Library Juice 5:29 - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 5:29 - September 12, 2002

Special issue:
Project Censored's "Most Censored News Stories of 2001-2002"

Introduction
FCC Moves To Privatize Airwaves
New Trade Treaty Seeks to Privatize Global Social Services
United States' Policies in Colombia Support Mass Murder
Bush Administration Hampered FBI Investigation into Bin Laden Family Before 9/11
U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water System
U.S. Government Pushing Nuclear Revival
Corporations Promote HMO Model for School Districts
NAFTA Destroys Farming Communities in U.S. and Abroad
U.S. Faces National Housing Crisis
CIA Double Deals In Macedonia
Bush Appoints Former Criminals to Key Government Roles
NAFTA's Chapter 11 Overrides Public Protection Laws of Countries
Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford Lied to the American Public about East Timor
New Laws Restrict Access to Abortions in US
Bush's Energy Plan Threatens Environment and Public Health
CIA Kidnaps Suspects for Overseas Torture and Execution
Corporate Media Ignores Key Issues of the Anti-Globalization Protests
World's Coral Reefs Dying
American Companies Exploit the Congo
Novartis' Gene Research Endangers Global Plant Life
Large U.S Temp Company Undermines Union Jobs and Mistreats Workers
Fish Farms Threaten Health of Consumers and Aquatic Habitats
Horses Face Lives of Unnecessary Abuse for Drug Company Profits
Wal-Mart Takes Union Busting to the State Level
Federal Government Bails Out Failing Private Prisons

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Press Release
Most Censored News Stories of 2001-2002
August 28, 2002
Sonoma State University
Project Censored
Contact: Peter Phillips or Trish Boreta
707-664-2500

The media research group Project Censored at Sonoma State University
announced today its list of the most under-covered "censored" news stories
of 2001-2002. The censored news stories are published in the annual book
Censored 2003 from Seven Stories Press. The Sonoma State University
research group is composed of nearly 200 faculty, students, and community
experts who reviewed over 900 nominations for the 2003 awards. The top 25
stories were ranked by the Project's national judges including: Michael
Parenti, Robert McChesney, Robin Andersen, Norman Solomon, Carl Jensen,
Lenore Foerstel and some 20 other national journalists, scholars, and
writers.
"We define censorship as any interference with the free flow of information
in American Society," stated Peter Phillips Director of the Project,
"Corporate media in the United States is interested primarily in
entertainment news to feed their bottom-line priorities. Very important
news stories that should reach the American public often fall on the
cutting room floor to be replaced by sex-scandals and celebrity updates."
Project Censored has moved to a new cycle for the release of their annual
censored stories. The Censored 2003 book will be released in September to
bookstores nationwide.
The annual Project Censored awards ceremony will be held at Sonoma State
University September 28 in Evert Person Theater at 7:00 PM. ($20 regular
$10 students and seniors) Political Analyst/author Michael Parenti and
cartoonist Dan Perkins aka Tom Tomorrow will be the keynotes speakers for
the event. Davey D of KPFA's Hardknock radio will be MC for the evening.
Authors of the years' most censored stories will speak and receive their
awards.
Press review copies of Censored 2003 are available by calling Seven Stories
Press at 212-226-8760 or e-mail greg[at]sevenstories.com To purchase a
personal copy of Censored 2003 call 707-664-2500 or visit
www.projectcensored.org. MC and VISA accepted.
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Top Most Censored News Stories

# 1 FCC Moves To Privatize Airwaves
Sources:
London Guardian, April 28, 20001 and Media File Autumn 2001 volume 20, #4
Title: "Global Media Giants Lobby to Privatize Entire Broadcast System"
Author: Jeremy Rifkin
Mother Jones, Sept/October 2001
Title: "Losing Signal"
Author: Brendan l. Koerner - bkoerner[at]villagevoice.com
Media File, May/June 2001
Title: "Legal Project to Challenge Media Monopoly"
Author: Dorothy Kidd - kiddd[at]usfca.edu
For almost 70 years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has
administered and regulated the broadcast spectrum as an electronic
"commons" on behalf of the American people. The FCC issues licenses to
broadcasters that allow them, for a fee, to use, but not own, one or more
specific radio or TV frequencies. Thus, the public has retained the ability
to regulate, as well as influence, access to broadcast communications.
Several years ago, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, in their report
"The Telecom Revolution: An American Opportunity," recommended a complete
privatization of the radio frequencies, whereby broadcasters with existing
licenses would eventually gain complete ownership of their respective
frequencies. They could thereafter develop them in markets of their
choosing, or sell and trade them to other companies. The few non-allocated
bands of the radio frequency spectrum would be sold off, as electronic real
estate, to the highest bidders. With nothing then to regulate, the FCC
would eventually be abolished. The reasoning behind this radical plan was
that government control of the airwaves has led to inefficiencies. In
private hands, the frequencies would be exchanged in the marketplace, and
the forces of free-market supply and demand would foster the most creative
(and, of course, most profitable) use of these electronic "properties."
This privatization proposal was considered too ambitious by the Clinton
administration. However, in February 2001, within months after a more
"pro-business" president took office, 37 leading US economists requested,
in a joint letter, that the FCC allow broadcasters to lease, in secondary
markets, the frequencies they currently use under their FCC license. Their
thinking was that with this groundwork laid, full national privatization
would follow, and eventually nations would be encouraged to sell off their
frequencies to global media enterprises.
Michael K. Powell, FCC Chairman, and son of Secretary of State Colin
Powell, in a recent speech compared the FCC to the Grinch, a kind of
regulatory spoilsport that could impede what he termed a historic
transformation akin to the opening of the West. "The oppressor here is
regulation," he declared. In April 2001, Powell dismissed the FCC's
historic mandate to evaluate corporate actions based on the public
interest. That standard, he said, "is about as empty a vessel as you can
accord a regulatory agency." In other comments, Powell has signaled what
kind of philosophy he prefers to the outdated concept of public interest.
During his first visit to Capitol Hill as chairman, Powell referred to
corporations simply as "our clients."
Challenges to this proposed privatization of airways have emerged from a
number of sources. One group, the Democratic Media Legal Project (DMLP) in
San Francisco, argues that even the existing commercial media system, aided
by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is unconstitutional because it
limits diversity of viewpoints, omits or misrepresents most social,
political, and cultural segments, and is unaccountable to the public.
Therefore, explains DMLP, advertising-based media and the 1996 Act, which
encourages mergers and cross-ownership of media outlets to the exclusion of
the vast majority of people, have deprived the people of their right to
self-governance- as self governance can occur only when we have the
unimpeded and uncensored flow of opinion and reporting that are requisite
for an informed democracy.
The course of wireless broadcasting is approaching an unprecedented and
critical crossroad. The path taken by the United States, and by the other
industrialized nations that may follow our lead, will profoundly influence
the ability of the citizenry of each country to democratically control the
media.
Faculty evaluator: Scott Gordon, Student Researcher: Laura Huntington
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# 2 New Trade Treaty Seeks to Privatize Global Social Services
Source: The Ecologist, February, 2001
Title: The Last Frontier
Author: Maude Barlow - pperdue[at]canadians.org
A global trade agreement now being negotiated will seek to privatize nearly
every government-provided public service and allow transnational
corporations to run them for profit.
        The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a proposed
free-trade agreement that will attempt to liberalize/dismantle barriers
that protect government provided social services. These are social services
bestowed by the government in the name of public welfare. The GATS was
established in 1994, at the conclusion of the "Uruguay Round" of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1995, the GATS agreement
was adopted by the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO).
Corporations plan to use the GATS agreement to profit from the
privatization of educational systems, health care systems, child care,
energy and municipal water services, postal services, libraries, museums,
and public transportation. If the GATS agreement is finalized, it will lock
in a privatized, for-profit model for the global economy. GATS/WTO would
make it illegal for a government with privatized services to ever return to
a publicly owned, non-profit model. Any government that disobeys these WTO
rulings will face sanctions. What used to be areas of common heritage like
seed banks, air and water supplies, health care and education will be
commodified, privatized, and sold to the highest bidder on the open market.
People who cannot afford these privatized services will be left out.
Services are the fastest growing sector of international trade. If GATS is
implemented, corporations will reap windfall profits. Health care,
education, and water services are the most potentially lucrative. Global
expenditures on water services exceed $1 trillion each year, on education
they exceed $2 trillion, and on health care they're over $3.5 trillion.
The WTO has hired a private company called the Global Division for
Transnational Education. This company plans to document policies that
"discriminate against foreign education providers." The results of this
'study' will be used to pressure countries with public education systems to
relinquish them to the global privatized marketplace.
The futures of accountability for public services, and of sovereign law are
at stake with the GATS decision. Foreign corporations will have the right
to establish themselves in any GATS/WTO-controlled country and compete
against non-profit or government institutions, such as schools and
hospitals, for public funds.
The current round of GATS negotiations has identified three main priorities
for future free-trade principles. First, GATS officials are pushing for
"National Treatment" to be applied across the board. "National Treatment"
would forbid governments from favoring their domestic companies over
foreign-based companies. This idea already applies to certain services, but
GATS will enforce it to all services. This will create an expansion of
mega-corporate access to domestic markets and further diminish democratic
accountability. The economically dominant western countries would like to
make it illegal for "developing" countries to reverse this exclusive access
to their markets.
Second, GATS officials are seeking to place restrictions on domestic
regulations. This would limit a government's ability to enact
environmental, health, and other regulations and laws that hinder
"free-trade." The government would be required to demonstrate that its laws
and regulations were necessary to achieve a WTO-sanctioned objective, and
that no other commercially friendly alternative was available.
Third, negotiators are attempting to develop the expansion of "Commercial
Presence" rules. These rules allow an investor in one GATS-controlled
country to establish a presence in any other GATS country. The investor
will not only be allowed to compete against private suppliers for business,
but will also be allowed to compete against publicly funded institutions
and services for public funds.
        This potential expansion of GATS/WTO authority into the day-to-day
business of governments will make it nearly impossible for citizens to
exercise democratic control over the future of traditionally public
services. One American trade official summed up the GATS/WTO process by
saying, "Basically it won't stop until foreigners finally start to think
like Americans, act like Americans, and most of all shop like Americans."
Faculty evaluator: John Kramer, Student researchers: Chris Salvano, Adria
Cooper
International media coverage: Toronto Star, 3/3/02, The Herald (Glasgow)
2/27/02, The Hindu, 11/17,01 The Weekend Australian, 8/25/01, The Gazette
(Montreal) 6/15/01 The Financial Times (London)
[top]

