Researched by Kat Pat Crespan and Erica Elkington

Iraq Veterans Against the War brought together more than 300 war veterans on March 13-16, 2008 to discuss soldiers’ actions and the impact of the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. At the “Winter Soldier” event, dozens veterans publicly testified about crimes they committed during the course of battle — many of which were prompted by the orders or policies set down by superior officers. Some international law experts say the soldiers’ statements show the need for investigations into potential violations of international law by high-ranking officials in the Bush administration and the Pentagon. The event was designed to demonstrate that well-publicized incidents of US brutality, including the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha, are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “a few bad apples,” as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the organizers said, of “an increasingly bloody occupation.” Though BBC predicted that this event would dominate international news, there was a near total back out on this historic news event by the US corporate media.

In June 2007 The Nation also published interviews of 50 Iraq vets in a comprehensive investigation into the effects of the occupation on Iraqi civilians.

“Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan— Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations”
Live Broadcast Pacifica Radio. March 14-16, 2008,
http://warcomeshome.org/wintersoldier2008

“US Soldiers ‘Testify’ About War Crimes” Aaron Glantz, One World.net, 3/19/2008
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/19/7763/

“Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News?” FAIR, 3/19/08
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3318

“The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness” Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, The Nation, 7/30/2007
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges

#188 InfraGard

Researched by Chris Armanino and Sarah Maddox

More than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect information on individuals. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public, and at times before elected officials. In return they provide information to the government. The ACLU warns, “There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations—some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers—into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI.” Aside from information sharing, members are expected to assist the government when martial law is declared. “They’re very much looped into our readiness capability,” says DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. According to more than one interviewed member they have permission to shoot to kill in the event of martial law without fear of prosecution. As of late January 2008, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, www.infragard.net, which adds that, “350 of our nation’s Fortune 500 have representatives in InfraGard.”

“Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business” Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, 2/7/2008
http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308

#104 Chertoff Waives All Laws for Border Construction

Researched by Josh Argyle

Outrage is mounting as construction of the US-Mexico border wall moves forward, destroying all homes, schools, businesses, ecosystems as well as family, social and business connections in its path. In response to protest and legal actions, Chief of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff is using the power granted him in the Real ID Act of 2005 to waive all laws that might slow barrier construction. According to the Congressional Research Service, this grant of phenomenal power is unprecedented: It gives an unelected, political appointee —Chertoff—sole discretion to ignore all federal laws. In 2005, when environmental groups opposed wall construction through a delicate San Diego estuary, Chertoff waived the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Clean Water Act, National Wildlife Refuge Act, the Federal Water Pollution Act, and other statutes. Chertoff again used his exemption in Yuma, Arizona, in January 2007. In October 2007 he suspended nineteen laws that stood in the way of a two-mile section of border fence through a national conservation area in Arizona. He is currently threatening the same in southern Texas. No judicial review of Chertoff’s decisions is permitted—except for alleged constitutional violation, a route lawyers say has yet to be tried.

“The Border Fence Will Wreck the Environment and Destroy Families” Mary Jo McConahay, Texas Observer, 10/27/2007
http://www.alternet.org/environment/62137/?page=entire

“A ‘Real’ Battle Over the Border Wall” Texas Observer, 11/8/2007
http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/index.php/2007/11/08/a-real-battle-over-the-border-wall/

#205 Holes in the Border Wall (link to #104)

Researched by Sarah Maddox

Department of Homeland Security is not answering questions of why the US-Mexico fence is bypassing properties of the wealthy and politically connected. As the DHS files eminent domain lawsuits to evict homeowners and public entities (such as City and State parks and universities), local residents are questioning the justification for their sacrifice, and just how secure this fence can be, given all the “gaps” for the affluent. One condemned property borders that of billionaire Ray L. Hunt, of one of the wealthiest oil and gas dynasties in the world, and a major donor to some of Bush’s pet projects. The wall stops at Hunt’s 6,000-acre property of exclusive gated communities and a 1,800-acre business park.  At another point the wall stops at the edge a popular Winter retreat and golf course, and starts up again at its other side. The Secure Border Initiative contract awarded to Boeing (one of Washington’s biggest political contributors to both parties) is an “indefinite delivery” contract with little oversight and no maximum on how much they can spend. Residents argue that the fence’s construction has everything to do with politics and private profit, and nothing to do with stopping illegal immigration.

