactivate many viruses. With less ultraviolet B getting through, humans produce less vitamin D of their own. Finally, vitamin D is important to mobilize the immune system response to infections. As a result of all this, respiratory infections start to rise in late September and peak in February. So, Dr. Dowd’s final advice is to forget the chicken soup with too many noodles, too much salt, and too little chicken and take vitamin D instead. My final advice is to get chicken soup that doesn’t have too much salt, too many noodles, and too little chicken and get someone who can make unsalted chicken soup, with the noodles and chicken you want and, then, take your vitamin D.
Dr. Bruce Kinosian, a geriatrician at Penn and an expert on diet and health, did sound a cautionary note, that vitamins thought to be a magical cure-all often turn out to have quite the opposite effect. He cites a long list of such vitamins of the year, which later fizzled. The most prominent case involved vitamin E, which, in excessive doses, was found to cause lung cancer in a segment of the population.
Perhaps the most fundamental preventive approach was recently recommended by Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Health Research Group. He said take the most powerful and effective drug — a healthy lifestyle. This is the same prescription written over 800 years ago by the eminent Jewish physician and philosopher Maimonides, who said most of us die as a result of our lifestyle. Sometimes ancient wisdom is more powerful than modern technology.
I can’t resist one more observation on Maimonides. He was born In Cordoba, Spain in 1135. But Cordoba was soon taken over by a Muslim sect that demanded all infidels convert to Islam. So the family had to emigrate. He ended up in Cairo, where he practiced medicine. Of course, I doubt, if he were alive today, even the greatest physician of his time would not be allowed to practice medicine there. Does this piece of history suggest, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and does it also after a sad commentary on the state of human progress?
'Cancer link' to heavy mobile use Mobile phone user
'Cancer link' to heavy mobile use
Mobile phone user
The majority of studies have not found an increased cancer risk
Heavy mobile phone use may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the salivary gland, a study suggests.
Researchers looked at 500 Israelis who had developed the condition and compared their mobile phone usage with 1,300 healthy controls.
Those who had used the phone against one side of the head for several hours a day were 50% more likely to have developed a salivary gland tumour.
The research appeared in The American Journal of Epidemiology.
Numerous studies have focused on the risk of tumours among those who use mobile phones, and overwhelmingly found no increased cancer risk.
But researchers at Tel Aviv University say these have tended to focus on brain tumours, and often did not include long-term users.
Cancer of the salivary gland is a very rare condition. Of the 230,000 cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK for instance annually, only 550 relate to this area.
Mixed messages
Dr Siegal Sadetzki, who led the research, said while mobile phone use in Israel was much heavier than in many other parts of the world, this gave an insight into what the long-term, cumulative impact could be.
Precautions should be taken in order to diminish the exposure and lower the risk for health hazards
Dr Siegal Sadetzki
Tel Aviv University
"Compared to other studies, the amount of exposure to radiofrequency radiation we saw here was much higher. If you like, you're seeing what could happen elsewhere 'speeded-up' in Israel," she said.
One of the key findings of the study was that heavy users in rural areas had an even higher risk that those in cities, due, the team suggested, to the fact that mobile phones in areas without strong signals need to emit more radiation to work properly.
But Dr Sadetzki stressed one study was not enough to prove a link, and that further research was needed.
Nonetheless, until more evidence became available, a "precautionary" approach was best, she said, particularly when it comes to children's use of mobile phones.
Despite these latest findings, the largest and longest-running investigation ever to be carried out into mobile phone usage found no increased risk of any sort of cancer.
It followed 420,000 people in Denmark, some of whom had been using a mobile phone for as long as ten years.
There was in fact a lower incidence of cancer than expected in a group of that size, suggesting mobile phones had no impact on the development of tumours.
Last year, the UK's Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme said that while the evidence so far was "reassuring", there was still a need for studies to examine the very long-term impact, and to look at the effect in children.
Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK, said: "Mobile phones are a relatively recent invention and new research into any possible health risks is welcome.
"However, it's important to remember that the vast majority of studies so far have found that mobile phones do not increase the risk of any type of cancer."
Mobile phone user
The majority of studies have not found an increased cancer risk
Heavy mobile phone use may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the salivary gland, a study suggests.
Researchers looked at 500 Israelis who had developed the condition and compared their mobile phone usage with 1,300 healthy controls.
Those who had used the phone against one side of the head for several hours a day were 50% more likely to have developed a salivary gland tumour.
The research appeared in The American Journal of Epidemiology.
Numerous studies have focused on the risk of tumours among those who use mobile phones, and overwhelmingly found no increased cancer risk.
But researchers at Tel Aviv University say these have tended to focus on brain tumours, and often did not include long-term users.
Cancer of the salivary gland is a very rare condition. Of the 230,000 cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK for instance annually, only 550 relate to this area.
Mixed messages
Dr Siegal Sadetzki, who led the research, said while mobile phone use in Israel was much heavier than in many other parts of the world, this gave an insight into what the long-term, cumulative impact could be.
Precautions should be taken in order to diminish the exposure and lower the risk for health hazards
Dr Siegal Sadetzki
Tel Aviv University
"Compared to other studies, the amount of exposure to radiofrequency radiation we saw here was much higher. If you like, you're seeing what could happen elsewhere 'speeded-up' in Israel," she said.
One of the key findings of the study was that heavy users in rural areas had an even higher risk that those in cities, due, the team suggested, to the fact that mobile phones in areas without strong signals need to emit more radiation to work properly.
But Dr Sadetzki stressed one study was not enough to prove a link, and that further research was needed.
Nonetheless, until more evidence became available, a "precautionary" approach was best, she said, particularly when it comes to children's use of mobile phones.
Despite these latest findings, the largest and longest-running investigation ever to be carried out into mobile phone usage found no increased risk of any sort of cancer.
It followed 420,000 people in Denmark, some of whom had been using a mobile phone for as long as ten years.
There was in fact a lower incidence of cancer than expected in a group of that size, suggesting mobile phones had no impact on the development of tumours.
Last year, the UK's Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme said that while the evidence so far was "reassuring", there was still a need for studies to examine the very long-term impact, and to look at the effect in children.
Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK, said: "Mobile phones are a relatively recent invention and new research into any possible health risks is welcome.
"However, it's important to remember that the vast majority of studies so far have found that mobile phones do not increase the risk of any type of cancer."
MSG Linked to Obesity
MSG Linked to Obesity
EurekaAlert
August 24, 2008
CHAPEL HILL – People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don’t use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published this month in the journal Obesity.
Researchers at UNC and in China studied more than 750 Chinese men and women, aged between 40 and 59, in three rural villages in north and south China. The majority of study participants prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods. About 82 percent of the participants used MSG in their food. Those users were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG they used. The third who used the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users.
“Animal studies have indicated for years that MSG might be associated with weight gain,” said Ka He, M.D., assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the UNC School of Public Health. “Ours is the first study to show a link between MSG use and weight in humans.”
Because MSG is used as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods, studying its potential effect on humans has been difficult. He and his colleagues chose study participants living in rural Chinese villages because they used very little commercially processed food, but many regularly used MSG in food preparation.
science technology MSG Linked to Obesity
science technology MSG Linked to Obesity
science technology MSG Linked to Obesity
“We found that prevalence of overweight was significantly higher in MSG users than in non-users,” He said. “We saw this risk even when we controlled for physical activity, total calorie intake and other possible explanations for the difference in body mass. The positive associations between MSG intake and overweight were consistent with data from animal studies.”
As the percentage of overweight and obese people around the world continues to increase, He said, finding clues to the cause could be very important.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other health organizations around the world have concluded that MSG is safe,” He said, “but the question remains – is it healthy?”
EurekaAlert
August 24, 2008
CHAPEL HILL – People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don’t use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published this month in the journal Obesity.
Researchers at UNC and in China studied more than 750 Chinese men and women, aged between 40 and 59, in three rural villages in north and south China. The majority of study participants prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods. About 82 percent of the participants used MSG in their food. Those users were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG they used. The third who used the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users.
“Animal studies have indicated for years that MSG might be associated with weight gain,” said Ka He, M.D., assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the UNC School of Public Health. “Ours is the first study to show a link between MSG use and weight in humans.”
Because MSG is used as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods, studying its potential effect on humans has been difficult. He and his colleagues chose study participants living in rural Chinese villages because they used very little commercially processed food, but many regularly used MSG in food preparation.
science technology MSG Linked to Obesity
science technology MSG Linked to Obesity
science technology MSG Linked to Obesity
“We found that prevalence of overweight was significantly higher in MSG users than in non-users,” He said. “We saw this risk even when we controlled for physical activity, total calorie intake and other possible explanations for the difference in body mass. The positive associations between MSG intake and overweight were consistent with data from animal studies.”
As the percentage of overweight and obese people around the world continues to increase, He said, finding clues to the cause could be very important.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other health organizations around the world have concluded that MSG is safe,” He said, “but the question remains – is it healthy?”
High-fructose diets impair memory
High-fructose diets impair memory
Press TV
July 20, 2009
Adopting a diet rich in fructose, a form of sugar commonly found in processed foods and beverages, may result in impaired spatial memory.
Previous studies had reported various health problems such as insulin insensitivity, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease following the use fructose, the sweetener commonly found in table sugar, fruit juice concentrates and high fructose corn syrup.
According to a study conducted in Georgia State University, high fructose intake can also impair memory in consumers. It, however, does not influence an individual’s ability to learn.
Unlike glucose, high levels of triglycerides are produced during the digestion process of fructose within the liver.
This fat can subsequently interfere with the insulin signaling mechanism of the brain, affecting not only the survival of brain cells but also their ability to change based on new experiences.
Scientists concluded that the high content of fructose can impair memory.
Press TV
July 20, 2009
Adopting a diet rich in fructose, a form of sugar commonly found in processed foods and beverages, may result in impaired spatial memory.
Previous studies had reported various health problems such as insulin insensitivity, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease following the use fructose, the sweetener commonly found in table sugar, fruit juice concentrates and high fructose corn syrup.
According to a study conducted in Georgia State University, high fructose intake can also impair memory in consumers. It, however, does not influence an individual’s ability to learn.
Unlike glucose, high levels of triglycerides are produced during the digestion process of fructose within the liver.
This fat can subsequently interfere with the insulin signaling mechanism of the brain, affecting not only the survival of brain cells but also their ability to change based on new experiences.
Scientists concluded that the high content of fructose can impair memory.
Fructose-Sweetened Beverages Linked to Heart Risks
Fructose-Sweetened Beverages Linked to Heart Risks
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: April 22, 2009
Some research has suggested that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, used as a sweetener in a wide variety of foods, may increase the risk of obesity and heart disease. Now, a controlled and randomized study has found that drinks sweetened with fructose led to higher blood levels of L.D.L, or "bad" cholesterol, and triglycerides in overweight test subjects, while drinks sweetened with another sugar, glucose, did not. Both L.D.L. and triglycerides have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans (The Journal of Clinical Investigation)
The study was published online on Monday in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, assigned 32 overweight men and women, whose average age was 55, to groups consuming either fructose-sweetened or glucose-sweetened drinks over a 10-week period. The drinks, specially formulated for the study, contained only pure fructose or pure glucose.
For the first two weeks, the volunteers lived in a clinical research center, consuming a balanced diet high in complex carbohydrates and undergoing various blood tests and measurements of body fat. This phase established baseline measurements for the study.
As outpatients for the next two weeks, the subjects ate their usual diets, plus either fructose- or glucose-sweetened drinks consisting of 25 percent of their energy requirements. After returning to the center for more tests, the participants spent six more weeks as outpatients on their usual diets, then finally two more weeks in the clinic on the high-carbohydrate diet while drinking the sweetened beverages.
While outside the hospital, the subjects’ diets were tracked with daily phone calls, and compliance with consumption of the drinks was measured by urine tests.
The two groups had been matched for age, weight, fasting triglyceride levels, insulin concentrations, total cholesterol and other factors. But by the end of the study, the researchers found, those participants consuming fructose beverages had significantly increased blood levels of triglycerides and L.D.L., compared to those consuming drinks sweetened with glucose.
Although there was a similar moderate weight gain in both groups, the fructose drinkers also had larger increases in fat inside the abdomen, also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
The study was intended only to learn more about the metabolic impacts of glucose and fructose consumption, the authors noted, not the health effects of high-fructose corn syrup, which is a mixture of fructose and glucose. Table sugar also contains both glucose and fructose, as do many fruits and some vegetables.
Dr. Peter J. Havel, the senior author and a nutrition professor at the University of California, Davis, said that the findings “do not imply that anyone should avoid fruit, which contains only small amounts of fructose and has other important nutritional benefits.”
John S. White, a biochemist who has published widely on nutritive sweeteners and was not involved in this study, said that the experimental setup did not reproduce a real-life diet. The study did not test high-fructose corn syrup, he said, and judgments should not be made about it from the findings.
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: April 22, 2009
Some research has suggested that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, used as a sweetener in a wide variety of foods, may increase the risk of obesity and heart disease. Now, a controlled and randomized study has found that drinks sweetened with fructose led to higher blood levels of L.D.L, or "bad" cholesterol, and triglycerides in overweight test subjects, while drinks sweetened with another sugar, glucose, did not. Both L.D.L. and triglycerides have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans (The Journal of Clinical Investigation)
The study was published online on Monday in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, assigned 32 overweight men and women, whose average age was 55, to groups consuming either fructose-sweetened or glucose-sweetened drinks over a 10-week period. The drinks, specially formulated for the study, contained only pure fructose or pure glucose.
For the first two weeks, the volunteers lived in a clinical research center, consuming a balanced diet high in complex carbohydrates and undergoing various blood tests and measurements of body fat. This phase established baseline measurements for the study.
