Project Censored
<http://www.projectcensored.org>
is a research team composed of more than 200 university
faculty, students, and community experts who annually review
between 700 and 1,000 news story submissions for coverage,
content, reliability of sources, and national significance.
The top 25 stories selected are submitted to a distinguished
panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance.
Some of these stories support the claim that there is a 4th
Reich – a fascist take-over. The monetary system is next...
And then the ‘nukes!!
Top 25 Stories
of 2008 Subjected to
Press Censorship
1.
Over
One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation?
(For full story, click here .....more
Nobody knows exactly how many lives the Iraq War
has claimed. But even more astounding is that so few
journalists have mentioned the issue or cited the top
estimate: 1.2 million. During August and September 2007, a
British polling group surveyed 2,414 adults in 15 of 18 Iraqi
provinces and found that more than 20 percent had experienced
at least one war-related death since March 2003. Using common
statistical study methods, it determined that as many as 1.2
million people had been killed since the war began. Estimates
range wildly and are based on a variety of sources. In October
2006, the British medical journal Lancet published a
Johns Hopkins University study vetted by four independent
sources that counted 655,000 dead. In January 2008, the World
Health Organization and the Iraqi government did door-to-door
surveys of nearly 10,000 households and put the number of dead
at 151,000. The 1.2 million figure is out there, too, which is
higher than the Rwandan genocide death toll and closing in on
the 1.7 million who perished in Cambodia's killing fields. It
raises questions about the real number of deaths from US
aerial bombings and house raids, and challenges the common
assumption that this is a war in which Iraqis are killing
Iraqis. The Brookings Institute has reported that US troops
have, over the past four years, conducted about 100 house
raids a day. Brutality during these house searches has been
documented (See #9 below). The aggressive "element of
surprise" tactics employed by soldiers is likely resulting in
several thousands of deaths a day that either go unreported or
are categorized as insurgent casualties.
Sources: "Is the United States killing 10,000 Iraqis
every month? Or is it more?" Michael Schwartz, After
DowningStreet.org, July 6, 2007
<http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24310>
; "Iraq death toll rivals Rwanda Genocide, Cambodian killing
fields," Joshua Holland, AlterNet, Sept. 17, 2007
<http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62728/>
; "Iraq conflict has killed a million: survey," Luke Baker,
Reuters, Jan. 30, 2008
<>..........more
; "Iraq: Not our country to return to," Maki al-Nazzal and
Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service, March 3, 2008
<http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41430>
.

2.Security
and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA (For
full story, click here >>>>more
Coupling the perennial issue of security with Wall Street's
measures of prosperity, the leaders of the three North
American nations convened the Security and Prosperity
Partnership. The White House-led initiative — launched at a
March 23, 2005, meeting of President Bush, Mexico's
then-president Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul
Martin — joins beefed-up commerce with coordinated military
operations to promote what it calls "borderless unity."
Critics call it "NAFTA on steroids." However, unlike NAFTA,
the SPP was formed in secret, without public input. "The SPP
is not a law, or a treaty, or even a signed agreement,"
Laura Carlsen wrote in a report for the Center for
International Policy. "All these would require public debate
and participation of Congress, both of which the SPP has
scrupulously avoided." Instead the SPP has a special
workgroup: the North American Competitiveness Council [NACC].
It's a coalition of private companies that are, according to
the SPP website <http://www.spp.gov/>
, "adding high-level business input <http://www.spp.gov/factsheet.asp>
[that] will assist governments in enhancing North America's
competitive position and engage the private sector as partners
in finding solutions." The NACC includes the Chevron
Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Lockheed
Martin Corporation, Merck, Procter & Gamble Co., and Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc. A look at NAFTA's unpopularity among citizens
in all three nations is evidence of why its expansion would
need to be disguised. "It's a scheme to create a
borderless North American Union under US control without
barriers to trade and capital flows for corporate giants,
mainly US ones," wrote Steven Lendman in Global Research.