“Holes in the Wall” Melissa del Bosque, Texas Observer Web Exclusive, 2/18/2008
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2688

“Holes in the Wall: Texas Border Wall Bypassing Wealthy Residents with Bush Admin Ties” Democracy Now!, 2/27/2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/27/holes_in_the_wall_texas_border

#168 Japan Debates War on Terror and 9-11

Researched by Alan Scher and Bill Gibbons

Testimony in the Japanese Parliament, broadcast live nationwide on Japanese TV in January 2008, challenged the premise and validity of the Global War on Terror. Parliament members insisted upon an investigation into the War’s origin: the events of 9/11. Parliament Member Yukihisa Fujita pointed out that 24 Japanese citizens were killed on 9/11, yet the mandate of a Japanese Government criminal investigation never followed. “So far the only thing the government has said is that we think it was caused by Al Qaeda because President Bush told us so.  We have not seen any real proof that it was Al Qaeda.” Fujita went on to extensively ask “about the suspicious information being uncovered and the doubts people world-wide are having about the events of 9/11.” Fujita received support for concluding that the reason for participating in the US War on Terror needs to be investigated and analyzed. After the testimony, Fujita says that many of his fellow Parliament members thanked him for the bravery it took to publicly address 9/11. He also received a death threat.

“Transcript Of Japanese Parliament’s 911 Testimony” Benjamin Fulford, Rence.com, and Rock Creek Free Press, 1/14/2008,
http://www.rense.com/general80/testi.htm

#073 CARE Rejects US Food Subsidies

Researched by Cedric Therene

One of the world’s largest international aid organizations turned the food aid industry on its head recently by declaring they will not accept $46 million in food subsidies from the U.S. government. The report “White Paper on Food Aid Policy” explains US-based CARE International’s opposition to “monetization” —the food aid policy in which the US government buys crops from subsidized US farms and ships them around the world through aid organizations. Often food aid is driven by “the export and surplus disposal objectives of the exporting country.” CARE claims that the way the U.S. government distributes food hurts small farmers and undermines local food production in the very communities and countries the program is supposed to help. The system replaces self-sustainability with increased poverty and dependency. Meanwhile the powerful US agribusiness industry uses the concept of “charity” to justify blocking international demands to limit the import of destabilizing US farm subsidies.

“Mutiny Shakes U.S. Food Aid Industry” Ellen Massey, North American Inter Press Services, 7/23/2007
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/print.php?idnews=1008

“Starvation, Aid Agencies and the Benevolence of the Imperialists” Revolution Magazine, 10/1/2007
http://rwor.org/a/108/awtw-food-aid-en.html

#100 Tracking Billions Lost in Iraq

Researched by Bill Gibbons

One month after the Invasion of Iraq the United States Federal Reserve began shipping $12 Billion in U.S. currency (United Nations impounded funds dating back from the first Gulf war which belonged to the Iraqi People) to Iraq where it was to be dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority for reconstruction. Incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for because of mismanagement and lack of oversight. In a little over a year, the Fed shipped $12 Billion, in bricks weighing a total of 363 tons. There was no auditing arm established by the Pentagon to track the money. The Coalition Provisional Authority was literally a rogue agency within the US, with no formal documents establishing it. Run out of a home in La Jolla, California, it was a shell corporation with no certified public accountants on staff, its address of record a post-office box in the Bahamas where it is legally incorporated. That post-office box has been associated with shadowy offshore activities.

