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Why is the Federal Bureau of Investigation Encouraging Terrorist Activity?

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:24:26 +0000

The FBI has embarked on an unusual approach to ensure that the United States is secure from future terrorist attacks. The agency has developed a network of nearly 15,000 spies to infiltrate various Muslim communities in an attempt to uncover terrorist plots. However, these moles are actually assisting and encouraging people to commit crimes. Many such informants receive cash rewards of up to $100,000 for each case.

While the FBI is claiming that they have achieved great success in the war on terror, they appear to be manipulating and entrapping Muslim Americans by implicating them in crimes that they may not necessarily have pursued had they not been cajoled or coerced by the aggressive agents. The majority of the men who have been accused by the FBI of plotting terrorist crimes have limited resources and capabilities and little understanding of the Islamic religion. People in Islamic communities nationwide are also being racially profiled and targeted by the FBI. Some legal experts also contend that the FBI’s activities cultivating would-be terrorists constitute entrapment.

The FBI is fabricating acts of terror in what appears to be a scheme to impress the general public by supposedly bringing terrorists to justice. In doing so they are dedicating time and resources towards something that, in the end, isn’t necessarily making our country any safer. Americans have a right to know what is going on beneath the surface and behind the scenes of such operations.

Source:

Article Title: The Informants.” Mother Jones September-October 2011. Mother Jones
Author: Trevor Aaronson
URL: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/fbi-terrorist-informants

Article Title: Fake Terror Plots, Paid Informants: The Tactics of FBI “Entrapment” Questioned
Author: Paul Harris
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots

Student Researcher: Mercedes Coppin, Florida Atlantic University

Faculty Advisor: James F. Tracy, Florida Atlantic UniversitySimilar Posts:

British Petroleum Returns to Drill in Gulf of Mexico

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:14:29 +0000

The Obama Administration has granted authorization for British Petroleum (BP) to drill in the Gulf of Mexico despite the uncertain and incomplete clean up of the biggest oil spill in US history occurring in April 2010. Presently over 25,000 abandoned oil wells exist in the Gulf, some that have been there since the early 1940s. Temporarily and permanently abandoned wells cause a major concern for the environment because they release toxins, oil and greenhouse gases. Environmental organizations such as Oceana object to permission granted BP because of the potentially major environmental impact such wells possess. However, the government and oil companies have apparently been ignoring this issue for several years. Further, BP still has not finished paying cleanup workers who have exerted their time and energy in cleaning up the April 2010 spill.
Sources:

Article Title: BP Acquires Permission to Drill among 28,000 Abandoned Wells in the Gulf of Mexico: “Stage Two” of the BP Gulf of Mexico Environmental Disaster, Centre of Research on Globalization, Food Freedom.wordpress.com, October 24, 2011
Author: Rady Ananda
URL: http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/bp-28000-unmonitored-abandoned-wells-gulf/

Student Researcher: Camila Rocha Lima, Florida Atlantic University

Faculty Advisor: James F. Tracy, Florida Atlantic UniversitySimilar Posts:

Food and Drug Administration Comes Clean on Arsenic-laced Chickens

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:03:31 +0000

For the past sixty years American consumers eating chicken have also been ingesting small amounts of a known cancer-causing agent. The Food and Drug Administration now admits that chicken meat sold in the United States contains arsenic. What is especially disturbing is that the arsenic is intentionally added to chicken feed. The FDA explains how its own research indicates arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat consumed by humans. Prior to this new study, both the poultry industry and the FDA denied that arsenic given to chickens ended up in their meat, arguing that the arsenic in feed is excreted in the chicken feces. However, no science exists for making such a claim. Pfizer, the manufacturer of the drug added to chicken feed known as Roxarsone, is now pulling the product. Roxarsone is one of several such drugs on the market used in chicken feed that have been banned in the European Union.
Sources:

Article Title: “FDA finally admits chicken meat contains cancer-causing arsenic (but keep eating it, yo!),” June 9, 2011
Author: Mike Adams

URL: http://www.naturalnews.com/032659_arsenic_chicken.html

Article Title: FDA admits supermarket chickens test positive for arsenic,” June 8, 2011
Author: Tom Laskawy
URL: http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-06-08-fda-admits-supermarket-chickens-test-positive-for-arsenic

Article Title: Some Chicken May Have Small Amount of Arsenic
Author: Mary Clare Jalonick / Associated Press
URL: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13793945#.TvFKP0qTZxU
Student Researcher: Lamise Mansur, Florida Atlantic University
Faculty Advisor: James F. Tracy, Florida Atlantic University

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U.S. Counter-Terrorism Policies Under Obama Are Intensifying Overseas Conflict

