The Media Freedom Foundation » U.S.

Obama Puts Pesticide Pusher in Charge of Agricultural Trade Relations

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:34:34 +0000

Researcher: Amanda Peterson

University: St. Cloud State University

Faculty Evaluator: Julie Andrzejewski

Islam Siddiqui is appointed to be chief of agricultural negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representative. A former pesticide lobbyist and part of a pesticide trade group that lobbies to weaken environmental laws. He wants to ensure the perpetuation of pesticide and fossil-fuel-intensive policies and overseen the development of the first national organic labeling standards. When he allowed sewage sludge-fertilized, genetically modified, and irradiated food to be labeled as organic before public protest forced more stringent standards. He is trying to make everyone believe that pesticides are good to use and that they should allow growers to use them on organic food. This is not someone we want in control of our environment; someone that is saying that pesticides are not pollutants.

Title: Obama Puts Pesticide Pusher in Charge of Agricultural Trade Relations

Author: The Center for Biological Diversity

News Sources: Commondreams.org , March 29, 2010

URL: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/29-0

Researcher: Amanda Peterson

Faculty Evaluator: Julie Andrzejewski

St. Cloud State UniversitySimilar Posts:

President Obama deepens U.S.’s long-standing practice of giving the most military aid to the worst human rights abusers.

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:27:51 +0000

The biggest human rights scandal in years is developing in Colombia. The largest mass grave unearthed in Colombia was discovered by accident last year just outside a Colombian Army base in La Macarena, a rural municipality located in the Department of Meta just south of Bogota. The grave was discovered when children drank from a nearby stream and started to become seriously ill. These illnesses were traced to runoff from what was discovered to be a mass grave. The fact that this grave was discovered just outside a Colombian military base overseen by U.S. military advisers — the U.S. having around 600 military advisers in that country — is especially troubling, and raises serious questions about the U.S.’s own conduct in that country. This calls into greater question the propriety of President Obama’s agreement with President Alvaro Uribe last summer to grant the U.S. access to 7 military bases in that country.

Title: U.S. and Colombia Cover Up Atrocities through Mass Graves

News sources: The Huffington post, April 03, 2010

URL: www.huffingtonpost.com/…/us-colombia-cover-up-atro_b_521402.htm

Author: Dan Kovalik

Researcher: Helen Kitilla,

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Julie Andrzejewski

St. Cloud State UniversitySimilar Posts:

U.S. Militarizes the Arctic

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:15:28 +0000

The U.S. Navy is planning to begin an immense push to defend national security, potential undersea riches, and other maritime interests. The department of the Navy has developed a five year plan of action to expand the U.S. Navy fleet operations into the Arctic. They believe that by the year 2030, the Arctic Ocean will be open water and the opening land and ocean will be able to be used for the increase in transportation, research, and population growth. According to the article, tensions and disputes may arise from the competition for resources with the opening ocean. The U.S.is planning naval rearmament including basing 20% of the raptor fighter jets in Alaska. The article also reports the “action items” from the planning document from the Navy, which includes an assessment of current and required capabilities of undersea warfare and regional security co-operations, assessing current and future threats that may arise in the arctic region, and focus on threats to U.S. national security.

Title: U.S. Plots Arctic Push

New Source: The Ottawa Citizen (Canada)

Date of Publication: November 28, 2009

URL: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/navy+plots+Arctic+push/2278324/story.html

Author: Ian MacLeod

Researcher: Cassie Barthel

Faculty Evaluator: Julie Andrzejewski

St. Cloud State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Largest US Subsidies for Energy go for Foreign Oil Extraction

admin — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:29:14 +0000

The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research done by the Environmental Law Institute in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion’s share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases.

The research demonstrates that the federal government provided substantially larger subsidies to fossil fuels than to renewables. Fossil fuels benefited from approximately $72 billion over the seven-year period, while subsidies for renewable fuels totaled only $29 billion. More than half the subsidies for renewables—$16.8 billion—are attributable to corn-based ethanol, the climate effects of which are hotly disputed. Of the fossil fuel subsidies, $70.2 billion went to traditional sources—such as coal and oil—and $2.3 billion went to carbon capture and storage, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Thus, energy subsidies highly favored energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases over sources that would decrease our climate footprint.

The U.S. energy market is shaped by a number of national and state policies that encourage the use of traditional energy sources. These policies range from royalty relief to the provision of tax incentives, direct payments, and other forms of support to the non-renewable energy industry. “The combination of subsidies—or ‘perverse incentives’— to develop fossil fuel energy sources, and a lack of sufficient incentives to develop renewable energy and promote energy efficiency, distorts energy policy in ways that have helped cause, and continue to exacerbate, our climate change problem,” notes ELI Senior Attorney John Pendergrass.