As outpatients for the next two weeks, the subjects ate their usual diets, plus either fructose- or glucose-sweetened drinks consisting of 25 percent of their energy requirements. After returning to the center for more tests, the participants spent six more weeks as outpatients on their usual diets, then finally two more weeks in the clinic on the high-carbohydrate diet while drinking the sweetened beverages.
While outside the hospital, the subjects’ diets were tracked with daily phone calls, and compliance with consumption of the drinks was measured by urine tests.
The two groups had been matched for age, weight, fasting triglyceride levels, insulin concentrations, total cholesterol and other factors. But by the end of the study, the researchers found, those participants consuming fructose beverages had significantly increased blood levels of triglycerides and L.D.L., compared to those consuming drinks sweetened with glucose.
Although there was a similar moderate weight gain in both groups, the fructose drinkers also had larger increases in fat inside the abdomen, also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
The study was intended only to learn more about the metabolic impacts of glucose and fructose consumption, the authors noted, not the health effects of high-fructose corn syrup, which is a mixture of fructose and glucose. Table sugar also contains both glucose and fructose, as do many fruits and some vegetables.
Dr. Peter J. Havel, the senior author and a nutrition professor at the University of California, Davis, said that the findings “do not imply that anyone should avoid fruit, which contains only small amounts of fructose and has other important nutritional benefits.”
John S. White, a biochemist who has published widely on nutritive sweeteners and was not involved in this study, said that the experimental setup did not reproduce a real-life diet. The study did not test high-fructose corn syrup, he said, and judgments should not be made about it from the findings.
Iraq littered with high levels of nuclear and dioxin contamination, study finds
• Greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites
• Depleted uranium among poisons revealed in report
Pollution caused by the bombing of oil pipelines and the type of munitions used in two wars have led to health problems in Barsa, southern Iraq. Photograph: Dan Chung
More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found.
Areas in and near Iraq's largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. The joint study by the environment, health and science ministries found that scrap metal yards in and around Baghdad and Basra contain high levels of ionising radiation, which is thought to be a legacy of depleted uranium used in munitions during the first Gulf war and since the 2003 invasion.
The environment minister, Narmin Othman, said high levels of dioxins on agricultural lands in southern Iraq, in particular, were increasingly thought to be a key factor in a general decline in the health of people living in the poorest parts of the country.
IraqToxic Toxic zones in Iraq
"If we look at Basra, there are some heavily polluted areas there and there are many factors contributing to it," she told the Guardian. "First, it has been a battlefield for two wars, the Gulf war and the Iran-Iraq war, where many kinds of bombs were used. Also, oil pipelines were bombed and most of the contamination settled in and around Basra.
"The soil has ended up in people's lungs and has been on food that people have eaten. Dioxins have been very high in those areas. All of this has caused systemic problems on a very large scale for both ecology and overall health."
Government study groups have recently focused on the war-ravaged city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, where the unstable security situation had kept scientists away ever since fierce fighting between militants and US forces in 2004.
"We have only found one area so far in Falluja," Othman said. "But there are other areas that we will try to explore soon with international help."
The Guardian reported in November claims by local doctors of a massive rise in birth defects in the city, particularly neural tube defects, which afflict the spinal cords and brains of newborns. "We are aware of the reports, but we must be cautious in reaching conclusions about causes," Othman said. "The general health of the city is not good. There is no sewerage system there and there is a lot of stagnant household waste, creating sickness that is directly affecting genetics. We do know, however, that a lot of depleted uranium was used there.
"We have been regulating and monitoring this and we have been urgently trying to assemble a database. We have had co-operation from the United Nations environment programme and have given our reports in Geneva. We have studied 500 sites for chemicals and depleted uranium. Until now we have found 42 places that have been declared as [high risk] both from uranium and toxins."
Ten of those areas have been classified by Iraq's nuclear decommissioning body as having high levels of radiation. They include the sites of three former nuclear reactors at the Tuwaitha facility – once the pride of Saddam Hussein's regime on the south-eastern outskirts of Baghdad – as well as former research centres around the capital that were either bombed or dismantled between the two Gulf wars.
The head of the decommissioning body, Adnan Jarjies, said that when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived to "visit these sites, I tell them that even if we have all the best science in the world to help us, none of them could be considered to be clean before 2020."
Bushra Ali Ahmed, director of the Radiation Protection Centre in Baghdad, said only 80% of Iraq had so far been surveyed. "We have focused so far on the sites that have been contaminated by the wars," he said. "We have further plans to swab sites that have been destroyed by war.
"A big problem for us is when say a tank has been destroyed and then moved, we are finding a clear radiation trail. It takes a while to decontaminate these sites."
Scrap sites remain a prime concern. Wastelands of rusting cars and war damage dot Baghdad and other cities between the capital and Basra, offering unchecked access to both children and scavengers.
Othman said Iraq's environmental degradation is being intensified by an acute drought and water shortage across the country that has seen a 70% decrease in the volume of water flowing through the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
"We can no longer in good conscience call ourselves the land between the rivers," she said. "A lot of the water we are getting has first been used by Turkey and Syria for power generation. When it reaches us it is poor quality. That water which is used for agriculture is often contaminated. We are in the midst of an unmatched environmental disaster."
• Greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites
• Depleted uranium among poisons revealed in report
Pollution caused by the bombing of oil pipelines and the type of munitions used in two wars have led to health problems in Barsa, southern Iraq. Photograph: Dan Chung
More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found.
Areas in and near Iraq's largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. The joint study by the environment, health and science ministries found that scrap metal yards in and around Baghdad and Basra contain high levels of ionising radiation, which is thought to be a legacy of depleted uranium used in munitions during the first Gulf war and since the 2003 invasion.
The environment minister, Narmin Othman, said high levels of dioxins on agricultural lands in southern Iraq, in particular, were increasingly thought to be a key factor in a general decline in the health of people living in the poorest parts of the country.
IraqToxic Toxic zones in Iraq
"If we look at Basra, there are some heavily polluted areas there and there are many factors contributing to it," she told the Guardian. "First, it has been a battlefield for two wars, the Gulf war and the Iran-Iraq war, where many kinds of bombs were used. Also, oil pipelines were bombed and most of the contamination settled in and around Basra.
"The soil has ended up in people's lungs and has been on food that people have eaten. Dioxins have been very high in those areas. All of this has caused systemic problems on a very large scale for both ecology and overall health."
Government study groups have recently focused on the war-ravaged city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, where the unstable security situation had kept scientists away ever since fierce fighting between militants and US forces in 2004.
"We have only found one area so far in Falluja," Othman said. "But there are other areas that we will try to explore soon with international help."
The Guardian reported in November claims by local doctors of a massive rise in birth defects in the city, particularly neural tube defects, which afflict the spinal cords and brains of newborns. "We are aware of the reports, but we must be cautious in reaching conclusions about causes," Othman said. "The general health of the city is not good. There is no sewerage system there and there is a lot of stagnant household waste, creating sickness that is directly affecting genetics. We do know, however, that a lot of depleted uranium was used there.
"We have been regulating and monitoring this and we have been urgently trying to assemble a database. We have had co-operation from the United Nations environment programme and have given our reports in Geneva. We have studied 500 sites for chemicals and depleted uranium. Until now we have found 42 places that have been declared as [high risk] both from uranium and toxins."
Ten of those areas have been classified by Iraq's nuclear decommissioning body as having high levels of radiation. They include the sites of three former nuclear reactors at the Tuwaitha facility – once the pride of Saddam Hussein's regime on the south-eastern outskirts of Baghdad – as well as former research centres around the capital that were either bombed or dismantled between the two Gulf wars.
The head of the decommissioning body, Adnan Jarjies, said that when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived to "visit these sites, I tell them that even if we have all the best science in the world to help us, none of them could be considered to be clean before 2020."
Bushra Ali Ahmed, director of the Radiation Protection Centre in Baghdad, said only 80% of Iraq had so far been surveyed. "We have focused so far on the sites that have been contaminated by the wars," he said. "We have further plans to swab sites that have been destroyed by war.
"A big problem for us is when say a tank has been destroyed and then moved, we are finding a clear radiation trail. It takes a while to decontaminate these sites."
Scrap sites remain a prime concern. Wastelands of rusting cars and war damage dot Baghdad and other cities between the capital and Basra, offering unchecked access to both children and scavengers.
Othman said Iraq's environmental degradation is being intensified by an acute drought and water shortage across the country that has seen a 70% decrease in the volume of water flowing through the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
"We can no longer in good conscience call ourselves the land between the rivers," she said. "A lot of the water we are getting has first been used by Turkey and Syria for power generation. When it reaches us it is poor quality. That water which is used for agriculture is often contaminated. We are in the midst of an unmatched environmental disaster."
Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 13, 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LifeNews.com) — The world is in mourning today in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Haiti that initial reports indicate could have left hundreds of thousands of people dead or wounded. Although the nation is getting the world’s sympathy, Haiti was once on the receiving end of hatred from an abortion practitioner.
Joyce Tarnow, the owner of an abortion center in Florida, where many Haitian-Americans reside, made some shocking comments to a newspaper two years ago.
Tarnow is an aggressive population control advocate who told the New Times newspaper in July 2004, “I try to get as many people sterilized as are in my way.”
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
* efoods
But, today, she is begin recalled as someone whose attitude towards the Haitian people is beyond the pale.
Tarnow told the New Times at the time that she supports population control because America “can’t take all the people in the world.”
“We need to help nations that can subsist and let others wither on the vine,” she said.
She told the newspaper that Haiti, and third-world nations like it with high populations, “has denuded the whole land.”
Her advice for the country? “Stew in your own juices.”
The comments from Tarnow came in an article focusing on how she was closing her abortion business that did as many as 800-900 abortions a year. Abortion advocates hailed her as a hero, but one pro-life blogger at the web site “Saynsmthn” has a different take.
“This is the way these pro-abortion people feel about people of ‘color’ in my view,” the pro-life advocate says of the insensitive comment about Haiti. “Just like recent comments by Harry Reid, it is time African Americans and minorities wake up and see how these supposed liberal progressives view them.”
“Is abortion clinic owner, Joyce Tarnow’s wish coming true after the Haiti Earthquake?” the pro-life blogger asks.
Tarnow hasn’t changed her stripes since targeting low-income Haitians in south Florida with abortions. Now she is the president of the anti-immigration group: Floridians for a Sustainable Population.
Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 13, 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (LifeNews.com) — The world is in mourning today in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Haiti that initial reports indicate could have left hundreds of thousands of people dead or wounded. Although the nation is getting the world’s sympathy, Haiti was once on the receiving end of hatred from an abortion practitioner.
Joyce Tarnow, the owner of an abortion center in Florida, where many Haitian-Americans reside, made some shocking comments to a newspaper two years ago.
Tarnow is an aggressive population control advocate who told the New Times newspaper in July 2004, “I try to get as many people sterilized as are in my way.”
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
* efoods
But, today, she is begin recalled as someone whose attitude towards the Haitian people is beyond the pale.
Tarnow told the New Times at the time that she supports population control because America “can’t take all the people in the world.”
“We need to help nations that can subsist and let others wither on the vine,” she said.
She told the newspaper that Haiti, and third-world nations like it with high populations, “has denuded the whole land.”
Her advice for the country? “Stew in your own juices.”
The comments from Tarnow came in an article focusing on how she was closing her abortion business that did as many as 800-900 abortions a year. Abortion advocates hailed her as a hero, but one pro-life blogger at the web site “Saynsmthn” has a different take.
“This is the way these pro-abortion people feel about people of ‘color’ in my view,” the pro-life advocate says of the insensitive comment about Haiti. “Just like recent comments by Harry Reid, it is time African Americans and minorities wake up and see how these supposed liberal progressives view them.”
“Is abortion clinic owner, Joyce Tarnow’s wish coming true after the Haiti Earthquake?” the pro-life blogger asks.
Tarnow hasn’t changed her stripes since targeting low-income Haitians in south Florida with abortions. Now she is the president of the anti-immigration group: Floridians for a Sustainable Population.
Published on Monday, January 18, 2010 by The Nation
IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
by Richard Kim
Since a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday--killing tens of thousands of people--there's been a lot of well-intentioned chatter and twitter about how to help Haiti. Folks have been donating millions of dollars to Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti (by texting "YELE" to 501501) or to the Red Cross (by texting "HAITI" to 90999) or to Paul Farmer's extraordinary Partners in Health, among other organizations. I hope these donations continue to pour in, along with more money, food, water, medicine, equipment and doctors and nurses from nations around the world. The Obama administration has pledged at least $100 million in aid and has already sent thousands of soldiers and relief workers. That's a decent start.
But it's also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice--about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?
Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.
Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF's extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.
For Haiti, this is history repeated. As historians have documented, the impoverishment of Haiti began in the earliest decades of its independence, when Haiti's slaves and free gens de couleur rallied to liberate the country from the French in 1804. But by 1825, Haiti was living under a new kind of bondage--external debt. In order to keep the French and other Western powers from enforcing an embargo, it agreed to pay 150 million francs in reparations to French slave owners (yes, that's right, freed slaves were forced to compensate their former masters for their liberty). In order to do that, they borrowed millions from French banks and then from the US and Germany. As Alex von Tunzelmann pointed out, "by 1900, it [Haiti] was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments."
It took Haiti 122 years, but in 1947 the nation paid off about 60 percent, or 90 million francs, of this debt (it was able to negotiate a reduction in 1838). In 2003, then-President Aristide called on France to pay restitution for this sum--valued in 2003 dollars at over $21 billion. A few months later, he was ousted in a coup d'etat; he claims he left the country under armed pressure from the US.
Then of course there are the structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank in the 1990s. In 1995, for example, the IMF forced Haiti to cut its rice tariff from 35 percent to 3 percent, leading to a massive increase in rice-dumping, the vast majority of which came from the United States. As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, "by 2005, three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the US." During this period, USAID invested heavily in Haiti, but this "charity" came not in the form of grants to develop Haiti's agricultural infrastructure, but in direct food aid, furthering Haiti's dependence on foreign assistance while also funneling money back to US agribusiness.