# 3 United States' Policies in Colombia Support Mass Murder
Sources:
Counter Punch. July 1-15, 2001
Title: "Blueprints for the Colombian War"
Author: Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair - counterpunch[at]erols.com
Asheville Global Report, October 4, 2001
Title: "Colombian Army and Police Still Working With Paramilitaries"
Author: Jim Lobe
Steelabor, May/June 2001
Title: "Colombian Trade Unionists Need U.S. Help"
Authors: Dan Kovalik and Gerald Dickey - dkovalik[at]uswa.org
Rachel's Environment & Health News, December 7, 2000
Title: "Echoes of Vietnam"
Author: Rachel Massey - Rachel.Massey[at]tufts.edu
Over the past two years, Colombia has been Washington's third largest
recipient of foreign aid, behind only Israel and Egypt. In July of 2000,
the U.S. Congress approved a $1.3 billion war package for Colombia to
support President Pastrana's "Plan Colombia." Plan Colombia is a $7.5
billion counter-narcotics initiative. In addition to this financial
support, the US also trains the Colombian military.
Colombia's annual murder rate is 30,000. It is reported that around 19,000
of these murders are linked to illegal right-wing paramilitary forces. Many
leaders of these paramilitary groups were once officers in the Colombian
military, trained at the U.S. Military run School of the Americas.
According to the Human Rights Watch Report, a 120-page report titled "The
'Sixth Division': Military-Paramilitary Ties and US Policy in Colombia,"
Colombian armed forces and police continue to work closely with right-wing
paramilitary groups. The government of President Pastrana and the US
administration have played down evidence of this cooperation. Jim Lobe says
that Human Rights Watch holds the Pastrana administration responsible for
the current, violent situation because of its dramatic and costly failure
to take prompt, effective control of security forces, break their
persistent ties to paramilitary groups, and ensure respect for human rights.
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair contend that the war in Colombia
isn't about drugs. It's about the annihilation of popular uprisings by
Indian peasants fending off the ravages of oil companies, cattle barons and
mining firms. It is a counter-insurgency war, designed to clear the way for
American corporations to set up shop in Colombia.
Cockburn and St. Clair examined two Defense Department commissioned
reports, the RAND Report and a paper written by Gabriel Marcella, titled
"Plan Colombia: the Strategic and Operational Imperatives." Both reports
recommend that the US step up its military involvement in Colombia. In
addition, the reports make several admissions about the paramilitaries and
their links to the drug trade, regarding human rights abuses by the
US-trained Colombian military, and about the irrationality of crop
fumigation.
        Throughout these past two years, Colombian citizens have been the
victims of human rights atrocities committed by the US-trained Colombian
military and linked paramilitaries. Trade unionists and human rights
activists face murder, torture, and harassment. It is reported that Latin
America remains the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists.
Since 1986, some 4,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia. In
2000 alone, more trade unionists were killed in Colombia than in the whole
world in 1999.
        Another problem resulting from the Colombian "drug war" has been
the health consequences of the US-sponsored aerial fumigation. Since
January 2001, Colombian aircraft have been spraying toxic herbicides over
Colombian fields in order to kill opium poppy and coca plants. These
sprayings are killing food crops that indigenous Colombians depend on for
survival, as well as harming their health. The sprayings have killed fish,
livestock, and have contaminated water supplies.
        The US provides slightly over 1 billion dollars of military aid for
what is known as "Plan Colombia," yet it is more a war against citizens and
those who are fighting for social justice. US aid is not improving
conditions for the people of Colombia, but rather supporting the government
and right-wing paramilitary groups. According to an American member of the
international steelworker delegation, Jesse Isbell, who recently visited
Columbia, "The US says one thing to the American public when in reality it
is [doing] something totally different. Our government portrays this as a
drug war against cocaine but all we are doing is keeping an ineffective
government in power."
Faculty Evaluators: Jorge Porras, Fred Fletcher, , Student Researchers:
Lauren Renison, Adam Cimino, Erik Wagle, Gabrielle Mitchell
[top]

