Is America playing with fire ? - Page 10

Government Says Aspartame Is Good For You
AP calls study independent, omits previous human studies showing Aspartame danger

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | April 5 2006

The deadly toxin Aspartame which is included in more than 6,000 food and drink products around the world is good for you according to a new government study. The Associated Press falsely labels the results as independent and omits referencing previous human studies undertaken by groups with no corporate or government ties that concluded the opposite.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/050406goodforyou.htm

The Aspartame controversy is noted for the fact that it explicitly connects government conflicts of interest with corporations. Donald Rumsfeld became the chief executive officer of a worldwide pharmaceutical G.D. Searle & Company (later bought out by Monsanto) in 1977, 12 years after aspartame was discovered by G.D. Searle chemist James Schlatter.

A story by Rishi Mehta, associate commentary editor for the University of Connecticut Daily Campus newspaper, points out the following: 'In 1981, after over 15 years of FDA disapproval of aspartame, Rumsfeld said in a Searle sales meeting that he would use 'political rather than scientific means' to finally get FDA approval. Only 20 days later, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as 40th President of the United States, appointing Rumsfeld as Special Envoy to the Middle East and Arthur Hayes Hull Jr. - a friend of Rumsfeld's - to FDA commissioner."

Futhermore, the FDA has been caught in the past removing negative data from government studies that indicated aspartame was dangerous to humans.

The FDA admits adverse reactions to aspartame comprise about 80 percent of consumer complaints it receives each year."

The Government says...

Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says

Bloomberg | April 13 2006

Flashback: Iran Is Judged 10 Years From Nuclear Bomb

Iran, which is defying United Nations Security Council demands to cease its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days if it goes ahead with plans to install thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.S. State Department official said.

``Natanz was constructed to house 50,000 centrifuges,'' Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow. ``Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days.''

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/130406Bomb.htm

Yet everyone else says...

Iran Is Judged 10 Years From Nuclear Bomb
U.S. Intelligence Review Contrasts With Administration Statements

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 2, 2005; Page A01

A major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years, according to government sources with firsthand knowledge of the new analysis.

The carefully hedged assessments, which represent consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies, contrast with forceful public statements by the White House. Administration officials have asserted, but have not offered proof, that Tehran is moving determinedly toward a nuclear arsenal. The new estimate could provide more time for diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. President Bush has said that he wants the crisis resolved diplomatically but that "all options are on the table."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/01/AR200508
0101453.html

Analysts Say a Nuclear Iran Is Years Away

WILLIAM J. BROAD, NAZILA FATHI and JOEL BRINKLEY / NY Times | April 13 2006

Western nuclear analysts said yesterday that Tehran lacked the skills, materials and equipment to make good on its immediate nuclear ambitions, even as a senior Iranian official said Iran would defy international pressure and rapidly expand its ability to enrich uranium for fuel.

The official, Muhammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organization, said Iran would push quickly to put 54,000 centrifuges on line - a vast increase from the 164 they said Tuesday that they had used to enrich uranium to levels that could fuel a nuclear reactor.

Still, nuclear analysts called the claims exaggerated. They said nothing had changed to alter current estimates of when Iran might be able to make a single nuclear weapon, assuming that is its ultimate goal. The United States government has put that at 5 to 10 years, and some analysts have said it could come as late as 2020.

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/130406_b_Analysts.htm


After three years of intensive probes, the IAEA has said it still cannot verify that Iran's nuclear program is entirely peaceful, but they have also found no hard proof of efforts to build atomic bombs.

ElBaradei held talks with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/140406IAEA.htm

Eminent Domain Threatens Florida

AP | April 30 2006

When Riviera Beach, Fla. Mayor Michael Brown envisions the future of his struggling city, he sees no poverty, no drug dealing, no prostitution - and none of the 1,700 buildings where many of his poorest constituents live and work.

Up to 6,000 of Riviera Beach's 31,000 residents would be sent packing in the city's effort to revamp its marina district with condominiums, houses, shops, offices and yacht slips. To enraged owners of property slated for condemnation, Brown says the sacrifice is necessary for progress.

"(Italian philosopher Niccolo) Machiavelli said it best - the hardest thing to do is to sustain and change the order of things," Brown says. "I will use every ounce of energy I have to fight to make a better life for these people. There will be no more lower class.

"For all those who don't like it, tough."

The project, potentially one of the country's largest eminent domain seizures, has placed Riviera Beach at the center of a nationwide battle over whether government should be allowed to seize property for private development.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/300406Eminent.htm

CIA Nominee May Soften on Eavesdropping

CIA Nominee Hayden Hints That Changes to Law to Allow for Eavesdropping May Be Possible

KATHERINE SHRADER / AP | May 11 2006

WASHINGTON - CIA director-nominee Michael Hayden has told at least one Democratic senator that he may be open to changing the law that governs eavesdropping on U.S. soil to allow the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance.

According to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Hayden indicated he could support a congressional debate on modifying that law. The exchange came during a 35-minute meeting Wednesday about his nomination to be CIA director.

President Bush and other senior officials have said they don't believe that changes in law are needed to empower the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without court approval on communications between people in the U.S. and overseas when terrorism is suspected.

(Still no mention of Non foreign ILLEGAL wiretaps I see.)

The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act established a system requiring the national security agencies to first seek approval from a secretive federal court before monitoring Americans. Bush's program skirted those rules.

(Let me be sure here, skirting the rules? Or breaking the law? I can see me now the next time I get pulled over, "Sir, why are you going 100 mph in a 45 zone?", " Just skirting the rules a bit officer, thought I might need to go a little faster since I just skirted that Banks rules. Oddly, they didn't seem very happy about it.)

Hayden, an Air Force four-star general and former NSA director, and other government officials had previously said that they did not ask Congress to change the surveillance law because the debate would reveal U.S. intelligence techniques. Gradually, the White House has come around, saying it is committed to working with Congress on legislation that would write the president's eavesdropping authority into statute.

But the White House has not specifically embraced changes to the FISA process.

Durbin said Hayden told him: "With all the publicity that has surrounded this program, we may be closer to the possibility of asking for a change in FISA."

"He didn't say he would," Durbin added.

(Wow, so the only debate here or concern expressed about the warrantless (i.e. ILLEGAL) wiretaps is about them changing the law to allow it? What about enforcing the law? Where's that debate?)

Spokespeople for Hayden were not immediately available to comment.

Hayden is making the rounds on Capitol Hill to help sell his nomination to be CIA director. Outgoing director Porter Goss announced his resignation Friday, and officials have said that Goss had conflicts with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and his top deputy, Hayden.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Ill., plans to hold open and closed hearings on Hayden's nomination starting May 18.

Republicans and Democrats have expressed concern about the prospect of an Air Force officer running the civilian CIA. Also creating discomfort are Hayden's ties to the warrantless surveillance program, which Bush has credited Hayden with designing.

(And so the only other debate is military civilian?)

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., a Hayden supporter, has said that confirmation hearings should note that he is not a lawyer and was relying on the advice of the White House counsel's office, the Justice Department and other top government lawyers when the NSA program was created.

(Ah, the I don't know the law and can't get in trouble for breaking it line. The shit people buy these days, I tell ya. Mixed with a dash of ignorance and ineptness hallmarks of any Bush administration defense.)

Senate Republicans were gradually embracing Hayden. After a morning meeting with him, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said that he plans to vote to confirm Hayden, "unless there's some problem that develops during the process of the hearings."

Lott said the 20-minute session addressed the importance of preventing the Defense Department from becoming "the dominant and the only operation that's really pursuing the necessary intelligence."

Durbin said Hayden told him he "wouldn't rule out" retiring from the military, as some lawmakers have pressed. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., who supports Hayden, doesn't think that the general needs to give up his uniform.