A 2008 report from the Center for International Policy points out that in 2003, Haiti spent $57.4 million to service its debt, while total foreign assistance for education, health care and other services was a mere $39.21 million. In other words, under a system of putative benevolence, Haiti paid back more than it received. As Paul Farmer noted in our pages after hurricanes whipped the country in 2008, Haiti is "a veritable graveyard of development projects."
So what can activists do in addition to donating to a charity? One long-term objective is to get the IMF to forgive all $265 million of Haiti's debt (that's the $165 million outstanding, plus the $100 million issued this week). In the short term, Haiti's IMF loans could be restructured to come from the IMF's rapid credit facility, which doesn't impose conditions like keeping wages and inflation down.
Indeed, debt relief is essential to Haiti's future. It recently had about $1.2 billion in debt canceled, but it still owes about $891 million, all of which was lent to the country from 2004 onward. $429 million of that debt is held by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to whom Haiti is scheduled to make $10 million in payments next year. Obviously, that's money better spent on saving Haitian lives and rebuilding the country in the months ahead; the cancellation of the entire sum would free up precious capital. The US controls about 30 percent of the bank's shares; Latin American and Caribbean countries hold just over 50 percent. Notably, the IDB's loans come from its fund for special operations (i.e. the IDB's donor nations and funds from loans that have been paid back), not from IDB's bonds. Hence, the total amount could be forgiven without impacting the IDB's triple-A credit rating.
Finally, although the Obama administration temporarily halted deportations to Haiti, it hasn't granted Haitians temporary protected status (TPS), which would save them from being deported back to the scene of a disaster for as long as 18 months, allow them to work in the US and, crucially, send money back to relatives in Haiti. In the past, TPS has been given to countries like Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998 after Hurrican Mitch, but it has never been extended to Haitians, even after the 2008 storms, presumably because immigrations officials fear a mass exodus from Haiti.
But decency, as well as fairness, should trump those fears now. As Sunita Patel, an attorney with CCR, told me, "We have granted TPS to El Salavador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan following natural disasters. To apply different rules here would fly in the face of the administration's efforts to build good will abroad."
(UPDATE: Obama administration has granted Temporary Protected Status to Haiti. This is a great relief to Haitians in the US and a victory for those who pressured the administration to do so.)
© 2010 The Nation
IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
by Richard Kim
Since a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday--killing tens of thousands of people--there's been a lot of well-intentioned chatter and twitter about how to help Haiti. Folks have been donating millions of dollars to Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti (by texting "YELE" to 501501) or to the Red Cross (by texting "HAITI" to 90999) or to Paul Farmer's extraordinary Partners in Health, among other organizations. I hope these donations continue to pour in, along with more money, food, water, medicine, equipment and doctors and nurses from nations around the world. The Obama administration has pledged at least $100 million in aid and has already sent thousands of soldiers and relief workers. That's a decent start.
But it's also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice--about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?
Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.
Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF's extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.
For Haiti, this is history repeated. As historians have documented, the impoverishment of Haiti began in the earliest decades of its independence, when Haiti's slaves and free gens de couleur rallied to liberate the country from the French in 1804. But by 1825, Haiti was living under a new kind of bondage--external debt. In order to keep the French and other Western powers from enforcing an embargo, it agreed to pay 150 million francs in reparations to French slave owners (yes, that's right, freed slaves were forced to compensate their former masters for their liberty). In order to do that, they borrowed millions from French banks and then from the US and Germany. As Alex von Tunzelmann pointed out, "by 1900, it [Haiti] was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments."
It took Haiti 122 years, but in 1947 the nation paid off about 60 percent, or 90 million francs, of this debt (it was able to negotiate a reduction in 1838). In 2003, then-President Aristide called on France to pay restitution for this sum--valued in 2003 dollars at over $21 billion. A few months later, he was ousted in a coup d'etat; he claims he left the country under armed pressure from the US.
Then of course there are the structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank in the 1990s. In 1995, for example, the IMF forced Haiti to cut its rice tariff from 35 percent to 3 percent, leading to a massive increase in rice-dumping, the vast majority of which came from the United States. As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, "by 2005, three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the US." During this period, USAID invested heavily in Haiti, but this "charity" came not in the form of grants to develop Haiti's agricultural infrastructure, but in direct food aid, furthering Haiti's dependence on foreign assistance while also funneling money back to US agribusiness.
A 2008 report from the Center for International Policy points out that in 2003, Haiti spent $57.4 million to service its debt, while total foreign assistance for education, health care and other services was a mere $39.21 million. In other words, under a system of putative benevolence, Haiti paid back more than it received. As Paul Farmer noted in our pages after hurricanes whipped the country in 2008, Haiti is "a veritable graveyard of development projects."
So what can activists do in addition to donating to a charity? One long-term objective is to get the IMF to forgive all $265 million of Haiti's debt (that's the $165 million outstanding, plus the $100 million issued this week). In the short term, Haiti's IMF loans could be restructured to come from the IMF's rapid credit facility, which doesn't impose conditions like keeping wages and inflation down.
Indeed, debt relief is essential to Haiti's future. It recently had about $1.2 billion in debt canceled, but it still owes about $891 million, all of which was lent to the country from 2004 onward. $429 million of that debt is held by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to whom Haiti is scheduled to make $10 million in payments next year. Obviously, that's money better spent on saving Haitian lives and rebuilding the country in the months ahead; the cancellation of the entire sum would free up precious capital. The US controls about 30 percent of the bank's shares; Latin American and Caribbean countries hold just over 50 percent. Notably, the IDB's loans come from its fund for special operations (i.e. the IDB's donor nations and funds from loans that have been paid back), not from IDB's bonds. Hence, the total amount could be forgiven without impacting the IDB's triple-A credit rating.
Finally, although the Obama administration temporarily halted deportations to Haiti, it hasn't granted Haitians temporary protected status (TPS), which would save them from being deported back to the scene of a disaster for as long as 18 months, allow them to work in the US and, crucially, send money back to relatives in Haiti. In the past, TPS has been given to countries like Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998 after Hurrican Mitch, but it has never been extended to Haitians, even after the 2008 storms, presumably because immigrations officials fear a mass exodus from Haiti.
But decency, as well as fairness, should trump those fears now. As Sunita Patel, an attorney with CCR, told me, "We have granted TPS to El Salavador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan following natural disasters. To apply different rules here would fly in the face of the administration's efforts to build good will abroad."
(UPDATE: Obama administration has granted Temporary Protected Status to Haiti. This is a great relief to Haitians in the US and a victory for those who pressured the administration to do so.)
© 2010 The Nation
A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario Was Envisaged by the US Military One Day Before the Earthquake
SEE ALSO: CNN — An e-mail from Haiti, then minutes later, a nightmare
“Last Tuesday, from his room at the Hotel Montana near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, U.S. Air Force Maj. Ken Bourland sent an e-mail to his wife telling her that he was fine and had just settled in for what was going to be an exciting time taking a disaster preparedness course.”
Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
January 21, 2010
A Haiti disaster relief scenario had been envisaged at the headquarters of US Southern Command SOUTHCOM in Miami one day prior to the earthquake.
The holding of pre-disaster simulations pertained to the impacts of a hurricane in Haiti. They were held on January 10. (Bob Brewin,Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts (1/15/10) — GovExec.com, complete text of article is contained in Annex)
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense (DoD), was involved in organizing these scenarios on behalf of US Southern Command.(SOUTHCOM).
Defined as a “Combat Support Agency”, DISA has a mandate to provide IT and telecommunications, systems, logistics services in support of the US military. (See DISA website: Defense Information Systems Agency).
On the day prior to the earthquake, “on Monday [January 11, 2010], Jean Demay, DISA’s technical manager for the agency’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, happened to be at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami preparing for a test of the system in a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a hurricane.” (Bob Brewin, op cit, emphasis added)
The Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project (TISC) is a communications-information tool which “links non-government organizations with the United States [government and military] and other nations for tracking, coordinating and organizing relief efforts”.(Government IT Scrambles To Help Haiti, TECHWEB January 15, 2010).
The TISC is an essential component of the militarization of emergency relief. The US military through DISA oversees the information – communications system used by participating aid agencies. Essentially, it is a communications sharing system controlled by the US military, which is made available to approved non-governmental partner organizations. The Defense Information Systems Agency also “provides bandwidth to aid organizations involved in Haiti relief efforts.”
There are no details on the nature of the tests conducted on January 11 at SOUTHCOM headquarters.
DISA’s Jean Demay was in charge of coordinating the tests. There are no reports on the participants involved in the disaster relief scenarios.
One would expect, given DISA’s mandate, that the tests pertained to simulating communications. logistics and information systems in the case of a major emergency relief program in Haiti.
The fundamental concept underlying DISA’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project (TISC) is to “Achieve Interoperability With Warfighters, Coalition Partners And NGOs” (Defense Daily, December 19, 2008)
Upon completing the tests and disaster scenarios on January 11, TISC was considered to be, in relation to Haiti, in “an advanced stage of readiness”. On January 13, the day following the earthquake, SOUTHCOM took the decision to implement the TISC system, which had been rehearsed in Miami two days earlier:
“After the earthquake hit on Tuesday [January 12, 2010], Demay said SOUTHCOM decided to go live with the system. On [the following day] Wednesday [January 13, 2010], DISA opened up its All Partners Access Network, supported by the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, to any organization supporting Haiti relief efforts.
The information sharing project, developed with backing from both SOUTHCOM and the Defense Department’s European Command, has been in development for three years. It is designed to facilitate multilateral collaboration between federal and nongovernmental agencies.
Demay said that since DISA set up a Haiti Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Community of Interest on APAN on Wednesday [the day following the earthquake], almost 500 organizations and individuals have joined, including a range of Defense units and various nongovernmental organizations and relief groups. (Bob Brewin, Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts (1/15/10) — GovExec.com emphasis added)
DISA has a Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Field Office in Miami. Under the Haiti Disaster Emergency Program initiated on January 12, DISA’s mandate is described as part of a carefully planned military operation:
“DISA is providing US Southern Command with information capabilities which will support our nation in quickly responding to the critical situation in Haiti,” said Larry K. Huffman, DISA’s Principal Director of Global Information Grid Operations. “Our experience in providing support to contingency operations around the world postures us to be responsive in meeting USSOUTHCOM’s requirements.”
DISA, a Combat Support Agency, engineers and [sic] provides command and control capabilities and enterprise infrastructure to continuously operate and assure a global net-centric enterprise in direct support to joint warfighters, National level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of operations. As DoD’s satellite communications leader, DISA is using the Defense Satellite Communications System to provide frequency and bandwidth support to all organizations in the Haitian relief effort. This includes Super High Frequency missions that are providing bandwidth for US Navy ships and one Marine Expeditionary Unit that will arrive shortly on station to provide medical help, security, and helicopters among other support. This also includes all satellite communications for the US Air Force handling round-the-clock air traffic control and air freight operations at the extremely busy Port-Au-Prince Airport. DISA is also providing military Ultra High Frequency channels and contracting for additional commercial SATCOM missions that greatly increase this capability for relief efforts. (DISA -Press Release, January 2010, undated, emphasis added)
In the immediate wake of the earthquake, DISA played a key supportive role to SOUTHCOM, which was designated by the Obama administration as the de facto “lead agency” in the US Haitian relief program. The underlying system consists in integrating civilian aid agencies into the orbit of an advanced communications information system controlled by the US military.
“DISA is also leveraging a new technology in Haiti that is already linking NGOs, other nations and US forces together to track, coordinate and better organize relief efforts” (Ibid)
ANNEX
Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts
By Bob Brewin, Govexec.com01/15/2010
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44407&dcn=e_gvetwww
As personnel representing hundreds of government and nongovernmental agencies from around the world rush to the aid of earthquake-devastated Haiti, the Defense Information Systems Agency has launched a Web portal with multiple social networking tools to aid in coordinating their efforts.
On Monday [January 11, 2010, a day before the earthquake], Jean Demay, DISA’s technical manager for the agency’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, happened to be at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami preparing for a test of the system in a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a hurricane. After the earthquake hit on Tuesday [January 12, 2010], Demay said SOUTHCOM decided to go live with the system. On Wednesday [January 13, 2010], DISA opened up its All Partners Access Network, supported by the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, to any organization supporting Haiti relief efforts.
The information sharing project, developed with backing from both SOUTHCOM and the Defense Department’s European Command, has been in development for three years. It is designed to facilitate multilateral collaboration between federal and nongovernmental agencies.
Demay said that since DISA set up a Haiti Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Community of Interest on APAN on Wednesday, almost 500 organizations and individuals have joined, including a range of Defense units and various nongovernmental organizations and relief groups.
APAN provides a series of collaboration tools, including geographical information systems, wikis, YouTube and MySpace-like pages and multilingual chat rooms.
Meanwhile, other organizations are tackling different technological challenges. Gianluca Bruni, the Dubai-based information technology chief for emergency preparedness and response for the World Food Programme, is setting up networks and systems to support United Nations and nongovernmental organizations in Haiti. WFP already has dispatched two communications kits to Haiti, with satellite systems that operate at 1 megabit per second and can support up to 100 users. It also has sent laptop computers, Wi-Fi access points and long-range point-to-point wireless systems to connect remote users to the satellite terminals. Bruni said eventually WFP plans to set up cyber cafes in Haiti for use all relief workers in the country.
Jon Anderson, a DISA spokesman, said the agency is supplying 10 megabits of satellite capacity to Navy, Marine and Air Force units engaged in the Haiti relief operation.
Many of the relief organizations and agencies in Haiti are bringing their own radio systems to the country. DISA has deployed a three-person team from its Joint Spectrum Management Element to help manage radio frequency spectrum.
