Interesting Stories of Today

STORIES PICKED UP FROM THE WEB ON JULY 19, 1998

MY COMMENTS: IS THERE ANY MORE INHUMANITY THAN MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN - LET'S HOPE THAT THE PEOPLE IN POWER SMARTENS UP IN TIME TO SAVE HUMAN LIVES.

U.S. SANCTIONS TURN IRAQ'S WATER INTO POISON

[A U.S. warplane launched a missile June 30 at Iraq. Its pilot claimed an Iraqi anti-aircraft battery had locked its radar on some British jet fighters patrolling Iraqi air space, and he had to respond.

The missile struck a water reservoir near Basra in southern Iraq, supporting the Iraqi's statement that there was no radar in the area. It also highlighted the serious threat to Iraq's water supply from an eight-year-long blockade.

David Sole, president of UAW Local 2334-Sanitary Chemists & Technicians Association at the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, wrote the following description of what sanctions have done to Iraq's drinking water. Sole was part of a delegation the International Action Center organized to bring medicine to Iraq in early May.]

I still had on my mind the hundreds of babies and children shrunken and dying at the Saddam Pediatric Hospital in Baghdad. Most were stricken with gastroenteritis and amoebic dysentery, both water-born diseases.

Ferhan Mohson, the plant shift supervisor, and Dr. A. Al- Dabbagh, assistant president of Baghdad University, an expert in water engineering, were guiding us through the "April 7" Water Treatment Plant just north of Baghdad. The plant provides almost half the fresh water to over five million people.

The facility was not that different from any fresh water plant in Detroit. The huge pumps were roaring as they lifted water from the Tigris River. Settling tanks slowed the water and let solids sink to the bottom. Huge filtration tanks further reduced the contamination.

But unlike the procedures normally followed, this plant was not adding chlorine in the early stages of purification. Perhaps this explained why the hospitals were full.

Our hosts explained that "importation of chlorine is restricted severely by the sanctions. Since it is a poisonous gas, they say it can be used for military purposes."

The little chlorine now allowed into the country comes by way of UNICEF. It is not enough.

The Tigris' turbid water contains minute solid particles that remain suspended even after settling and filtration. Before the Gulf War the plant added the aluminum salt alum to the water to reduce these solids. U.S./UN sanctions bar alum.

Now the plant adds an unprocessed ore that contains 50 percent impurities. Every day they have to use a mechanical shovel to clean out the tanks. Control of the turbidity is difficult.

As water leaves the plant it gets what chlorine is available from the six of 12 chlorinators still working. The chlorine should be more than enough to purify the water. In fact the chlorine left in the water after contaminants have been destroyed is ten times that used for water leaving Detroit's Water Works Park.

But Baghdad's water supply has other problems. Massive bombing during the Gulf War severely damaged the entire network of underground water pipes. Sanctions prevent pipes from entering Iraq, classifying them as considered potential military material.

Dr. Adnan Jabrou, deputy mayor of Baghdad, told us that so many pipes are cracked and broken that they lose 40 percent of all water leaving the water plants to leakage. The resulting low pressure in the pipes allows contaminated ground water to leak back into the water-delivery system.

One official later told us that tap-water testing in Baghdad homes showed that over 10 percent received contaminated water.

Baghdad water engineers over-chlorinate the water as it leaves the plant, hoping to decontaminate it as it runs through the broken pipes. They would like to double the amount of chlorine they currently put into the water, but they don't have enough.

There is no rational military reason to limit chlorine imports. UNSCOM inspectors now visit the plant every two months to monitor the chlorine, which comes in easily tracked one-ton containers that can be sealed. UNSCOM could monitor pressure daily if it was necessary.

Dr. Jabrou was proud of what Iraq had accomplished for the people up to the Gulf War. "Before the aggression when we tested the water at homes throughout the city less than 1.8 percent failed the World Health Organization standards," he explained. "Our loss from leakage was only 15 percent, much better than many cities in the West or in Japan."