“Billions over Baghdad” Donald Barlett and James Steele, Vanity Fair 10/2007
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710

“Billions Over Baghdad: How Did $9B in Cash Airlifted From the Fed to Iraq Go Missing?” Democracy Now! 9/12/2007
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/12/billions_over_baghdad_how_did_9b

“The Great American Swindle” Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, 8/23/2007
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle

#077 Hillary’s Faith Based Politics

Research by Sarah Maddox

Through all of her years in Washington, Hillary Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. The Fellowship’s long-term goal is “a leadership led by God—leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit.” The Fellowship’s “God-led” leaders have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia. Clinton’s religious talk is more deeply rooted than either fans or foes would have it. It reveals not just a determination to “out-Jesus” the GOP, but also a powerful religious influence behind her politics. 

“Hillary’s Prayer: Hillary Clinton’s Religion and Politics” Kathryn Joyce & Jeff Sharlet, Mother Jones, September 1, 2007
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?
url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html

#002 World Bank Responsible for Theft of Congo Forests

Researched by Pat Stengle and Katie Ernest

The World Bank financed and encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world’s second largest forest, destroying the environment of up to 600,000 Congolese Pygmies, according to an independent inspection panel report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. The report accuses the bank of drastically misleading the Congo government about the value of its forests, of deceptive and unethical business practice, and of breaking its own rules regarding protection of environments and alleviation of poverty. The report on the bank’s activities in Democratic Republic of Congo since 2002 follows complaints made by an alliance of 12 Pygmy groups. The groups claim that the legally-questionable World Bank system of awarding vast logging concessions to companies to exploit the forests causes “irreversible harm” to rainforests that nearly 40 million people depend on medicines, shelter, timber and food.

“World Bank Accused of Razing Congo Forests” John Vidal, The Guardian UK, 10/4/2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/04/congo.forests

“Vast Forests With Trees Each Worth £4,000 Sold for a Few Bags of Sugar” John Vidal, The Guardian UK, 4/11/2007
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/041107EA.shtml

#053 CIA and FBI Edit Wikipedia

Researched by Pat Stengle and Elizabeth Allen

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program. The changes violate Wikipedia’s conflict of interest guidelines. The tracing program, WikiScanner, was developed by Cal Tech graduate, Virgil Griffith, who traced numerous violations to FBI and CIA computers. According to spokesperson Sandy Ordonez of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s neutrality guidelines prohibit persons with close ties to an issue from contributing to or editing that entry.

“See Who’s Editing Wikipedia – Diebold, The CIA, A Campaign” John Borland, Wired, 8/2007
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker

“Wikipedia ‘ Shows CIA Page Edits” Jonathan Fildes, BBC News, 8/15/2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6947532.stm

Will November 2008 bring a meaningful change to America? Will getting rid of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney without impeachment or indictment really make a difference? Will a 600 billion dollar war/defense budget be cut in half and used for desperately needed domestic spending? Will the ninety-three billion dollars profits in the private health insurance companies¬¬—those parasitic intermediates between you and your doctor—be used instead for full health care coverage for all? Will Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus be restored to the people? Will torture stop and the US withdraw from Iraq immediately? Will all students in public universities be able to enroll for free? Will the US national security agencies stop mass spying on our personal communications? Will the neo-conservative agenda of total military domination of the world be reversed?

The answer to these questions in the context of the current billion dollar presidential campaign is an absolute no. Instead we have a campaign of personalities and platitudes. There is a race candidate, a gender candidate and a tortured veteran candidate, each talking about change in America, national security, freedom, and the American way. The candidates are running with support of political parties so deeply embedded with the military industrial complex, the health insurance companies, Wall Street, and corporate media that it is undeterminable where the board rooms separate from the state rooms.

The 2008 presidential race is a media entertainment spectacle with props, gossip, accusations, and public relations. It is impression management from a candidates’ perspective. How can we fool the most people into believing that we stand for something? It is billions of dollars of gravy for the media folks and continued profit maximunization for the war machine, Wall Street, and insurance companies no matter who is determined the winner in November. 

We must face the fact that the US government’s primary mission is to protect the wealthy and insure capital expansion worldwide. The US military—spending more than the rest of the militaries of the world combined—is the muscle behind this protect-capital-at-all-costs agenda, and will be used against the American people if deemed necessary to support the mission.

Homeland Security, the North American Command, mass arrest practices with the FALCON raids, new detentions centers, and broadened “terrorism” laws to included interference with business profits are all now in place to insure domestic tranquility through extra judicial means if needed. 

The two party corporate political system is having a HOMELAND presidential campaign—Hillary, Obama, McCain, Election, Lacking, Actual, National, Debate. It is time for real change, but it will only come with a social movement of reform in the tradition of the progressive, labor, civil rights, anti-war movements of the last century. We need to use all of our activist, legal, and political resources to reverse these threats to freedom. Naomi Wolf says it is not too late to prevent totalitarianism, but we have to act fast.

Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored. Access to verifying facts and analysis for the issues mentioned above is available at www.projectcensored.org. Reprints and postings allowed with credit to original author.

Recent fires, floods, and oil spills have exposed a gutted and dismantled government disaster-response infrastructure despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security was established in the wake of 9/11 to secure the homeland and lead national disaster response efforts. American taxpayers have collectively funded $billions in DHS first-responder grants. For-profit disaster response contractors, whose job is to protect only those who can afford the luxury, are replacing under-resourced public firefighters, medical responders, and National Guard, whose jobs were to protect the nation as a whole. Privatization of core state functions is creating disaster apartheid as companies offer levels of private VIP disaster response insurance, and people are increasingly expected to take personal responsibility for their own safety in event of national disaster—rather than expect heroic “favors” from a less-than-functioning government. More importantly dangerous is the powerful vested interest in assuring that disasters are not avoided but instead welcomed as the ultimate market opportunity.

“Rapture Rescue 911: Disaster Response for the Chosen” Naomi Klein, the Nation, 11/19/2007
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071119/klein
“‘Shock Doctrine’ Author Naomi Klein on State-Sanctioned Torture and Disaster Response for the Chosen” Democracy Now! 11/7/ 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/07/156211&mode=thread&tid=25

#137 US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America

Researched by Erica Elkington and April Pierce

A resurgence of US-backed militarism threatens peace and democracy in Latin America. By 2005, US military aid to Latin America had risen to 34 times the amount spent in 2000.  In a marked shift in US military strategy, training that used to just take place at the School of the Americas—including torture and execution techniques—is now decentralized. The 2008 US federal budget includes $16.5 million to fund International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEA) —one in El Salvador, another in Peru. Each, with provision of immunity from charges of crimes against humanity, will train an average of 1,500 police officers, judges, prosecutors, and other law enforcement officials throughout Latin America per year in “counterterrorism techniques.” With many like training facilities, including Medical Readiness Training Exercises in Paraguay, the US is creating a wave of militarization across Latin America, aimed at internal populations opposed to the US neo-liberal agenda.

“Is George Bush Restarting Latin America’s ‘Dirty Wars’?” Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet, 8/31/07
http://www.alternet.org/audits/58605/
“Exporting US ‘Criminal Justice’ to Latin America” CISPES, Upside Down World, 6/14/07
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/774/1/
“ILEA Funding Approved by Salvadoran Right Wing Legislators” CISPES, 3/15/07
http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=178

#048 Water Privatization in El Salvador and the Global War on Terror

Researched by Andrea Lochtefeld

Salvadoran police violently captured community leaders and residents at a July 2007 demonstration against the privatization of El Salvador’s water supply and distribution systems.  Close range shooting of rubber bullets and tear gas was used against community members for protesting the rising cost, and diminishing access and quality of local water under privatization. Fourteen were arrested and charged with terrorism, a charge that can hold a 60 year prison sentence, under El Salvador’s new “Anti-terrorism Law,” which is based on the US Patriot Act.  While criminalization of political expression and social protest signals an alarming danger to the peace and human rights secured by Salvadorans since its brutal 12-year civil war, the US government publicly supports the Salvadoran government and the passage of the draconian anti-terrorism law that took effect October 2006.