The Joint Forces Command’s Joint Communications Support Element deployed two teams equipped with satellite systems and VoIP phones to support SOUTCOM in Port-au-Prince late Wednesday. Those systems were operational “in a matter of hours,” said JCSE Chief of Staff Chris Wilson. The organization will send another team to Haiti in the next few days.
Wilson said JCSE was able to get its gear into Haiti quickly because the systems already were loaded on pallets in Miami in preparation for an exercise that has been canceled.
So many governments and agencies from around the world have responded to the crisis in Haiti that they have overwhelmed the ability of the Port-au-Prince airport to handle incoming relief flights. The Federal Aviation Administration has had a ground-stop on aircraft headed for Haiti for much of the past two days.
FAA warned in an advisory Friday that “due to limited ramp space at Port-au-Prince airport,” with the exception of international cargo flights, “the Haitians are not accepting any aircraft into their airspace.”
The advisory added that domestic U.S. military and civilian flights to Haiti must be first be cleared by its command center. Exemptions will be based solely on the basis of ramp space. The agency also starkly warned “there is no available fuel” at the Port-au-Prince airport.
SEE ALSO: CNN — An e-mail from Haiti, then minutes later, a nightmare
“Last Tuesday, from his room at the Hotel Montana near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, U.S. Air Force Maj. Ken Bourland sent an e-mail to his wife telling her that he was fine and had just settled in for what was going to be an exciting time taking a disaster preparedness course.”
Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
January 21, 2010
A Haiti disaster relief scenario had been envisaged at the headquarters of US Southern Command SOUTHCOM in Miami one day prior to the earthquake.
The holding of pre-disaster simulations pertained to the impacts of a hurricane in Haiti. They were held on January 10. (Bob Brewin,Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts (1/15/10) — GovExec.com, complete text of article is contained in Annex)
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense (DoD), was involved in organizing these scenarios on behalf of US Southern Command.(SOUTHCOM).
Defined as a “Combat Support Agency”, DISA has a mandate to provide IT and telecommunications, systems, logistics services in support of the US military. (See DISA website: Defense Information Systems Agency).
On the day prior to the earthquake, “on Monday [January 11, 2010], Jean Demay, DISA’s technical manager for the agency’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, happened to be at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami preparing for a test of the system in a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a hurricane.” (Bob Brewin, op cit, emphasis added)
The Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project (TISC) is a communications-information tool which “links non-government organizations with the United States [government and military] and other nations for tracking, coordinating and organizing relief efforts”.(Government IT Scrambles To Help Haiti, TECHWEB January 15, 2010).
The TISC is an essential component of the militarization of emergency relief. The US military through DISA oversees the information – communications system used by participating aid agencies. Essentially, it is a communications sharing system controlled by the US military, which is made available to approved non-governmental partner organizations. The Defense Information Systems Agency also “provides bandwidth to aid organizations involved in Haiti relief efforts.”
There are no details on the nature of the tests conducted on January 11 at SOUTHCOM headquarters.
DISA’s Jean Demay was in charge of coordinating the tests. There are no reports on the participants involved in the disaster relief scenarios.
One would expect, given DISA’s mandate, that the tests pertained to simulating communications. logistics and information systems in the case of a major emergency relief program in Haiti.
The fundamental concept underlying DISA’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project (TISC) is to “Achieve Interoperability With Warfighters, Coalition Partners And NGOs” (Defense Daily, December 19, 2008)
Upon completing the tests and disaster scenarios on January 11, TISC was considered to be, in relation to Haiti, in “an advanced stage of readiness”. On January 13, the day following the earthquake, SOUTHCOM took the decision to implement the TISC system, which had been rehearsed in Miami two days earlier:
“After the earthquake hit on Tuesday [January 12, 2010], Demay said SOUTHCOM decided to go live with the system. On [the following day] Wednesday [January 13, 2010], DISA opened up its All Partners Access Network, supported by the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, to any organization supporting Haiti relief efforts.
The information sharing project, developed with backing from both SOUTHCOM and the Defense Department’s European Command, has been in development for three years. It is designed to facilitate multilateral collaboration between federal and nongovernmental agencies.
Demay said that since DISA set up a Haiti Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Community of Interest on APAN on Wednesday [the day following the earthquake], almost 500 organizations and individuals have joined, including a range of Defense units and various nongovernmental organizations and relief groups. (Bob Brewin, Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts (1/15/10) — GovExec.com emphasis added)
DISA has a Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Field Office in Miami. Under the Haiti Disaster Emergency Program initiated on January 12, DISA’s mandate is described as part of a carefully planned military operation:
“DISA is providing US Southern Command with information capabilities which will support our nation in quickly responding to the critical situation in Haiti,” said Larry K. Huffman, DISA’s Principal Director of Global Information Grid Operations. “Our experience in providing support to contingency operations around the world postures us to be responsive in meeting USSOUTHCOM’s requirements.”
DISA, a Combat Support Agency, engineers and [sic] provides command and control capabilities and enterprise infrastructure to continuously operate and assure a global net-centric enterprise in direct support to joint warfighters, National level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of operations. As DoD’s satellite communications leader, DISA is using the Defense Satellite Communications System to provide frequency and bandwidth support to all organizations in the Haitian relief effort. This includes Super High Frequency missions that are providing bandwidth for US Navy ships and one Marine Expeditionary Unit that will arrive shortly on station to provide medical help, security, and helicopters among other support. This also includes all satellite communications for the US Air Force handling round-the-clock air traffic control and air freight operations at the extremely busy Port-Au-Prince Airport. DISA is also providing military Ultra High Frequency channels and contracting for additional commercial SATCOM missions that greatly increase this capability for relief efforts. (DISA -Press Release, January 2010, undated, emphasis added)
In the immediate wake of the earthquake, DISA played a key supportive role to SOUTHCOM, which was designated by the Obama administration as the de facto “lead agency” in the US Haitian relief program. The underlying system consists in integrating civilian aid agencies into the orbit of an advanced communications information system controlled by the US military.
“DISA is also leveraging a new technology in Haiti that is already linking NGOs, other nations and US forces together to track, coordinate and better organize relief efforts” (Ibid)
ANNEX
Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts
By Bob Brewin, Govexec.com01/15/2010
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44407&dcn=e_gvetwww
As personnel representing hundreds of government and nongovernmental agencies from around the world rush to the aid of earthquake-devastated Haiti, the Defense Information Systems Agency has launched a Web portal with multiple social networking tools to aid in coordinating their efforts.
On Monday [January 11, 2010, a day before the earthquake], Jean Demay, DISA’s technical manager for the agency’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, happened to be at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami preparing for a test of the system in a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a hurricane. After the earthquake hit on Tuesday [January 12, 2010], Demay said SOUTHCOM decided to go live with the system. On Wednesday [January 13, 2010], DISA opened up its All Partners Access Network, supported by the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, to any organization supporting Haiti relief efforts.
The information sharing project, developed with backing from both SOUTHCOM and the Defense Department’s European Command, has been in development for three years. It is designed to facilitate multilateral collaboration between federal and nongovernmental agencies.
Demay said that since DISA set up a Haiti Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Community of Interest on APAN on Wednesday, almost 500 organizations and individuals have joined, including a range of Defense units and various nongovernmental organizations and relief groups.
APAN provides a series of collaboration tools, including geographical information systems, wikis, YouTube and MySpace-like pages and multilingual chat rooms.
Meanwhile, other organizations are tackling different technological challenges. Gianluca Bruni, the Dubai-based information technology chief for emergency preparedness and response for the World Food Programme, is setting up networks and systems to support United Nations and nongovernmental organizations in Haiti. WFP already has dispatched two communications kits to Haiti, with satellite systems that operate at 1 megabit per second and can support up to 100 users. It also has sent laptop computers, Wi-Fi access points and long-range point-to-point wireless systems to connect remote users to the satellite terminals. Bruni said eventually WFP plans to set up cyber cafes in Haiti for use all relief workers in the country.
Jon Anderson, a DISA spokesman, said the agency is supplying 10 megabits of satellite capacity to Navy, Marine and Air Force units engaged in the Haiti relief operation.
Many of the relief organizations and agencies in Haiti are bringing their own radio systems to the country. DISA has deployed a three-person team from its Joint Spectrum Management Element to help manage radio frequency spectrum.
The Joint Forces Command’s Joint Communications Support Element deployed two teams equipped with satellite systems and VoIP phones to support SOUTCOM in Port-au-Prince late Wednesday. Those systems were operational “in a matter of hours,” said JCSE Chief of Staff Chris Wilson. The organization will send another team to Haiti in the next few days.
Wilson said JCSE was able to get its gear into Haiti quickly because the systems already were loaded on pallets in Miami in preparation for an exercise that has been canceled.
So many governments and agencies from around the world have responded to the crisis in Haiti that they have overwhelmed the ability of the Port-au-Prince airport to handle incoming relief flights. The Federal Aviation Administration has had a ground-stop on aircraft headed for Haiti for much of the past two days.
FAA warned in an advisory Friday that “due to limited ramp space at Port-au-Prince airport,” with the exception of international cargo flights, “the Haitians are not accepting any aircraft into their airspace.”
The advisory added that domestic U.S. military and civilian flights to Haiti must be first be cleared by its command center. Exemptions will be based solely on the basis of ramp space. The agency also starkly warned “there is no available fuel” at the Port-au-Prince airport.
The “Hope for Haiti” Telethon Scam
Posted By admin On January 25, 2010 @ 9:43 am In Featured Stories | 124 Comments
Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
January 25, 2010
It takes a lot of disdain for the human race to use a catastrophic event such as the earthquake in Haiti to peddle people out of their hard earned dollar. Unfortunately, this is what the “Hope for Haiti” telethon is all about. The donations will benefit such foundations as the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation and UNICEF. Instead of the proceeds going towards a local Haitian organization that would provide the victims with adequate food and water, the millions will be given to a foundation created in part by George W. Bush.
Instead of the proceeds going towards a local Haitian organization that would provide the victims with adequate food and water, the millions will be given to a foundation created in part by George W. Bush.
If that does not alarm you, then you have not done your research. Corrupt politicians have no business taking donations for a country in turmoil. There are plenty of organizations that have been operating in Haiti for years, and have therefore proven themselves to be legitimate. The IRC (International Rescue Committee) spends 90% of its funds on beneficial programs, while only using 4% for administrative costs, and 4% on fundraising. Why then, are the proceeds going to a foundation run by two corrupt politicians?
The only decent foundation being donated to is the Yele Haiti Foundation. Despite the mainstream media smear campaign being launched against this foundation, it has been located in Haiti and has proved itself by aiding the country long before the earthquake hit. The foundation also encourages food and clothing donations, as opposed to George W. Bush who is asking you to send only cash. With food and clothing donations it is impossible for any foundation to put the contribution towards administrative costs and other worthless expenses. In sharp contrast, writing the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation a blank check could result in your donation being used quite illegitimately.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
The telethon is loaded with celebrities and popular musicians, begging for you to support the Haitian people. Instead of telling you that your donation may be used to fund other United Nations operations, or that it could be used to pay absurdly high administrative costs, they act as if every cent is going to aid the Haitians. If these foundations were truly concerned about the Haitians, they would accept food and clothing donations. If the foundations were truly honest, they would publicly post every cent that was spent and for what reason. Of course, this is not the case for most of these organizations.
As if the chosen recipients of the donations were not enough to cause some concern, Latin American leaders are now saying that the United States is occupying Haiti militarily. After all, it does seem as if the United States military plans on staying for a while.
“So we’re focused on getting command and control and communications there so that we can really get a better understanding of what’s going on. MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti], as their headquarters partially collapsed, lost a lot of their communication, and so we’re looking to robust that communication, also.” Said General Douglas Fraser, commander of U.S. Southern Command.
“We also are looking at a large-deck amphibious ship with an embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit on it that will be a couple of days behind the USS Vinson. ” He went on to say.
(Defense.gov News Transcript: DOD News Briefing with Gen. Fraser from the Pentagon, January 13, 2010)
It seems that the involvement of the United States in such a direct way is causing not only a stir, but a negative impact on an already chaotic nation. Machete-wielding gangs patrol the streets of Haiti, as U.N. “Peacekeepers” fire rubber bullets into innocent Haitian crowds. What were these men doing that provoked the attack ? They were searching for jobs.
Taking advantage of the American people, and ultimately taking advantage of the Haitian people, is something that takes a lot of apathy towards the suffering that the Haitian people endured. The celebrities involved probably believe they are truly benefiting the Haitian people, but the sad truth is that the telethon is forwarding their proceeds to ruthless businessman that will not use “every cent” to help the Haitians. Donate your money to an organization that is based in Haiti and accepts food donations, as it is the only way to ensure that your dollar is actually reaching the country.
Research related links
1. Gates says no policing role for U.S. troops in Haiti
2. Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
3. IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
4. U.S. Immigration Policy on Haitian Migrants
5. Latin American leaders say US occupying Haiti
6. Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
7. Why Is The US Military Occupying Four Airports In Haiti?
8. Disgusting War Criminals Peddle “Humanitarian” Aid for Haiti
9. Pentagon Parks Secret Prison Ship Off Haiti
10. Delaying aid for a photo-op
11. Chavez and the Russian Fleet: U.S. Used “Earthquake Weapon” On Haiti
12. Food security collapses in Haiti as machete-wielding gangs fight in the streets
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/the-hope-for-haiti-telethon-scam/
Posted By admin On January 25, 2010 @ 9:43 am In Featured Stories | 124 Comments
Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
January 25, 2010
It takes a lot of disdain for the human race to use a catastrophic event such as the earthquake in Haiti to peddle people out of their hard earned dollar. Unfortunately, this is what the “Hope for Haiti” telethon is all about. The donations will benefit such foundations as the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation and UNICEF. Instead of the proceeds going towards a local Haitian organization that would provide the victims with adequate food and water, the millions will be given to a foundation created in part by George W. Bush.