SANCTIONS CONDEMN CHILDREN TO DEATH

But now, because of the sanctions, diarrhea and dysentery are destroying an entire generation of children as they strike ten times as many people as before. Combined with malnutrition due to food shortages--also caused by sanctions--and the terrible shortage of medicine to treat these easily cured maladies, tens of thousands of children are condemned to death.

Wastewater treatment in Baghdad is also minimal due to shortages of pumps, replacement parts, pipe and chlorine. In fact, no chlorine is available for wastewater treatment. An estimated 66 billion gallons of untreated sewage is being dumped into the Tigris without any treatment whatsoever.

Industrial waste is also being dump ed. And there are reports that hospitals, unable to sterilize medical waste due to parts shortages for autoclaves and incinerators, are dumping their waste into the system, too. The long-term health and ecological problems are most alarming.

Everyone understands that clean drinking water is a cornerstone of modern life. To deny Iraq the necessary supplies to rebuild, maintain and expand its water treatment facilities, especially chlorine, is a crime against humanity.

Only a desire to destroy an entire people can be motivating the United States policy makers. A world-wide outcry must be raised against this gross violation of human rights.

STORIES PICKED UP FROM THE WEB ON THURSDAY FEB. 5, 1998

MY COMMENTS: IS THERE ANY END TO THE STUPIDITY OF THE PERSONS WHO CONTROL OUR GOVERNMENTS? THE POLITICAL RULERS, BANKERS AND MANUFACTURERS OF WEAPONS, INTERESTED ONLY IN BRINGING IN MORE PROFITS, HAVE A GREAT TIME PLAYING WITH OUR LIVES.

This situation in Iraq could escalate into a World Wide Conflict. The wheels of Governments are begining to turn, all over the world. Countries are choosing sides. Lines are being drawn in the sand. Here are a few articles that are so pertinent to our very existence, that I feel everyone should read about them. I believe that each one of us should get in touch with our politicians in whatever part of the world you live and tell them to stop the madness. Universal Understanding and Brotherhood can bring world peace.

PROTESTS SET IN 30 CITIES

Protest demonstrations to stop U.S. aggression against Iraq are taking place in at least 30 North American cities between Feb. 2 and Feb. 6.

A coalition of organizations and individuals, some who have fought the murderous sanctions against Iraq for years, issued the call for the actions.

Even before the week of protests started there were anti- war actions in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Hartford, Conn., and Toronto, Ontario in Canada.

Other actions are planned in New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Portland, Ore., Raleigh, N.C., and other cities.

The International Action Center issued a Feb. 1 news release calling on "all people of conscience to come out now to say `No new bombing of Iraq, end the sanctions now, and no nukes against Iraq.'"

Others in the coalition include the Iraq Action Coalition, Voices in the Wilderness, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Metro Peace Action of New York, Women Strike for Peace, Women for Mutual Security, the Philippines Information Network Services, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (Western Region), the Palestinian-American Women's Association, BAYAN International, Food Not Bombs (San Francisco), LEF Foundation, All-People's Congress, Catholic Worker, League of Filipino Students, LORENAS, Middle East Children's Alliance and National People's Campaign.

- John Catalinotto

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(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited.)

CLINTON OKAYS A NUCLEAR STRIKE: PENTAGON TERRORISTS AIM BOMBS AT IRAQ

By Sara Flounders

With a U.S. nuclear strike against Iraq now in the planning stages, many people are asking why Washington is prepared to take such a brutal action against the Iraqi people, and what can be done to stop it.

Is there any truth to U.S. charges that Iraq is producing biological weapons? Is Iraq's oil wealth Washington's real target? Or are there other strategic goals driving the Clinton administration to threaten a whole people with nuclear destruction?

A front-page report in the Feb. 1 New York Newsday revealed that in November President Bill Clinton signed a top-secret directive authorizing the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Iraq under certain conditions. Such an illegal first strike with nuclear weapons violates the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which both the United States and Iraq have signed.

Clinton signed the directive before the latest round of unsubstantiated U.S. charges that Iraq is manufacturing and hiding chemical and biological weapons.

In November, Baghdad's demand that the United Nations set an date to end sanctions was finally receiving an international hearing. Since then, the major corporate media here have orchestrated a campaign of unproved charges that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons poised to strike.