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:56:27 +0000

The United States’ National Strategy for Counterterrorism (NSC) is intended to disrupt and defeat the Al Qaeda terrorist network and its affiliates. Yet this policy is likely increasing the incidence and severity of terrorist attacks on US forces abroad. The NSC is basically an outline for summary executions, which includes assassination of would-be terrorist via unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. The NSC is presently operational in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Actions carried out under NSC have increasingly caused a majority of Pakistanis to regard US armed forces as a foe. Since implementation of the counterterrorism strategy there has been increases in suicide bombings, the number of those deemed US enemies by the US, and the broader threat of nuclear proliferation. Indeed, since the “counterterror surge” began, violence has increased by 51 percent in Afghanistan and by over 400 percent in Pakistan. Such increases have gone unreported in US news media as military officials publicly maintain the strategy constitutes a more “cost-effective” form of counterterrorism.

Source:

Article Title: Obama’s Secret Wars: How Our Shady Counter-Terrorism Policies are More Dangerous than Terrorism, AlterNet, July 11, 2011
Author: Fred Branfman

URL: http://www.alternet.org/world/151596/obama%27s_secret_wars%3A_how_our_shady_counter-terrorism_policies_are_more_dangerous_than_terrorism

Student Researcher: Jasmine Lang, Florida Atlantic University
Faculty Advisor: James F. Tracy, Florida Atlantic UniversitySimilar Posts:

Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Have Cost Americans $3.7 Trillion, $12,000 Per Person

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:36:18 +0000

US War Costs Reach $3.7 Trillion
Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Have Cost Americans $3.7 Trillion, $12,000 Per Person

A study conducted by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies found that over the past 10 years the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost United States taxpayers a total $2.3 to 2.7 trillion, with a final tally being at least $3.7 trillion, an average of $12,000 per American citizen. According to the study, titled, “Costs of War” (www.costsofwar.org) in 2011 the United States Congress has given $1.3 trillion to the Department of Defense for war spending. Projected costs do not include care for wounded US veterans and interest on the war debt. At the end of April 2011 average costs of the combined military occupations of Iraq and the Afghanistan amounted to $9.7 billion per month, a figure equivalent to the annual budget for the Environmental Protection Agency. Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain divided about cutting the military budget even as federal spending in almost every area far exceeds funds taken in by the government. Part of the confusion concerning military costs is related to the Pentagon’s inability to pinpoint specific war costs. Further, despite excessive military spending, the US how has a smaller set of armed forces that are inefficiently trained and poorly equipped.
Sources:
“Report: $3.7 Trillion for U.S. Wars, $12,000 Per Person,” Global Research, August 16, 2011
Author: Nancy A. Youssef
URL: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26039
“U.S. War Costs Reach At Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting”
Author: Reuters via Huffington Post
URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/us-war-costs-3-trillion_n_886879.html

Student Researcher: Joanne Marszal, Florida Atlantic University
Faculty Advisor: James F. Tracy, Florida Atlantic UniversitySimilar Posts:

Wealth Inequality and the 99%

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:34:08 +0000

The 99 Percent Movement was born out of the fact that the country has grown incredibly unequal and millions of Americans are struggling to get by. The richest 1 percent of the country now owns more than 40 percent of the wealth and takes home nearly a quarter of national income.

The American economy wasn’t always structured in a way that so generously rewarded the one percent while giving the 99 percent less and less. Following the Second World War, widespread unionization, higher and fairer tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, and New Deal policies helped craft an economy with widespread prosperity. In fact, if you look at income growth in period between 1947 and 1949, it was approximately equal across the board. Meanwhile, income gains between 1980 and 2007 went overwhelmingly to the richest

Not only should Americans be concerned that only 1 percent of the country owns majority of wealth, but that there was once a time when everyone was semi equal and there was not such a large gap between classes. The author, Jilani, explains that since there was a time wealth among people were similar, it’s optimistic to assume that one day it can be possible for people in America to be equal once again.

Title: It Wasn’t Always This Way: America’s 99 Percent Used to Have a Much Greater Share of The Nation’s Riches

Source: ThinkProgress.org, October 25, 2011

Author: Zaid Jilani

URL: http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/25/351981/it-wasnt-all-this-way/

Student Researcher: Brianna Santo, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator: Marco Calavita, Sonoma state UniversitySimilar Posts:

Who Are The Top 1% and What Do They Do For a Living?

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:31:43 +0000

Mike Konczal’s article charts jobs and income growth of top one percent earners and the causes of changing income inequality. With evidence from tax returns the data shown in the article depicts that the top occupations are non-financial executives first, then financial professionals, followed by lawyers, real estate and medical professions.

Konczal’s article says that 60 percent of the top percentile of income goes to these top professions. The article points out that with the way corporation are structured under our laws that “a business exists only to enrich its shareholders, including, of course, senior managers themselves and this is done by paying out more in dividends that is earned in profits”.