Title: U.S. Tax Breaks Subsidize Foreign Oil Production

Source: Environmental Law Institute, September 18, 2009

http://www.eli.org/pressdetail.cfm?ID=205

http://www.elistore.org/Data/products/d19_07.pdf

Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips

Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Washington Alters U.S. Air Force Document to Hide Intentions Behind Military Accord with Colombia

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:23:43 +0000

In an explicit attempt to hide Washington’s military objectives in South America, a U.S. Air Force document submitted to Congress in May 2009 was modified and re-published on November 16, 2009. The original Air Force document dated May 2009 outlined the importance of the military base in Palanquero, Colombia to enable “full spectrum military operations” in South America. The original military document also detailed the necessity of investing $46 million to improve the airfield, ramps and other essential installations on the base, converting it into a Cooperative Security Location (CSL) for U.S. military missions in the region.

The modified document has eliminated all mention of war and military operations in the region, as well as offensive language directed at Colombia’s neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador. Nevertheless, Washington’s intentions remain the same.

Original U.S. Air Force document, May 2009: “Establishing a Cooperative Security Location (CSL) in Palanquero best supports the COCOM’s (Command Combatant’s) Theater Posture Strategy and demonstrates our commitment to this relationship. Development of this CSL provides a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-U.S. governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters.”
The original language sparked immediate concerns and accusations regarding Washington’s intentions to utilize Colombia as a launching pad to attack countries such as Venezuela, considered erroneously “anti-U.S.” by many.
Washington can try to erase its language regarding intentions of war, espionage and military operations in Latin America, but the U.S. can’t erase the truth. The original U.S. Air Force document from May 2009 remains the principal justification behind the U.S.-Colombia military accord.

Washington Alters U.S. Air Force Document to Hide Intentions Behind Military Accord with Colombia

Source: Venezuela Analysis , Nov 27th 2009

URL: http://venezuelanalysis.com/print/4958

Author: Eva Golinger

Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips

Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Native and Environmental Groups Challenge Canadian Tar Sands Crude

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:12:22 +0000

Tar sands crude is causing massive environmental degradation in Canada and results in significantly more greenhouse gas emissions claims environmental and native groups who are challenging

U.S. State Department issuance of a permit for a multibillion-dollar pipeline. The US State Department issued a Presidential Permit to Enbridge Energy, Ltd. for the Alberta Clipper - a 1,000-mile/1,607-kilometer crude oil pipeline that will run between Hardisty, Alberta, and Superior, Wisconsin. The supply of crude oil from Western Canada oil sands developments expected to grow by as much as 1.8 million barrels per day by 2015.

“The State Department has rubber-stamped a project that will mean more air, water and global warming pollution, particularly in the communities near refineries that will process this dirty oil,” said Earthjustice attorney Sarah Burt. The environmental and native groups point out that “Tar sands development in Alberta is creating an environmental catastrophe, with toxic tailings ponds so large they can be seen from space and plans to strip away the forests and peat lands in an area the size of Florida.”

“In addition,” they argue, “greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands production are three times that of conventional crude oil and it contains 11 times more sulfur and nickel, six times more nitrogen and five times more lead than conventional oil. These toxins are released into the U.S. air and water when the crude oil is processed into fuels by refineries.”

“The tar sands pipeline connects U.S. refiners and consumers with the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive crude oil on earth,” said Kevin Reuther, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy’s legal director.

Many of the groups involved in the coalition also have appealed the U.S. Forest Service over its willingness to allow the pipeline to traverse parts of the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota.

Title: U.S. State Department OKs Pipeline From Canada’s Oil Sands

Source: Environmental News Service: August 21, 2009 (ENS) URL:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2009/2009-08-21-091.asp

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin

Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

“Dolphins, Sea Lions to Defend Navy Base”

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:46:27 +0000

The Trident Submarine Base in Bangor, WA will soon initiate a program to use both dolphins and sea lions in an effort to heighten security. An announcement by the Navy acknowledges that the animals will be used to stop divers and swimmers from breaching the surrounding waters. Bottlenose dolphins are more than capable of locating such intruders, and they are considered to be an effective means of security. The Navy feels that the dolphin’s distinct metabolism will allow it to operate efficiently in the cold environment. It has been claimed that these dolphins will not be captured from the wild, but will be chosen among those trained at the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program. Although there has been some media attention regarding the use of military dolphins in the past, it has been severely understated, and appears to be a topic about which the average American is uninformed.

Sources: “Dolphins, Sea Lions to Defend Navy Base” – Military.com.