THE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS HOAX

On Jan. 27, UN chief weapons inspector Richard Butler received international media coverage when he made the totally wild claim that Iraqi missiles were already loaded with biological weapons like anthrax and botulism toxin "to blow away Tel Aviv." Television news here showed Israelis lining up for gas masks and reported that U.S. troops would get shots with vaccines.

The Chinese and Russian UN delegates challenged Butler to substantiate the charges directly to the UN Security Council. In a letter published Jan. 30 in the New York Times, Butler admitted he "had no such knowledge. I was merely illustrating a capability that could apply to any city or target within a range of such missile-based systems."

THE REAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

All of Washington's charges are based on claims that Iraq has failed to account for 30 to 70 Scud missiles. In comparison, the Pentagon has 20,000 nuclear warheads and hundreds of thousands of non-nuclear missiles.

Right now in the Persian-Arabian Gulf, the Pentagon has 325 military aircraft, two aircraft carriers, and destroyers and battleships armed with hundreds of precision-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles. There are Stealth fighters and B-1 bombers.

Washington has kept sanctions in force for seven years, killing 1.4 million Iraqis.

The sanctions are justified with the claim that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Yet in 1991 Iraq had not one weapon in its entire arsenal capable of hitting a U.S. aircraft carrier, U.S. aircraft or even a U.S. tank. The weapons of mass destruction were one-sided against Iraq.

Iraq fired 59 Scud missiles over 42 days. The Pentagon flew 110,000 sorties--dropping 88,500 tons of explosives and destroying every water-filtration plant, food-processing installation and most bridges in the country along with the entire economic infrastructure.

WILL THE PENTAGON BOMB IRAQ?

MY COMMENTS: WILL WE HAVE PROBLEMS PLAYING WITH LIFE? HAVE WE CONSIDERED ALL THE DANGERS? I pray that we use our knowledge wisely...

HUMAN GENES FOR BREAKFAST?

Secret work on strange new foods could turn us all into a nation of cannibals. You may soon be eating steak, chicken, pork or lamb made from human and animal genes.

Genes are the building blocks of life. They control eye colour, height, intelligence, and a million other things that make us human.

Scientists can swop genes from one person to another, between plants, animals or insects to see what happens. Salmon with extra mouse and human genes grow fast - up to four times normal size in a few months.

Designer meat can be made by mixing our genes with animals to make superbreeds. Humanised cows, pigs, rabbits, sheep and fish have already been born - just some of 60,000 mutants made each year by British scientists.

Some of these animals may bring medical benefit. An Edinburgh company (Pharmaceutical Proteins) has made a sheep called Tracy. She adds human protein to her milk which may help people with lung disease.

Miracle cures could come from genes. New microbes already make human insulin for diabetics. Soon we may have a cure for cystic fibrosis and new treatments for cancer. Gene research will help us fight AIDS.

Humanised pigs grow fast but are blind, impotent and crippled with arthritis. They are almost all pig and look like pigs but scientists can make them half human if they like.

Geeps have already been made from sheep and goat - so why not humigs or humonkeys too? They could try to make monkeys with human speech. We can try just about any mix of genes we like.

Scorpion poison genes have been given to cabbages. The cabbages kill caterpillars but what about people?

Microbe poison genes gave been added to mutant potatoes. They look and taste identical. Non-bruising tomatoes have also been made. While this meat and veg is not yet on sale you are already eating other gene food. Mutant yeast in bread for example. You can't tell because there are no labels.

The government says labels are a waste of time and effort. They test new foods and reckon those on sale are safe.

Supermarkets don't want gene labels on bread, beef or canned tomatoes because they think people will be scared off. No labels, no choice.

They remember the big fuss over nuclear radiation used to stop meat getting too bad to eat.

The moment they were forced to tell shoppers which foods had been treated they knew the battle was lost.

Most of us didn't want to eat irradiated food, even if it was as safe as experts said.

One by one the big food chains banned the process - by popular demand.

However there is one big difference when it comes to mutant meat. You might be happy the meat is safe, but do you really want to eat someone else's genes? Even hungry meat eaters may turn up their noses at humanised pork chops with their scorpion salad and rubberised tomatoes.

The Co-op group has just banned all humanised meat, insect genes in vegetables and other horrors. Other supermarket chains still can't make up their minds.

Many MPs are worried that profits may come before safety. They want labels on all these foods so you and I can choose.

Scientists have never had so much power. Designer foods, designer animals, designer humans, identikit baby clones, twin foetuses grown for spare parts, a generation of frozen embryos on sale with written guarantees.

These things are all possible with the knowledge we have today. Is this the kind of world we want to live in?

So many benefits and so many dangers. I shudder to think what would have done with gene power.

That is why we need a Gene Charter allowing the best and protecting us from the worst. Proper food labelling will do for a start.

END

MY COMMENTS: The almighty $$DOLLAR$$ seems to be worth more than peoples lives. The companies who have been entrusted with our safety don't seem to want to do anything to fix any problem that might cost them any lost profits. Companies have to realize that they must follow the same rules as God's children --DO WHAT IS RIGHT-- LIVE AND HELP OTHERS TO LIVE -- LOVE ONE ANOTHER -- IF YOU LOVE YOU CAN'T HURT -- POISONING PEOPLE IS CERTAINLY NOT SHOWING LOVE TO THE REST OF MANKIND THE LOVE THAT IS DUE THEM. UNIVERSAL LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING CAN BRING WORLD PEACE AND BRING THE WORLD A LITTLE CLOSER TO HEAVEN NOW. - THAT'S THE UNIVERSAL WAY.

------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 23, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

PENTAGON'S NUCLEAR LEAKS POSE GRAVE THREAT

By John Catalinotto

If radioactive material at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state reaches the nearby Columbia River, it will enter the human food chain and expose masses of people to radiation for centuries.

Storage tanks at Hanford containing radioactive waste and other poisons in liquids have been leaking. Scientists now say this leakage has already reached the ground water.

Department of Energy experts had maintained for years that any leakage would chemically bind to nearby soil and present no danger. Last year, the DOE brought in a team of outside experts. The experts reported in January that the DOE's former work was inadequate and unrealistic, and that an enormous--and expensive--cleanup was needed.

There are 147 single-shelled tanks in Hanford. All of them are fragile and prone to leaks and even to explosion as a result of trapped hydrogen. The DOE says 67 have already leaked.

The private companies that empty these tanks maintain that they will only be able to pump two tanks next year because of budget reductions.

About a million gallons of liquids have already leaked. As a result, the soil under the tanks contains quantities of technetium 99 and strontium 90.

The latter isotope causes cancers in humans after it concentrates in the bones.

THE PENTAGON'S NUCLEAR GRAVEYARD

The Manhattan Project, which made the first atomic bombs, founded the Hanford Nuclear Project in early 1940. Hanford produced the plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

Nuclear facilities like Hanford were carefully hidden from the public by so-called national security secrecy.

Today, Hanford Nuclear Reservation is among the most polluted sites in the world. An April 12, 1991, DOE report admitted that more than 5.6 million curies of radiation either leaked or were buried in the ground at Hanford.

That amount is about two to five times higher than the estimated radiation released at the Chernobyl, Ukraine, accident in 1986.

An Oct. 7 statement from the Government Accountability Project shows that those managing Hanford are still taking safety risks and covering them up.

Last May, seven pipefitters--working for Fluor Daniels Northwest, a subcontractor at Hanford since Oct. 1, 1996-- tried to blow the whistle on serious safety and health violations at the site. The pipe-fitters refused to install underrated valves in pipes destined to carry high-level nuclear waste liquids from the tanks. They also complained of other dangers to themselves and other workers there.

Management reconsidered and finally allowed the pipefitters to install the correct valves--but the next day told the pipefitters they would be laid off. The GAP filed complaints on behalf of the seven on Aug. 2.

After a 65-day investigation, the Labor Department ruled Oct. 7 that five of the seven pipefitters were illegally terminated. The decision ordered their reinstatement, back pay, declaratory relief and $10,000 each in compensatory damages. The ruling excluded two pipefitters who had quit their jobs in solidarity with the five who were laid off.

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