This type of action is what upsets the people of the Occupy Wall Street movements, that the top one percent are “cashing out wealth during good times and then leaving workers and the rest of the real economy to deal with the aftermath”.

There’s good reason to focus on the top 1% instead of the top 10 or 50%. There is evidence that financial pay at this elite level is correlated with deregulation and the other legal changes that brought on the crisis. High-ranking senior corporate executives’ pay has dwarfed workers’ salaries, but is only a reward for engaging in shady financial engineering practices. These problems require a legal solution and thus they require a democratic challenge and a rethinking of how we want to structure our economy.

Title: Who are the 1 percent and what do they do for a living?

Source, Rortybomb, 10/17/11

Author, Mike Konczal

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/who-are-the-1-and-what-do-they-do-for-a-living/

Student researcher, Nicole Trupiano, Sonoma state University

Faculty Evaluator, Peter Phillips, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Nanotechnology: Transforming Food and the Environment

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:12:32 +0000

Nano food packaging is the most commercialized of the agri-food nanotechnologies, designed to enhance shelf-life durability and freshness of food. Despite all the perceived benefits, there are mounting ecological concerns with nanotechnologies. Studies show that nanoparticles gain ready access to the blood stream after being inhaled, while some can directly penetrate the skin. There is also evidence demonstrating nanoparticles are cytotoxic (toxic to cells) in the human body. Carbon nanotubes (used in food packaging) have been likened to asbestos; with evidence demonstrating exposure may lead to mesothelioma or lung cancer in test mice.

It is possible that nanoparticles in food packaging materials may migrate into food it comes into contact with. This is cause for alarm, a range of nanoparticles that are widely used in food packaging (including nano silver, nano zinc oxide and nano chlorine oxide) demonstrate specific adverse health impacts – with tests on nano zinc oxide producing damaging health impacts on mice and rats as well as being very toxic to human cells, even at very low concentrations. Despite the myriad claims from government and industry associated with nanotechnologies the global, corporate nano-revolution is set to steer us further away from a localized, democratic and sustainable agri-food system.

Title: Nanotechnology: Transforming Food and the Environment
Source: Food First Backgrounder, April 5, 2010
Author: Dr. Kristen Lyons
URL: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2862

Student Researcher: Garrett Scafani, Sonoma State University
Faculty Advisor: Cathy Charmaz, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Students Are Crushed By $1 Trillion Dollar Student Loan Debt

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:51:09 +0000

At some point this year, student loan debt will exceed $1 trillion, surpassing credit card debt. Students accepted a home mortgage worth of debt before they ever even had a regular income. This is based on phony promises, and that the debt is inescapable, regardless of life circumstances or ability to pay. Due to the 2005 bankruptcy bill, debtors cannot discharge student loans through bankruptcy. The government is shielded from the risk, and creditors are licensed to collect by almost any means they deem necessary.

This student loan epidemic is going to lead to a generation of wage slavery. If students are lucky enough to find a job during our economic crisis, they will be spending a lot of their money paying off their student loans, and the banks will continue to see massive profits. Different institutions are encouraging people to take out student loans through mainstream media, when in reality taking out these loans are a big scam.

Title: The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How An Entire Generation Was Tricked Into Taking On Crushing Debt That Just Enriches Banks.”

Source: Alternet, October 20, 2011

Author: Alex Pareene

URL: http://www.alternet.org/story/152809/the_$1_trillion_student_loan_rip-off%3A_how_an_entire_generation_was_tricked_into_taking_on_crushing_debt_that_just_enriches_banks/?page=1

Student Researcher: Joshua Nervis – Sonoma State University

Faculty Advisor: David McCuan, Sonoma State Uinversity

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Barack Obama: The Son of Africa

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:46:23 +0000

October 14^th, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States Special Forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. Within the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic to only “engage” for “self-defence.” Like all America’s subsequent invasions, a trail of blood from Latin America to Afghanistan and Iraq, the rationale was usually “self defence” or “humanitarian,” words long emptied of their dictionary meaning.

In Africa, Obama says the “humanitarian mission” is to assist the government of Uganda defeat the Lord’s resistance Army (LRA), which “has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women, and children in central Africa.” Obama’s other justification also invited satire. This is the “national security of the United States.”

However, US “national security” usually means buying a corrupt and thuggish regime that has something Washington wants. The main reason the US is invading Africa is no different from that which ignited the Vietnam War- it is China. China is replacing al-Qaeda as the official American “threat.” Africa is China’s success story. Where the Americans bring drones and destabilization, the Chinese bring roads, bridges and dams.

Article Title: The Son of Africa Claims a Continent’s Crown Jewels

Source: Information Clearinghouse Date: October 19^th, 2011

Author: John Pilger

URL: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29461.htm

Student Researcher: Jessica Belluomini, Sonoma state University

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Leeder, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts: