October 29, 2005

Conyers Demands Answers

Conyers asks:
 
What Did the President
 
and Vice President Know
 
 and When Did They Know It?

Directs Judiciary Committee Staff to Conduct
 
Full and Comprehensive Investigation into
 
Treasongate, Downing Street, Pre-War and Other Deceptions
 

WASHINGTONCongressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement regarding Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's decisions to indict Scooter Libby:

"Today's indictments represent the beginning, but not the end of the process of finally holding the Bush Administration accountable for its conduct in foisting a preemptive war on this country.

The prosecutor has performed his job in pursuing this case vigorously and fairly. However the charges really beg the larger question - what did the President and Vice President know about these and related matters, and when did they know it? I believe it is imperative that Congress pursue these questions and determine how these charges fit into the entire web of deception, manipulation and obfuscation laid bare by the Downing Street Minutes and Treasongate. As a result, I have directed my staff to conduct a comprehensive investigation and review of the facts concerning not only alleged efforts to misuse the White House to out a CIA operative, but misinformation concerning the run up the Iraq War, and all legal violations and breaches of trust by the Administration concerning the War."

 

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

 

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October 19, 2005

The Avian Flu Fright

Avian Flu Fright -
Politically-Timed For
Global 'Iatrogenocide'

A Public Health Warning and Political Essay by a Harvard-trained
Author of Fifteen Books Including the American bestseller,
Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola-Nature, Accident or Intentional?

By Leonard G. Horowitz, DMD, MA, MPH
10-11-05
 
Abstract
 
If avian flu becomes more than a threatened pandemic, it will have done so by political and economic design. This thesis is supported by current massive media misrepresentations, profiteering on risky and valueless vaccines, gross neglect of data evidencing earlier similar man-made plaques including SARS, West Nile Virus, AIDS and more; continuance of genetic studies breeding more mutant flu viruses likely to outbreak, inside trading scandals involving pandemic savvy White House and drug industry officials, curious immunity of these pharmaceutical entities over the past century to law enforcement and mainstream media scrutiny, and published official depopulation objectives. With the revelations and assertions advanced herein, the public is forewarned against this physician assisted mass murder best termed "iatrogenocide.* This genocidal imposition is expected to serve mainly economic and political depopulation objectives.
 
Background
 
In April, 2003, a social experiment called SARS, said to have arrived from Asia, heavily struck Toronto. I was there throughout most of this Asian flu-foreshadowing fright. This bizarre new pneumonia-like illness was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It was said to be the latest threat in an ongoing series of attacks on humanity by mysteriously mutating "supergerms."
 
A careful study of the scientific and medical-sociological correlates and antecedents of this "outbreak" revealed something amiss far more insidious than SARS. I critically considered Toronto's media reaction as any Harvard-trained public health expert in media persuasion behavioral science might. The scourge had all the earmarks of a novel social experiment conducted by white-collar bioterrorist.
 
It seemed clear to me that this unprecedented population manipulation effectively indoctrinated the mass mind in support of a grossly ineffective, albeit legislated, public health response in advance of the arrival of "the Big One." Throughout the "SARS Scam",(1) repeated references were made to biological agents that might facilitate decimation of approximately a third to half of the world's population. Having extensively reviewed political population control literature and contemporary objectives of leading global industrialists, I noted these predictions were in close keeping with current official population reduction objectives.(2)
 
Canada's response to SARS in 2003 was, for the first time in history, directed by the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO). Having reviewed the intimate financial and administrative ties between these organizations, the Rockefeller family, Carnegie Foundation, and the world's leading drug makers, "the fox", in essence, reigned over Canada's "chickens".
 
The truth about plagues includes the fact that "no grand pandemic ever evolved divorced from major socio-political upheaval." SARS advanced a political agenda more than a public health emergency. If public health officials earnestly intended to prevent these new emerging diseases, or successfully treat them at their roots, I repeated, they would study their obvious origins from the merged military-medical-biotechnology arena. A basic course in medical sociology simply justifies this utilitarian counsel.
 
"Experts" had been predicting the arrival of a super-plague for decades. What was HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS about the mysterious and terrifying arrival of SARS, however, was its timing. It synchronously arrived with the global war on terrorism, and the Anglo-American war with Iraq. It seemed a convenient distraction from the fact that the earlier Bush administration had shipped Saddam Hussein most of his deadly biological weapons arsenal including anthrax and West Nile Virus. SARS was pathognomonic (i.e., symptomatic and characteristic) of what I had predicted and explained in the book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare (Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2001), a prophetically-titled text that predated the 9-11 attacks on America by several months, and provided a contextual analysis of certain globalists, links to recent "outbreaks.
 
In essence, I provided insight into the broad application of a new form of institutionalized "bioterrorism" consistent with state sponsored biological warfare. Saddam Hussein was said to have exposed populations in his and adjacent lands with biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. SARS and the current avian flu fright is sanctioned by military-medical-pharmaceutical-petrochemical industrialists likewise operating above the law in many documented instances. Having testified before the U.S. Congress, I personally experienced how premiere pharmaceutical industrialists direct our political-economic representatives in government. Emerging diseases complement the political "War on Terrorism," and our bioterror-influenced culture. This agenda serves two primary objectives: profitability and population-reduction.
 
Political Reality Versus Mass-Mediated Myths
 
The ever increasing madness around us is eerily consistent with globalist think tank recommendations for the current "conflicts short of war." Beginning in the late 1960s, "economic substitutes for standard militarization" were sought and found by leading global industrialists. New biological threats, the "war on terrorism, and increasing numbers of "natural disasters including space-based threats and superstorms were considered economically and politically expedient compared with the first and second world wars. These "conflicts short of war were decidedly more manageable and economically viable. For this reason, especially their profitability, they were leading options among Anglo-American policy makers.
 
Nelson Rockefeller's protégé, Henry Kissinger, for instance, as National Security Advisor (NSA) under Richard Nixon, oversaw foreign policy while considering Third World population reduction "necessities" for the U.S., Britain, Germany, and other allies. This Bush nominee to direct the 9-11 conspiracy investigation, a reputed war criminal, then selected the option to have the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) develop biological weapons, according to the U.S. Congressional Record of 1975. Among these new man-made biological weapons were germs far deadlier than the avian flu.
 
For example, by 1968, when Kissinger requested and received updated intelligence on useful "synthetic biological agents" for germ warfare and population control, mutant recombinant flu viruses had just been engineered by Special Virus Cancer Program researchers O,Conner, Stewart, Kinard, Rauscher and others.(3) During this program, influenza and parainfluenza viruses were recombined with quick acting leukemia viruses (acute lymphocytic leukemia) to deliver weapons that potentially spread cancer, like the flu, by sneezing. These researchers also amassed avian cancer (sarcoma) viruses and inoculated them into humans and monkeys to determine their carcinogenicity. In related efforts, Raucher et al. used radiation to enhance avian virus's cancer-causing potential. These incredible scientific realities have been officially censored and generally neglected by the media's mainstream.
 
Similarly, the Institute of Science in Society (IoSS) in London raised the genetic engineering question in the origin of SARS. "Could genetic engineering have contributed inadvertently to creating the SARS virus? they asked. "This point was not even considered by the expert coronavirologists called in to help handle the crisis, now being feted and woed by pharmaceutical companies eager to develop vaccines. Those living in glass houses should not throw stones. The above emphasis is added to show IoSS they had "not even considered intentional SARS deployment in their scientific, allegedly unbiased, purview.(4)
 
Conflicts short of war, like the "War on AIDS," "War on Drugs," "War on Terrorism," "War on Cancer," and now "War on the Avian Flu require sophisticated propaganda programs employing fear campaigns for social acceptance and popular support of legislated policies. These psychological operations (officially termed PSYOPS) for "command and control warfare (technically called C2W), experts advise, best support the emerging "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA). The RMAs capabilities include "a form of human slavery" in which the world's captive populations would not know they are enslaved.(2)
 
The RMA undoubtedly incorporates the use of debilitating biologicals and chemical agents most generously on behalf of drug and vaccine makers. A classic example is the toxic carcinogenic organophosphate pesticides deployed against human populations, said to target "mosquitoes, in the "War Against the West Nile Virus." Such "non-lethal warfare" agents, as these are militarily termed, are indeed deadly, but mortality results slowly from toxic exposures allowing more profits to be made by allied pharmaceutical and medical industrialists. Victims of the "non-lethal" exposures die slowly from chronic debilitating diseases. Expensive hospitals and long-term care facilities are virtual concentration camps. The ailments generated for "iatrogenocide include the plethora of autoimmune diseases and newer cancers virtually non-existent 50 years ago. This fact, alone, strongly suggests a genocidal socio-economic and political agenda.
 
Avian Flu for Profit
 
In response to SARS, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, Michael Fumento, published an economic thesis in Toronto related to the one I advance here. The "Super-bug or Super Scare," he wrote was published in Canada's National Post. Canadians were warned to "quarantine themselves," wear masks, and in some cases stay home. The Ontario Health Minister declared a "health emergency," as the media dubbed the "mysterious killer" a "super-pneumonia". Recoiling from the hype, Fumento asked and answered a few "real questions" . . . How lethal, how transmissible, and how treatable is this strain? The answers, he concluded, "leave no grounds for excitement, much less panic". The same may be said for this new curse of avian flu.(1)
 
Lethal?
 
At this writing, the avian flu is said to have killed "about 65 people in Southeast Asia during the past two years! Little to no data is available on these individuals who most commonly had immune-compromising medical conditions. Further, all deaths were in Asian countries with questionable health services.
 
Conversely, other forms of flu kill more than 40,000 North Americans annually, generally the immune-compromised elderly.
 
Transmissibile?
 
According to USA Today (October 9, 2005), "European health officials are working to contain the [avian flu] virus, which so far has not infected anyone in the region. Although, allegedly "more than 140 million birds have died or been destroyed, . . . and financial losses to the poultry sector have topped $10 billion. This propaganda actually admits, "the current virus, known as H5N1, has not yet mutated to the point at which it can easily spread from person to person". In fact, it is likely to have never spread from person to person other than during laboratory handling!(5)
 
Treatability?
 
"The U.S. Senate has already approved a $3.9 billion package to buy vaccines and antiviral medications, and the Administration is also preparing a request for an additional $6 billion to $10 billion, according to a current BusinessWeek report.( 6)
 
"Beam me up Scottie", there is no intelligent life on this planet. This largely explains why the public puts up with this deadly deception. Even USA Today bemons, "there is no human vaccine yet. So how come the U.S. Senate is rushing to spend all these billions for an avian flu vaccine?
 
I suppose we should overlook the fact that the current frightening strain of H5N1 avian flu virus has never readily jumped from human to human, and not commonly from birds to humans either. Thus, an effective vaccine can only be prepared by mutating this virus, thus creating what the world fears most. Let me explain. . . .
 
To make the human vaccine specific for the H5N1 mutant virus, you must start with the human virus which does not yet exist, except in perhaps military-biomedical-pharmaceutical laboratories. In fact, this is precisely what is being prepared based on news reports. To produce the human pathogen, the avian virus must be cultured for lengthy periods of time in human cell cultures, then injected into monkey and ultimately humans to see if these experimental subjects get the same feared flu. Thus, the flu virus the world currently fears most is either: 1) now being prepared in labs paid by industrialists with massive wealth-building incentives to "accidentally release the virus; or 2) has already been prepared in such labs to take advantage of this current fright and future sales following the virus's release.
 
Remember, to be effective against a virus, a vaccine is said to require specificity. If authorities were to now have the main H5N1 avian flu strain feared to spread at some future date there's no assurance by the time they developed the vaccine the strain would remain sufficiently the same for the vaccine to be effective anyway due to expected viral mutations. Viral mutations over time is a function of the agent's newness. New man-made viruses, laboratory creations, like the ones currently being prepared for vaccine trials, are less stable not having evolved over the millennia. Thus, the entire vaccine effort is largely, if not entirely, a sham with ulterior motives.
 
Remember too, that a vaccine's reliability requires years, or at least months, of testing in the targeted population. Vaccine injury data must, or should, be meticulously collected over this period to assure the vaccine is not killing and maiming more persons than it is helping or saving. Can you seriously believe this assurance will be provided by government or pharmaceutical industry officials in this pandemic's wake? FEMA's failed Katrina response pails by comparison to this public health liability and vaccine-injury certainty.
 
I say "vaccine-injury certainty because of the extensive list of newly developed vaccinations, highly touted when brought to market, that caused horrific results. This list includes the first swine flu vaccine, polio vaccines, smallpox vaccine, anthrax vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine, and most recently Lyme disease vaccine that crippled approximately 750,000 people within months of its release and prior to its recall by the FDA.
 
Most people fail to realize all vaccines carry a list of ingredients that typically increase human disease and death (i.e., morbidity and mortality). These include toxic elements and chemicals such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and formalin (used to preserve corpses), MSG, foreign genetic material, and risky proteins from various species of bacteria, viruses, and animals that have been scientifically associated with triggering autoimmune disorders and certain cancers. A growing body of scientific evidence strongly suggests vaccines are largely responsible for increasing cases of autism and other learning disabilities, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, hay fever, allergies, chronic draining ear infections, type 1 autoimmune diabetes, and many, many more pandemics. These chronic ailments are said to require long-term medical care for the patients, management causing toxic side effects resulting in America's leading killer--iatrogenic disease. That is, vaccines and other pharmaceutical industry inventions are literally killing or disabling millions with little effort on the part of government officials and their drug industry cohorts to arrest this scourge.
 
For all we know, governments are ordering an avian flu vaccine that will precisely deliver this pandemic to the world to affect population control. Absurd thesis? Read on.
 
BusinessWeek expects avian flu vaccine stockpiling by government officials will help the Sanofi-Pasteur company on behalf of Sanofi-Aventis and Chiron. "Tamiflu, it reported is an antiviral manufactured by Roche, . . . considered effective against avian flu. . . . The U.S. owns enough for 4.3 million people, with more on order. BusinessWeek failed to report: 1) Tamiflu's safety and effectiveness has not been determined in people with other chronic medical conditions--a significant percentage of the U.S. population-- and common side effects of this drug include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bronchitis, stomach pain, dizziness, headaches, and much, much more; 2) Roche (Hoffman-LaRoche) was found guilty of price fixing the world's supply of vitamins in 1999 as part of the global petrochemical/pharmaceutical cartel evolved from Nazi-Germanys I.G. Farben organization;(2)(6) and 3) Sanofi-Aventis's corporate colleagues include Merck, a company that received a lion's share of the Nazi war chest at the end of WWII, whose earnings plunged after the withdrawal last year of its deadly Vioxx arthritis drug. According to recent news reports, Merck is partnering with Sanofi-Aventis to produce the world's first sexually-transmitted-cancer vaccine to be given to prepubescent boys and girls.(7) Merck is infamous for having developed the first hepatitis B vaccines that triggered the international AIDS pandemic according to published scientific research and stunning documents reprinted in this author's national bestselling book.(3)(8)
 
In the weeks and months following the 9-11 attacks on America, I traced the widely publicized anthrax mailings "mystery" to U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) commissioned biological weapons contractors with ties to Britain's MI6, Porton Down, and this same Anglo-American pharmaceutical cartel.(9) The anthrax mailings fanned fears of bioterrorism throughout America and economically served primarily vaccine and drug makers with administrative and financial links to these avian flu profiteers.(10)
 
 
People willingly relinquish their civil rights and personal freedoms in the wake of such engineered frights. The passage of the infamous "Homeland Security Act" in America, and its counterpart in Canada, are classic examples of this societal direction, forced legislation, and egregious manipulation.
 
Why Asia?
 
How convenient that Asia is said to be the origin, as with SARS, of this latest plague when Chinese-Anglo-American relations are strained to say the least.
 
In the days preceding the emergence of the first SARS cases, America raced to the Pacific Rim to impact escalating aggressions on the Korean peninsula. Communist China--a "most favored" trading partner with America--is politically allied with several American enemies, including those said to possess weapons of mass destruction, including Iraq. Coincidental? Not likely when viewing the larger political picture involving the Ango-American oligarchy's RMA, its global enterprises, and instigated planet-wide "conflicts short of war."
 
Consider also the fact the media's mainstream has been heavily influenced, if not entirely controlled, by multi-national corporate sponsors protecting and advancing the interests of a relatively small number of global entities. Also recall that the focus of news providers, on any given day or hour, results from intelligence agency directives, according to reputable authorities including myriad retired news officials and intelligence officers. So ask and answer the following intelligent questions:
 
* Why have American military officials, beginning with Secretary of Defense William Cohen during the Clinton years, publicized America's greatest vulnerability lies in the realm of biological weapons wielded by terrorists? Is this not a form of treason against the United States to relay such sensitive intelligence to potential enemies through the mainstream press?
 
* Why does the mainstream media continue to foretell of the expected arrival of the "Big One"-an influenza virus that will produce a super-flu that will kill billions of people, like the "Spanish flu" did between 1918-19, while totally disregarding the individuals, organizations, and laboratories that have labored to produce these weapons of mass destruction? Even the devastating Spanish Flu virus has been, literally, unearthed for further study and, do you suppose, deployment?
 
* Why was the "Spanish flu" influenza virus called the "Spanish flu" when it originated, by historic accounts, in Tibet in 1917? It is said that Spanish newspapers were the only ones reporting on the great plague due to their neutrality over World War I politics. However, Spain was as dear to America then as Communist China is to the United States today. The "Spanish flu" was named such following two decades of disputes between America and Spain over colonization of the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii and the Philippines beginning with the Spanish American war that ended in the Philippines in 1902. In fact, the grand Spanish flu began in military camps. Does this history appear to be repeating?
 
*Doesn't it make sense that America is being manipulated, if not targeted, for the purpose of advancing globalistic agendas, central among them is population reduction?
 
The "Big One"
 
As mentioned above, during the 1960s and early 1970s, military biological weapons contractors with intimate ties to leading drug industrialists prepared mutants of influenza and para-influenza viruses recombined with acute lymphocytic leukemia viruses. In other words, they stockpiled a quick spreading cancer virus which may also be deployed.(3)
 
Alternatively, many infectious disease experts and government health officials oblivious to this scientific reality say this avian flu might be the 'Big One." Several days ago, the United Nations released a report that stated as many as 150 million people worldwide might die from this avian flu.
 
Emma Ross of the Associated Press reported on SARS as the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its "crisis plan to attack" the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. WHO, as you may recall, is a U.N. sponsored organization that is rumored to have helped spread AIDS to Africa by way of contaminated hepatitis B and/or polio vaccinations. There is a reasonable amount of evidence to support this contention.(1)
 
More disconcerting, the U.N. is known to be heavily influenced by Rockefeller family members and their petrochemical-pharmaceutical interests. History shows Rockefeller fortunes built the U.N. building in New York City. During WWII, the Rockefeller family and their Standard Oil Company supported Hitler more than they did the allies according to court records. One federal judge ruled Rockefeller committed "treason" against the United States. Following WWII, according to attorney John Loftus-an official Nazi war crimes investigator-Nelson Rockefeller persuaded the U.N.'s South American voting block to favor Israel's creation only to assure secrecy regarding his support for the Nazis. Earlier that century, John D. Rockefeller joined Prescott Bush and the British Royal Family in sponsoring the eugenics initiatives that gave rise to Hitler's racial hygiene programs. During the same period the Rockefeller family virtually monopolized American medicine, American pharmaceutics, and the cancer and genetics industries.(2, 3)
 
Today, the Rockefeller family, its foundation, U.N. and WHO remain at the forefront of administering "population programs" designed to reduce world populations to more manageable levels. As per an advertisement in Foreign Affairs--a prestigious political periodical published by the David Rockefeller directed Council on Foreign Relations--the U.S. population is being targeted for a 50% reduction.(2)
 
"We've never faced anything on this scale with such a global reach, said Dr. David Heymann, of the WHO, not regarding the avian flu, but SARS.
 
"This is the first time that a global network of [Rockefeller-directed infectious disease surveillance, outposts and] laboratories are sharing information, samples, blood, pictures," added Dr. Klaus Stohr, a WHO virologist coordinating labs internationally. "Basically overnight, there are no secrets, there is no jealousy, there is no competition in the face of a global health emergency. This is a phenomenal network.(1)
 
* The term "iatrogenocide is derived from the combination of words "iatrogenesis, meaning physician induced illness, and "genocide, defined as the mass killing and/or enslaving of people for economics, politics, and/or ideology.
 
About the Author Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H., is an internationally known authority in the overlapping fields of public health, behavioral science, emerging diseases, and bioterrorism. He received his doctorate in medical dentistry from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 1977, was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral science at University of Rochester, earned a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University, and another Master of Arts degree in health education from Beacon College, all before joining the research faculty at Harvard. Dr. Horowitz is best known for his national bestselling book, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional? (Tetrahedron Press, 1998; 1-888-508-4787) which recently resulted in the United States General Accounting Office investigating the man-made origin of AIDS theory.
 
(See: http://www.healingcelebrations.com/gao.htm)
 
Dr. Horowitz's work in the field of vaccination risk awareness has prompted at least three Third World nations to change their vaccination policies. His stunning testimony before the United States Congress' Government Reform Committee, literally brought the hearing to a halt. (See: healingcelebrations.com) Dr. Horowitz questioned government health officials regarding a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) secreted report showing a definitive link between the mercury ingredient (i.e., Thimerosal), common to most vaccinations, and the skyrocketing rates of autism and behavioral disorders affecting our children and the future of our nation.
 
Incredibly, Dr. Horowitz alerted the FBI, in writing and in person, one week before the first anthrax mailing was announced in the press, that a "major anthrax fright" was in the process of unfolding that demanded the FBI's urgent attention. Needless to say they did not heed Dr. Horowitz's prophetic warning.
 
Moreover, three months before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Dr. Horowitz released his thirteenth book, prophetically titled Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare. The book focuses on the West Nile Virus as an act of Bioterrorism, and considers what and who is really behind this and other recent outbreaks. Dr. Horowtiz argues that his disclosures expose the roots of global terrorism, along with the individuals and organizations at the heart of what he calls "the petrochemical-pharmaceutical cartel". He believes this "multi-national corporate beast" is in the process of committing global genocide, profiting from engineered frights, and at the same time, most efficiently culling targeted populations considered excessive.
 
As you may have heard, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation into the links between recent West Nile Virus outbreaks and bioterrorism. Dr. Horowitz is among the leading pioneers of this theory.
 
Dr. Horowitz's most recent book is DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral, a reference text on the electro-genetics of biology, disease therapy, and human spirituality. This work also details links between the anthrax mailings and human genome project heist, and leading intelligence agency, genetics industry, and pharmaceutical company officials.
 
For more information about Dr. Horowitz's books, videos, CDs and DVDs link to www.healthyworlddistributing.com and www.tetrahedron.org, or by calling 1-888-508-4787. His official website is www.drlenhorowitz.com.
 
This article was provided courtesy of Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Tetrahedron Publishing Group. It's copyright is relinquished for widespread distribution.
 
 
References:
 
1) Horowitz LG. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome): A Great Global Scam. Available at: http://www.healingcelebrations.com/SARS.htm
 
2) Horowitz LG. Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare. Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, (Spring) 2001.
 
3) Horowitz LG. Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola, Nature, Accident or Intentional? Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, (Spring) 2001.
 
4) The Institute of Science in Society. SARS and Genetic Engineering? London, England. Article available at: http://www.tetrahedron.org
 
5) Knox N. Europe braces for avian flu. USA TODAY, October 9, 2005; Manning A.Government to stock up on avian flu shots. USA Today, Oct 8, 2005.
 
6) Wang P. Avian Flu: Inoculate Your Portfolio. BusinessWeek. Online edition. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com
 
7) CNNMoney. Merck shares jump on cancer drug vaccine. October 6, 2005. Available at: http://money.cnn.com
 
8) For more scientific background on the link between the hepatitis B vaccine and the AIDS pandemic link to http://www.originofAIDS.com.
 
9) Horowitz LG. The CIA's Role in the Anthrax Mailings: Could Our Spies be Agents for Military-Industrial Sabotage, Terrorism, and Even Population Control? A Special Report. Article available at: http://www.tetrahedron.org
 
10) Horowitz LG. DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral. Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2004.

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

 

 

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Sgt. Kevin Benderman - Fort Lewis Report

 

THERE'S A NEW SOLDIER IN TOWN

 

By

 

David Lynn

 

Reporting from Fort Lewis, Washington 

 

 

"Support the Troops," is a slogan no longer held captive by ultra-conservatives who believe if you do not support the war in Iraq, you do not support our troops. In reality, supporting our troops means working to end the war and bringing all of our military personnel safely home, as well as honoring soldiers refusing to participate in the Iraq war -a war that more than 50 percent of Americans no longer believe in.

 

Although Alabama-born and Tennessee-raised Sgt. Kevin Benderman served with distinction in Iraq during the initial invasion of 2003, when Benderman was tapped for a second tour late last year, he chose the moral high ground over further participation in a war he could no longer defend. As a result of his moral convictions, Benderman was criminally convicted at Fort Stewart, Georgia, landing him recently in the Fort Lewis stockade serving a 15-month sentence for "missing movement." Benderman also lost his hard-earned Sgt. stripes and upon release from prison, will be branded with a dishonorable discharge.

 

Benderman received two Army Commendation Medals during his first tour in Iraq because, among a list of other attributes, he served with "distinction."  Medals aside, the reality of serving in Iraq is seared into Benderman's conscience. After witnessing a pack of dogs savage the bodies of dead Iraqi men, women and children and after hearing an officer's order not to care for a young girl screaming in pain from severe burns, Benderman would never be the same. Those experiences changed his values, morals and conscience. Ask any war veteran and most will acknowledge a similar path.   

 

"I spent six months over there, and I came back and thought about it. What I know is that it's inhumane. It's turning 18-year-old men and women into soulless people," Benderman has stated. "I went to war, I never ran from it. I experienced it and I realized it's not what I should be doing. In my opinion, it's not what anybody should be doing…"

 

Benderman applied for conscientious objector's (C/O) status just ten days before he was to re-deploy to Iraq for a second tour. In fact, Benderman has applied for C/O status twice, both of which were flatly rejected even though a review of his applications appears to meet all the necessary criteria for C/O status as outlined in Army Regulation 600-43.

 

Kevin Benderman was charged with desertion, but was found guilty of a lesser charge, "missing movement." As a result, his distinguished tour of duty is being played-out at the Fort Lewis stockade under conditions not unlike Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons. Benderman reports: prisoners' families not being officially informed where they are, severe overcrowding, denial of contact with lawyers, no heat, raw sewage leaking from overhead pipes, money stolen from confiscated bank cards, female guards who routinely watch male prisoners shower and use toilets and an exposed prostitution ring resulting in only minor disciplinary action.

 

According to an Amnesty International "Urgent Alert" declaration, "Amnesty International considers his (Kevin Benderman's) objection to war to be genuine and credible, and also that he took reasonable steps to secure release from his military obligations, and therefore considers him a prisoner of conscience."

 

Monica Benderman believes her husband is a hero, a champion of true morality and so do many others as confirmed by the hundreds of letters of support now pouring into Fort Lewis. She has launched a new website (http://www.bendermantimeline.com) which not only serves to expose her husband's journey to justice, but also offers a one-stop shop for soldiers and Marines who are interested in taking a stand against the war.

 

Kevin Benderman deserves our support for his courage and our outrage over his imprisonment. He represents the conscience of the majority of Americans who say, "No more."

 

David Lynn lives in Wauna, WA. He is an ex-Marine Sgt.
 and a combat Viet Nam veteran.
 
 
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October 18, 2005

Cheney's Washington Waterloo

 

Does anyone really doubt

 

 Cheney was involved?

 

By Tom Scott

 

 

A special prosecutor's intensifying focus into who criminally exposed a CIA spy has raised serious questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney himself is involved, and it is very doubtful that he wasn't deeply involved to this reporter. Evidence is also building that the probe has extended beyond the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name to include questioning about the administration's mishandling of pre-Iraq war intelligence for political purposes.

At least 2 persons who have testified in the probe said special prosecutor U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is heavily pursuing Cheney's role in the whole sordid Valerie Plame affair.

In addition, at least six current and former Cheney staffers have testified before the grand jury, including Cheney's top lieutenant, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and two other Cheney national security lieutenants. That would be all nine members of the White House Iraq Group to have been questioned by Mr. Fitzgerald. The team, which includes senior national security officials, was created in August 2002 to "educate the public" about the risk posed by weapons of mass destruction on Iraq.

Cheney's name has come up amid indications Fitzgerald may be edging closer to a blockbuster conspiracy charge with help from a secret informant. Mr. Fitzgerald, who has been applauded for conducting a leak-free inquiry, has said little publicly about his 22-month probe, other than that it is about the "potential retaliation against a whistleblower", former Ambassador Joseph Wilson after he went public with doubts about the evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons. The name of Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA covert agent, was leaked to reporters.

"They have got a senior cooperating witness, someone who is giving them all of that," according to reliable sources. But the prosecutor has given no indication whether he will charge anyone in the case. Over the weekend Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter jailed for 85 days after refusing to testify, provided new details about the scope of Mr. Fitzgerald's evolving investigation. She was asked "repeatedly" how Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, "handled classified information".

Ms. Miller testified that Mr. Libby had made "a sharp critique of Mr. Wilson", and referred several times to the fact his wife worked at the CIA. Ms. Miller also expressed surprise at a letter sent by Mr. Libby while she was jailed that, she said, "could imply he was trying to influence her testimony". "I replied that this portion of the letter had surprised me because it might be perceived as an effort by Mr. Libby to suggest that I too would say we had not discussed Ms. Plame. Yet my notes suggested that we had discussed her job," she wrote. In fact Ms. Plame's name did show up in her notebook with notes taken the same day that she had met for lunch with Mr. Libby. The notes had misspelled her name as a Ms. Flame although it was apparent they referred to Ms. Joseph Wilson.

Cheney was questioned last year by prosecutors and has hired a private attorney, former colleague Terrence O'Donnell, who has repeatedly declined to comment. Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride has only offered the standard canned response that her boss is cooperating.

"Scooter" Libby and President Bush's political mastermind Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove remain the focus of the probe into whether Ms. Plames cover was blown in a scheme to embarrass her husband, ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who debunked claims that Iraq tried to buy nuclear materials in Niger. According to sources, both Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove, who has appeared four times before the grand jury, would resign or take unpaid leave if indicted for their role in the case. Accordingly Mr. Rove has been adopting a lower profile, backing out of two public speeches over the last week. However, Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, said yesterday: "Karl is here at the White House doing his duties, as he always does."

Libby is often described as "Cheney's Cheney," a loyal and discreet top lieutenant who shares his boss's hard-line philosophy and bare-knuckle attitude toward political enemies of the Bush administration.

Cheney and Libby spend hours together in the course of a day, which causes sources that know both men very well to assert that any attempts to discredit Wilson would almost certainly have been known to the vice president if not initiated by him.

"Scooter wouldn't be freelancing on this without Cheney's knowledge,"  according to sources knowledgeable with both men. "It was probably some sort of comment like: 'This guy [Wilson] could be a problem, see what we to can to shut him up.'"

According to sources Libby has been "totally obsessed with Wilson" since Wilson first reported his findings in direct contradiction with the lies of the Bush administration that led us into the illegal war on Iraq.  The US failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq resulted in two inquiries into the prewar intelligence, one led by the Senate intelligence committee and the other by a White House-appointed panel. But both panels confined themselves to investigating the intelligence community, concluding that the White House was largely the innocent victim of faulty intelligence.  Neither delved into the improper political misuse of the available intelligence by the administration.

Whether Cheney's, Rove's and Libby's obsession amounts to criminal misconduct will be decided by Fitzgerald, but if Libby is indicted or implicated in wrongdoing, Cheney's reputation will suffer as well, and a indictment of Cheney and possibly President Bush is sure to follow.

Tom Scott is Senior Investigative Reporter for Choice America Network

 

Posted by EvansMediaUSA at 23:40:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

October 15, 2005

Sgt. Kevin Benderman

 

From Chaos to Conscience to Peace

 

Monica Benderman

 

Please visit Sgt. Benderman’s website, www.BendermanTimeline.com for a chronology of events, complete with documentation, leading to his court martial, along with a continuous discussion about Conscientious Objection and veterans’ issues.

 

On July 27, 2005, Sgt. Kevin Benderman was found guilty of Missing Movement and sentenced to 15 months confinement, loss of pay and dishonorable discharge. In actuality, Sgt. Benderman’s crime was daring to tell the truth, and daring to challenge the very philosophy of the military machine in which he had volunteered to serve, by filing for Conscientious Objection for no longer wanting to participate in war, and for speaking out to end violence as a means of resolving our differences.

 

Conscientious Objection is not just objecting to war. It is objecting to chaos, to everything about life that keeps it from a peaceful path.  War is chaos, but chaos is also war. 

 

Each person is going to have to one day face the process of becoming conscientious objectors in their lives before we can achieve peace.  You will not all face the combat zone of war to do this.  You may face a war of your own, far from the battlefields that our soldiers now face in Iraq. 

 

As Sgt. Benderman made every attempt to live by his beliefs, his command did everything possible to dissuade him. They went to great lengths to keep him from speaking his truth, and from talking about what he had come to believe about war versus peace.

 

What was it they were afraid of?  Why were they so anxious to regain control of this soldier?  Did his declaration of conscience make them think?  When he spoke of what he saw, when he spoke of how it made him feel, did they look in the mirror and see the same questions in themselves?  Was it their own conscience that made them afraid?

 

Sgt. Benderman didn’t run.  He stood his ground and faced down every wanton act of corruption it took from his commanding officers, as they scrambled to create a story that they could all keep track of, and put Sgt. Benderman in jail.  He had done nothing wrong, except dare to point out actions that his principles would no longer allow him to be part of. Like little children who cover their ears and hum to avoid hearing that playtime is over, the command was desperate to find a way to imprison the truth to avoid having to look it in the eye.

 

Conscientious Objection is no longer defined merely by one’s religious commitment.  It is about living with your principles, values, and morals.  It is about maintaining high standards for your own life, and letting your conscience be your guide.  It is knowing the best way to lead when it comes to defending your country, its constitution and your honor, and letting that wisdom dictate your actions regardless of whom it calls into question. 

 

The rules of Conscientious Objection have changed. In this day, a Conscientious Objector must be aggressive in defense of peace, and must rely on his own integrity and moral principles when many around him dare to call him coward. 

 

Sgt. Benderman’s command would like people to believe that because he chose to no longer participate in this war, that made him a coward, and it made him unpatriotic.  Being a Conscientious Objector is the highest form of patriotism when it is an objection to an aggressive war that destroys a culture of innocent people for no good reason, and abuses the integrity of the service of those who volunteered to defend our country, expecting the same integrity from those who lead them. 

 

Sgt. Benderman’s command would like people to believe that he was denied his claim because he was not sincere in his beliefs of Conscientious Objection - that he really only filed the claim to avoid returning to hazardous duty.  He did file the claim to avoid returning to war, but he is not avoiding his duty.

 

The duty he now serves is to defend his country against people who refuse to see just how destructive the path they have chosen really is. The service he now gives, is in speaking of his own change of beliefs, in the hope that others will see that we all must become conscientious objectors before we can achieve peace.

 

The defense of one’s home does not always mean “taking the fight to the enemy’s soil” and it does not always mean defending your home against an outside force.  Sometimes, the enemy is within, and sometimes defending one’s home means standing up against our own fears, looking in the mirror and facing our conscience when we realize what it is that we have become. 

 

The journey to Conscientious Objection is a personal journey, no different than the journey to peace.  We each must embark upon it in our own time, and through our own experiences, but until every individual takes that step, we will continue to have chaos, and we will continue to confront the violent actions of others who would choose to disrupt the peaceful path that Conscientious Objectors have chosen to walk. 

 

It is when those who have come to understand the true meaning of peace have learned to live it in spite of the chaos others seek to encourage, that we will finally begin to emerge from the cycle of hate and destruction. 

 

We cannot control the life of another.  We can only understand this when we have learned to control ourselves.  To embark on a personal journey to Conscientious Objection could be the best way to begin.

 

 

To learn more about Sgt. Kevin Benderman’s journey to Conscientious Objection, and to understand the psychological and manipulative tactics he faced from the Military and the chain of command to deter him from his public stance on Conscientious Objection, please visit our website, www.BendermanTimeline.com

 

Monica Benderman may be reached at mdawnb@coastalnow.net or

monica@BendermanTimeline.com

 

 

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

 

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Bush's Washington Waterloo

 

As  the Walls start Tumbling Down

 

by Tom Scott

 

The current series of major scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have now hit and hit hard to disrupt President Bush, his neocon agenda, distract aides and allies, and entwine political problems for an already weakened administration, that even party strategists and White House advisers are clueless in the shock and awe.  They have brought these problems on themselves with lies.

 

  With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury for the fourth time for 4 1/2 hours, following Miller's second visit, associates said Bush's 'Turd Blossom' has been preoccupied with his serious legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the already doomed handling of Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove and many other administration officials will be indicted within the next two weeks.  The guilt in Washington is evident. The players have been caught.  Their lies have been documented. Their boat is taking in water, faster and faster.

 

  Even many of Bush's partners on Capitol Hill are spending time defending themselves as the president's legislative initiatives flop and flounder. The criminal indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for alleged campaign funding illegalities has thrown Republicans into one of the most corrupt periods of their 11-year reign and created an inner battle for just who is in the leadership role.  With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) dealing with a subpoena in an insider-trading investigation, a bipartisan majority led by John McCain (R-Arizona) rebuked Bush over torture policies and Ron Paul (R-Texas) has exposed Bush and his outlandish attempt of using Martial Law over the American people.

 

   Like never before, the scandals are being sprayed from every direction and each have little or no direct connection with one another, but their accumulation has slammed a White House already beset by political problems stemming from the lies that led to the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina and higher than high gasoline prices, according to Republican advisers close to the Bush Boat, all of whom said they could speak candidly only if they were not identified by name. It's that bad. The sky is truly falling in and Bush is blinking faster than ever before. The Lack of Leadership is obvious, if there truly ever was any and there is no road for recovery for this administration.  They have over drawn Americas bank account and Americans are simply fed up.

 

  "The Rove thing has gotten to be enormously distracting," said one adviser to the White House. "Knowing the way the White House works, being under subpoena like this, your mind is far from your work, it's on the crimes that they committed, the manipulation of America."  And now the quiet whispers of Impeachment swirl Washington like a man made natural disaster as Bush hits his lowest of lows.  Many say Resignation, but Impeachment seems to be the word. "This is what happens when you tamper with election results - not once, but twice."

 

  "It is the perfect storm," said Joseph E. diGenova, a Republican and former independent counsel, who noted that so many investigations could weigh on an administration. "People have no idea what happens when an investigation gets underway. It's like getting punched in the stomach." It was going to happen sooner or later and for Americas sake, the sooner shall be the better course.

 

  With the current problems on the table, other reports indicate that Republicans are particularly worried about the sprawling investigations of Jack Abramoff, whose business and political dealings regularly brought him into contact with dozens of lawmakers and top White House officials. And worried they should be. Among insiders, he was one of the most familiar faces among the generation of operatives and lobbyists who came to play when Republicans took control of Congress in 1994. He was even more inside than Jeff Gannon and Gannon if you will remember got up and inside a lot.

 

  "But the one that people are most worried about is Abramoff because it seems to have such long tentacles," said former congressman Vin Weber (R-Minn.), a lobbyist with close ties to the White House. "This seems to be something that could spread almost anywhere, . . . and that has a lot of people really worried." Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

 

  The Abramoff scandal has already resulted in two direct casualties: David H. Safavian, Rove's former business partner who was serving as the top White House procurement official, then resigned prior to his arrested on charges that he lied about and impeded an investigation into his dealings with Abramoff. And Timothy E. Flanigan, Bush's nominee for deputy attorney general of all positions, the number two job at the Justice Department, withdrew last week after questions were raised about his interactions with the lobbyist. It just gets deeper and deeper and deeper.  How can Americans trust such nominee decisions by a burning Bush? We can't and aren't as reflected in the recent PEW Poll.

 

  "The Abramoff thing is a lingering ghost to everybody," said GOP lobbyist Charles Black. "I don't know how many others are going to be caught up in it."

 

  Twin investigations of Abramoff by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and a multi-agency federal task force appear likely to tar a host of lawmakers the White House has relied on for passage of critical but questionable legislative initiatives. At the same time, the House ethics committee, which has been essentially shut down over a stupid staffing dispute, is expected to get back in business and look into the deadly allegations against DeLay and nearly a dozen other lawmakers, Democrats included. This is where the Abramoff and unrelated investigations could start to merge, including those of 26 Representatives that were bought by DeLay.

 

  House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), a DeLay ally, is facing questions about ties to Abramoff, including his participation in a golf outing in Scotland that the lobbyist organized in 2002. And Rove allies have also been entangled in the Abramoff investigation. One is Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader who has struggled during a rediculous campaign for lieutenant governor of Georgia to shake off suggestions that he received Indian gambling money to mount a lobbying effort against rival casinos. Sources say that he will not survive and when truth be known, he shouldn't.  Many Republicans are now calling Washington, Bush's Waterloo.  The Washington Waterloo.

 

  The current atmosphere is not what Bush envisioned as a candidate in 2000. Coming off the Clinton years, which were dominated by independent counsel investigations and the impeachment of the president, Bush vowed to run a cleaner and more ethical Washington. "In my administration," Bush told voters in Pittsburgh in October 2000, "we will ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves."  This of course, was just more campaign spins, lies and rhetoric that have since filled the Potomac full.

 

  It was somehow a vow that was welcomed in a capital weary of scandal, and the Bush Boat of Lies made it through the first term without being found out strongly due to set up press conferences and an uneducated and 'hands tied' mainstream media.  With the no independent counsel statute and congressional oversight committees in the hands of the president's party, the instruments of political investigations were controlled and limited but the flat out lies, like the invasion of Iraq, that have surfaced over the last couple of years have finally caught up to the once though of righteous right-winger's who have displayed a consistent tendency to lean more neocon.  And NeoCons we have come to find out, they are.

 

  Scandal historically has ripened in second terms, including Watergate for Richard M. Nixon, the Iran-contra affair for Ronald Reagan, and the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation for Bill Clinton. "It always comes back," said Larry J. Sabato, a University of Virginia scholar who has written on Washington scandals. "There may be a couple of dry years occasionally, but it is a style of American politics -- always has been, always will be. And now it's back with a vengeance." This Bush administration cannot survive the crimes they have committed nor should they.

 

  Some administration allies lament the return of the scandal culture. "There was essentially none of that for the first five years," said Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R), Bush's first budget director. "That doesn't make the current situation any easier to watch." So then why Mr. Daniels did you participate we must ask?  These scandals were being played out during the years you were budget director one must understand.  Now they have surfaced.  You could not balance our checkbook? One look at our deficit says it all, yet Daniels says scandal was not present during the first five years.  

 

  Of course there will always be a few that see politics behind the investigations. "Some of it is cyclical politically," said Leonard A. Leo, who has taken leave as executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society to help promote the Miers nomination. The same Society that John Roberts lied about being a member.  And Roberts, we will leave Roberts for another day soon to come.  Roberts should have never happened. Far to many insiders say that he too will have his Waterloo.

 

  Several Republicans close to Bush said they believe the CIA leak investigation has taken a particular toll, reducing Rove's role in key decisions and prompting Bush to rely on other, less devious advisers. One well-connected outside adviser cited the Miers pick as an example. He said even if Rove considered the selection a risk or mistake, he knew he was in no position to press Bush on it. And a mistake it will become.  Just as Roberts will sooner than later be found out.  It was all rushed through far too fast and the American people see that now.

 

  "My sense is Rove knows he has spent a lot of so called political capital with the president on this CIA leak case," one adviser said. "No matter how close 'Turd Blossom' is to the president, there is a limit of how much capital you can spend with your partner in crime." "And they will continue to act like nothing is wrong."

  Two Republicans close to the White House said officials are nervous that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald will indict Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the two most powerful staffers in the federal government, within two weeks. While the idea struck many on the Bush Boat as impossible a few months ago, now the common assumption is that both men are in deep trouble as the walls start tumbling down.  They did in fact, bring it on, themselves. But this investigation is just the tip of the iceberg. And then there's Cheney.  The list of Liars and Events is long and the Water is about to burst this Gate wide open.

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

 

Posted by EvansMediaUSA at 12:06:56 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

October 14, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH Action Alert

 
TELL CONGRESS
 
BUSH MUST GO
 
BEFORE HE DOES ANY MORE DAMAGE
 
 
Polls are now saying that a majority of Americans (50% to 44%) would favor impeaching the president IF he lied about Iraq.  So our work is done, right?  Until that is a proven fact to those 50%, let's not kid ourselves.  To impeach the president NOW, a substantial number of members of the president's own party must turn on him in a dramatic way.  And given the bias of the media coverage so far, as a practical matter that will happen only if 1) a major new "smoking gun" emerges (as from the Patrick Fitzgerald probe), or if 2) larger numbers of us communicate personally with them as their constituents to demand it. Since we can't rely on the first, we must concentrate on the second, and encourage everyone else we know to do the same.
 
 
 
 
Posted by EvansMediaUSA at 11:26:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

And the Buck stops Where? - Part V of V

 

OMG

AND THE BUCK STOPS HERE?

PART 5 OF A 5 PART SERIES

(Scroll Down)

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

 

Posted by EvansMediaUSA at 10:32:56 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

And the Buck stops Where? - Part lV of V

 
Pension Programs Must Be Funded
 
by Ed Garvey
 

OK, Social Security is off the table because the White House grabbed a tiger by the tail and seemed surprised when the tiger was annoyed. The lesson is obvious. Social Security is too important to seniors, their children and even their grandchildren to be destroyed. But what about pensions negotiated by unions, guaranteed by management and relied upon by millions of our citizens?

I recall a wonderful Republican senator, Jacob Javits of New York. He was one of those "Rockefeller Republicans." As Gaylord Nelson is father of Earth Day, Javits was the father of pension reform. I heard him speak in 1971. He said, "When an employee works his entire life and finally goes to the window to collect his pension, it is our obligation to make certain the check is there."

His bill created the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or ERISA. Millions of retired workers have been helped by Javits' vision. Not only were employers required to disclose information to the beneficiaries, they were barred from using pension funds to help their own company. A "reasonable man" standard was created, as in "What would a reasonable man do with pension funds?"

And ERISA created a federal agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The name says it all. The federal government would guarantee pensions for that worker who walked up to the window. Yes siree! The message to unions, public and private, was simple. If you give up higher wages in return for a pension, the money will be there when you need it. Trust us.

Problem: Giant employers like Northwest Airlines, General Motors or, in Wisconsin, Golden Books, didn't take ERISA seriously. They deliberately underfunded their pension programs and spent the money. The media are reporting that General Motors' spinoff Delphi is filing for bankruptcy, leaving unfunded liability, according to the New York Times, of $11 billion. Can the government pay $11 billion for thousands of workers in Michigan? Hell no. Our money has gone to Iraq. Our tax breaks have been given to the very same corporate decision-makers who deliberately underfunded their pension funds while paying themselves huge compensation packages. Their pension is truly guaranteed. Is there something wrong with this picture? This is not what Jake Javits thought we were promising. This is a perversion.

So what is the plan to bail out these workers? Plan? We have no plan other than telling workers at the pension window, "Sorry, but you lose. Go get another job. And if you aren't careful we will mess with Medicare and your Social Security check as well."

Where is the leadership on this travesty? Herb Kohl voted in favor of the bank-sponsored bankruptcy "reform" that will prove disastrous for working class citizens with a health problem. Is it asking too much of Sen. Kohl to take up where Jake Javits left off? How about repeal of the tax breaks for the top 1 percent and placing that money in PBGC so 65 year-old workers get their benefits? Is that asking too much?

When we think about $11 billion for one company, the mind reels. Where were the regulators we relied on? Should the CEO of General Motors face criminal charges?

The Wisconsin State Journal demanded in an editorial that Brian Burke go to jail for six months for violating campaign laws. Don't misunderstand me. What Burke did was wrong. But how do his violations stack up against GM? Tens of thousands of our fellow citizens who have worked hard, paid their taxes, educated their kids and trusted their government are now at the pension window and it says:

"Closed. Made a mistake.

P.S. Don't come back."

Is this a crime or just a mistake? What would the Reasonable Man created by Sen. Javits say?

Ed Garvey is a Madison lawyer, political activist and the editor of the fightingbob.com Web site.

© 2005 The Capital Times

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

 

Posted by EvansMediaUSA at 10:08:23 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

And the Buck stops Where? - Part lll of V

 
New Orleans:
 
 Leaving the Poor Behind Again!
 
by Bill Quigley
 

They are doing it again! My wife and I spent five days and four nights in a hospital in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. We saw people floating dead in the water. We watched people die waiting for evacuation to places with food, water, and electricity. We were rescued by boat and waited for an open pickup truck to take us and dozens of others on a rainy drive to the underpass where thousands of others waited for a bus ride to who knows where. You saw the people left behind. The poor, the sick, the disabled, the prisoners, the low-wage workers of New Orleans, were all left behind in the evacuation. Now that New Orleans is re-opening for some, the same people are being left behind again.

When those in power close the public schools, close public housing, fire people from their jobs, refuse to provide access to affordable public healthcare, and close off all avenues for justice, it is not necessary to erect a sign outside of New Orleans saying "Poor People Not Allowed To Return." People cannot come back in these circumstances and that is exactly what is happening.

There are 28,000 people still living in shelters in Louisiana. There are 38,000 pu