Wed. 20 Nov 2009 http://www.military.com/news/article/dolphins-sea-lions-to-defend-navy-base.html?col=1186032310810

“U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Navy_Marine_Mammal_Program

White, Thomas I. In Defense of Dolphins. 10 Mar 2008. Web 20 Nov 2009. http://books.google.com/books?id=3gOsAIWK0CAC&pg=PT197&lpg=PT197&dq=dolphin+human+contact+ethics&source=bl&ots=UMAhmJzqcr&sig=89-H3Qv9S7h0s2C-BuqXSGwkJtw&hl=en&ei=EkEHS5roA4Gvtge7_-W8Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=dolphin%20human%20contact%20ethics&f=false

Student Researcher: Christopher Lue

Faculty Instructor: Dr. Elliot D. Cohen

Evaluator: Dr. Thomas I. White

Indian River State CollegeSimilar Posts:

Haitian Aid Racket-NGOs Profiting from Grave Situation

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:45:41 +0000

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that “more than 3 million people–one in every three Haitians–were severely affected by the earthquake, of whom 2 million need regular food aid. Over 1.1 million people are homeless, many of them still living under sheets and cardboard in makeshift camps. The government of Haiti estimates that at least 300,000 people were injured during the quake.”

The world’s largest multinational charities–CARE, CRS, World Vision and ADRA–execute the political will of institutions, governments and lobbyists that had identified Haiti’s comparative advantage as low wages–i.e. poverty–and in doing so, these charitable organizationdedicated to helping the poorest of the poor wound up working to make the people of Haiti even poorer.

While some NGOs like Partners in Health have done and are doing amazing work to provide services for quake victims, overall, the catastrophe in Haiti revealed the worst aspects of the U.S. government and the NGO aid industry.

The U.S. in fact used its “relief” operation to disguise a military occupation of Haiti, intended to prevent a flood of refugees reaching the U.S., impose even greater sweatshop development on Haiti.

The U.S. is funneling $379 million in aid through its own agencies and then through NGOs. According to the Associated Press: Each American dollar roughly breaks down like this: 42 cents for disaster assistance, 33 cents for U.S. military aid, nine cents for food, nine cents to transport the food, five cents for paying Haitian survivors for recovery efforts, just less than one cent to the Haitian government, and about half a cent to the Dominican Republic.

Title: The Aid Racket

Souece: Socialist Worker, February 24, 2010

URL: http://socialistworker.org/2010/02/24/the-aid-racket

Author: Ashley Smith

Faculty evaluator: Peter Philllips Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Copenhagen Climate Summit Ends In Discord

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:09:02 +0000

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference ended in a large controversy because of a meeting which was held and attended by only 26 of the 192 countries in attendance. These countries in attendance, which happen to be the more wealthy and powerful, consisted of the U.S., Russia, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and others such as Ethiopia, Grenada and Saudi Arabia. Although 26 were in the “secretive meeting” only 14 of these countries were active in contributing to the accord. This was very unsettling to many of the other countries, and when the Danish President tried to recess the convention for an hour, so that the countries could read and adopt the accord, the Venezuelan delegate used what means she had to get his attention. The main reason for outrage was that such a small proportion of those under the UN had been chosen to decide the alleged deaths of millions, especially in countries which had not been asked to consult on this subject. Not only was it said to be in the interest of the more wealthy and powerful, but that it was a violation of the UN Charters principle in general. Many of the more developed countrieswere in awe about the reaction to the accord from the 26 member meeting; because they had alleged intentions of keeping everyone in mind, they believed that those who were speaking out against it were in the wrong essentially.

The conference ended in a compromise which would “take note” of the accord. The issue was that they gave no real obligation to resume what had been discussed. Nor would they say if this should be viewed positively or negatively. It is important to recognize not the fact that it was a mere 26 countries deciding the fate of all, even though it seems in the wrong, but that the whole meeting was against the principles of the UN in general, thus leading to a greater suspicion of wrongful intentions.

Source: “Copenhagen climate summit ends in discord” Martin Khor, Third World Resurgence, January 10^th, 2010, issue No.233

Student Researchers: Alex Muxen

Faculty Instructor: Peter Phillips

Evaluator: Elaine Leeder—Dean of Social Sciences at Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years— and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on Terror?

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:49:58 +0000

Professor David Ray Griffin, a former professor at California’s Claremont School of Theology, suggests that Osama Bin Laden has been dead and the U.S. and British Governments have been covering it up to support the war on terror. He says that Bin Laden died on December 13, 2001 of kidney failure or a kidney related illness. There are records of Bin Laden being treated in an American Hospital in Dubai for a urinary infection, often linked with kidney disease, and ordered a mobile dialysis machine that was shipped to Afghanistan that is essential for his survival. Griffin, along with doctors that he has cited, say it would be impossible for him to survive in a cave with that machine.

Sources: “Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years— and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on Terror?” By Sue Reid / Daily Mail UK/ 9/11/09

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212851/Has-Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-seven-years–U-S-Britain-covering-continue-war-terror.html

Student Researchers: Mikey Hemkens, Ryan Huffman, and Colin Doran

Faculty Advisor: Kevin Howley

Evaluator: Andrea Sununu , Professor of EnglishSimilar Posts: