in Stories Reviewed in Prior Years
Halliburton to build domestic detention facilities
Reviewed by Bailey Malone
As the UN demands closure of KBR-built Guantanamo facilities, the Halliburton subsidiary was awarded a $385 million, five-year contract from DHS’s US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build detention facilities within the US. The facilities would house an emergency influx of immigrants, or “support the rapid development of new programs.”
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=eed74d9d44c30493706fe03f4c9b3a77
Doctrine reveals US plans for nukes in conventional war
Reviewed by Cole Ryan
The unclassified document “Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations,” authored by US Joint Chiefs of Staff, reveals that the Department of Defense plans to dramatically lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons. The document outlines US nuclear warfighting plans, including the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons and the use of nukes in conventional war.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/US-joint-nuclear-operations
New US Military installation in Paraguay
Reviewed by Nick Ramirez
Five hundred US troops arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons and ammunition in July, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted US troops ICC immunity. Estigarribia airbase, capable of housing 16,000 troops and handling large military planes, is 124 miles from Bolivia’s border. While US rhetoric is building about terrorist threats in the tri-border region, this area is more importantly home to Bolivia’s significant water and natural gas reserves—which Bolivia’s new president has promised to nationalize.
http://www.excal.on.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=903&Itemid=2
Oil industry targets EU climate policy
Reviewed by Isaac Dolido
US oil industry lobbyists have launched a campaign in Europe aimed at derailing efforts to tackle greenhouse gas pollution and climate change. According to documents obtained by Greenpeace, the plan is to persuade European businesses, politicians, and the media to join the European Sound Climate Policy Coalition. The coalition is a group set up to challenge and avert the adoption of Kyoto protocols by adopting a business-friendly alternative to emission reduction mandates.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1661741,00.html
Bottled water consumption increasing—but at what cost?
Reviewed by: Bailey Malone
Worldwide consumption of bottled water is up 57 percent since 1999, largely spurred by a mistaken belief that it is healthier than tap water. For a fraction of the yearly $100 billion spent on bottled water, the world could have safe water and sanitation, according to the Earth Policy Institute. The US was the largest consumer in 2004. Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year. Worldwide consumption entails exorbitant use of fuel for transportation, while leaving behind 2.7 million tons of plastic waste as well as depleted water sources.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0205-01.htm
Privatization of National Parks
Reviewed by David Abbott
Private investment is replacing federal funding as the Bush administration hands out private contracts for national park services, allowing investors to develop and sell a wide range of concessions, products, services, and entertainment to millions of paying customers—and retain the fees they collect. Through this commercialization of the park systems, Congress is slashing allocated funds for our National Parks.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20276
Protecting torture: Red Cross’s deadly silence
Reviewed by Lindsay San Martin
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confidentiality policy gives detaining powers legitimacy in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray, and many Israeli detention centers. The policy, in effect, allows ICRC to politely ask torturers to stop torturing, while promising not to tell the rest of the world. While ICRC is maintaining “good working relations with authorities,” prisoners continue to be tortured.
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=765&type=M
US takes its OPEC seat
Reviewed by Isaac Dolido
The neoconservatives at the Pentagon are abandoning their initial plan to privatize Iraq’s oil fields and undermine the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) oligopoly. Instead, they have opted to embrace an effective membership in the OPEC cartel—a position granted by US control of Iraq’s energy policy.
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=471&row=0
US doctors linked to POW torture
Reviewed by Lindsay San Martin
Medical records compiled by doctors caring for prisoners at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay are being used to modify interrogation techniques. Psychiatrists and psychologists have been part of a strategy that employs extreme stress, combined with behavior-shaping rewards, to extract actionable intelligence. Such tactics are considered torture by many authorities.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0623-06.htm
Bush Administration’s erosion of workplace safety
Reviewed by Nick Ramirez
A study released by Human Rights Watch documents the Bush Administration’s erosion of basic workplace safety. Avoidable tragic injuries are highest in the meat processing industry where workers now face a one in five chance of severe disability or death on the job—at employment that increasingly lacks workers’ protections, benefits and decent pay.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2140/
Department of Labor rolls back whistleblower protection
Reviewed by David Abbott
The US Department of Labor has moved to dismantle whistleblower protections for federal employees who report environmental problems. 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, would also lose legal protection.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0922-04.htm
BYU physicist concludes official 9-11 explanation is implausible
Researched by Courtney Wilcox
Research on the events of 9-11 by Brigham Young University physics professor, Steven E. Jones, concludes that the official explanation for the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings is implausible according to laws of physics. Jones is calling for an independent, international scientific investigation “guided not by politicized notions and constraints but rather by observations and calculations.”
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635160132,00.html
http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html