Instead of the proceeds going towards a local Haitian organization that would provide the victims with adequate food and water, the millions will be given to a foundation created in part by George W. Bush.
If that does not alarm you, then you have not done your research. Corrupt politicians have no business taking donations for a country in turmoil. There are plenty of organizations that have been operating in Haiti for years, and have therefore proven themselves to be legitimate. The IRC (International Rescue Committee) spends 90% of its funds on beneficial programs, while only using 4% for administrative costs, and 4% on fundraising. Why then, are the proceeds going to a foundation run by two corrupt politicians?
The only decent foundation being donated to is the Yele Haiti Foundation. Despite the mainstream media smear campaign being launched against this foundation, it has been located in Haiti and has proved itself by aiding the country long before the earthquake hit. The foundation also encourages food and clothing donations, as opposed to George W. Bush who is asking you to send only cash. With food and clothing donations it is impossible for any foundation to put the contribution towards administrative costs and other worthless expenses. In sharp contrast, writing the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation a blank check could result in your donation being used quite illegitimately.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
The telethon is loaded with celebrities and popular musicians, begging for you to support the Haitian people. Instead of telling you that your donation may be used to fund other United Nations operations, or that it could be used to pay absurdly high administrative costs, they act as if every cent is going to aid the Haitians. If these foundations were truly concerned about the Haitians, they would accept food and clothing donations. If the foundations were truly honest, they would publicly post every cent that was spent and for what reason. Of course, this is not the case for most of these organizations.
As if the chosen recipients of the donations were not enough to cause some concern, Latin American leaders are now saying that the United States is occupying Haiti militarily. After all, it does seem as if the United States military plans on staying for a while.
“So we’re focused on getting command and control and communications there so that we can really get a better understanding of what’s going on. MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti], as their headquarters partially collapsed, lost a lot of their communication, and so we’re looking to robust that communication, also.” Said General Douglas Fraser, commander of U.S. Southern Command.
“We also are looking at a large-deck amphibious ship with an embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit on it that will be a couple of days behind the USS Vinson. ” He went on to say.
(Defense.gov News Transcript: DOD News Briefing with Gen. Fraser from the Pentagon, January 13, 2010)
It seems that the involvement of the United States in such a direct way is causing not only a stir, but a negative impact on an already chaotic nation. Machete-wielding gangs patrol the streets of Haiti, as U.N. “Peacekeepers” fire rubber bullets into innocent Haitian crowds. What were these men doing that provoked the attack ? They were searching for jobs.
Taking advantage of the American people, and ultimately taking advantage of the Haitian people, is something that takes a lot of apathy towards the suffering that the Haitian people endured. The celebrities involved probably believe they are truly benefiting the Haitian people, but the sad truth is that the telethon is forwarding their proceeds to ruthless businessman that will not use “every cent” to help the Haitians. Donate your money to an organization that is based in Haiti and accepts food donations, as it is the only way to ensure that your dollar is actually reaching the country.
Research related links
1. Gates says no policing role for U.S. troops in Haiti
2. Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
3. IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
4. U.S. Immigration Policy on Haitian Migrants
5. Latin American leaders say US occupying Haiti
6. Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
7. Why Is The US Military Occupying Four Airports In Haiti?
8. Disgusting War Criminals Peddle “Humanitarian” Aid for Haiti
9. Pentagon Parks Secret Prison Ship Off Haiti
10. Delaying aid for a photo-op
11. Chavez and the Russian Fleet: U.S. Used “Earthquake Weapon” On Haiti
12. Food security collapses in Haiti as machete-wielding gangs fight in the streets
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/the-hope-for-haiti-telethon-scam/
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing Organs Without Explicit Consent
Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Explicit Consent
Friday, September 04, 2009
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer
Cass Sunstein speaking at Harvard Law School. (Photo: Matthew W. Hutchins, Harvard Law Record.)
(CNSNews.com) – Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has advocated a policy under which the government would “presume” someone has consented to having his or her organs removed for transplantation into someone else when they die unless that person has explicitly indicated that his or her organs should not be taken.
Under such a policy, hospitals would harvest organs from people who never gave permission for this to be done.
Outlined in the 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness,” Sunstein and co-author Richard H. Thaler argued that the main reason that more people do not donate their organs is because they are required to choose donation.
Sunstein and Thaler pointed out that doctors often must ask the deceased’s family members whether or not their dead relative would have wanted to donate his organs. These family members usually err on the side of caution and refuse to donate their loved one’s organs.
“The major obstacle to increasing [organ] donations is the need to get the consent of surviving family members,” said Sunstein and Thaler.
This problem could be remedied if governments changed the laws for organ donation, they said. Currently, unless a patient has explicitly chosen to be an organ donor, either on his driver’s license or with a donor card, the doctors assume that the person did not want to donate and therefore do not harvest his organs. Thaler and Sunstein called this “explicit consent.”
They argued that this could be remedied if government turned the law around and assumed that, unless people explicitly choose not to, then they want to donate their organs – a doctrine they call “presumed consent.”
“Presumed consent preserves freedom of choice, but it is different from explicit consent because it shifts the default rule. Under this policy, all citizens would be presumed to be consenting donors, but they would have the opportunity to register their unwillingness to donate,” they explained.
The difference between explicit and presumed consent is that under presumed consent, many more people “choose” to be organ donors. Sunstein and Thaler noted that in a 2003 study only 42 percent of people actively chose to be organ donors, while only 18 percent actively opted out when their consent was presumed.
In cases where the deceased’s wishes are unclear, Sunstein and Thaler argued that a “presumed consent” system would make it easier for doctors to convince families to donate their loved one’s organs.
Citing a 2006 study, Thaler and Sunstein wrote: “The next of kin can be approached quite differently when the decedent’s silence is presumed to indicate a decision to donate rather than when it is presumed to indicate a decision not to donate. This shift may make it easier for the family to accept organ donation.”
The problem of the deceased’s family is only one issue, Sunstein and Thaler said, admitting that turning the idea of choice on its head will invariably run into major political problems, but these are problems they say the government can solve through a system of “mandated choice.”
“Another [problem] is that it is a hard sell politically,” wrote Sunstein and Thaler. “More than a few people object to the idea of ‘presuming’ anything when it comes to such a sensitive matter. For these reasons we think that the best choice architecture for organ donations is mandated choice.”
Mandated choice is a process where government forces you to make a decision – in this case, whether to opt out of being an organ donor to get something you need, such as a driver’s license.
“With mandated choice, renewal of your driver’s license would be accompanied by a requirement that you check a box stating your organ donation preferences,” the authors stated. “Your application would not be accepted unless you had checked one of the boxes.”
To ensure that people’s decisions align with the government policy of more organ donors, Sunstein and Thaler counseled that governments should follow the state of Illinois’ example and try to influence people by making organ donation seem popular.
“First, the state stresses the importance of the overall problem (97,000 people [in Illinois] on the waiting list and then brings the problem home, literally (4,700 in Illinois),” they wrote.
“Second, social norms are directly brought into play in a way that build on the power of social influences [peer pressure]: ‘87 percent of adults in Illinois feel that registering as an organ donor is the right thing to do’ and ’60 percent of adults in Illinois are registered,’” they added.
Sunstein and Thaler reminded policymakers that people will generally do what they think others are doing and what they believe others think is right. These presumptions, which almost everyone has, act as powerful factors as policymakers seek to design choices.
“Recall that people like to do what most people think is right to do; recall too that people like to do what most people actually do,” they wrote. “The state is enlisting existing norms in the direction of lifestyle choices.”
Thaler and Sunstein believed that this and other policies are necessary because people don’t really make the best decisions.
“The false assumption is that almost all people, almost all of the time, make choices that are in their best interest or at the very least are better than the choices that would be made [for them] by someone else,” they said.
This means that government “incentives and nudges” should replace “requirements and bans,” they argued.
Neither Sunstein nor Thaler currently are commenting on their book, a spokesman for the publisher, Penguin Group, told CNSNews.com.
In a question-and-answer section on the Amazon.com Web site, Thaler and Sunstein answered a few questions about their book.
When asked what the title “Nudge” means and why people need to be nudged, the authors stated: “By a nudge we mean anything that influences our choices. A school cafeteria might try to nudge kids toward good diets by putting the healthiest foods at front.
“We think that it's time for institutions, including government, to become much more user-friendly by enlisting the science of choice to make life easier for people and by gently nudging them in directions that will make their lives better,” they wrote.
“…The human brain is amazing, but it evolved for specific purposes, such as avoiding predators and finding food,” said Thaler and Sunstein. “Those purposes do not include choosing good credit card plans, reducing harmful pollution, avoiding fatty foods, and planning for a decade or so from now. Fortunately, a few nudges can help a lot. …”
Friday, September 04, 2009
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer
Cass Sunstein speaking at Harvard Law School. (Photo: Matthew W. Hutchins, Harvard Law Record.)
(CNSNews.com) – Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has advocated a policy under which the government would “presume” someone has consented to having his or her organs removed for transplantation into someone else when they die unless that person has explicitly indicated that his or her organs should not be taken.
Under such a policy, hospitals would harvest organs from people who never gave permission for this to be done.
Outlined in the 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness,” Sunstein and co-author Richard H. Thaler argued that the main reason that more people do not donate their organs is because they are required to choose donation.
Sunstein and Thaler pointed out that doctors often must ask the deceased’s family members whether or not their dead relative would have wanted to donate his organs. These family members usually err on the side of caution and refuse to donate their loved one’s organs.
“The major obstacle to increasing [organ] donations is the need to get the consent of surviving family members,” said Sunstein and Thaler.
This problem could be remedied if governments changed the laws for organ donation, they said. Currently, unless a patient has explicitly chosen to be an organ donor, either on his driver’s license or with a donor card, the doctors assume that the person did not want to donate and therefore do not harvest his organs. Thaler and Sunstein called this “explicit consent.”
They argued that this could be remedied if government turned the law around and assumed that, unless people explicitly choose not to, then they want to donate their organs – a doctrine they call “presumed consent.”
“Presumed consent preserves freedom of choice, but it is different from explicit consent because it shifts the default rule. Under this policy, all citizens would be presumed to be consenting donors, but they would have the opportunity to register their unwillingness to donate,” they explained.
The difference between explicit and presumed consent is that under presumed consent, many more people “choose” to be organ donors. Sunstein and Thaler noted that in a 2003 study only 42 percent of people actively chose to be organ donors, while only 18 percent actively opted out when their consent was presumed.
In cases where the deceased’s wishes are unclear, Sunstein and Thaler argued that a “presumed consent” system would make it easier for doctors to convince families to donate their loved one’s organs.
Citing a 2006 study, Thaler and Sunstein wrote: “The next of kin can be approached quite differently when the decedent’s silence is presumed to indicate a decision to donate rather than when it is presumed to indicate a decision not to donate. This shift may make it easier for the family to accept organ donation.”
The problem of the deceased’s family is only one issue, Sunstein and Thaler said, admitting that turning the idea of choice on its head will invariably run into major political problems, but these are problems they say the government can solve through a system of “mandated choice.”
“Another [problem] is that it is a hard sell politically,” wrote Sunstein and Thaler. “More than a few people object to the idea of ‘presuming’ anything when it comes to such a sensitive matter. For these reasons we think that the best choice architecture for organ donations is mandated choice.”
Mandated choice is a process where government forces you to make a decision – in this case, whether to opt out of being an organ donor to get something you need, such as a driver’s license.
“With mandated choice, renewal of your driver’s license would be accompanied by a requirement that you check a box stating your organ donation preferences,” the authors stated. “Your application would not be accepted unless you had checked one of the boxes.”
To ensure that people’s decisions align with the government policy of more organ donors, Sunstein and Thaler counseled that governments should follow the state of Illinois’ example and try to influence people by making organ donation seem popular.
“First, the state stresses the importance of the overall problem (97,000 people [in Illinois] on the waiting list and then brings the problem home, literally (4,700 in Illinois),” they wrote.
“Second, social norms are directly brought into play in a way that build on the power of social influences [peer pressure]: ‘87 percent of adults in Illinois feel that registering as an organ donor is the right thing to do’ and ’60 percent of adults in Illinois are registered,’” they added.
Sunstein and Thaler reminded policymakers that people will generally do what they think others are doing and what they believe others think is right. These presumptions, which almost everyone has, act as powerful factors as policymakers seek to design choices.
“Recall that people like to do what most people think is right to do; recall too that people like to do what most people actually do,” they wrote. “The state is enlisting existing norms in the direction of lifestyle choices.”
Thaler and Sunstein believed that this and other policies are necessary because people don’t really make the best decisions.
“The false assumption is that almost all people, almost all of the time, make choices that are in their best interest or at the very least are better than the choices that would be made [for them] by someone else,” they said.
This means that government “incentives and nudges” should replace “requirements and bans,” they argued.
Neither Sunstein nor Thaler currently are commenting on their book, a spokesman for the publisher, Penguin Group, told CNSNews.com.
In a question-and-answer section on the Amazon.com Web site, Thaler and Sunstein answered a few questions about their book.
When asked what the title “Nudge” means and why people need to be nudged, the authors stated: “By a nudge we mean anything that influences our choices. A school cafeteria might try to nudge kids toward good diets by putting the healthiest foods at front.
“We think that it's time for institutions, including government, to become much more user-friendly by enlisting the science of choice to make life easier for people and by gently nudging them in directions that will make their lives better,” they wrote.
“…The human brain is amazing, but it evolved for specific purposes, such as avoiding predators and finding food,” said Thaler and Sunstein. “Those purposes do not include choosing good credit card plans, reducing harmful pollution, avoiding fatty foods, and planning for a decade or so from now. Fortunately, a few nudges can help a lot. …”
Israelis Have Abducted Hundreds of Palestinian Youth for “Information”
Posted By admin On January 10, 2009 @ 3:08 pm In War on Terror | Comments Disabled
Amin Abu Wardeh
Palestine News Network
January 10, 2009
Hundreds of Palestinians have become the captives of Israeli forces during the current military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset and head of the parliamentary assembly, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, said Friday that the detainees were moved to a military camp northwest of the Israeli city of Beerseba.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Defense Minister, established the detention camp last Sunday.
