in Stories Reviewed in Prior Years
Associated Press and New York Times employ NED reporter
Reviewed by David Abbott
A bylined freelancer for the Associated Press, who is also a stringer for the New York Times in Haiti, is moonlighting as a consultant for the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), according to an official at the NED. The NED, critics warn, is positioned to destabilize governments and movements unfriendly to US corporate control.
http://mambo.agrnews.rack2.purplecat.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1847&Itemid=70
World Bank uses The Wall to construct an imprisoned Palestinian Free Trade Area
Reviewed by Lisa Dobias and Bailey Malone
World Bank’s most recent report on Palestine lays out plans to use the apartheid infrastructure of the Wall to construct “free market” industrial zones along the containment barrier. The Bank proposes Israeli military checkpoint gates along the Wall to quarantine and transport Palestinian workers. Along lines of “Free Trade” Agreements—the World Bank is instituting exploitive Qualified Industrial Zones throughout the Middle East toward the creation of MEFTA, the Middle East Free Trade Agreement.
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=766&type=M
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/
March/9o/US%20Free%20Trade%20Agreements%20Split%20Arab%20Opinion%20By%20Linda%20Heard.htm
Bob Ney’s connection to electoral fraud
Reviewed by David Abbott
Rep. Bob Ney, as author and co-sponsor of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), is beholden to close personal connections to Diebold. As a member of Congress he has instituted paperless, hack-friendly voting machines as part of “election reform.” He has gone to great lengths to keep the nation’s eyes off of the flaws in HAVA and the massive electile dysfunction in Ohio and elsewhere.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002261.htm
High-tech genocide in Congo
Reviewed by Daniel Turner
“The world’s most neglected emergency,” the ongoing tragedy of the Congo where perhaps six million have died since 1996 is a consequence of invasions and wars sponsored by western powers trying to gain control of the region’s mineral wealth. At stake is control of natural resources that are sought by US corporations—diamonds, tin, copper, gold and most of all—coltan—the mineral necessary for production of cell phones and other high-tech electronics.
http://earthfirstjournal.org/articles.php?a=883
http://www.taylor-report.com/audio/index.php?month=2005-03
http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-136OperationIronFist[6pw].htm
Halliburton secretly doing business with key member of Iran’s nuclear team
Reviewed by Pla Her
Circumventing laws that prohibit conducting business with countries that the Bush administration claims sponsor terrorism, Halliburton secretly worked with one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists on natural gas related projects and, according to sources at Halliburton, sold the scientist’s oil company key components for a nuclear reactor.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-21.htm
New evidence on serious health effects of Roundup weedkiller
Reviewed by Lani Ready
New studies from both sides of the Atlantic reveal that Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, poses serious human health threats. The stakes are high, as more than 75% of genetically modified (GM) crops worldwide are engineered to tolerate the absorption of Roundup—it eliminates all plants that are not GM. Monsanto, the major engineer of GM crops, is also the producer of Roundup.
http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=267
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/service185.htm
Over 2,000 children sentenced to life in US prisons
Reviewed by Rafael Perez
At least 2,225 people are currently serving sentences of life in prison without parole in the United States for crimes they committed before their 18th birthday. The US is one of few countries that sentences children to life without parole, violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by every country in the world except the United States and Somalia.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article318840.ece
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=30594
Department of Labor seeks to block Federal environmental whistle blowing
Reviewed by Sara-Joy Christianson
US Department of Labor is moving to cancel whistleblower protections for federal employees who report environmental problems. The Labor Department seeks to invoke the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity in all whistleblower cases filed by federal workers. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies would be directly affected by the loss of whistleblower rights. Tens of thousands of workers in non-environmental agencies, such as the Department of Defense, but who report pollution violations would also lose legal protection.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0922-04.htm
The true devastation of the rainforest
Reviewed by Deanna Haddock
The Amazon rainforest is being destroyed twice as quickly as previously estimated, according to a satellite survey of the region. Previous satellite photographs of the area have missed a form of surreptitious, “selective logging” that is destroying an area of the Amazon equal to that razed by conventional logging, but was, until now, not apparent from space.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1021-03.htm
More than 140 contaminants found in the nation’s drinking water
Reviewed by Michelle Salvail
The first ever nationwide compilation of tap water testing results from drinking water utilities shows widespread contamination of drinking water with scores of contaminants for which there are no enforceable health standards. Examples include the gasoline additive MTBE, the rocket fuel component perchlorate, and a variety of industrial solvents. The pollution affects more than one hundred million people in 42 states.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1220-01.htm