Sources: "Deep Integration," Laura Carlsen, Center for
International Policy, May 30, 2007 <http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4276>
; "The Militarization and Annexation of North America,"
Stephen Lendman, Global Research, July 19, 2007 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6359>
; "The North American Union," Constance Fogal, Global
Research, Aug. 2, 2007 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6456>
.

3..
InfraGard: The FBI
Deputizes Business
(For full story, click here>>>>>>more
<>
)
The FBI and Department of
Homeland Security have effectively deputized 23,000 members of
the business community, asking them to tip off the feds in
exchange for preferential treatment in the event of a crisis.
"The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard,
receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public
does — and, at least on one occasion, before elected
officials," Matthew Rothschild wrote in the March 2008 issue.
<http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308>
of The
Progressive. InfraGard was created in 1996. Membership
now includes 350 of the nation's Fortune 500 companies. The
group's 86 chapters coordinate with 56 FBI field offices
nationwide. While FBI Director Robert Mueller has said he
considers this segment of the private sector "the first line
of defense," the American Civil Liberties Union issued a grave
warning
<http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/surveillance_report.pdf>
about the potential for
abuse. "There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a
corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations
... into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI. The FBI should
not be creating a privileged class of Americans who get
special treatment," stated Jay Stanley, public education
director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program. And
they are privileged: a DHS spokesperson told Rothschild that
InfraGard members receive special training and readiness
exercises. They're also privy to protected information that is
usually shielded from disclosure under the trade secrets
provision of the Freedom of Information Act. The information
they have may be of critical importance to the general public,
but first it goes to the privileged membership.
Source: "The FBI deputizes
business," Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, Feb. 7,
2008
<http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308>
.

4.
ILEA: Is
the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?
(For full story, click here........more
The School of the Americas
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_the_Americas>
[SOA] earned an unsavory
reputation in Latin America after many graduates of the Fort
Benning, Ga., facility turned into counterinsurgency death
squad leaders. The International Law Enforcement Academy
recently installed by the Unites States in El Salvador — which
looks, acts, and smells like the SOA — is also drawing scorn.
The school is funded with $3.6 million from the US Treasury
and staffed with instructors from the DEA, ICE, and FBI. It's
tasked with training 1,500 police officers, judges,
prosecutors, and other law enforcement agents in
counterterrorism techniques per year. It's stated purpose
is to make Latin America "safe for foreign investment" by
"providing regional security and economic stability and
combating crime." ILEAs aren't new, but past schools located
in Hungary, Thailand, Botswana, and Roswell, N.M., haven't
been terribly controversial. Salvadoran human rights
organizers take issue with the fact that, in true SOA fashion,
the ILEA releases neither information about its curriculum nor
a list of students and graduates. Additionally, the way
the school slipped into existence without public oversight has
raised ire. As Wes Enzinna noted in a North American Congress
on Latin America report, "Members of the US Congress were not
briefed about the academy, nor was the main opposition party
in El Salvador." Now, after more than three years in
operation, critics point out that Salvadoran police, who
account for 25 percent of the graduates, have become more
violent. A May 2007 report by Tutela Legal implicated
Salvadoran National Police (PNC) officers in eight death
squad–style assassinations in 2006.
Sources: "Exporting US 'Criminal
Justice' to Latin America," "Community in Solidarity with the
people of El Salvador,"Upside Down World, June 14, 2007 <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/774/1/>
; "Another SOA?" Wes Enzinna, NACLA Report on the Americas,
March/April 2008.
Click for Source ; "ILEA funding approved by Salvadoran
right wing legislators,"CISPES, March 15, 2007 <http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=178>
; "Is George Bush restarting Latin America's 'dirty wars?'"
Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet, Aug. 31, 200 <http://www.alternet.org/audits/58605/>
7

5.Seizing
War Protesters’ Assets (For full story, click here
for
more
Protesting war could get you
into big trouble, according to a critical read of two
executive orders recently signed by President Bush. The first
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html>
, issued July 17, 2007, and
titled, "Blocking property of certain persons who threaten
stabilization efforts in Iraq," allows the feds to seize
assets from anyone who "directly or indirectly" poses a risk
to the US war in Iraq. And, citing the modern technological
ease of transferring funds and assets, the order states that
no prior notice is necessary before the raid. On Aug. 1, Bush
signed another order
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080730-4.html>
, similar but directed toward
anyone undermining the "sovereignty of Lebanon or its
democratic processes and institutions." In this case, the
Secretary of the Treasury can seize the assets of anyone
perceived as posing a risk of violence, as well as the assets
of their spouses and dependents, and bans them from receiving
any humanitarian aid. Critics say the orders bypass the right
to due process and the vague language makes manipulation and
abuse possible. Protesting the
war could be perceived as undermining or threatening US
efforts in Iraq. "This is so sweeping, it's staggering," said
Bruce Fein, a former Reagan administration official in the
Justice Department who
editorialized against it in the Washington Times. "It
expands beyond terrorism, beyond seeking to use violence or
the threat of violence to cower or intimidate a population.
Sources: "Bush
executive order: Criminalizing the antiwar movement," Michel
Chossudovsky, Global Research, July 2007
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6377>
; "Bush's executive order
even worse than the one on Iraq," Matthew Rothschild, The
Progressive, August 2007
<http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx080307>.

6.
The Homegrown Terrorism
Prevention Act (For full story,
click here
........more
On Oct. 23, 2007, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly
passed — by a vote of 404-6 — the "Violent Radicalization and
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act," designed to root out the
causes of radicalization in Americans. With an estimated
four-year cost of $22 million, the act establishes a 10-member
National Commission on the Prevention of Violent
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism. The bill's author,
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Los Angeles) said, "Free speech, espousing
even very radical beliefs, is protected by our Constitution.
But violent behavior is not." In a later press release Harman
stated: "the National Commission [will] propose to both
Congress and [DHS Secretary Michael] Chertoff initiatives to
intercede before radicalized individuals turn violent." Which
could be when they're speaking, writing, and organizing in
ways that are protected by the First Amendment. This
redefines civil disobedience as terrorism, say civil rights
experts, and the wording is too vague. "What is an
extremist belief system? Who defines this? These are broad
definitions that encompass so much. It is criminalizing
thought and ideology," said Alejandro Queral, executive
director of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center in
Portland, Ore. The story didn't make it onto the CNN
ticker, but enough independent sources reported on it that the
equivalent Senate Bill 1959 has since stalled. After
introducing the bill, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.), later joined
forces with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a report
criticizing the Internet as a tool for violent Islamic
extremism.
Sources: "Bringing the war on
terrorism home," Jessica Lee, Indypendent, Nov. 16, 200
<http://www.indypendent.org/2007/11/19/homegrown-terrorism/>
7; "Examining the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act," Lindsay
Beyerstein, In
These Times,
Nov. 2007 <> ; "The Violent
Radicalization Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007,"
Matt Renner, Truthout, Nov. 20, 2007 <http://www.truthout.org/article/the-violent-radicalization-homegrown-terrorism-prevention-act-2007>
.

7.
Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking
(For full story, click here........more
Every year, about 121,000 people legally enter the United
States to work with H-2 visas, a program legislators are
touting as part of future immigration reform. Rep. Charles
Rangel (D-N.Y.) called this guest worker program "the closest
thing I've ever seen to slavery." The Southern Poverty Law
Center likened it to "modern day indentured servitude."
They interviewed thousands of guest workers and reviewed legal
cases for a report <http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLCguestworker.pdf>
released in March 2007, which concluded "Unlike US citizens,
guest workers do not enjoy the most fundamental protection of
a competitive labor market — the ability to change jobs if
they are mistreated. If guest workers complain about abuses,
they face deportation, blacklisting, or other retaliation."
When visas expire, workers must leave the country, hardly
making this the path to permanent citizenship legislators are
looking for. Still, Mexicans are literally lining up for H-2B
status, the stark details of which were reported by Felicia
Mello in The Nation. Furthermore, thousands of illegal
immigrants are employed throughout the country, providing
cheap, unprotected labor and further undermining the scant
provisions of the laws. Labor contractors who connect
immigrants with employers are stuffing their pockets with
cash, while the workers return home with very little money.
The Southern Poverty Law Center outlined a list of
comprehensive changes needed in the program, concluding, "For
too long, our country has benefited from the labor provided by
guest workers but has failed to provide a fair system that
respects their human rights and upholds the most basic values
of our democracy. The time has come for Congress to overhaul
our shamefully abusive guest worker system."
Sources: "Close to
Slavery," Mary Bauer and Sarah Reynolds, Southern Poverty Law
Center, March 2007 <http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLCguestworker.pdf>
; "Coming to America," Felicia Mello, The Nation, June
25, 2007 <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070625/mello>
; "Trafficking racket," Chidanand Rajghatta, Times
of India, March 10, 2008 <Click
here for Story>

8.
Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly
(For
full story, click here
.......more
The Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel in the
Department of Justice has been issuing classified legal
opinions about surveillance for years. As a member of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
had access to the DOJ opinions on presidential power and had
three declassified to show how the judicial branch has, in a
bizarre and chilling way, assisted President Bush in
circumventing its own power. According to the three memos
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/07/politics/main3591448.shtml>
: "There is no
constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new
executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of
a previous executive order"; "The President, exercising his
constitutional authority under Article II, can determine
whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President's
authority under Article II"; and "The Department of Justice is
bound by the President's legal determinations." As Whitehouse
rephrased in a Dec. 7, 2007, Senate speech: "I don't have to
follow my own rules, and I don't have to tell you when I'm
breaking them. I get to determine what my own powers are. The
Department of Justice doesn't tell me what the law is. I tell
the Department of Justice what the law is."
The issue arose within the context of the Protect America Act,
which expands government surveillance powers and gives telecom
companies legal immunity for helping. Whitehouse, a former US
Attorney, legal counsel to Rhode Island's governor, and Rhode
Island Attorney General who took office in 2006, went on to
point out that Marbury vs. Madison, written by Chief
Justice John Marshall in 1803, established that it is
"emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department
to say what the law is."
Sources: "In FISA Speech
<http://whitehouse.senate.gov/newsroom/speeches/speech/?id=f7196551-2160-44a9-81a5-e6340daf769e>
, Whitehouse sharply criticizes Bush Administration's
assertion of executive power," Sheldon Whitehouse, Dec. 7,
2007 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFWIHbf50EI>
; "Down the Rabbit Hole," Marcy Wheeler, The Guardian
(UK), Dec. 26, 2007
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/dec/26/downtherabbithole>
.

9.
Iraq and Afghanistan
Vets Testify (For full story, click here
........more
Hearing soldiers recount their war experiences is the closest
many people come to understanding the real horror, pain, and
confusion of combat. One would think that might make
compelling copy or powerful footage for a news outlet. But in
March, when more than 300 veterans from the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan convened for four days of public testimony on
the war, they were largely ignored by the media. Winter
Soldier was designed to give soldiers a public forum to air
some of the atrocities they witnessed. Winter Soldier was
originally convened by Vietnam Vets Against the War in January
1971 when more than 100 Vietnam veterans described their war
experiences, including rapes, torture, brutalities, and
killing of non-combatants. The testimony was entered into the
Congressional Record and shown at the Cannes Film
Festival. Iraq Veterans Against the War hosted the 2008
reprise of the 1971 hearings. Former Marine Cpl. Jason
Washburn said, "his commanders encouraged lawless behavior.
'We were encouraged to bring 'drop weapons.' In case we
accidentally shot a civilian, we could drop the weapon on the
body and pretend they were an insurgent.'" Interviews with 50
Iraq war veterans also revealed a general disregard for the
traditional rules of war. Though most major news outlets sent
staff to cover New York's Fashion Week, few made it to the
Winter Soldier hearings. Fortunately, KPFA and Pacifica Radio
broadcast the testimonies live. They were "deluged with phone
calls, e-mails, and blog posts from service members, veterans,
and military families thanking us for breaking a cultural norm
of silence about the reality of war." Testimonies can be heard
at www.ivaw.org <http://www.ivaw.org>
.
Sources: "Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan eyewitness
accounts of the occupation,"Iraq Veterans Against the War,
March 13-16, 2008 <http://ivaw.org/store>
; "War comes home," Aaron Glantz, Aimee Allison, and
Esther Manilla, Pacifica Radio, March 14-16, 2008
<http://warcomeshome.org/wintersoldier2008>
; "US Soldiers testify about war crimes," Aaron Glantz,
One World, March 19, 2008 <http://us.oneworld.net/node/158957>
; "The Other War," Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, The
Nation, July 30, 2007 <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges>
.

10.
American Psychological Association Complicit in CIA Torture
(Full story here
........more
Psychologists have been
assisting the CIA and US military with interrogation and
torture of Guantánamo detainees — which the American
Psychological Association [APA] has said is fine, despite
objections from many of its 148,000 members. A 10-member
APA task force was convened on the divisive issue in July 2005
and found that assistance from psychologists was making the
interrogations safe. The task force was criticized by APA
members for deliberating in secret, and later it was revealed
that six of the 10 participants had ties to the armed
services. Not only that, but as Katherine Eban reported in
Vanity Fair, "Psychologists, working in secrecy, had
actually designed the tactics and trained interrogators in
them while on contract to the CIA." In particular,
psychologists honed a classified military training program
known as SERE [Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape] that
teaches soldiers how to tough out torture if captured by
enemies. Eban's story outlined how SERE tactics were spun as
"science" despite a lack of data and the critique that
building rapport works better than blows to the head. It's
been misreported that CIA torture techniques got Al Qaeda
operative Abu Zubaydah to talk, when it was actually FBI
rapport-building. In spite of this, SERE techniques became
standards in interrogation manuals that eventually made their
way to US officers guarding Abu Ghraib. Ongoing uproar within
the APA resulted in a petition to make an official policy
limiting psychologists' involvement in interrogations.
Sources: "The CIA's
torture teachers," Mark Benjamin, Salon, June 21, 2007
<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/21/cia_sere/>
; "Rorschach and awe," Katherine Eban, Vanity Fair,
July 17, 2007 <http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/07/torture200707>
. [Note that a highly revealing essay <http://www.wanttoknow.info/bluebird10pg>
by a leading psychiatrist details how many psychiatrists and
even the former president of the APA <http://www.wanttoknow.info/bluebird10pg#doctors>
were involved in government mind control programs.]

Other
Stories in the Top 25
11.
El
Salvador's Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror
(For full story, click here
>>>>more <>
)
El Salvador's new Anti-terrorism Law – based on the USA
PATRIOT Act – criminalizes political expression and social
protest. 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 the new Anti-Terrorism Law.
12..
Bush
Profiteers Collect Billions from No Child Left Behind
(For full story, click here
>>>>more
No Child Left Behind has consistently proven disastrous in the
realm of education. Yet the architect, President Bush's first
senior education advisor Sandy Kress, has turned the program
into a huge success in the realm of corporate profiteering.
13.
Tracking Billions of Dollars
Lost in Iraq (For full story, click here>>>>more
Starting one month after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and
continuing for over a year, the United States Federal Reserve
shipped a total of $12 billion in U.S. currency to Iraq. The
U.S. military delivered the bank notes to the Coalition
Provisional Authority to be dispensed for Iraqi
reconstruction. At least $9 billion of that amount is
unaccounted for due to a complete lack of oversight.
14..
Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste
(For full story, click here>>more
Radioactive materials from nuclear weapons production sites
are being dumped into regular public landfills and being used
as recycled metals. The Nuclear Information and Resource
Service has tracked the Department of Energy's (DOE) release
of radioactive scrap to unaware and unprepared recipients such
as landfills, businesses and recreation areas. Under the
current system, the DOE releases contaminated materials
directly, sells them at auctions or sends the materials to
processors who can release them from radioactive controls.
15..
Worldwide Slavery
(For full story, click here
>>>>more
Twenty-seven million slaves exist in the world today, more
than at any time in human history. Globalization, poverty,
violence and greed facilitate the growth of slavery, not only
in the Third World, but in the most developed countries as
well. Behind the façade in any major town or city in the world
today, one is likely to find a thriving commerce in human
beings.
16.
Annual Survey on Trade Union
Rights (For full story, click here>>>>more
The first Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights to
be published by the year-old International Trade Union
Confederation documents enormous challenges to workers' rights
around the world. The 2007 edition of the survey, covering 138
countries, shows an alarming rise in the number of people
killed as a result of their trade union activities, from 115
in 2005 to 144 in 2006. Many more trade unionists around the
world were abducted or "disappeared."
17.
UN's Empty Declaration of
Indigenous Rights (For full story, click here>>>>more
In September 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted
the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The resolution called for recognition of the world's 370
million indigenous peoples' right to self-determination and
control over their lands and resources. Three months following
the passage of the Universal Declaration, a delegation of
indigenous peoples were forcibly barred from entering the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali,
despite the fact that the delegation was invited to attend.
18.
Cruelty and Death in Juvenile
Detention Centers (For full story, click here>>>>more
In states across the U.S., child advocates have harshly
condemned conditions under which young offenders are housed —
conditions that involve sexual abuse, physical abuse and even
death. The U.S. Justice Department has filed lawsuits against
facilities in 11 states for supervision that is either abusive
or harmfully negligent.
19.
Indigenous Herders & Small
Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction (For full story,
click here>>>>more
The industrial model of livestock production is causing the
worldwide destruction of animal diversity. At least one
indigenous livestock breed becomes extinct each month as a
result of overreliance on select breeds imported from the
United States and Europe.
20.20.
Marijuana Arrests Set New Record (For full story,
click here>>>>more
For the fourth year in a row, U.S. marijuana arrests set an
all-time record, according to 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
Marijuana arrests in 2006 totaled 829,627, an increase from
786,545 in 2005.
21.
NATO Considers "First Strike"
Nuclear Option (For full story, click here>>>>more
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials are
considering a first strike nuclear option to be used anywhere
in the world a threat may arise. The authors of the plan
insist "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."
22.
CARE Rejects US Food Aid
(For full story, click here>>>>more
In August 2007, one of the biggest and best-known American
charity organizations, CARE, announced it was turning down $45
million a year in food aid from the United States government.
CARE claims the way U.S. aid is structured causes rather than
reduces hunger in the countries where it is received.
23.
FDA Complicit in Pushing
Pharmaceutical Drugs (For full story, click here>>>>more
While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) turns a
blind eye, drug companies are making false, unsubstantiated
and misleading claims in their advertising, often withholding
mandated disclosure of dangerous side effects. Though
companies are required to submit their advertisements to the
FDA, the agency does not review them before they are released
to the public. [For a powerful two-page essay by a top U.S.
physician on this key topic, click here>>>>more
24.
Japan Questions 9/11 and the
Global War on Terror (For full story, click here>>more
Testimony in the Japanese parliament, broadcast live on
Japanese television in January 2008, challenged the premise
and validity of the Global War on Terror. Parliament member
Yukihisa Fujita insisted that an investigation be conducted
into the war's origin: the events of 9/11. [Watch a video with
English subtitles of Fujita speaking to parliament available
here>>>>more
25.Bush's
Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer (For full story,
click here>>>>more
The exposure of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer's tryst
with a luxury call girl may have been the result of a planned
event. Timing suggests that Spitzer was likely a target of a
White House and Wall Street operation to silence one of its
most dangerous and vocal critics of their handling of the
current financial market crisis. [See the Washington Post
article>>>>more
<> Spitzer wrote just weeks before the
accusations against him emerged]
|