When PNN first reported the story last week there were approximately 500 Palestinians in four detention camps throughout the Strip, however they have now been moved outside.
Zahalka noted that “most of the detainees are civilians, according to Israeli law.” He said, “The detainees from the Gaza Strip were not considered prisoners of war because they are not part of the regular army.” When the Israeli administration withdrew its settlers and military from inside the Gaza Strip in 2005, it enacted its own law that this meant that the occupation had come to and end. Under international law and the United Nations, the Israeli state remained the occupier. It is through the Israeli law that the status of the Palestinians taken from the Gaza Strip was established.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
Zahalka said that hundreds of families in Gaza who have been searching for their children do not know whether the Israeli army took them or they have been killed. He appealed to the Red Cross and Barak to disclose the names of the imprisoned Palestinians so that families can know the fate of their children.
The MP pointed out that Israeli soldiers are trying to capture the largest possible number of young people in the Gaza Strip in order to obtain information from them through coercion and torture. The Israeli administration is also using extortion and people as bartering tool with the Hamas government, despite the fact that the Israelis have imposed a news blackout on the subject.
There was limited footage shown of an Israeli soldier gingerly leading a row of bound Palestinians that was shot by embedded camera crews. Those are the foreign journalists who were “allowed into the Gaza Strip,” but only in the areas of Israeli ground troops. Foreign journalists are still banned by the Israeli administration from being among the people of the Strip. Another Palestinian journalist, Ala’ Murtaja, was killed last night when Israeli forces targeted a home in Gaza City’s Al Zeitoun neighborhood.
Information that is available indicates that there are hundreds of Palestinians who have been taken from Gaza during this period of attacks. The majority of them are over the age of 16. Again, Zahalka reiterated today, these Palestinians are not being treated as normal prisoners of the occupation of which there are 11,000.
Research related links
1. Israel tells Gazans to brace for war escalation
2. Israeli fire kills four Palestinians in Gaza
3. Israel Admits Harvesting Palestinian Organs
4. Gaza relief boat carrying Cynthia McKinney rammed by Israelis
5. Iranian aid ship to break Israeli siege of Gaza
6. Israel Bombs Palestinian School, Kills 30
7. BBC Video on Dignity, Gaza-bound Humanitarian Ship Rammed by Israelis
8. At least 195 killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza
9. Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release
10. White House Has No Information On Hundreds Of Kidnapped, Executed Americans In Mexico
11. What Do You Know About Gaza?
12. Israel feels hurt by global condemnation
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/israelis-have-abducted-hundreds-of-palestinian-youth-for-information/
Amin Abu Wardeh
Palestine News Network
January 10, 2009
Hundreds of Palestinians have become the captives of Israeli forces during the current military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset and head of the parliamentary assembly, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, said Friday that the detainees were moved to a military camp northwest of the Israeli city of Beerseba.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Defense Minister, established the detention camp last Sunday.
When PNN first reported the story last week there were approximately 500 Palestinians in four detention camps throughout the Strip, however they have now been moved outside.
Zahalka noted that “most of the detainees are civilians, according to Israeli law.” He said, “The detainees from the Gaza Strip were not considered prisoners of war because they are not part of the regular army.” When the Israeli administration withdrew its settlers and military from inside the Gaza Strip in 2005, it enacted its own law that this meant that the occupation had come to and end. Under international law and the United Nations, the Israeli state remained the occupier. It is through the Israeli law that the status of the Palestinians taken from the Gaza Strip was established.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
Zahalka said that hundreds of families in Gaza who have been searching for their children do not know whether the Israeli army took them or they have been killed. He appealed to the Red Cross and Barak to disclose the names of the imprisoned Palestinians so that families can know the fate of their children.
The MP pointed out that Israeli soldiers are trying to capture the largest possible number of young people in the Gaza Strip in order to obtain information from them through coercion and torture. The Israeli administration is also using extortion and people as bartering tool with the Hamas government, despite the fact that the Israelis have imposed a news blackout on the subject.
There was limited footage shown of an Israeli soldier gingerly leading a row of bound Palestinians that was shot by embedded camera crews. Those are the foreign journalists who were “allowed into the Gaza Strip,” but only in the areas of Israeli ground troops. Foreign journalists are still banned by the Israeli administration from being among the people of the Strip. Another Palestinian journalist, Ala’ Murtaja, was killed last night when Israeli forces targeted a home in Gaza City’s Al Zeitoun neighborhood.
Information that is available indicates that there are hundreds of Palestinians who have been taken from Gaza during this period of attacks. The majority of them are over the age of 16. Again, Zahalka reiterated today, these Palestinians are not being treated as normal prisoners of the occupation of which there are 11,000.
Research related links
1. Israel tells Gazans to brace for war escalation
2. Israeli fire kills four Palestinians in Gaza
3. Israel Admits Harvesting Palestinian Organs
4. Gaza relief boat carrying Cynthia McKinney rammed by Israelis
5. Iranian aid ship to break Israeli siege of Gaza
6. Israel Bombs Palestinian School, Kills 30
7. BBC Video on Dignity, Gaza-bound Humanitarian Ship Rammed by Israelis
8. At least 195 killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza
9. Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release
10. White House Has No Information On Hundreds Of Kidnapped, Executed Americans In Mexico
11. What Do You Know About Gaza?
12. Israel feels hurt by global condemnation
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/israelis-have-abducted-hundreds-of-palestinian-youth-for-information/
Israel Admits Harvesting Palestinian Organs
Posted By admin On December 23, 2009 @ 10:38 pm In Featured Stories | Comments Disabled
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 23, 2009
Israel now shares a monstrous distinction with China. It illegally harvests organs from the dead. The former head of Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute has admitted the ghoulish practice, according to a reported published by The New Zealand Herald. Abu Kabir’s forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, primarily Palestinians, without the permission of their families.
Palestinians have feared for many years that Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank and Gaza have targeted them for organ harvest.
In August it was reported by Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest circulation daily, that Israeli troops killed Palestinians specifically to harvest their organs. The report appeared after an American Jew was arrested in the United States for illicit organ trafficking. The story made news in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval libels that Jews killed Christian children for their blood. Daniel Seaman, who heads Israel’s government press office, said the article played on “vile anti-Semitic themes,” according to the Associated Press.
The Swedish newspaper reported that Israeli soldiers targeted Palestinians specifically in order to harvest their organs.
Journalist Donald Bostrom wrote in the article that Palestinians “harbor strong suspicions against Israel for seizing young men and having them serve as the country’s organ reserve – a very serious accusation, with enough question marks to motivate the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to start an investigation about possible war crimes.”
An Israeli official called Bostrom’s story “hate porn” and the American magazine Commentary wrote that the story was “merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of European funded and promoted anti-Israel hate.”
“The fact is, however, that substantiated evidence of public and private organ trafficking and theft, and allegations of worse, have been widely reported for many years. Given such context, the Swedish charges become far more plausible than might otherwise be the case and suggest that an investigation could well turn up significant information,” writes Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew.
The latest accusation was revealed in connection to the Swedish report. The former head of Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr Jehuda Hiss, was interviewed in 2000 by an American academic who released the interview because of the report in Aftonbladet and the denials of the Israeli government. “We started to harvest corneas,” Hiss told the academic. “Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family.”
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
“We’d glue the eyelid shut,” Hiss added. “We wouldn’t take corneas from families we knew would open the eyelids.”
Israel’s Channel 2 TV aired parts of the interview over the weekend.
In addition to corneas, skin, heart valves, and bones were taken from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.
Hiss also said skin was taken from the backs of dead Palestinians and the families of the dead never discovered the theft because they did not examine the bodies before burial. Muslim custom dictates that the deceased be buried as soon as possible after death, avoiding the need for embalming or otherwise disturbing the body.
After the interview aired on television, the Israeli military admitted the macabre practice.
Palestinians have feared for many years that Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank and Gaza have targeted them for organ harvest.
In an article published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affair, Mary Barrett reports on the killings of young Palestinians. Her report contains an interview with Dr. Hatem Abu Ghazalch, the former chief health official for the West Bank under Jordanian administration and director of forensic medicine and autopsies. Barrett asks Ghazalch about “the widespread anxiety over organ thefts which has gripped Gaza and the West Bank since the intifada began in December of 1987.”
“There are indications that for one reason or another, organs, especially eyes and kidneys, were removed from the bodies during the first year or year and a half,” Ghazalch responded. “There were just too many reports by credible people for there to be nothing happening. If someone is shot in the head and comes home in a plastic bag without internal organs, what will people assume?”
In 2000, Nancy Scheper-Huges characterized organ harvesting as a form of modern cannibalism. “Today, China stands alone in continuing the use of organs of executed prisoners for transplant surgery,” she wrote.
Now Israel joins China as an international outlaw in this gruesome practice.
Organ harvesting will now be added to the list of Israel’s war crimes and human rights violations in the Occupied Territories.
Research related links
1. Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing Organs Without Explicit Consent
2. China’s Organ Harvesting Confirmed By a Former Detention Center Prisoner
3. Pig organs ‘available to patients in a decade’
4. Israelis Have Abducted Hundreds of Palestinian Youth for “Information”
5. Israel admits Binyamin Netanyahu’s secret trip to Moscow
6. Israel hopes to colonize parts of Iraq as “Greater Israel”
7. Israel Says Military Strike on Iran Still ‘On the Table’
8. Israel Bombs Palestinian School, Kills 30
9. Israel wants law of war changed
10. Israel to go to war with Iran hours after order
11. Finding Obama Guilty of Insufficient Devotion to Israel
12. Israel begins “Doomsday” Drill
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/israel-admits-harvesting-palestinian-organs/
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 23, 2009
Israel now shares a monstrous distinction with China. It illegally harvests organs from the dead. The former head of Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute has admitted the ghoulish practice, according to a reported published by The New Zealand Herald. Abu Kabir’s forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, primarily Palestinians, without the permission of their families.
Palestinians have feared for many years that Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank and Gaza have targeted them for organ harvest.
In August it was reported by Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest circulation daily, that Israeli troops killed Palestinians specifically to harvest their organs. The report appeared after an American Jew was arrested in the United States for illicit organ trafficking. The story made news in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval libels that Jews killed Christian children for their blood. Daniel Seaman, who heads Israel’s government press office, said the article played on “vile anti-Semitic themes,” according to the Associated Press.
The Swedish newspaper reported that Israeli soldiers targeted Palestinians specifically in order to harvest their organs.
Journalist Donald Bostrom wrote in the article that Palestinians “harbor strong suspicions against Israel for seizing young men and having them serve as the country’s organ reserve – a very serious accusation, with enough question marks to motivate the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to start an investigation about possible war crimes.”
An Israeli official called Bostrom’s story “hate porn” and the American magazine Commentary wrote that the story was “merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of European funded and promoted anti-Israel hate.”
“The fact is, however, that substantiated evidence of public and private organ trafficking and theft, and allegations of worse, have been widely reported for many years. Given such context, the Swedish charges become far more plausible than might otherwise be the case and suggest that an investigation could well turn up significant information,” writes Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew.
The latest accusation was revealed in connection to the Swedish report. The former head of Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr Jehuda Hiss, was interviewed in 2000 by an American academic who released the interview because of the report in Aftonbladet and the denials of the Israeli government. “We started to harvest corneas,” Hiss told the academic. “Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family.”
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
“We’d glue the eyelid shut,” Hiss added. “We wouldn’t take corneas from families we knew would open the eyelids.”
Israel’s Channel 2 TV aired parts of the interview over the weekend.
In addition to corneas, skin, heart valves, and bones were taken from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.
Hiss also said skin was taken from the backs of dead Palestinians and the families of the dead never discovered the theft because they did not examine the bodies before burial. Muslim custom dictates that the deceased be buried as soon as possible after death, avoiding the need for embalming or otherwise disturbing the body.
After the interview aired on television, the Israeli military admitted the macabre practice.
Palestinians have feared for many years that Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank and Gaza have targeted them for organ harvest.
In an article published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affair, Mary Barrett reports on the killings of young Palestinians. Her report contains an interview with Dr. Hatem Abu Ghazalch, the former chief health official for the West Bank under Jordanian administration and director of forensic medicine and autopsies. Barrett asks Ghazalch about “the widespread anxiety over organ thefts which has gripped Gaza and the West Bank since the intifada began in December of 1987.”
“There are indications that for one reason or another, organs, especially eyes and kidneys, were removed from the bodies during the first year or year and a half,” Ghazalch responded. “There were just too many reports by credible people for there to be nothing happening. If someone is shot in the head and comes home in a plastic bag without internal organs, what will people assume?”
In 2000, Nancy Scheper-Huges characterized organ harvesting as a form of modern cannibalism. “Today, China stands alone in continuing the use of organs of executed prisoners for transplant surgery,” she wrote.
Now Israel joins China as an international outlaw in this gruesome practice.
Organ harvesting will now be added to the list of Israel’s war crimes and human rights violations in the Occupied Territories.
Research related links
1. Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing Organs Without Explicit Consent
2. China’s Organ Harvesting Confirmed By a Former Detention Center Prisoner
3. Pig organs ‘available to patients in a decade’
4. Israelis Have Abducted Hundreds of Palestinian Youth for “Information”
5. Israel admits Binyamin Netanyahu’s secret trip to Moscow
6. Israel hopes to colonize parts of Iraq as “Greater Israel”
7. Israel Says Military Strike on Iran Still ‘On the Table’
8. Israel Bombs Palestinian School, Kills 30
9. Israel wants law of war changed
10. Israel to go to war with Iran hours after order
11. Finding Obama Guilty of Insufficient Devotion to Israel
12. Israel begins “Doomsday” Drill
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/israel-admits-harvesting-palestinian-organs/
Activist: Watch Out For IDF Stealing Organs In Haiti
Posted By admin On January 20, 2010 @ 9:36 am In Featured Stories | 114 Comments
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Black rights activist T. West of AfriSynergy Productions warns that people need to be aware of the tragedy in Haiti being exploited by nefarious groups for their own gain, including Israel, who have admittedly stolen organs from dead Palestinians in the past.
West highlighted a CNN news clip as evidence of how the media is promoting the Israeli relief efforts in Haiti as second to none. Though praising the Israelis for their support for the victims and outstanding medical facilities, West warned that there were “personalities who are out for money” operating in Haiti with no monitoring of their activities.
“It is good that the IDF and others are helping there, but everywhere there is death, there are exploiters. There needs to be transparency in Haiti,” West told YNet News in an interview.
“The Haitian people must watch out for their citizens,” said West, highlighting past cases of IDF stealing organs from Palestinians.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
Last month, the London Guardian reported on the admission of Dr Yehuda Hiss, the former head of Israel’s forensic institute, who stated that the organs of Palestinians were harvested without consent from family members. This followed a controversy after a Swedish newspaper reported that Palestinians were deliberately being abducted and killed by Israeli Defense Forces so their organs could be harvested and sold.
“The U.S. media are quick to talk about people who are stealing, people who are looting in Haiti….so be aware of this, be aware and be cautious of international groups and certainly individuals within those groups who are out for money and to earn money off of your tragedy,” said West.
West also said that musician Wyclef Jean was being demonized by the media because he was promoting methods of donating to charity where the money actually goes to victims and doesn’t get swallowed up by giant transnational charities who have been caught stealing money before.
“Jean Wyclef’s name, as is so often done with Black people, is being maligned in the media. Wyclef is a native of Haiti and is using his influence in the entertainment industry to bring assistance to the Haitian people,” wrote West.
In subsequent videos, West addressed those who attacked him for warning about the potential misdeeds of the IDF, saying, “These individuals are of the Zionist persuasion, they will go all out to defend Israel and the dirty things that the IDF do.”
Watch the You Tube clips below.
Research related links
1. Israel Admits Harvesting Palestinian Organs
2. IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
3. Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
4. Gates says no policing role for U.S. troops in Haiti
5. Pig organs ‘available to patients in a decade’
6. Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing Organs Without Explicit Consent
7. Disgusting War Criminals Peddle “Humanitarian” Aid for Haiti
8. Investigation Launched Into Vote Stealing in Texas
9. Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
10. Haiti: Gutters running blood
11. US accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in
12. The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/activist-watch-out-for-idf-stealing-organs-in-haiti/
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Black rights activist T. West of AfriSynergy Productions warns that people need to be aware of the tragedy in Haiti being exploited by nefarious groups for their own gain, including Israel, who have admittedly stolen organs from dead Palestinians in the past.
West highlighted a CNN news clip as evidence of how the media is promoting the Israeli relief efforts in Haiti as second to none. Though praising the Israelis for their support for the victims and outstanding medical facilities, West warned that there were “personalities who are out for money” operating in Haiti with no monitoring of their activities.
“It is good that the IDF and others are helping there, but everywhere there is death, there are exploiters. There needs to be transparency in Haiti,” West told YNet News in an interview.
“The Haitian people must watch out for their citizens,” said West, highlighting past cases of IDF stealing organs from Palestinians.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
Last month, the London Guardian reported on the admission of Dr Yehuda Hiss, the former head of Israel’s forensic institute, who stated that the organs of Palestinians were harvested without consent from family members. This followed a controversy after a Swedish newspaper reported that Palestinians were deliberately being abducted and killed by Israeli Defense Forces so their organs could be harvested and sold.
“The U.S. media are quick to talk about people who are stealing, people who are looting in Haiti….so be aware of this, be aware and be cautious of international groups and certainly individuals within those groups who are out for money and to earn money off of your tragedy,” said West.
West also said that musician Wyclef Jean was being demonized by the media because he was promoting methods of donating to charity where the money actually goes to victims and doesn’t get swallowed up by giant transnational charities who have been caught stealing money before.
“Jean Wyclef’s name, as is so often done with Black people, is being maligned in the media. Wyclef is a native of Haiti and is using his influence in the entertainment industry to bring assistance to the Haitian people,” wrote West.
In subsequent videos, West addressed those who attacked him for warning about the potential misdeeds of the IDF, saying, “These individuals are of the Zionist persuasion, they will go all out to defend Israel and the dirty things that the IDF do.”
Watch the You Tube clips below.
Research related links
1. Israel Admits Harvesting Palestinian Organs
2. IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
3. Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
4. Gates says no policing role for U.S. troops in Haiti
5. Pig organs ‘available to patients in a decade’
6. Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing Organs Without Explicit Consent
7. Disgusting War Criminals Peddle “Humanitarian” Aid for Haiti
8. Investigation Launched Into Vote Stealing in Texas
9. Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
10. Haiti: Gutters running blood
11. US accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in
12. The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/activist-watch-out-for-idf-stealing-organs-in-haiti/
Iran Calls for End to U.S. Dollar Hegemony
Posted By admin On January 20, 2010 @ 12:36 pm In Iran | 17 Comments
Press TV
January 20, 2010
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says adopting regional approaches can ensure sustainable security and stability in the Caucasus region.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
In a Wednesday meeting with former Armenian president Robert Kocharian in Tehran, Mottaki highlighted the age-old relations between Iran and Armenia and stressed the importance of maintaining calm in the Caucasus.
“The stability and security of the Caucasus must be strengthened with regional approaches.”
“The interests of regional countries are served by strategic approaches that resolve regional woes and crises in the Caucasus region and guarantee sustainable security there,” Mottaki was quoted as saying.
The senior Iranian diplomat added that faulty economic systems were to blame for the global economic recession.
“This [global economic] crisis revealed that the approaches based on post-WWII theories are no longer applicable and world countries by adopting new economic policies must lessen the role US dollar in transactions as well as their dependence on international monetary organizations.”
Kocharian, for his part, pointed to the relations between Iran and Armenia, saying, “We will make every effort to expand relations with Iran.”
He went on to describe the presence of foreign troops in the Caucasus as harmful to the security and stability of regional states, adding that regional approaches are the best solution for development and stability.
Research related links
1. Iranian Foreign Minister visits Georgia
2. Iran’s Foreign Minister: Probe Israel’s Nukes
3. Gulf petro-powers to launch currency in latest threat to dollar hegemony
4. Iran to completely drop dollar from foreign exchange
5. Iran urges ECO to drop dollar
6. Obama Tells G-20 Iran Has Secret Nuke Facility
7. China calls for end to ‘force’ against Iran
8. Iran demands UK accountability for Afghan drug problem
9. ‘US wants to turn Yemen into another Afghanistan’
10. U.S. calls Iran missile tests “provocative”
11. Gates: Arab Allies Should Not Worry About Possible US-Iran Rapprochement
12. US extends sanctions against Iran
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/iran-calls-for-end-to-u-s-dollar-hegemony/
Press TV
January 20, 2010
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says adopting regional approaches can ensure sustainable security and stability in the Caucasus region.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
In a Wednesday meeting with former Armenian president Robert Kocharian in Tehran, Mottaki highlighted the age-old relations between Iran and Armenia and stressed the importance of maintaining calm in the Caucasus.
“The stability and security of the Caucasus must be strengthened with regional approaches.”
“The interests of regional countries are served by strategic approaches that resolve regional woes and crises in the Caucasus region and guarantee sustainable security there,” Mottaki was quoted as saying.
The senior Iranian diplomat added that faulty economic systems were to blame for the global economic recession.
“This [global economic] crisis revealed that the approaches based on post-WWII theories are no longer applicable and world countries by adopting new economic policies must lessen the role US dollar in transactions as well as their dependence on international monetary organizations.”
Kocharian, for his part, pointed to the relations between Iran and Armenia, saying, “We will make every effort to expand relations with Iran.”
He went on to describe the presence of foreign troops in the Caucasus as harmful to the security and stability of regional states, adding that regional approaches are the best solution for development and stability.
Research related links
1. Iranian Foreign Minister visits Georgia
2. Iran’s Foreign Minister: Probe Israel’s Nukes
3. Gulf petro-powers to launch currency in latest threat to dollar hegemony
4. Iran to completely drop dollar from foreign exchange
5. Iran urges ECO to drop dollar
6. Obama Tells G-20 Iran Has Secret Nuke Facility
7. China calls for end to ‘force’ against Iran
8. Iran demands UK accountability for Afghan drug problem
9. ‘US wants to turn Yemen into another Afghanistan’
10. U.S. calls Iran missile tests “provocative”
11. Gates: Arab Allies Should Not Worry About Possible US-Iran Rapprochement
12. US extends sanctions against Iran
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/iran-calls-for-end-to-u-s-dollar-hegemony/
Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
Cynthia McKinney
Global Research
January 20, 2010
President Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working–saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.
The United States, on the day after the tragedy struck, confirmed that an entire Marine Expeditionary Force was being considered “to help restore order,” when the “disorder” had been caused by an earthquake striking Haiti; not since 1751, 1770, 1842, 1860, and 1887 had Haiti experienced an earthquake. But, I remember the bogus reports of chaos and violence the led to the deployment of military assets, including Blackwater, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One Katrina survivor noted that the people needed food and shelter and the U.S. government sent men with guns. Much to my disquiet, it seems, here we go again. From the very beginning, U.S. assistance to Haiti has looked to me more like an invasion than a humanitarian relief operation.
On Day Two of the tragedy, a C-130 plane with a military assessment team landed in Haiti, with the rest of the team expected to land soon thereafter. The stated purpose of this team was to determine what military resources were needed.
An Air Force special operations team was also expected to land to provide air traffic control. Now, the reports are that the U.S. is not allowing assistance in, shades of Hurricane Katrina, all over again.
On President Obama’s orders military aircraft “flew over the island, mapping the destruction.” So, the first U.S. contribution to the humanitarian relief needed in Haiti were reconnaissance drones whose staffing are more accustomed to looking for hidden weapon sites and surface-to-air missile batteries than wrecked infrastructure. The scope of the U.S. response soon became clear: aircraft carrer, Marine transport ship, four C-140 airlifts, and evacuations to Guantanamo. By the end of Day Two, according to the Washington Post report, the United States had evacuated to Guantanamo Bay about eight [8] severely injured patients, in addition to U.S. Embassy staffers, who had been “designated as priorities by the U.S. Ambassador and his staff.”
On Day Three we learned that other U.S. ships, including destroyers, were moving toward Haiti. Interestingly, the Washington Post reported that the standing task force that coordinates the U.S. response to mass migration events from Cuba or Haiti was monitoring events, but had not yet ramped up its operations. That tidbit was interesting in and of itself, that those two countries are attended to by a standing task force, but the treatment of their nationals is vastly different, with Cubans being awarded immediate acceptance from the U.S. government, and by contrast, internment for Haitian nationals.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson IV reassured Americans, “Our focus right now is to prevent that, and we are going to work with the Defense Department, the State Department, FEMA and all the agencies of the federal government to minimize the risk of Haitians who want to flee their country,” Watson said. “We want to provide them those releif supplies so they can live in Haiti.”
By the end of Day Four, the U.S. reportedly had evacuated over 800 U.S. nationals.
For those of us who have been following events in Haiti before the tragic earthquake, it is worth noting that several items have caused deep concern:
1. the continued exile of Haiti’s democratically-elected and well-loved, yet twice-removed former priest, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide;
2. the unexplained continued occupation of the country by United Nations troops who have killed innocent Haitians and are hardly there for “security” (I’ve personally seen them on the roads that only lead to Haiti’s sparsely-populated areas teeming with beautiful beaches);
3. U.S. construction of its fifth-largest embassy in the world in Port-au-Prince, Haiti;
4. mining and port licenses and contracts, including the privatization of Haiti’s deep water ports, because certain off-shore oil and transshipment arrangements would not be possible inside the U.S. for environmental and other considerations; and
5. Extensive foreign NGO presence in Haiti that could be rendered unnecessary if, instead, appropriate U.S. and other government policy allowed the Haitian people some modicum of political and economic self-determination.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
Therefore, we note here the writings of Ms. Marguerite Laurent, whom I met in her capacity as attorney for ousted President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ms. Laurent reminds us of Haiti’s offshore oil and other mineral riches and recent revivial of an old idea to use Haiti and an oil refinery to be built there as a transshipment terminal for U.S. supertankers. Ms. Laurent, also known as Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), writes:
“There is evidence that the United States found oil in Haiti decades ago and due to the geopolitical circumstances and big business interests of that era made the decision to keep Haitian oil in reserve for when Middle Eastern oil had dried up. This is detailed by Dr. Georges Michel in an article dated March 27, 2004 outlining the history of oil explorations and oil reserves in Haiti and in the research of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin.
“There is also good evidence that these very same big US oil companies and their inter-related monopolies of engineering and defense contractors made plans, decades ago, to use Haiti’s deep water ports either for oil refineries or to develop oil tank farm sites or depots where crude oil could be stored and later transferred to small tankers to serve U.S. and Caribbean ports. This is detailed in a paper about the Dunn Plantation at Fort Liberte in Haiti.
“Ezili’s HLLN underlines these two papers on Haiti’s oil resources and the works of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin in order to provide a view one will not find in the mainstream media nor anywhere else as to the economic and strategic reasons the US has constructed its fifth largest embassy in the world – fifth only besides the US embassy in China, Iraq, Iran and Germany – in tiny Haiti, post the 2004 Haiti Bush regime change.”
Unfortunately, before the tragedy struck, and despite pleading to the Administration by Haiti activists inside the United States, President Obama failed to stop the deportation of Haitians inside the United States and failed to grant TPS, temporary protected status, to Haitians inside the U.S. in peril of being deported due to visa expirations. That was corrected on Day Three of Haiti’s earthquake tragedy with the January 15, 2010 announcement that Haiti would join Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, El Salvador, and Sudan as a country granted TPS by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
President Obama’s appointment of President Bush to the Haiti relief effort is a swift left jab to the face, in my opinion. After President Bush’s performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the fact that still today, Hurricane Katrina survivors who want to return still have not been provided a way back home, the appointment might augur well for fundraising activities, but I doubt that it bodes well for the Haitian people. Afterall, the coup against and the kidnapping of President Aristide occurred under the watch of a Bush Presidency.
Finally, those with an appreciation of French literature know that among France’s most beloved authors are Alexandre Dumas, son of a Haitian slave, and Victor Hugo who wrote: “Haiti est une lumiere.” [Haiti is a light.] Indeed, Haiti for millions is a light: light into the methodology and evil of slavery; light into a successful slave rebellion, light into nationhood and notions of liberty, the rights of man, and of human dignity. Haiti is a light. And an example that makes the enemies of black liberation tremble. It is precisely because of Haiti’s light into the evil genius of some individuals who wield power over others and man’s ability, through unity and purpose, to overcome that evil, that some segments of the world have been at war with Haiti ever since 1804, the year of Haiti’s creation as a Republic.
I’m not surprised at “Reverend” Pat Robertson’s racist vitriol. Robertson’s comments mirror, exactly, statements made by Napoleon’s Cabinet when the Haitians defeated them. But in 2010, Robertson’s statements reveal much more: Haitians are not the only ones who know their importance to the struggle against hatred, imperialism, and European domination.
This pesky, persistent, stubbornly non-Western, proudly African people of this piece of land that we call Haiti know their history and they know that they militarily defeated the ruling world empire of the day, Napoleon’s France, and the global elite at that time who supported him. They know that they defeated the armies of England and Spain.
Haitians know that they used their status as a free state to help liberate Latin Americans from Spain, by funding and fighting alongside Simon Bolivar; their example inspired their still-enslaved African brothers and sisters on the American mainland; and before Haitians were even free, they fought against the British inside the U.S. during its war of independence and won a decisive battle in Savannah, Georgia, where I have visited the statue commemorating that victory.
Haitians know that France imposed reparations on them for being free, and Haiti paid them in full, but that President Aristide called for France to give that money back ($21 billion in 2003 dollars).
Haitians know that their “brother,” then-Secretary of State Colin Powell lied to the world upon the kidnapping and second ouster of their President. (Sadly, it wouldn’t be the last time that Secretary of State Colin Powell would lie to the world.) Haitians know, all-too-well, that high-ranking blacks in the United States are capable of helping them and of betraying them.
Haitians know, too, that the United States has installed its political proxies and even its own soldiers onto Haitian soil when the U.S. felt it was necessary. All in an effort to control the indomitable Haitian spirit that directs much-needed light to the rest of the oppressed world.
While the tears of the people of Haiti swell in my own eyes, and I remember their tremendous capacity for love, my broken heart and wet eyes don’t dampen my ability to understand the grave danger that now faces my friends in Haiti.
I shudder to think that the “rollback” policies believed in by some foreign policy advisors to President Obama could use a prolonged U.S. military presence in Haiti as a springboard for rollback of areas in Latin America that have liberated themselves from U.S. neo-colonial domination. I would hate to think that this would even be attempted under the Presidency of Barack Obama. All of us must have our eyes wide open on Haiti and other parts of the world now dripping in blood as a result of the relentless onward march of the U.S. military machine.
So, on this remembrance of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I note that it was the U.S. government’s own illegal Operation Lantern Spike that snuffed out the promise and light of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the U.S. military (so far from CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brazil, France, Italy, and even the U.S. Red Cross)–as was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina–and the expected arrival on this very day of up to 10,000 U.S. troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.
Research related links
1. Gates says no policing role for U.S. troops in Haiti
2. Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
3. IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
4. Doctor admits euthanizing patients during Katrina
5. Disgusting War Criminals Peddle “Humanitarian” Aid for Haiti
6. New Orleans-Area Residents ‘Vindicated’ by Katrina Ruling Against Army Corps of Engineers
7. Activist: Watch Out For IDF Stealing Organs In Haiti
8. Gustav Economic Impact Worse than Katrina
9. US accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in
10. Food security collapses in Haiti as machete-wielding gangs fight in the streets
11. The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
12. The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/haiti-an-unwelcome-katrina-redux/
Global Research
January 20, 2010
President Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working–saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.
The United States, on the day after the tragedy struck, confirmed that an entire Marine Expeditionary Force was being considered “to help restore order,” when the “disorder” had been caused by an earthquake striking Haiti; not since 1751, 1770, 1842, 1860, and 1887 had Haiti experienced an earthquake. But, I remember the bogus reports of chaos and violence the led to the deployment of military assets, including Blackwater, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One Katrina survivor noted that the people needed food and shelter and the U.S. government sent men with guns. Much to my disquiet, it seems, here we go again. From the very beginning, U.S. assistance to Haiti has looked to me more like an invasion than a humanitarian relief operation.
On Day Two of the tragedy, a C-130 plane with a military assessment team landed in Haiti, with the rest of the team expected to land soon thereafter. The stated purpose of this team was to determine what military resources were needed.
An Air Force special operations team was also expected to land to provide air traffic control. Now, the reports are that the U.S. is not allowing assistance in, shades of Hurricane Katrina, all over again.
On President Obama’s orders military aircraft “flew over the island, mapping the destruction.” So, the first U.S. contribution to the humanitarian relief needed in Haiti were reconnaissance drones whose staffing are more accustomed to looking for hidden weapon sites and surface-to-air missile batteries than wrecked infrastructure. The scope of the U.S. response soon became clear: aircraft carrer, Marine transport ship, four C-140 airlifts, and evacuations to Guantanamo. By the end of Day Two, according to the Washington Post report, the United States had evacuated to Guantanamo Bay about eight [8] severely injured patients, in addition to U.S. Embassy staffers, who had been “designated as priorities by the U.S. Ambassador and his staff.”
On Day Three we learned that other U.S. ships, including destroyers, were moving toward Haiti. Interestingly, the Washington Post reported that the standing task force that coordinates the U.S. response to mass migration events from Cuba or Haiti was monitoring events, but had not yet ramped up its operations. That tidbit was interesting in and of itself, that those two countries are attended to by a standing task force, but the treatment of their nationals is vastly different, with Cubans being awarded immediate acceptance from the U.S. government, and by contrast, internment for Haitian nationals.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson IV reassured Americans, “Our focus right now is to prevent that, and we are going to work with the Defense Department, the State Department, FEMA and all the agencies of the federal government to minimize the risk of Haitians who want to flee their country,” Watson said. “We want to provide them those releif supplies so they can live in Haiti.”
By the end of Day Four, the U.S. reportedly had evacuated over 800 U.S. nationals.
For those of us who have been following events in Haiti before the tragic earthquake, it is worth noting that several items have caused deep concern:
1. the continued exile of Haiti’s democratically-elected and well-loved, yet twice-removed former priest, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide;
2. the unexplained continued occupation of the country by United Nations troops who have killed innocent Haitians and are hardly there for “security” (I’ve personally seen them on the roads that only lead to Haiti’s sparsely-populated areas teeming with beautiful beaches);
3. U.S. construction of its fifth-largest embassy in the world in Port-au-Prince, Haiti;
4. mining and port licenses and contracts, including the privatization of Haiti’s deep water ports, because certain off-shore oil and transshipment arrangements would not be possible inside the U.S. for environmental and other considerations; and
5. Extensive foreign NGO presence in Haiti that could be rendered unnecessary if, instead, appropriate U.S. and other government policy allowed the Haitian people some modicum of political and economic self-determination.
* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*
Therefore, we note here the writings of Ms. Marguerite Laurent, whom I met in her capacity as attorney for ousted President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ms. Laurent reminds us of Haiti’s offshore oil and other mineral riches and recent revivial of an old idea to use Haiti and an oil refinery to be built there as a transshipment terminal for U.S. supertankers. Ms. Laurent, also known as Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), writes:
“There is evidence that the United States found oil in Haiti decades ago and due to the geopolitical circumstances and big business interests of that era made the decision to keep Haitian oil in reserve for when Middle Eastern oil had dried up. This is detailed by Dr. Georges Michel in an article dated March 27, 2004 outlining the history of oil explorations and oil reserves in Haiti and in the research of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin.
“There is also good evidence that these very same big US oil companies and their inter-related monopolies of engineering and defense contractors made plans, decades ago, to use Haiti’s deep water ports either for oil refineries or to develop oil tank farm sites or depots where crude oil could be stored and later transferred to small tankers to serve U.S. and Caribbean ports. This is detailed in a paper about the Dunn Plantation at Fort Liberte in Haiti.
“Ezili’s HLLN underlines these two papers on Haiti’s oil resources and the works of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin in order to provide a view one will not find in the mainstream media nor anywhere else as to the economic and strategic reasons the US has constructed its fifth largest embassy in the world – fifth only besides the US embassy in China, Iraq, Iran and Germany – in tiny Haiti, post the 2004 Haiti Bush regime change.”
Unfortunately, before the tragedy struck, and despite pleading to the Administration by Haiti activists inside the United States, President Obama failed to stop the deportation of Haitians inside the United States and failed to grant TPS, temporary protected status, to Haitians inside the U.S. in peril of being deported due to visa expirations. That was corrected on Day Three of Haiti’s earthquake tragedy with the January 15, 2010 announcement that Haiti would join Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, El Salvador, and Sudan as a country granted TPS by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
President Obama’s appointment of President Bush to the Haiti relief effort is a swift left jab to the face, in my opinion. After President Bush’s performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the fact that still today, Hurricane Katrina survivors who want to return still have not been provided a way back home, the appointment might augur well for fundraising activities, but I doubt that it bodes well for the Haitian people. Afterall, the coup against and the kidnapping of President Aristide occurred under the watch of a Bush Presidency.
Finally, those with an appreciation of French literature know that among France’s most beloved authors are Alexandre Dumas, son of a Haitian slave, and Victor Hugo who wrote: “Haiti est une lumiere.” [Haiti is a light.] Indeed, Haiti for millions is a light: light into the methodology and evil of slavery; light into a successful slave rebellion, light into nationhood and notions of liberty, the rights of man, and of human dignity. Haiti is a light. And an example that makes the enemies of black liberation tremble. It is precisely because of Haiti’s light into the evil genius of some individuals who wield power over others and man’s ability, through unity and purpose, to overcome that evil, that some segments of the world have been at war with Haiti ever since 1804, the year of Haiti’s creation as a Republic.
I’m not surprised at “Reverend” Pat Robertson’s racist vitriol. Robertson’s comments mirror, exactly, statements made by Napoleon’s Cabinet when the Haitians defeated them. But in 2010, Robertson’s statements reveal much more: Haitians are not the only ones who know their importance to the struggle against hatred, imperialism, and European domination.
This pesky, persistent, stubbornly non-Western, proudly African people of this piece of land that we call Haiti know their history and they know that they militarily defeated the ruling world empire of the day, Napoleon’s France, and the global elite at that time who supported him. They know that they defeated the armies of England and Spain.
Haitians know that they used their status as a free state to help liberate Latin Americans from Spain, by funding and fighting alongside Simon Bolivar; their example inspired their still-enslaved African brothers and sisters on the American mainland; and before Haitians were even free, they fought against the British inside the U.S. during its war of independence and won a decisive battle in Savannah, Georgia, where I have visited the statue commemorating that victory.
Haitians know that France imposed reparations on them for being free, and Haiti paid them in full, but that President Aristide called for France to give that money back ($21 billion in 2003 dollars).
Haitians know that their “brother,” then-Secretary of State Colin Powell lied to the world upon the kidnapping and second ouster of their President. (Sadly, it wouldn’t be the last time that Secretary of State Colin Powell would lie to the world.) Haitians know, all-too-well, that high-ranking blacks in the United States are capable of helping them and of betraying them.
Haitians know, too, that the United States has installed its political proxies and even its own soldiers onto Haitian soil when the U.S. felt it was necessary. All in an effort to control the indomitable Haitian spirit that directs much-needed light to the rest of the oppressed world.
While the tears of the people of Haiti swell in my own eyes, and I remember their tremendous capacity for love, my broken heart and wet eyes don’t dampen my ability to understand the grave danger that now faces my friends in Haiti.
I shudder to think that the “rollback” policies believed in by some foreign policy advisors to President Obama could use a prolonged U.S. military presence in Haiti as a springboard for rollback of areas in Latin America that have liberated themselves from U.S. neo-colonial domination. I would hate to think that this would even be attempted under the Presidency of Barack Obama. All of us must have our eyes wide open on Haiti and other parts of the world now dripping in blood as a result of the relentless onward march of the U.S. military machine.
So, on this remembrance of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I note that it was the U.S. government’s own illegal Operation Lantern Spike that snuffed out the promise and light of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the U.S. military (so far from CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brazil, France, Italy, and even the U.S. Red Cross)–as was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina–and the expected arrival on this very day of up to 10,000 U.S. troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.
Research related links
1. Gates says no policing role for U.S. troops in Haiti
2. Abortion Practitioner to Haiti: “Stew in Your Own Juices” for Having High Population
3. IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
4. Doctor admits euthanizing patients during Katrina
5. Disgusting War Criminals Peddle “Humanitarian” Aid for Haiti
6. New Orleans-Area Residents ‘Vindicated’ by Katrina Ruling Against Army Corps of Engineers
7. Activist: Watch Out For IDF Stealing Organs In Haiti
8. Gustav Economic Impact Worse than Katrina
9. US accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in
10. Food security collapses in Haiti as machete-wielding gangs fight in the streets
11. The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
12. The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/haiti-an-unwelcome-katrina-redux/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)