“Salvadoran Activists Targeted with US-Style Repression” Chris Damon, Peacework, 9/07 http://new.peaceworkmagazine.org/authors/chris-damon
“El Salvador: Water Inc. and the Criminalization of Protest” Jason Wallach, NACLA-Upside Down World 8/24/07 http://news.nacla.org/2007/07/24/el-salvador-water-inc-and-the-criminalization-of-protest/
“El Salvador: Spectre of War Looms After 15 Years of Peace” Raúl Gutiérrez, IPS, 8/19/07 http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/19/2636/
“GWOT: El Salvador” Wes Enzinna, The Nation, 12/31/07
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20071231&s=enzinna

#011 Presidential Directive For Dictatorial Power in Continuity of Government

Researched by Dan Bluthardt and Bill Gibbons

A New National Security Presidential Directive gives the President dictatorial powers when dealing with a “catastrophic emergency.” Under the plan Bush entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive branch and he gives himself the responsibility for ensuring “continuity of constitutional government.” National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51’ and “Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20” defines a “catastrophic emergency” in vague terms, which could include an event like a 911 attack or an earthquake in California, for the takeover of government by the Executive. The White House literally has given itself dictatorial power over the government, bypassing the US Congress and obliterating the separation of powers. The document hollowly emphasizes the need to ensure the Constitution, yet in clear breach of the constitution assurance of checks and balances, says the President shall lead all activities of the Federal government. The secretary of Homeland Security is also placed in charge of domestic “security.” This directive has been given no scrutiny by Congress and very little by the press.

“Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of the Constitutional Government in Emergency” Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, 5/18/2007
http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx051807.html
“National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive Establishes “National Continuity Policy” Larry Chin, Global Research, 5/21/2007
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewarticle&code=CHI20070521&articleId=5720

#171 NATO’s Nuclear Option

Researched by Stephanie Smith and Sarah Maddox

The West must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the imminent spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new NATO by five of the West’s most senior military officers and strategists. In a 150-page blueprint for urgent, root-to-branch reform of NATO and Western military strategy and structures, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that, “The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.” The manifesto was presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to NATO’s secretary general in mid-January 2008. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a NATO summit in Bucharest in April.

“Pre-emptive Nuclear Strike a Key Option, Nato Told” Ian Traynor, Guardian, January 22, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html

#032 Iraq Whistle Blowers Pay

Researched by Kat Pat Crespan

Those who have stepped forward to report corruption in the “rebuilding” of Iraq have been vilified, fired and demoted. Navy veteran Donald Vance was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad for 97 days and subjected to harsh interrogation methods “reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants.” His only offense was telling the FBI about the common practice of guns, land mines, and rocket-launchers being sold for cash to buyers such as Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry employees—no receipts necessary.
“Steep Price Paid by Those Who Blew Whistle on Iraq Fraud” Deborah Hastings, AP, 8/25/07
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/25/3410/

#025 The Raytheon 9

Researched by Christina Long and Marie Daghlian

Nine members of the Derry Anti-War Coalition (the Raytheon 9) occupied and “decommissioned” offices of Raytheon in Derry, Ireland in August 2007, after evidence surfaced that Raytheon had produced military products on Irish soil, in breach of assurances to the contrary, and that Raytheon weapons had been used in the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. The Raytheon 9 plan to use their day in court to highlight US and UK war crimes involving Raytheon.

“Solidarity with the Raytheon 9” Shaun Harkin & Sandy Boyer, Z Magazine Online, July/August 2007
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/JulAug2007/harkin.print.html

#061 Wal-Mart Evades 2.3 Billion in Taxes

Researched by Marie Daghlian

Wal-Mart evaded $2.3 billion in state income taxes from fiscal years 1999 to 2005 through a real-estate investment trust (REIT) loophole. According to a report released by Citizens for Tax Justice and labor coalition, “Change to Win,” Wal-Mart has used the REIT structure to set up the Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust, which has enabled Wal-Mart to effectively double as both landlord and tenant, recycling real-estate funds to itself and then deducting that cost from its tax bill. Twenty states, including California and Illinois, have moved to close the REIT loophole by adopting so-called “combined reporting” laws.

“Loophole Let Wal-Mart Evade $2.3B in Taxes” Michelle Chen, The New Standard, 4/18/07
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4700/printmide/true

#086 Soil Erosion Crisis

Researched by Cristina Wilson and Marie Daghlian

Soil erosion is the “silent global crisis” undermining food production and water availability, as well as being responsible for 30 percent of the greenhouse gases driving climate change. Every year, some 62,000 square miles of land loses its vegetation and becomes degraded or turns into desert.  A Cornell University study, which pulls together statistics on soil erosion from more than 125 sources, finds that the US is losing soil 10 times faster—and China and India are losing soil 30 to 40 times faster— than the natural replenishment rate. As a result of erosion over the past 40 years, 30 percent of the world’s arable land has become unproductive.

“Dirt isn’t so cheap after all” Stephen Leahy IPS, “Asheville Global Report, 8/30/2007
http://www.agrnews.org/?section=archives&cat_id=96&article_id=2751&rowx=0

#082 Starbucks in Ethiopia

Researched by Jennifer Routh and Marie Daghlian

Starbucks’ eco-friendly sales pitch masks the fact that its $26/lb box of Ethiopian coffee contains arabica beans grown on a plantation in a threatened mountain rainforest by workers who make less than a dollar a day. Starbucks, a master at marketing, won’t disclose what it pays for Ethiopian coffee, instead including it in its global average, which was $1.42/lb in 2006, 16 cents more than the Fair Trade minimum. Much of that money goes to middlemen while workers receive 77 cents to $1.10/day. Starbucks currently sources 6% of its beans from Ethiopia and plans to double production. While Starbucks gave the estate’s beans its own C.A.F.E. practices approval last year, signifying that the plantation protected the environment, paid workers fairly and provided them with decent housing, no one from Starbucks ever inspected the Gemadro plantation for C.A.F.E. certification compliance.
In May 2007 Ethiopia won a battle with Starbucks over trademark entitlement, which could help the country’s coffee growers to earn some $88 million more per year.

“Promises and Poverty” Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee, 9/23/2007
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/393917.html
“In trademarking its coffee, Ethiopia seeks fair trade” Matthew Clark,The Christian Science Monitor, 11/9/07
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1109/p01s06-woaf.html

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Sparing use of photographs is central to the management of war news. Consider two cases in point. In May 2004, photographs from Abu Ghraib of US captors abusing Iraqi detainees made torture starkly real to many US citizens. On May 7, 2004, before the Washington Post published a series of the photographs, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate and House Armed Service Committees that the images in question showed “blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman” torture of Iraqis. He worried publicly that, “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse.” In September 2005, US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered release of additional Abu Ghraib photographs, asserting that “the freedoms we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed.”

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In this study researchers at Project Censored explore the degree to which the propaganda model of understanding self-censorship extends throughout the media culture including left-of- center independent media organizations. We examine the deepening propaganda model pressures inside the corporate media and hypothesize the potential for these pressures to impact left progressive media in the US.

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George Seldes once said, “Journalism’s job is not impartial ‘balanced’ reporting. Journalism’s job is to tell the people what is really going on.” Michael Moore’s top-grossing movie Sicko is one example of telling the people what is really going on. Health care activists know that US health insurance is an extremely large and obscenely lucrative industry with the top nine companies “earning” $93 billion in profits in 2006 alone. The health-care industry represents the country’s third-largest economic sector, trailing only energy and retail among the 1,000 largest US firms.

Nevertheless, 16%of Americans still have no health insurance whatsoever and that number will not soon decline, as insurance costs continue to rise two to three times faster than inflation. The consequences are immediate and tragic. Unpaid medical bills are now the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the country, and the Institute of Medicine estimates that nearly eighteen thousand Americans die prematurely each year because they lack coverage and access to adequate care.

US private health care services differ markedly from other industrialized countries where single payer systems provide everyone with medical care as a basic human right.  Unfortunately, objective media coverage and comparisons of single-payer public health care with our current profit-driven corporate system are almost non-existent at this time. To protect their bloated bottom lines, private insurance companies and HMOs invest heavily in lobbyists and corporate-friendly political candidates that promote their “indispensable” role in any future health care reforms.  Besides their insider political influence, these firms deploy massive advertising budgets to discourage media investigations of the economic interests shaping our health policies today

Tens of thousands of American engaged in various social justice issues constantly witness how corporate media marginalize, denigrate or simply ignore their concerns. Activist groups working on issues like 9/11 truth, election fraud, impeachment, war propaganda, civil liberties/torture, and many corporate-caused environmental crises have been systematically excluded from mainstream news and the national conversation leading to a genuine truth emergency in the country as a whole.

Now, however, a growing number of activists are finally saying “enough!” and joining forces to address this truth emergency by developing new journalistic systems and practices of their own. They are working to reveal the common corporate denominators behind the diverse crises we face and to develop networks of trustworthy news sources that tell the people what is really going on.  These activists know we need a journalism that moves beyond forensic inquiries into particular crimes and atrocities, and exposes wider patterns of corruption, propaganda and illicit political control to rouse the nation to reject a malignant corporate status quo.

This Truth Emergency Movement held its first national strategy summit in Santa Cruz, California Jan. 25-27, 2008. Organizers gathered key media constituencies to devise coherent decentralized models for distribution of suppressed news, synergistic truth-telling, and collaborative strategies to disclose, legitimize and popularize deeper historical narratives on power and inequality in the US. In sum this truth movement is seeking to discover in this moment of Constitutional crisis, ecological peril and widening war, ways in which top investigative journalists, whistleblowers and independent media activists can transform the way Americans perceive and defend their world.

Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored, a media research organization. David Kubiak taught mass media and memetics for 10 years at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan and is the former executive director of 911truth.org.  For information on the Truth Emergency movement see: http://truthemergency.us/

This research explores the current capabilities of the US military to use electromagnetic (EMF) devices to harass, intimidate, and kill individuals and the continuing possibilities of violations of human rights by the testing and deployment of these weapons. To establish historical precedent in the US for such acts, we document long-term human rights and freedom of thought violations by US military/intelligence organizations. Additionally, we explore contemporary evidence of on-going government research in EMF weapons technologies and examine the potentialities of continuing human rights abuses.

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The leadership class in the US is now dominated by a neo-conservative group of people with the shared goal of asserting US military power worldwide. This global dominance group, in cooperation with major military contractors, has become a powerful force in world military unilateralism and US political processes. This research study is an attempt to identify the general parameters of those who are the key actors supporting a global dominance agenda and how collectively this group has benefited from the events of September 11, 2001 and irregularities in the 2004 presidential election. This study examines how interlocking public private partnerships, including the corporate media, public relations firms, military contractors, policy elites, and government officials, jointly support a US military global domination agenda. We ask the traditional sociological questions regarding who wins, who decides, and who facilitates action inside the most powerful military-industrial complex in the world.

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Bush and Cheney have not yet disappeared. A good thing, the White House tells us, for six years have elapsed since 9/11 without another terrorist attack on the U.S. But the absence of an attack doesn’t necessarily prove their case. Eight years passed between 1993 when the World Trade Center was first bombed and September 11, 2001. How do we know then whether they’re winning or losing? How do we know whether, like Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, we will once again confront “the horror, the horror?”

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