#4 Bush Administration Hampered FBI Investigation into Bin Laden Family
Before 9/11
Sources:
Pulse, 1/16/02
Title: "French book indicts Bush Administration"
Author: Amanda Luker - amandaonx[at]riseup.net
Times Of India, November 8, 2001
Title: "Bush took FBI agents off Bin Laden family trail"
Author: Rashmee Z. Ahmed
The Guardian (London) In cooperation with BBC television News Night
November 7, 2001
Title: "FBI and US spy agents say Bush spiked bin Laden probes before 11
September"
Author: Greg Palast and David Pallister - Greg[at]gregPalast.com and
david.pallister[at]guardian.co.uk
A French book Bin Laden, la verite interdite (Bin Laden, the forbidden
truth) claims that the Bush Administration halted investigations into
terrorist activities related to the bin Laden family and began planning for
a war against Afghanistan before 9-11.
The authors, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, are French
intelligence analysts. Dasquie, an investigative reporter, publishes
Intelligence Online, which is a respected newsletter on economics and
diplomacy. Brisard worked for French secret services and in 1997 wrote a
report on the Al Qaeda network.
In 1996, high-placed intelligence sources in Washington told the Guardian,
"There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis." The authors
allege that under the influence of US oil companies, George W. Bush and his
administration initially halted investigations into terrorism, while
bargaining with the Taliban to deliver Osama bin Laden in exchange for
economic aid and political recognition. The book goes on to reveal that
former FBI deputy director John O'Neill resigned in July of 2001 in protest
over the obstruction of terrorist investigations. According to O'Neill,
"The main obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were US oil
corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it." The
restrictions were said to have worsened after the Bush administration took
over. Intelligence agencies were told to "back off" from investigations
involving other members of the bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and
possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.
John O'Neil died on 9/11 in the World Trade Center.
An FBI file coded 199, which means a case involving national security,
records that Abdullah bin Laden, who lived in Washington, originally had a
file opened on him "because of his relationship with the Saudi-funded World
Assembly of Muslim Youth - a suspected terrorist organization." The BBC
reiterated a well-known claim, made by one of George W. Bush's former
business partners, that Bush made his first million dollars 20 years ago
from a company financed by Osama's elder brother, Salem. It has also been
revealed that both the Bushs and the bin Ladens had lucrative stakes in the
Carlyle Group, a private investment firm that has grown to be one of the
largest investors in US defense and communications contracts.
Brisard and Dasquie contend that the government's main objective in
Afghanistan was to unite the Taliban regime in order to gain access to the
oil and gas reserves in Central Asia. Brisard and Dasquie report that the
Bush government began negotiations with the Taliban directly after coming
into power and representatives met several times in Washington, Islamabad,
and Berlin.
There were also claims that the last meeting between the United States and
Taliban representatives took place only five weeks before the attacks in
New York and Washington.
Long before the September 11th attacks, the United States had decided to
invade Afghanistan in the interest of oil. In February of 1998, at the
hearing before a sub-group of the Committee on International Relations,
Congress discussed ways to deal with Afghanistan to make way for an oil
pipeline. Jane's Defense News reported in March 2001 that an invasion of
Afghanistan was being planned.
Times of India reported that in June of 2001, the US Government told India
that there would be an invasion of Afghanistan in October of that year. By
July of 2001 George Arney, with the BBC, also reported the planned invasion.
Faculty evaluator: Catherine Nelson, Student researchers: Donald Yoon,
David Immel
Corporate media coverage: L.A. Times, 1/13/02 Part A-1, page 11
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# 5 U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water System
Sources:
The Progressive, September 2001
Title: "The Secret Behind the Sanctions: How the U.S. Intentionally
Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply"
Author: Thomas J. Nagy - nagy[at]gwu.edu
www.progressive.org
During the Gulf War the United States deliberately bombed Iraq's water
system. After the war, the U.S. pushed sanctions to prevent importation of
necessary supplies for water purification. These actions resulted in the
deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians many of whom were young
children. Documents have been obtained from the Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA), which prove that the Pentagon was fully aware of the mortal impacts
on civilians in Iraq and was actually monitoring the degradation of Iraq's
water supply. The destruction of civilian infrastructures necessary for
health and welfare is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention.
After the Gulf War, the United Nations applied sanctions against Iraq,
which denied the importation of specialized equipment and chemicals, such
as chlorine for purification of water. There are six documents that have
been partially declassified and can be found on the Pentagon's web site at
www.gulflink.osd.mil. These documents include information that prove that
the United States was fully aware of the costs to civilians, especially
children, by upholding the sanctions against purification of Iraq's water
supply.
The primary document is dated January 22, 1991 and is titled, "Iraq Water
Treatment Vulnerabilities." This document predicts what will take place
when Iraq can no longer import the vital commodities to cleanse their water
supply. It states that epidemics and disease outbreaks may occur because of
pollutants and bacteria that exist in unpurified water. The document
acknowledges the fact that without purified drinking water, the
manufacturing of food and medicine will also be affected. The possibilities
of Iraqis obtaining clean water, despite sanctions, along with a timetable
describing the degradation of Iraq's water supply was also addressed.
The remaining five documents from the DIA confirm the Pentagon's monitoring
of the situation in Iraq. In more than one document, discussion of the
likely outbreaks of diseases and how they affect "particularly children" is
discussed in great detail. The final document titled, "Iraq: Assessment of
Current Health Threats and Capabilities," is dated, November 15, 1991, and
discusses the development of a counter-propaganda strategy that would blame
Saddam Hussein for the lack of safe water in Iraq.
The United States' insistence on using this type of sanction against Iraq
is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention was
created in 1979 to protect the victims of international armed conflict. It
states, "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless,
objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as
foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installation and supplies, and
irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their
sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party,
whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause
them to move away, or for any other motive." The United States, for nearly
a decade, has "destroyed, removed, or rendered useless" Iraq's "drinking
water installations and supplies."
Although two Democratic Representatives, Cynthia McKinney from Georgia and
Tony Hall from Ohio, have spoken out about the degradation of Iraq's water
supply and its civilian targets, no acknowledgment of violations has been
made. The U.S. policy of destroying the water treatment system of Iraq and
preventing its re-establishment has been pursued for more than a decade.
The United Nations estimates that more than 500,000 Iraqi children have
died as a result of sanctions and that unclean water is a major contributor
to these deaths.
Faculty evaluator: Rick Luttmann, Student researchers: Adria Cooper, Erik
Wagle, Adam Cimino, Chris Salvano
[top]

# 6 U.S. Government Pushing Nuclear Revival
Sources:
Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, July/August 2001
Title: "The New-Nuke Chorus Tunes Up"
Author: Stephen I. Schwartz - sschwartz[at]thebulletin.org
The US Government is blazing a trail of nuclear weapon revival leading to
global nuclear dominance. A nuke-revival group, supported by people like
Stephen Younger, Associate Director for Nuclear Weapons at Los Alamos,
proposes a "mini-nuke" capable of burrowing into underground weapon
supplies and unleashing a small, but contained nuclear explosion. This
weapons advocacy group is comprised of nuclear scientists, Department of
Energy (DoE) officials, right wing analysts, former government officials,
and a congressionally appointed over-sight panel. The group wants to ensure
that the U.S. continues to develop nuclear capacity into the next half
century.
Achieving this goal of nuclear dominance will take far more than just
refurbishing existing weapons and developing new ones. A decade long
effort, that would cost in the $8 billion range, would be needed just to
bring old production sites up to standard. Billions more would be needed to
produce and maintain a new generation of nuclear weapons. This plan has not
been presented to the public for their consideration or approval.
        Part of the plan includes the building of "mini-nukes," which would
have a highly accurate ability to penetrate underground stockpiles of
weapons and command centers. The recent interest in such weapons is based
on two premises. First, the belief that only nuclear weapons can destroy
these underground networks, so the "mini-nuke" would deter other countries
from using these underground systems. Second, these new bombs would give
government the option to launch a nuclear strike to take out a small target
while delivering minimal civilian casualties. It is believed that these
bombs could specifically target underground headquarters or weapon
stockpiles in Korea, Iraq, or Iran.
        Princeton theoretical physicist Robert W. Nelson has studied the
question for the Federation of American Scientists. Nelson concluded, "No
earth-burrowing missile can penetrate deep enough into the earth to contain
an explosion with a nuclear yield even as small as 1 percent of the
15-kiloton Hiroshima weapon. The explosion simply blows out a massive
crater of radioactive dirt, which rains down on the local region with an
especially intense and deadly fallout." Nelson used data from the
Plowshares program of the 1960s and from the 828 underground nuclear tests
conducted in Nevada. The two sources show that full containment of a
5-kiloton explosion is only possible at 650 feet or more, while a 1-kiloton
explosion must take place at least 450 feet into the earth. These figures
are taken at optimum conditions, where weapons are placed in a specially
sealed shaft in a well understood geological environment. The "mini-nukes"
will be expected to penetrate into deeply hardened targets in unyielding
conditions. Nelson also concludes that a 10-foot missile could only be
expected to penetrate 100 feet into concrete and steel, a depth far too
shallow to contain even a very small explosion.
        The Panel to Assess the Reliability, Safety, and Security of the
United States Nuclear Stockpile has recommended spending $4 billion to $6
billion over the next decade to restore the production capabilities of
plutonium pit plants in the U.S. The DoE is currently spending $147 million
on pit production at Los Alamos this year and is requesting $218 million
for 2002. A renovated Los Alamos will be capable of producing up to 20 pits
a year by 2007. Last year the DoE received $2 million to design a new pit
plant capable of producing 450 cores of plutonium a year. This would
generate approximately half the amount of plutonium produced during the
latter period of the Cold War. The facilities at some of these nuclear
production plants are in drastic states of disrepair.
Only 26 percent of the weapons complex buildings are in excellent or good
condition. One laboratory building at Los Alamos wraps pipes carrying
radioactive waste in plastic bags to prevent leakage. The roofs at other
facilities are allowing rainwater to seep into the rooms where nuclear
weapons are inspected and repaired.
Faculty Evaluator: Sasha Von Meier, Student Researcher: Erik Wagle
Corporate News Coverage: Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2002. USA Today,
March 18, 2002.
[top]

# 7 Corporations Promote HMO Model for School Districts
Sources:
Multi-National Monitor, January/February 2002
Title: "Business Goes to School: The For-Profit Corporate Drive to Run
Public Schools"
Author: Barbara Miner - barbaraminer[at]ameritech.net
The Progressive Populist, November 15, 2000
Title: "Dunces of Public Education Reform"
Author: Frosty Troy - ftroy[at]keytech.com
North Coast Xpress, Winter 2000
Title: "Corporate-Sponsored Tests Aim to Standardize Our Kids"
Author: Dennis Fox - df[at]dennisfox.net
In These Times, June 2001
Title: "Testing, Testing: The Miseducation of George W. Bush"
Author: Linda Lutton
For decades, public schools have purchased innumerable products and
services from private companies-from text books to bus transportation.
Within the last decade, however, privatization has taken on a whole new
meaning. Proponents of privatized education are now interested in taking
over entire school districts. "Education today, like healthcare 30 years
ago, is a vast, highly localized industry ripe for change," says Mary
Tanner, managing director of Lehman Brothers, "The emergence of HMOs and
hospital management companies created enormous opportunities for investors.
We believe the same pattern will occur in education." So while the aptly
named Educational Management Organizations (EMO's) are being promoted as
the new answer to impoverished school districts and dilapidated classrooms,
the real emphasis is on investment returns rather than student welfare and
educational development.
According to some analysts, Bush's proposal for national standardized
testing is helping to pave the way for these EMO's. Bush wants yearly
standardized testing in reading and math for every student in the country
between the third and eighth grades. "School districts and states that do
well will be rewarded," Bush states in his education agenda, No Child Left
Behind, "Failure will be sanctioned." The effect of Bush's testing plan
will be nothing less than a total reconstruction of curriculum and
instruction across the country. Perversely, schools with already limited
resources, serving poor and minority communities, will be those under the
greatest pressure to boost scores or face loss of funding.
Additionally, standardized testing funnels public dollars directly to
non-public schools, including religious schools, through taxpayer-supported
vouchers. School vouchers, proposed by Bush in his education plan to
increase federal education spending, will reward schools that do well on
annual standardized tests. Vouchers shunt kids out of the public schools
system and into private for-profit institutions. Since only public school
students take the standardized tests, kids whose parents can afford private
schools don't have to agonize year after year about potential failure.
Standardized testing hits immigrant students especially hard. Bush wants to
freeze funding in 2002, despite surging enrollment of students speaking
limited English. Angelo Amador, a national policy analyst for the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund, says, "With the pulling of
bilingual education funding, states with high-stakes testing are pushing
low-performing Latino students into special education classes or out of
school altogether in an effort to keep their test scores high."
Critics charge that standardization's real goal is not to improve public
education but to disparage it while building support for privatized,
union-free alternatives. Proponents of corporate-run education claim that,
by cutting the "fat" out of the system, they can improve student
achievement with the same amount of money, and still turn a profit
(Ignoring the fact that the U.S. is ranked ninth globally in terms of money
spent on education). The reality is that, though most EMO's have yet to
show investors a profit, they generally cut teacher salaries, eliminate
remedial, special, and bilingual education programs (mandated for public
schools), and consistently perform at or below the level of surrounding
schools in test scores.
Privatization opponents say that public education should serve and be run
by the public, especially teachers and parents, as opposed to shareholders
who run the for-profit companies.
Faculty Evaluators: Perry Marker, Tom Ormond, and Elaine Sundberg
Student Researchers: Lauren Fox, Derek Fieldsoe, Joshua Travers
[top]

# 8 NAFTA Destroys Farming Communities in U.S. and Abroad
Sources:
Fellowship of Reconciliation, Dec. 2000/Jan. 2001
Title: NAFTA's devastating effects are clear in Mexico, Haiti
Author: Anita Martin
The Hightower Lowdown, September 2001
Title: NAFTA gives the shafta to North America's farmers
Author: Jim Hightower - info[at]jimhightower.com
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) are responsible for the impoverishment of and loss of
many small farms in Mexico and Haiti. NAFTA is also causing the economic
destruction of rural farming communities in the United States and Canada.
The resulting loss of rural employment has created a landslide of
socio-economic and environmental consequences that are worsening with the
continued dismantling and deregulation of trade barriers.
When NAFTA came before Congress in 1993, US farmers were told that the
agreement would open the borders of Mexico and Canada, enabling them to
sell their superior products and achieve previously unknown prosperity.
Corporations who operate throughout the Americas, such as Tyson and
Cargill, have since used the farming surplus to drive down costs, pitting
farmers against each other and prohibiting countries from taking protective
actions. These same corporations have entered into massive farming ventures
outside the U.S. and use NAFTA to import cheaper agricultural products back
into this country, further undermining the small farmers in the U.S. Since
the enactment of NAFTA, 80% of foodstuffs coming into the U.S. are products
that displace crops raised here at home. NAFTA has allowed multinational
mega-corporations to increase production in Mexico, where they can profit
from much cheaper labor, as well as freely use chemicals and pesticides
banned in the U.S.
In both Mexico and Haiti, NAFTA policies have caused an exodus from rural
areas forcing people to live in urban slums and accept low paid sweatshop
labor. Farmers in Mexico, unable to compete with the large-scale
importation and chemical-intensive mass production of U.S. agricultural
corporations, are swimming in a corn surplus that has swelled approximately
450% since NAFTA's implementation. Haiti's deregulation of trade with the
U.S. has destroyed the island's rice industry in a similar manner. Urban
slums, engorged with rural economic refugees, are contributing to the
breakdown of cultural traditions and public authority, making the growing
masses increasingly ungovernable.
The Mexican government clashes violently with any organized protest of
NAFTA. Dissent in Chiapas and in Central Mexico has lead to the reported
arrests, injuries, and deaths of dozens of activists. Community leaders
like Minister Lucius Walker, executive of the Interreligious Foundation for
Community Organization, state that, "The biggest challenge facing all of us
in this new millennium is to build a citizens' movement to counter the
corporate captivity of the Americas."
The1993 NAFTA agreement desolated small farming communities in the U.S. and
in Mexico and Haiti. With the scheduled 2009 lift on tariffs and import
restrictions, as well as Bush's proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) adding 31 more countries to the NAFTA agreement, many additional
farming communities are in danger.
Faculty Evaluators: Tony White, Al Wahrhaftig
Student researchers: Adam Cimino, Erik Wagle, Alessandra Diana
[top]

#9 U.S. Faces National Housing Crisis
Source:
In These Times, November 2000
Title: "There's No Place Like Home"
Author: Randy Shaw - randy[at]thclinic.org
The national housing crisis affects nearly 6 million American families and
is growing worse. Over 1.5 million low-cost housing units have recently
been lost, and millions of children are growing up in housing that is
substandard, unaffordable and dangerous.
A new crisis in affordable housing is spreading across America. What was
once a problem relegated to low income families along the east and west
coasts, is now affecting the middle-class all across the country.
Middle-class working Americans are having just as much trouble finding
affordable housing as low-income families did ten years ago.
In San Francisco, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
subsidizing housing for public school teachers. California business groups
complain that the State's housing shortage hinders their ability to attract
skilled workers, and chambers of commerce link lack of affordable housing
to a resultant slowdown in economic growth.
Julie Daniels earns $28,000 a year working full time as a certified nursing
assistant for Stamford, Connecticut. A member of local 1199, Daniels and
her three children have been unable to obtain affordable housing within
traveling distance of her job. The family's only available housing option
has been a homeless shelter, and the prospects that Daniels will obtain
safe and affordable housing are unlikely.
Still, politicians refuse to add federal funded housing to the U.S. budget.
Low-cost housing programs are slowly being drained of funding. More than
100,000 federally subsidized units have been converted to market-rate
housing in the past three years. While the $5 billion Federal Housing
Administration surplus is tied up in Washington, neither major political
party seems responsive to the current housing crisis. Neither party is
addressing issues of living wage, adequate health care, or affordable
housing.
Homelessness has become the result for many families across the nation. The
economic slowdown, the welfare reform of 1996, and the events of September
11 are pushing hard working Americans into the street. In New York alone it
is estimated that 30,000 people are living in shelters, and many thousands
more live on the street.
In Chicago, over 20,000 units of public housing units have been removed
from service and some 50,000 people now reside in the streets.
In an era when there is only one apartment for every six potential renters
in this country, Congress has taken no action to address this problem.
Corporate media has only covered this issue locally and few corporate media
reports have recognized this as a national crisis.
Faculty Evaluator: Susan Garfin, Student Researcher: Eduardo Barragan,
Catherine Jensen
Corporate media coverage: U.S. Newswire, 1/18/02
Other corporate coverage mostly limited to local and regional housing issues
[top]

#10 CIA Double Deals In Macedonia
Sources:
www.globalresearch.ca, June 14, 2001
Title: "America at War in Macedonia"
Author: Michel Chossudovsky - chossudovsky[at]videotron.ca
www.globalresearch.ca, July 26, 2001
Title: "NATO Invades Macedonia"
Author: Michel Chossudovsky
The CIA destabilized the political balance in Macedonia to allow easier
access for a US-British owned oil pipeline, and to prevent Macedonia from
entering the European Union (EU), thereby strengthening the US dollar in a
German deutschmark dominated region.
Without Macedonia in the EU, British and US oil companies have an advantage
over European counterparts in building oil pipelines. Actions toward
destabilization intend to impose economic control over national currencies,
and protect British-US oil companies such as BP-Amoco-ARCO, Chevron, and
Texaco against Europe's Total-Fina-Elf. The British-US consortium controls
the AMBO Trans-Balkin pipeline project linking the Bulgarian port of Burgas
to Vlore on the Albanian Adriatic coastline. The power game is designed to
increase British-US domination in the region by distancing Bulgaria,
Macedonia, and Albania from the influence of EU countries such as Germany,
Italy, France and Belgium. It's an effort supported by Wall Street's
financial establishment, to destabilize and discredit the deutschmark and
the Euro, with hopes of imposing the US dollar as the sole currency for the
region.
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the National Liberation Army (NLA)
were trained in Macedonia by British Special Forces and equipped by the
CIA. British military sources confirm that Gezim Ostremi, NLA Commander,
was sponsored by the UN and trained by British Special Forces to head the
Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). When Ostremi left his job as a United
Nations Officer to join the NLA, the commander remained on the UN payroll.
Attacks within Macedonia by the NLA/KLA last year, coincided
chronologically with the process of EU enlargement and the signing of the
historic Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and
Macedonia. These attacks paved the way for further US military and
political presence in the region.
In a strange twist the CIA, NATO, and British Special Forces provided
weapons and training to the NLA/KLA terrorists, while at the same time,
Germany provided Macedonia's security forces with all-terrain vehicles,
advanced weapons, and equipment to protect themselves from NLA/KLA attacks.
US military advisers, on assignment to the KLA/NLA through private
mercenary companies, remained in contact with NATO and US military and
intelligence planners. It was Washington and London who decided on the
broad direction of KLA-NLA military operations in Macedonia.
Following the August, 2001 Framework Peace Agreement, 3,500 armed NATO
troops entered Macedonia with the intent of disarming Albanian rebels.
Washington's humanitarian efforts for the NLA/KLA suggested its intent to
protect the terrorists rather then disarm them. Vice President Dick
Cheney's former firm, Halliburton Energy, is directly linked to the AMBO's
Trans-Balkans Oil Pipeline.
Last year's conflict in Macedonia is a small part of a growing rift between
the Anglo-American and European interests in the Balkans. In the wake of
the war in Yugoslavia, Britain has allied itself with the US and severed
many of its ties with Germany, France, and Italy. Washington's design is to
ensure the dominance of the US military-industrial complex, in alliance
with Britain's major defense contractors, and British-US oil. These
developments establish significant control over strategic pipelines,
transportation, and communication corridors in the Balkans, Eastern Europe,
and the former Soviet Union.
Faculty evaluators: Elizabeth Burch, Phil Beard, John Lund
Student researchers: Alessandra Diana, David V. Immel
[top]

#11 Bush Appoints Former Criminals to Key Government Roles
The Nation, May 7th 2001
Title: "Bush's Contra Buddies"
Author: Peter Kornbluh
In These Times, 06 August 2001
Title: "Public Serpent; Iran-Contra Villain Elliott Abrams is Back in
Action"
Author: Terry Allen - tallen[at]aiusa.org and tallen[at]igc.org
Extra, September/October 2001
Title: "Scandal? What Scandal?"
Author: Terry Allen
The Guardian, February 8, 2002
Title: "Friends of Terrorism"
Duncan Campbell - Duncan.Campbell[at]guardian.co.uk
18 February 2002
"No More Mr. Scrupulous Guy"
Author: John Sutherland
Washingtonian, April 2002
Title: "True or False: Iran-Contra's John Poindexter is Back at the
Pentagon"
Author: Michael Zuckerman
Since becoming President, George Bush has brought back into government
service several men who were discredited by criminal involvement in the
Iran-Contra affair, lying to Congress, and other felonies while working for
his father George Bush senior and Ronald Reagan
[top]

#12 NAFTA's Chapter 11 Overrides Public Protection Laws of Countries
The Nation, October 15, 2001
Title: The Right and US Trade Law: Invalidating the 20th Century"
Author: William Greider - wgreider[at]att.net
Terrain, Fall 2001
Title: Seven Years of NAFTA
Author: David Huffman - huffman[at]econ.berkeley.edu
Certain investor protections in NAFTA (the North American Free Trade
Agreement) are giving business investors new power over sovereign nations
and providing an expansive new definition of property rights.
[top]

# 13 Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford Lied to the American Public about East
Timor
Asheville Global Report, 12/13/2001
Title: Documents Show US Sanctioned Invasion of East Timor
Author: Jim Lobe, (IPS) - jlobe[at]starpower.net
The release of previously classified documents makes it clear that former
President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in a
face-to-face meeting in Jakarta, gave then President Suharto a green light
for the 1975 invasion of East Timor.
[top]

# 14 New Laws Restrict Access to Abortions in US
Mother Jones, September/ October 2001
Title: "The Quiet War on Abortion"
Author: Barry Yeoman - byeoman[at]duke.edu
A quiet war against abortion rights is being conducted by many local
governments in the United States. Cities and counties are placing
repressive legal restrictions on abortion providers under the guise of
women's health laws. These restrictions can include: width of hallways, jet
and angle type of drinking fountains, the heights of ceilings, and how long
one must wait between initially seeing the doctor and when the procedure
can be performed.
[top]

#15 Bush's Energy Plan Threatens Environment and Public Health
www.TomPaine.com, Alternet, www.alternet.org, February 15,2002
Title: The Loyal Opposition: Bush's Global-warming Smog
Author: David Corn - Dacor[at]aol.com
Environment News Service, July, 2001
Title: Bush Energy Plan Could Increase Pollution
Author: Cat Lazaroff - cat[at]ens-news.com
The Progressive Populist, March 15, 2002
Title: Smog Screen
Author: David Corn
The Bush administration's energy plan will actually increase air pollution
in the United States. The plan calls for increased fossil fuel consumption,
and for decreased funding for research into renewable, clean energy
development.
[top]

# 16 CIA Kidnaps Suspects for Overseas Torture and Execution
Weekend Australian, February, 23, 2003, p. 1
Title: Love Letter Tracks Terrorist's Footsteps
Author: Don Greenlees - austjak[at]attglobal.net
World Socialist Website:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/mar2002/cia-m20_prn.shtml
March 20, 2002
Title: U.S. Oversees Abduction, Torture, Execution of Alleged Terrorists
Author: Barry Grey
Original U.S. Source: *
The Washington Post
March 11, 2002, pg. A01
Title; U.S. Behind Secret Transfer of Terror Suspects"
Authors: Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Peter Finn, W.P. Foreign Service, March
11, 2002, pg. A01
U.S. agents are involved in abducting people they suspect of terrorist
activities and sending them to countries where torture during interrogation
is legal.
[top]

# 17 Corporate Media Ignores Key Issues of the Anti-Globalization Protests
Columbia Journalism Review JR, September/October 2001
Title: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: The Globalization Protests and the
Befuddled Press
Author: John Giuffo - jjg151[at]columbia.edu
The U.S. press failed to inform the public of the core underlying issues of
the major anti-globalization protests of recent years.
[top]

#18 World's Coral Reefs Dying
Harpers, January 2001
Title: Shoals Of Time: Are We Witnessing The Extinction of the World's
Coral Reefs?
Author: Julia Whitty - julwhitty[at]aol.com
One-quarter of all coral reefs have been destroyed by pollution,
sedimentation, over-fishing, and rapid global climate change.
[top]

# 19 American Companies Exploit the Congo
Dollars and Sense, July/August 2001
Title: The Business of War in the Democratic Republic Of Congo: Who
benefits?
Authors: Dena Montague, Frieda Berrigan - MontD033[at]newschool.edu
Voice (Pioneer Valley, MA), March/April, 2001
Title: Depopulation and Perception Management (Part 2: Central Africa)
Author: keith harmon snow - lilyfairies[at]hotmail.com
Western multinational corporations' attempts to cash in on the wealth of
Congo's resources have resulted in what many have called "Africa's first
world war," claiming the lives of over 3 million people.
[top]

# 20 Novartis' Gene Research Endangers Global Plant Life
The London Observer, October 8, 2000
Title: Gene Scientists Disable Plants' Immune Systems
Author: Antony Barnett - a.barnettt[at]worc.ac.uk
Scientists working for Swiss food giant Novartis have developed and
patented a method for 'switching off' the immune systems of plants, to the
outrage of environmentalists and Third World charities who believe the new
technology to be the most dangerous use so far of gene modification.
[top]

# 21 Large U.S Temp Company Undermines Union Jobs and Mistreats Workers
The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2001
Title: Temps are Ready for Organizing If AFL-CIO Provides the Muscle
Author: Harry Kelber - Hkelber[at]igc.org
Labor Ready Inc. is a national temporary employment agency that employed
over 700,000 people in 2000. Labor Ready has 839 offices in 49 states and
in Canada, and stands ready to place temporary workers as strikebreakers in
union labor disputes.
[top]

# 22 Fish Farms Threaten Health of Consumers and Aquatic Habitats
Mother Jones Magazine, November / December 2001
Title: Aquaculture's Troubled Harvest
Author: Bruce Barcott - westisbest[at]worldnet.att.net
PEW Oceans Commission Report on Marine Aquaculture, 2001
www.pewoceans.org
Title: Marine Aquaculture in the United States: Environmental Impacts and
Policy Options
Authors: Rebecca J. Goldburg, Matthew S. Elliott, Rosamond L. Naylor
        Farmed fish provide one-third of the seafood consumed by people
worldwide. In the US, aquaculture supplies almost all of the catfish and
trout as well as half of the shrimp and salmon. Unfortunately,
aquaculture's harm to people and surrounding environments may be greater
than its highly anticipated benefits.
[top]

#23 Horses Face Lives of Unnecessary Abuse for Drug Company Profits
The Animals' Agenda
March/April 2001
Title: Pissing their Lives Away
Author: Susan Wagner - equineadvocates[at]mindspring.com
Faculty Evaluator: Wendy Ostroff
Student Researchers: Kelly Hand, Adam Cimino, Haley Mueller
Pregnant horses are four legged drug machines-being repeatedly impregnated
and confined to narrow stalls as their urine is collected to produce
Permarin a drug used by millions of menopausal women.
[top]

#24 Wal-Mart Takes Union Busting to the State Level
Madison Capital Times, August, 2001
Title: Wal-Mart Ravages Workers' Rights
By John Nichols - jnichols[at]madison.com
Reprinted In Asheville Global Report 9/6/01
Wal-Mart has been pouring a considerable amount of money into a state level
political campaigns supporting right to works law that reduce the wages and
benefits for workers.
[top]

#25 Federal Government Bails Out Failing Private Prisons
The American Prospect , September 10, 2001
Title: Bailing Out Private Jails
Author: Judith Greene - greenej1[at]mindspring.com
Private prisons have been rife with more abuse and lawsuits than state run
prisons, leading to a decline in state level support, but the federal
government is stepping in to bail them out.
[top]

PROJECT CENSORED 2003 NATIONAL JUDGES
Prof. Robin Andersen, Fordham University , media studies
Richard Barnet, author
Liane Clorfene-Casten, journalist, president, Chicago Media Watch
Dr. George Gerbner, School of Communications, Univ. of Pennsylvania.
Lenore Foerstel, Progressive International Media Exchange
Prof. Robert Hackett, School of Communications, Simon Fraser University;
director of News Watch Canada
Dr. Carl Jensen, author, founder and former director of Project Censored
Prof. Sut Jhally, Media Education Foundation, University of Massachusetts
Prof. Nicholas Johnson, University of Iowa law school; FCC Commissioner,
1966-1973.
Norman Solomon, author
Rhoda H. Karpatkin, president, Consumers Union
Charles I. Klotzer, editor, publisher emeritus, St. Louis Journalism Review
Nancy Kranich, dean, NY University Libraries, past president of American
Library Association.
Judity Krug, director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library
Association.
Prof. Robert McChesney, author, member of Institute of Communications
Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Prof. William Lutz, Rutgers University English department
Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D., economist, columnist, King Features, Pacifica
radio.
Prof. Jack Nelson, Rutgers University, education.
Michael Parenti, author
Dan Perkins, political cartoonist, creator of Tom Tomorrow
Barbara Seaman, author
Prof. Erna Smith, San Francisco State, journalism
Norman Solomon, Columnist and Author
Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, president, D.C. Productions, Ltd.; former press
secretary to Betty Ford

Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Tax deductable donations accepted at:
http://www.projectcensored.org/contacts/donor.htm
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
http://www.projectcensored.org/

[top]
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