"If it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck. Just because you put a different suit on the duck doesn't make it not a duck," said Bond, an intelligence committee member.

(So how and why does an on Duty, during a war no less, Air Force Gen. also obtain and want to obtain a civilian job posistion? Too much free time?)

Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, is reserving judgment on supporting Hayden. He questioned Hayden's role in the wiretapping program, whether he could be independent from the military establishment and whether he would respect Congress' ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of terror detainees.

Vice President Cheney fought to have CIA operatives excluded from the provisions of the amendment, approved last year.

(Uh, so, ya.)

"It is not a question of Gen. Hayden's qualifications," Durbin said. "There is no doubt that this man is probably one of the smartest men when it comes to intelligence gathering in America."

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, an intelligence committee member, said Hayden was likely to be confirmed. "But we want to go through a very vigorous confirmation process on these major issues," she added.

(Yep, people love their dog and pony show.)

Associated Press Writer Elizabeth White and Sam Hananel contributed to this report.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2006/110506Eavesdropping.htm

Stop the NAIS

by Ron Paul
by Ron Paul



The House of Representatives recently passed funding for a new federal mandate that threatens to put thousands of small farmers and ranchers out of business. The National Animal Identification System, known as NAIS, is an expensive and unnecessary federal program that requires owners of livestock – cattle, dairy, poultry, and even horses – to tag animals with electronic tracking devices. The intrusive monitoring system amounts to nothing more than a tax on livestock owners, allowing the federal government access to detailed information about their private property.

In typical Washington-speak, NAIS is 'voluntary' – provided USDA bureaucrats are satisfied with the level of cooperation. Trust me, NAIS will be mandatory within a few years. When was the last time a new federal program did not expand once implemented?

As usual, Congress is spending millions of dollars creating a complex non-solution to a very simple problem. NAIS will cost taxpayers at least $33 million for starters.

Agribusiness giants support NAIS, because they want the federal government to create a livestock database and provide free industry data. But small and independent livestock owners face a costly mandate if NAIS becomes law.

Larger livestock operations will be able to tag whole groups of animals with one ID device. Smaller ranchers and farmers, however, will be forced to tag each individual animal, at a cost of anywhere from $3 to $20 per head. And NAIS applies to anyone with a single horse, pig, chicken, or goat in the backyard – no exceptions. NAIS applies to children in 4-H or FFA. Once NAIS becomes mandatory, any failure to report and tag an animal subjects the owner to $1,000 per day fines.

NAIS also forces livestock owners to comply with new paperwork and monitoring regulations. These farmers and ranchers literally will be paying for an assault on their property and privacy rights, as NAIS empowers federal agents to enter and seize property without a warrant – a blatant violation of the 4th amendment.

NAIS is not about preventing mad cow or other diseases. States already have animal identification systems in place, and virtually all stockyards issue health certificates. Since most contamination happens after animals have been sold, tracing them back to the farm or ranch that sold them won't help find the sources of disease.

More than anything, NAIS places our family farmers and ranchers at an economic disadvantage against agribusiness and overseas competition. As dairy farmer and rancher Bob Parker stated, NAIS is 'too intrusive, too costly, and will be devastating to small farmers and ranchers.'

NAIS means more government, more regulations, more fees, more federal spending, less privacy, and diminished property rights. It's exactly the kind of federal program every conservative, civil libertarian, animal lover, businessman, farmer, and rancher should oppose. The House has already acted, but there's still time to tell the Senate to dump NAIS. Please call your Senators and tell them you oppose spending even one dime on the NAIS program in the 2007 agriculture appropriations bill.

May 30, 2006

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

John Yoo Argues Pres. George Bush Has Legal Power to Torture Children

On December 1, 2005, John Yoo, an architect of U.S. legal policy on torture, publicly claimed that George Bush has the authority to order the torture of children.

http://rwor.org/johnyoo/index.html