Well, silly me. I get this ready and find that this is LAST year's list! Still relevant. Guess I better get to work and finish up the new list! Sigh.... Or is this the latest? A tad confused here but then.... Happy New Year! So what else is new?
December
30, 2013
The
presentation of this year’s Top 25 stories extends the tradition originated by Professor
Carl Jensen and his Sonoma State students in 1976, while reflecting how the
expansion of the Project to include affiliate faculty and students from
campuses across the country and around the world ~ initiated several years ago
as outgoing director Peter Phillips passed the reins to current director Mickey
Huff ~ has made the Project even more diverse and robust. During this year’s
cycle, Project Censored reviewed 233 Validated Independent News stories (VINs)
representing the collective efforts of 219 college students and 56 professors
from 18 college and university campuses that participate in our affiliate
program and 13 additional community evaluators.
25. ISRAEL GAVE
BIRTH CONTROL TO ETHIOPIAN IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT
In
January 2013, Israel acknowledged that medical authorities have been giving
Ethiopian immigrants long-term birth-control injections, often without their
knowledge or consent. The Israeli government had previously denied the charges,
which were first brought to light by investigative reporter Gal Gabbay in a
December 8, 2012, broadcast of Israeli Educational Television’s news program, Vacuum. In January, the Israeli
Health Ministry’s director-general, Ron Gamzu, ordered all gynecologists to
stop administering the drugs.
.
Gabbay
interviewed over thirty women from Ethiopia in an attempt to discover why birth
rates in the immigrant community were so low. Israeli medical authorities had
been injecting women of Ethiopian origin with Depo-Provera, a highly effective
and long-lasting form of contraception. In some cases, the drugs were
reportedly administered to women waiting in transit camps for permission to
immigrate to Israel. Writing for the Electronic
Intifada, Ali Abunimah makes the case that, “if the allegations are
proven, this practice may fit the legal definition of genocide.”
.
Nearly
100,000 Ethiopian Jews have moved to Israel under the Law of Return since the
1980s, but some rabbis have questioned their Jewishness. In May 2012, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignited controversy when he warned that
illegal immigrants from Africa “threaten our existence as a Jewish and
democratic state.”
.
CENSORED #25
ISRAEL GAVE BIRTH CONTROL TO ETHIOPIAN IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT THEIR
CONSENT
Alistair
Dawber, “Israel Gave Birth Control to Ethiopian Jews without Their Consent,” Independent, January 27, 2013,
Ali
Abunimah, “Did Israel Violate the Genocide Convention by Forcing Contraceptives
on Ethiopian Women?” Electronic
Intifada, January 28, 2013,
.
Beth
Brogan, “Israel Admits Forced Birth Control For Ethiopian
Immigrants,” Common Dreams, January 29, 2013,
.
Student Researchers: Shanti Williams (College of
Marin); Elizabeth Saechao (Sonoma State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Lee Roth (College of
Marin); Noel Byrne (Sonoma State University)
24. WIDESPREAD GMO
CONTAMINATION: DID MONSANTO PLANT GMOS BEFORE USDA APPROVAL?
Monsanto
introduced genetically modified alfalfa in 2003 ~ a full two years before it
was deregulated, according to recently released evidence.
.
Global
Research reported that a letter from Cal/West Seeds indicated that “evidence of
contamination was withheld and the USDA turned a blind eye to proof of
contamination,” thus allowing widespread GMO contamination of GMO-free crops.
The Cal/West Seeds letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
stated they found the Roundup Ready gene in foundation production lots seeds in
2005: according to the letter, the GMO-contaminated foundation seed originated
in 2003 from a field in Solano County, California. The letter stated, “Cal/West
Seeds had zero access to Roundup Ready seed at that time; therefore we assume
the contamination originated from an external source.”
.
Alfalfa
is a perennial plant that grows for more than two years and may not need to be
replanted each year like annuals. As a perennial, it is exceptionally
vulnerable to contamination. This genetically modified alfalfa could quickly
spread to crops across the US, threatening the integrity of organic products ~ including
organic meat and dairy products, if those animals are fed alfalfa believed to
be GMO-free, but are in fact carrying Monsanto’s patented genetically modified
trait.
.
In
2010, the USDA released a Final Environmental Impact Statement that
acknowledged awareness of the GMO alfalfa spreading its traits to non-GMO
alfalfa as far back as 2003. Not only was the USDA aware of the scandal, but
the agency also deregulated genetically modified alfalfa with full awareness of
the environmental dangers and contamination concerns.
.
CENSORED #24
WIDESPREAD GMO CONTAMINATION: DID MONSANTO PLANT GMOS BEFORE
USDA APPROVAL?
Cassandra
Anderson and Anthony Gucciardi, “Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto
Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval?”, Global Research, May 4, 2012,
.
Student Researcher: Adam Hotchkiss (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Greg Hicks (Mendocino College)
23. TRANSACTION TAX
HELPS CIVILIZE WALL STREET AND LOWER THE NATIONAL DEBT
In
February 2013, United States senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Peter DeFazio
(D-Oregon) introduced a bill to implement a new tax of three basis points (that
is, three pennies for every hundred dollars) on most non-consumer stock trades.
If made law, the tax could generate $350 billion in federal revenues over the
next ten years.
.
Describing
the proposed tax as a “simple matter of fairness and fiscal sanity,” Senator
Harkin elaborated, “We need the new revenue generated by this tax in order to
reduce deficits (after sequestration) and maintain critical investments in
education, infrastructure, and job creation. . . . Wall Street (investors) can
easily bear this modest tax.”
Because the tax is percentage-based, large transactions would be
harder hit; most middle-class investors would see minimally increased charges.
.
The tax would also help curb overzealous market speculation by
discouraging the large-sum, short-term, risky trading that tends to put the
economy in a fragile state.
This
bill has been proposed in previous congressional sessions, yet it has been
underreported in the corporate media, making it hard to gain public support.
.
France
recently became the first country in Europe to pass such a tax. French finance
minister Pierre Moscovici said the law marks “the first step toward fiscal
reform and a move toward justice.” Ten other European countries are discussing
similar laws. For the US, the Harkin–DeFazio transaction tax would be a major
step in civilizing speculative investment, stabilizing the economy, and
reducing the national debt.
.
CENSORED #23
TRANSACTION TAX HELPS CIVILIZE WALL STREET AND LOWER THE
NATIONAL DEBT
George
Zornick, “Financial Transactions Tax Introduced Again—Can It Pass This Time?,” Nation, February 28, 2013,
.
“Lawmakers
Introduce Targeted Wall Street Trading Tax,” Albany Tribune, February 28, 2013,
.
Gregory
Heires, “As the Misguided $1.4 Trillion Cuts Begin, a Wall Street Tax Looks
Like a No-Brainer,” Reader Supported
News, March 7, 2013,
.
Helene
Fouquet and Adria Cimino, “French Lawmakers Pass Trading Transaction Tax,” Bloomberg Businessweek, August 1,
2012,
.
Student Researcher: Marisa Soski (San Francisco
State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Kenn Burrows (San Francisco
State University)
22. PENNSYLVANIA
LAW GAGS DOCTORS TO PROTECT BIG OIL’S “PROPRIETARY SECRETS”
In
communities affected by hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” people understand
that this process of drilling for natural gases puts the environment and their
health at risk. In February 2013, legislators in Pennsylvania ~ a state on the
forefront of a national debate over fracking ~ passed a law that requires oil
companies to disclose the identity and amount of chemicals used in fracking
fluids to health professionals who request the information so that they can
diagnosis or treat patients who may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals.
However, as Kate Sheppard reported for Mother Jones, a provision in the new bill requires those health
professionals to sign a confidentiality agreement stating that they will not
disclose that information to anyone else ~ not even their own patients.
The companies deem the chemical ingredients used in the process as
“proprietary secrets.”
.
The
crucial provision gagging doctors was added after the bill was introduced, so
many lawmakers did not recognize the broad, problematic alterations to the
proposed law. Pennsylvania State Senator Daylin Leach told Mother Jones,
“The importance of keeping it as proprietary secret seems
minimal when compared to letting the public know what chemicals they and their
children are being exposed to.”
An
addendum to the Mother Jones
report noted that Patrick Henderson, the energy executive for Pennsylvania
Governor Tom Corbett, said that others’ interpretation of the law is
inaccurate. Doctors will still be allowed to share information with their
patients. However, Kate Sheppard reported, “the actual terms of the
confidentiality agreements have not yet been drafted, and there seems to be
pretty wide confusion in the state about what exactly the bill as signed into
law would mean.”
.
Under
the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has pressed oil
companies to voluntarily provide information about fracking fluids, but the
industry has largely rebuffed those appeals.
.
CENSORED #22
PENNSYLVANIA LAW GAGS DOCTORS TO PROTECT BIG OIL’S “PROPRIETARY
SECRETS”
Kate
Sheppard, “For Pennsylvania’s Doctors, a Gag Order on Fracking Chemicals,” Mother Jones, March 23, 2012,
.
Student Researcher: Lyndsey Casey (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State
University)
21. MONSANTO AND
INDIA’S “SUICIDE ECONOMY”
Monsanto
has a long history of contamination and cover-up. In India, another Monsanto
cover-up is ongoing. Since 1995, nearly 300,000 Indian farmers have committed
suicide due to massive debt. Monsanto has argued that these suicides have no
single cause. However, there is clear evidence that Monsanto’s Bt cotton is
implicated. Physicist and author Vandana Shiva has been monitoring what is
going on in these rural farming towns.
Shiva noted, “The price per kilogram of
cotton seeds [has gone] from 7 to 17,000 rupees. . . . Monsanto sells its GMO
seeds on fraudulent claims of yields of 1,500 kg/year when farmers harvest
300–400 kg/year on an average.” Shiva and other critics have concluded that
Monsanto’s profit-driven policies have led to a “suicide economy” in India.
A
new documentary film, Dirty White Gold
by Leah Borromeo, goes beyond the issue of farmer suicides to explain how the
global fashion industry and international consumer habits contribute to Indian
farmers’ hardships. Dirty White Gold
examined the cotton supply chain, with the aim of generating support for
legislation that will, in Borromeo’s words, “make ethics and sustainability the
norm in the fashion industry.”
.
Monsanto’s
horrific impact in India is also showcased in an earlier documentary, Bitter Seeds, directed by Micha X.
Peled, which follows a teenage girl whose father committed suicide due to debt.
Bitter Seeds showcased the
major problems people in India are having, and how Monsanto lies directly to
Indian farmers, going as far as making up fictitious farmers who “have success”
with the new Bt cotton. Monsanto has claimed that there has also been a 25
percent reduction in pesticide costs. In Bitter
Seeds, both of these claims were proven false.
.
CENSORED #21
MONSANTO AND INDIA’S “SUICIDE ECONOMY”
.
Student Researcher: Nicole Anacker (College of
Marin)
Faculty Evaluator: Susan Rahman (College of
Marin)
20. ISRAEL COUNTED
MINIMUM CALORIE NEEDS IN GAZA BLOCKADE
Declassified
documents reveal that the Israeli military calculated how many calories a
typical Gazan would need to survive, in order to determine how much food to
supply the Gaza Strip during Israel’s 2007–2010 blockade. The Israeli human
rights group Gisha, which campaigns against Israel’s Gaza blockade, fought a
legal battle to force the Israeli Ministry of Defense to release the documents.
.
Israel
began its blockade in September 2007, identifying Gaza as a
“hostile territory” that had been “seized” by Hamas. Israel claimed that
the blockade was necessary to weaken Hamas. Critics accused the Israeli
government of targeting Gaza’s more than 1.5 million people in its failed
effort to overthrow Hamas.
.
In
the food calculation, Israel applied the average daily requirement of 2,279
calories per person to determine that it would allow roughly 1,836 grams of
food per person, per day. Food imports to Gaza were cut by nearly 75 percent,
from 400 trucks per day to 106 trucks per day, five days a week, from the start
of the blockade.
.
“How
can Israel claim that it is not responsible for civilian life in Gaza when it
controls even the type and quantity of food that Palestinian residents of Gaza
are permitted to consume?” asked Sari Bashi, Gisha’s executive director, in a
statement. After Gisha published the documents, Israeli defense ministry
official Guy Inbar defended the Israeli research paper as something “that came
up in two discussions” but was “never made use of.”
.
These
developments occurred against the backdrop of a diplomatic cable from 2008
showing that Israel informed US officials that it would keep Gaza’s economy “on
the brink of collapse” while avoiding a humanitarian crisis.
.
CENSORED #20
ISRAEL COUNTED MINIMUM CALORIE NEEDS IN GAZA BLOCKADE, DOCUMENTS
REVEAL
John
Glaser, “Israel Counted Minimum Calorie Needs in Gaza Blockade, Documents
Reveal,” Antiwar.com, October 17, 2012,
.
Student Researchers: Mohamed Duple (College of
Marin); Liliana Valdez-Madera (Santa Rosa Junior College)
Faculty Evaluator: Susan Rahman (College of
Marin)
19. THE POWER OF
PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IN ICELAND
Iceland
is experiencing one of the greatest economic comebacks of all time, reported
Alex Pietrowski.
.
After
privatization of the nation’s banking sector, completed in 2000, private
bankers borrowed $120 billion (ten times the size of Iceland’s economy),
creating a huge economic bubble that doubled housing prices and made a small
percentage of the country’s population exceedingly wealthy. When the bubble
burst, the bankers left the nation on the verge of bankruptcy and its citizens
with an unpayable debt.
.
In
October 2008, Iceland’s people took to the streets in response to the economic
crisis caused by the banksters. Over a span of five months, the main bank of
Iceland was nationalized, government officials were forced to resign, the old
government was liquidated, and a new government was established. By March 2010,
Iceland’s people voted to deny payment of the 3,500 million debt created by the
bankers, and about 200 high-level executives and bankers responsible for the
economic crisis in the country were either arrested or faced criminal charges.
.
In
February 2011, a new constitutional assembly settled in to rewrite the tiny
nation’s constitution, which aimed to avoid entrapment by debt-based
currency foreign loans. In 2012, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development expected Iceland’s economy to outgrow the euro and
the average for the developed world.
.
CENSORED #19
THE POWER OF PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IN ICELAND
Alex
Pietrowski, “Iceland’s Hördur Torfason ~ How to Beat the Banksters,” Waking Times, December 11, 2012,
.
Student Researcher: Pedro Martin Del Campo (Sonoma
State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Ed Beebout (Sonoma State
University)
18. FRACKING OUR
FOOD SUPPLY
The
effects of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) on food supply and the
environment are slowly emerging. The fracking process runs contrary to safe
sustainable food production. In the agriculturally and energy-rich region
called the Marcellus Shale, a tug-of-war between food producers and energy
companies has begun.
.
Chemicals
used in the fracking process contaminate surrounding land, water, and air.
Ranchers in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Louisiana, and New Mexico have been
reporting health problems and incidents of dead and tainted livestock, due to
elevated levels of contaminants from nearby wells.
.
While
no long-term research on the effects of fracking on humans, livestock, or
plants exists, a peer-reviewed report by Michelle Bamberger and Robert E.
Oswald has linked fracking to illness in animals. They believe chemicals
leaking from fracking sites could start appearing in human food supplies,
because of a lack of regulation and testing.
.
There
is an absence of both adequate disclosures by energy companies and timely
regulation by government to protect the environment and landowners. Secrecy
shrouding the fracking process and Bush-era loopholes obscure consumer
knowledge of food safety.
.
A
lack of whistleblowers has been attributed to fear of retaliation,
nondisclosure agreements, or involvement in active litigation. While some fear
that the early warnings will be ignored, two major agricultural insurance
companies now refuse to cover damages from fracking.
.
CENSORED #18
FRACKING OUR FOOD SUPPLY
Student Researchers: Rayne Madison and Nayeli
Castaneda (College of Marin)
Faculty Evaluators: Susan Rahman and Andy Lee Roth
(College of Marin)
17. THE CREATIVE
COMMONS CELEBRATES TEN YEARS OF SHARING AND CULTURAL CREATION
Creative
Commons (CC) is celebrating ten years of helping writers, artists,
technologists, and other creators share their knowledge and creativity with the
world. CC provides free, public, and standardized licenses that allow creators
to share their material with others and help create a balance between the open
nature of public domain (e.g., the Internet) and copyright laws. The first CC
licenses were issued in December 2002, and they now number in the millions. For
example, governments and libraries make their information available to the
public using CC tools. YouTube now has over four million videos available under
Creative Commons, allowing everyone to use, remix, and edit them.
.
A
strong push for copyright reform is currently occurring around the world ~ coming
both from the increased recognition of public/user rights as well as the need
for author protection. Creative Commons and the free culture movement envision
a new world in which partnership premised on shared benefits replaces the false
battle between self-interest and community. To imitate or steal an idea is one
thing, but to transform or remix content, while crediting its originator, is
something new and completely different. Collaboration is the center of
community, and CC tools offer a major step toward a more collaborative and
abundant world.
.
CENSORED #17
THE CREATIVE COMMONS CELEBRATES TEN YEARS OF SHARING AND
CULTURAL CREATION
Paul
M. Davis, “Creative Commons Celebrates 10 Years of Opening Culture,” Shareable, December 7, 2012,
.
Timothy
Vollmer, “Pallante’s Push for U.S. Copyright Reform,” Creative Commons News,
March 20, 2013,
.
Student Researcher: Nicholas Lanoil (San Francisco
State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Kenn Burrows (San Francisco
State University)
16. JOURNALISM
UNDER ATTACK AROUND THE GLOBE
The
world is a more dangerous place for journalists. Journalists are increasingly
at risk of being killed or imprisoned for doing their jobs, a situation that
imperils press freedom. From 2011 to 2012, the number of journalists behind
bars because of their work increased from 53 to 232, and the 70 journalists
killed in the line of duty during 2012 represents a 43 percent increase,
compared with 2011, according to a study by the Committee to Project
Journalists (CPJ). Over the past two decades, a journalist is killed once every
eight days.
.
The
CPJ also published a Risk List, identifying the ten countries worldwide where
press freedom suffered the most in 2012. Notably, half of the nations on the
Risk List ~ Brazil, Turkey, Pakistan, Russia, and Ecuador ~ “practice some form
of democracy and exert significant influence on a regional or international
stage.”
“When journalists are silenced, whether through violence or
laws, we all stand to lose because perpetrators are able to obscure misdeeds,
silence dissent, and disempower citizens,” said CPJ deputy director Robert
Mahoney.
The
CPJ has been a leader in advocating for full implementation of a five-year-old
UN resolution calling for protection of journalists in conflict zones, in order
to guarantee a free and safe press. Article 19 of the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights includes the freedom to “impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” making freedom of press a
transnational right.
.
The New York
Times ran a story on the CPJ report on February 15, 2013, noting the
alarming rise in the number of journalists killed and imprisoned during 2012.
However, the Times’ report did
not address the possible UN resolution or freedom of press as a transnational
right.
.
Dave
Lindorff, of ThisCantBeHappening!,
writes that “the incidence of journalists killed by US forces in recent US
conflicts has been much, much greater than it ever was in earlier wars, such as
the one in Vietnam, or in Korea or World War II,” begging the question of
whether some of the deaths have been “deliberate, perhaps with the intent of
keeping journalists in line.”
.
CENSORED #16
JOURNALISM UNDER ATTACK AROUND THE GLOBE
Roy
Greenslade, “Journalism Under Attack Across the Globe Imperils Press Freedom,” Guardian, February 14, 2013,
.
Student Researcher: Qui Phan (College of Marin)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Lee Roth (College of
Marin)
15. FOOD RIOTS: THE
NEW NORMAL?
Reduced
land productivity, combined with elevated oil costs and population growth,
threaten a systemic, global food crisis. Citing findings from a study by Paul
and Anne Ehrlich, published by the Royal Society, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
identified the links among intensifying economic inequality, debt, climate
change, and fossil fuel dependency to conclude that a global food crisis is now
“undeniable.”
.
“Global
food prices have been consistently higher than in preceding decades,” reported
Ahmed, leading to dramatic price increases in staple foods and triggering food
riots across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. The crux of this
global phenomenon is climate change: severe natural disasters including
drought, flood, heat waves, and monsoons have affected major regional food
baskets.
By mid-century, Ahmed reported, “world crop yields could fall as much
as 20–40 percent because of climate change alone.”
Industrial
agricultural methods that disrupt soil have also contributed to impending food
shortages. As a result, Ahmed reported, global land productivity has “dropped
significantly,” from 2.1 percent during 1950–90 to 1.2 percent during
1990–2007.
.
By
contrast with Ahmed’s report, corporate media coverage of food insecurity has
tended to treat it as a local and episodic problem.
.
For
example, an April 2008 story in the
Los Angeles Times covered food riots in Haiti, which resulted in three
deaths. Similarly, a March 2013 New
York Times piece addressed how the loss of farmland and farm labour to
urbanization contributed to rising food costs in China.
.
Corporate
media have not connected the dots to analyze how intensifying inequality, debt,
climate change, and consumption of fossil fuels have contributed to the
potential for a global food crisis in the near future.
.
CENSORED #15
FOOD RIOTS: THE NEW NORMAL?
Nafeez
Mosaddeq Ahmed, “Why Food Riots Are Likely to Become the New Normal,” Guardian, March 6, 2013,
.
Student Researcher: Julian Kuartei (College of
Marin)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Lee Roth (College of
Marin)
14. WIRELESS
TECHNOLOGY A LOOMING HEALTH CRISIS
As
a multitude of hazardous wireless technologies are deployed in homes, schools,
and workplaces, government officials and industry representatives continue to
insist on their safety despite growing evidence to the contrary. Extensive
deployment of “smart grid” technology hastens this looming health crisis.
.
By
now many residents in the United States and Canada have smart meters ~ which
transfer detailed information on residents’ electrical usage back to the
utility every few minutes ~ installed on their dwellings. Each meter has an
electronic cellular transmitter that uses powerful bursts of electromagnetic
radio frequency (RF) radiation to communicate with nearby meters, which
together form an interlocking network. Such information can easily be used to
determine individual patterns of behaviour based on power consumption.
.
Utilities
sell smart grid technology to the public as a way to “empower” individual
energy consumers, allowing them to access information on their energy usage so
that they may eventually save money by programming “smart” (i.e.,
wireless-enabled) home appliances and equipment to run when electrical rates
are lowest.
In other words, a broader plan behind smart grid technology
involves a tiered rate system for electricity consumption that will be set by
the utility, to which customers will have no choice but to conform.
CENSORED #14
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY A LOOMING HEALTH CRISIS
James
F. Tracy, “Looming Health Crisis: Wireless Technology and the Toxification of
America,” Global Research, July 8, 2012,
.
Student Researcher: Lyndsey Casey (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State
University)
13. A FIFTH OF
AMERICANS GO HUNGRY
An
August 2012 Gallup poll showed that 18.2 percent of Americans lacked sufficient
money for needed food at least once over the previous year. To make matters
worse, the worst drought in half a century impacted 80 percent of agricultural
lands in the country, increasing food prices. Despite this, in 2012, Congress
considered cutting support for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
~ the official name of its food stamp program ~ as part of the 2013 Farm Bill.
.
Proposed
Senate cuts would cost approximately 500,000 households about ninety dollars a
month in nutritional assistance. Proposed cuts in the House of Representatives
would go much further than the ones in the Senate, and would have removed at
least 1.8 million people from SNAP. Republicans controlling the House have been
eager to cut spending and were the primary supporters of food stamp cuts.
.
Opponents
have expressed concern over the harm the cuts would cause to society’s more
vulnerable members, including seniors, children, and working families. Rising
food prices would hit Southern states the hardest, while Mountain-Plains and
Midwest states would be least affected. Despite all the food hardship, the
National Resources Defense Council reported that 40 percent of food in the
country goes to waste.
.
CENSORED STORY #13
A FIFTH OF AMERICANS GO HUNGRY
Mike
Ludwig, “Millions Go Hungry as Congress Considers Food Stamp Cuts and Drought
Threatens Crops,” Truthout,
August 23, 2012,
.
Student Researcher: Noah Tenney (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Lee Roth (Sonoma State
University)
12. THE US HAS LEFT
IRAQ WITH AN EPIDEMIC OF CANCERS AND BIRTH DEFECTS
High
levels of lead, mercury, and depleted uranium are believed to be causing birth
defects, miscarriages, and cancer for people living in the Iraqi cities of
Basra and Fallujah. Researchers have claimed that the United States bombings of
Basra and Fallujah are to blame for this rapidly increasing health crisis.
.
A
recent study showed more than 50 percent of babies born in Fallujah have a
birth defect, while one in six pregnancies ends in a miscarriage. While there
is no conclusive evidence to show that US military attacks directly caused
these health problems among Iraqi citizens, the immense increase of birth
defects and miscarriages after the attacks has been enough to concern a number
of researchers.
.
Military
officials continue to dodge questions about the attacks and about use of
depleted uranium in particular, while maintaining silence about the health
crisis. Instead, the US government has dismissed the reports as controversial
and baseless.
.
CENSORED #12
THE US HAS LEFT IRAQ WITH AN EPIDEMIC OF CANCERS AND BIRTH
DEFECTS
.
Ross
Caputi, “The Victims of Fallujah’s Health Crisis are Stifled by Western
Silence,” Guardian, October 25,
2012,
.
M.
Al-Sabbak, S. Sadik Ali, O. Savabi, et al., “Metal Contamination and the
Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities,” Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 89, no. 5
(November 2012),
.
Student Researchers: Ivan Konza (Florida Atlantic
University); Marc David Prophete (Indian River State College)
Faculty Evaluators: James F. Tracy (Florida
Atlantic University); Elliot D. Cohen (Indian River State College)
11. BUSH BLOCKED
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
According
to a former top Iranian negotiator, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, in 2005 Iran
offered a deal to the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom
that would have made it impossible for Iran to build nuclear weapons. At that
time, Iran did not have the capability to fabricate fuel rods. The offer
included the plan to ship its uranium to an “agreed upon country” for
enrichment in exchange for yellowcake, the raw material used to make fuel rods.
Once uranium is fabricated into fuel rods, it is practically impossible to
reconvert for military purposes. As Gareth Porter reports for Consortium News, Mousavian’s account
makes it clear that President George W. Bush’s administration “refused to
countenance any Iranian enrichment capability, regardless of the
circumstances.”
.
The
French and German governments were prepared at the time to discuss the offer
and open up negotiations, but the UK vetoed the proposal at the insistence of
the United States. “They were ready to compromise but the US was an obstacle,”
Mousavian reported in his 2012 memoir, The
Iranian Nuclear Crisis.
.
The
continuation of these negotiations could have headed off the current political
crisis over the Iranian nuclear program, if not eliminated the threat of war
and the strain of strict economic sanctions.
.
After
the US and the UK rejected the offer, the European Union stated that more time
was required to consider the proposal, but Mousavian’s team learned later that
the EU had no intention of revisiting the proposal.
.
Mousavian
quoted Francois Nicoullaud, the French ambassador to Iran, as saying that “for
the United States the enrichment in Iran is a red line the EU cannot cross.”
British representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Peter
Jenkins recalled that “the British objective was to eliminate entirely Iran’s
enrichment capability,” at the urging of the United States. One proposal placed
a ceiling on the number of centrifuges and the scale of production so that it
remained well below the levels necessary for the production of weaponry. Then
British and American teams ignored these negotiations to put pressure on Iran
with the threat of referral to the United Nations Security Council. As Iranian
presidential elections approached, the talks were abandoned.
.
Now
a visiting research scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs, Mousavian was arrested by the Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad administration on charges of espionage in April 2007.
.
CENSORED #11
BUSH BLOCKED IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
.
Student Researcher: Seamus O’Herlihy (Santa Rosa
Junior College)
Faculty Evaluator: Susan Rahman (Santa Rosa
Junior College)
10. A “CULTURE OF
CRUELTY” ALONG MEXICO–US BORDER
Migrants
crossing the Mexico–US border not only face dangers posed by an unforgiving
desert but also abuse at the hands of the US Border Patrol. During their
journey through the desert, migrants risk dehydration, starvation, exhaustion,
and the possibility of being threatened and robbed. Unfortunately, the dangers
continue if they come in contact with the Border Patrol.
.
In
“A Culture of Cruelty,” the organization No More Deaths revealed human rights
violations by the US Border Patrol including limiting or denying migrants water
and food, verbal and physical abuse, and failing to provide necessary medical
attention. Female migrants face additional violations including sexual abuse,
according to No More Deaths. As Erika L. Sánchez reported, “Dehumanization of
immigrants is actually part of the Border Patrol’s institutional culture.
Instances of misconduct are not aberrations, but common practice.” The Border
Patrol has denied any wrongdoing and has not been held responsible for these
abuses.
.
Public
debate on immigration tends to ignore not only the potential dangers of
crossing the desert, but also the reasons for the migration of undocumented
immigrants to the US. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed
by US president Bill Clinton and Mexican president Carlos Salinas in 1994,
displaced many Mexican farmers and workers from their farms. Lack of employment
resulting from NAFTA continues to motivate many to migrate to the US.
.
CENSORED #10
A “CULTURE OF CRUELTY” ALONG MEXICO–US BORDER
.
Student Researcher: Marylyn Phelps (Santa Rosa
Junior College)
Faculty Evaluator: Susan Rahman (Santa Rosa
Junior College)
9. ICELANDERS VOTE
TO INCLUDE COMMONS IN THEIR CONSTITUTION
In
October 2012, Icelanders voted in an advisory referendum regarding six proposed
policy changes to the nation’s 1944 Constitution. In response to the question,
“In the new Constitution, do you want natural resources that are not privately
owned to be declared national property?,” Iceland’s citizens responded with a
decisive “yes.” Eighty-one percent of those voting supported the commons
proposal.
.
The
constitutional reforms are a direct response to the nation’s 2008 financial
crash, when Iceland’s unregulated banks borrowed more than the country’s gross
domestic product from international wholesale money markets. As Jessica Conrad
of On the Commons reported, “It
is clear that citizens are beginning to recognize the value of what they share
together over the perceived wealth created by the market economy.”
.
After
the October vote, Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir said, “The people have
put the parliament on probation.”
.
CENSORED #9
ICELANDERS VOTE TO INCLUDE COMMONS IN THEIR CONSTITUTION
Jessica
Conrad, “Icelanders Vote to Include the Commons in Their Constitution,” Commons Magazine, November 2012,
.
Student Researcher: Pedro Martin Del Campo (Sonoma
State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Lee Roth (Sonoma State
University)
8. BANK INTERESTS
INFLATE GLOBAL PRICES BY 35 TO 40 PERCENT
A
stunning 35 to 40 percent of everything we buy goes to interest. As Ellen Brown
reported, “That helps explain how wealth is systematically transferred from
Main Street to Wall Street.” In her report, Brown cited the work of Margrit
Kennedy, PhD, whose research in Germany documents interest charges ranging from
12 percent for garbage collection, to 38 percent for drinking water, and 77
percent for rent in public housing.
Kennedy found that the bottom 80
percent pay the hidden interest charges that the top 10 percent collect, making
interest a strongly regressive tax that the poor pay to the rich.
Drawing
on Kennedy’s data, Brown estimated that if we had a financial system that
returned the interest collected from the public directly to the public, 35
percent could be lopped off the price of everything we buy. To this end,
she has advocated direct reimbursement. According to Brown, “We could do it by
turning the banks into public utilities and their profits into public assets.
Profits would return to the public, either reducing taxes or increasing the
availability of public services and infrastructure.”
.
CENSORED STORY #8
BANK INTERESTS INFLATE GLOBAL PRICES BY 35 TO 40 PERCENT
Ellen
Brown, “It’s the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World,” Global
Research, November 8, 2012,
Originally
posted at Web of Debt, November 8, 2012,
Student Researcher: Cooper Reynolds (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State
University)
7. MERCHANTS OF
DEATH AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The
Physicians for Social Responsibility released a study estimating that one
billion people ~ one-seventh of the human race ~ could starve over the decade
following a single nuclear detonation.
.
A
key finding was that corn production in the United States would decline by an
average of 10 percent for an entire decade, with the most severe decline (20
percent) in the fifth year.
Another forecast was that increases in food prices would make
food inaccessible to hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest: the 925
million people in the world who are already chronically malnourished (with a
baseline consumption of 1,750 calories or less per day) would be put at risk by
a 10 percent decline in their food consumption.
The
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) released its 180-page
study showing that nuclear-armed nations spend over $100 billion each year
assembling new warheads, modernizing old ones, and building ballistic missiles,
bombers, and submarines to launch them.
.
The
US still has about 2,500 nuclear weapons deployed and 2,600 more as backup.
Washington and Moscow account for 90 percent of all nuclear weapons. Despite a
White House pledge to seek a world without nuclear weapons, the 2011 federal
budget for nuclear weapons research and development exceeded $7 billion and
could (if the Obama administration has its way) exceed $8 billion per year by
the end of this decade.
.
Nuclear-armed
nations spend over $100 billion each year on weapons programs. The institutions
most heavily involved in financing nuclear arms makers include Bank of America,
BlackRock, and JPMorgan Chase in the United States; BNP Paribas in France;
Allianz and Deutsche Bank in Germany; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in Japan;
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Banco Santander in Spain; Credit
Suisse and UBS in Switzerland; and Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and Royal Bank of
Scotland in Britain.
.
CENSORED #7
MERCHANTS OF DEATH AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Student Researcher: Jessica Eccles (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State
University)
6. BILLIONAIRES’
RISING WEALTH INTENSIFIES POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
As
a direct result of existing financial policies, the world’s one hundred richest
people grew to be $241 billion richer in 2012. This makes them collectively
worth $1.9 trillion, just slightly less than the United Kingdom’s total
economic output.
A few of the policies responsible for this occurrence are the
reduction of tax rates and tax enforcement, the privatization of public assets,
wage controls and the destruction of collective bargaining.
These
same policies that are building up the richest people are causing colossal
hardships to the rest of the world’s population.
.
George
Monbiot has attributed this situation to neoliberal policies, which produce
economic outcomes contrary to those predicted, and even promised, by advocates
of neoliberal policy and laissez faire
markets. In consequence, across the thirty-four countries that constitute the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), taxation has
decreased among the rich and increased among the poor. Despite what neoliberals
claimed would happen, the spending power of the state and of poorer people has
diminished, contracting demand along with it.
.
Wage
inequality and unemployment have both skyrocketed, making the economy
increasingly unstable with monumental amounts of debt. Monbiot observed,
“The complete failure of this world-scale experiment is no
impediment to its repetition. This has nothing to do with economics. It has
everything to do with power.”
CENSORED #6
BILLIONAIRES’ RISING WEALTH INTENSIFIES POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
Student Researcher: Paige Fischer (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State
University)
5. HATE GROUPS AND
ANTIGOVERNMENT GROUPS ON RISE ACROSS US
The
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups and
antigovernment groups, released a report showing that 1,360 radical,
antigovernment “patriot” groups and 321 militias actively operate within the
United States. Released in March 2013, these statistics show an 813 percent
rise in the number of such groups since 2008, with increasing numbers each
year. Hate groups are most prevalent in California, with eighty-four total;
Texas was second among states with sixty-two.
.
The
SPLC counted over 1,000 hate groups in the US in 2012. By the SPLC’s standards,
hate groups “have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of
people, typically for their immutable characteristics,” and their activities
can include “criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or
publishing.”
.
With
the numbers of Patriot groups now much higher now than they were during the
peak of the militia movement in the 1990s, the threat of domestic terror
attacks is very real. After the SPLC’s report was released, the Center’s
president, Richard Cohen, sent a letter to the US attorney general as well
as the Homeland Security secretary requesting them to “create a new task force
to ensure the government is devoting the resources needed to address domestic
terrorism.”
.
Hate
groups are now transitioning from racist hatred to hatred focused on the
government and its representatives. The patriot and militia groups are some of
the fastest growing groups, and their goals and rhetoric must be understood in
order to implement successful strategies to counter their behavior if it should
become violent, according to the SPLC. The SPLC also identified “sovereign
citizens,” who often operate as “lone wolves,” breaking away from the group to
perform the violent acts. Unfortunately, with the use of social media and the
Internet, hate groups are able to recruit and spread their beliefs more readily
than in the past.
.
Corporate
media have paid scattered attention to the SPLC report and its findings. Both
the New York Times and
MSNBC covered the report on the day the SPLC issued it, but otherwise,
establishment media have done little to shed light on this subject.
.
CENSORED #5
HATE GROUPS AND ANTIGOVERNMENT GROUPS ON RISE ACROSS US
Brian
Levin, “U.S. Hate and Extremist Groups Hit Record Levels, New Record Says,” Huffington Post, March 8, 2012,
Mark
Potok, Intelligence Report: The Year
in Hate and Extremism, Southern Poverty Law Center, Spring 2013,
LaurieInQueens,
“‘Patriot’ Groups At All-Time High, Hate Groups Up Again: Report,” National Memo, March 7, 2013,
Student Researchers: Sunnie Ayers (Sonoma State
University); Jackson Hand and Amanda Baron (College of Marin)
Community and Faculty Evaluators: Ben Parry
(Sonoma State University); Andy Lee Roth (College of Marin)
4. OBAMA’S WAR ON
WHISTLEBLOWERS
Obama
signed both the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, expanding
whistleblower protections, in November 2012, and the National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA) furthering these protections in January 2013. His NDAA
signing statement, however, undermines these protections, stating that those
expanded protections “could be interpreted in a manner that would interfere
with my authority to manage and direct executive branch officials.”
.
Thus,
in his signing statement, Obama promised to ignore expanded whistleblower
protections if they conflicted with his power to “supervise, control, and
correct employees’ communications with the Congress in cases where such
communications would be unlawful or would reveal information that is properly
privileged or otherwise confidential.”
.
Despite
rhetoric to the contrary, the Obama administration is targeting government
whistleblowers, having invoked the otherwise dormant Espionage Act of 1917
seven times.
.
The
Obama justice department has also used the Intelligence Identities Protection
Act to obtain a conviction against Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
whistleblower John Kiriakou for exposing the waterboarding of prisoners,
ironically making Kiriakou the first CIA official to be sentenced to prison in
connection with the torture program. The justice department charged former
National Security Agency senior executive Thomas Drake with espionage for
exposing hundreds of millions of dollars of waste.
.
The
highly visible prosecution of Bradley Manning has become what some may argue to
be the most effective deterrent for government whistleblowers. Manning admitted
to leaking troves of classified documents to WikiLeaks, but pleaded not guilty
on counts of espionage.
.
CENSORED #4
OBAMA’S WAR ON WHISTLEBLOWERS
Dana
Liebelson, “Why Is Obama Bashing a Whistleblower Law He Already Signed?,” Mother Jones, January 10, 2013,
.
Glenn
Greenwald, “Kiriakou and Stuxnet: The Danger of the Still-Escalating Obama
Whistleblower War,” Guardian,
January 27, 2013,
.
Paul
Harris, “Barack Obama’s ‘Extreme’ Anti-Terror Tactics Face Liberal Backlash,” Guardian, February 9, 2013,
.
Ed
Pilkington, “Bradley Manning Prosecution to Call Full Witness List Despite
Guilty Plea,” Guardian, March
1, 2013,
.
Student Researchers: Shannon Polvino, William
Scannapieco, Kathyrn La Juett, and Justin Lewis (State University of New
York–Buffalo)
Faculty Evaluator: Michael I. Niman (State
University of New York–Buffalo)
3. TRANS-PACIFIC
PARTNERSHIP THREATENS A REGIME OF CORPORATE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
The
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), branded as a trade agreement and negotiated in
unprecedented secrecy, is actually an enforceable transfer of sovereignty from
nations and their people to foreign corporations.
.
As
of December 2012, eleven countries were involved ~ Australia, Brunei, Canada,
Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United
States ~ with the possibility of more joining in the future due to inclusion of
an unusual “docking agreement.”
.
While
the public, US Congress, and the press are locked out, 600 corporate advisors
are meeting with officials of signatory governments behind closed doors to
complete text for the world’s biggest multinational trade agreement, which aims
to penalize countries that protect their workers, consumers, or environment.
.
Leaked
text from the thirty-chapter agreement has revealed that negotiators have
already agreed to many radical terms, granting expansive new rights and
privileges for foreign investors and their enforcement through extrajudicial
“investor-state” tribunals. Through these, corporations would be given special
authority to dispute laws, regulations, and court decisions. Foreign firms
could extract unlimited amounts of taxpayer money as compensation for
“financial damages” to “expected future profits” caused by efforts to protect
domestic finance, health, labour, environment, land use, and other laws they
claim undermine their new TPP privileges.
.
There
is almost no progressive movement or campaign whose goals are not threatened,
as vast swaths of public-interest policy achieved through decades of struggle
are targeted. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch,
reported that once this top-secret TPP is agreed to, its rules will be set in
stone. No rule can be changed without all countries’ consent to amend the
agreement. People of the world will be locked into corporate domination.
.
CENSORED #3
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP THREATENS A REGIME OF CORPORATE GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE
Kevin
Zeese, “Obama’s ‘Employment Creation’ Program: Massive Outsourcing of American
Jobs,” Global Research, September 10, 2012,
Andrew
Gavin Marshall, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This Is What Corporate
Governance Looks Like,” Truthout,
November 20, 2012,
Lori
Wallach, “Can a ‘Dracula Strategy’ Bring Trans-Pacific Partnership into the
Sunlight?,” Yes! Magazine,
November 21, 2012,
Student Researcher: Kyndace Safa (College of Marin)
Community Researcher: Tricia Boreta
Faculty Evaluators: Susan Rahman (College of
Marin); Andy Lee Roth (Sonoma State University)
2. RICHEST GLOBAL 1
PERCENT HIDE TRILLIONS IN TAX HAVENS
The
global 1 percent hold twenty-one to thirty-two trillion dollars in offshore
havens in order to evade taxes, according to James S. Henry, the former chief
economist at the global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company.
Based on data from the Bank for International Settlements, the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and 139 countries, Henry found that the top 1
percent hid more than the total annual economic output of the US and Japan
combined. For perspective, this hidden wealth is at least seven times the
amount ~ $3 trillion ~ that many estimates suggest would be necessary to end
global poverty.
.
If
this hidden wealth earned a modest rate of 3 percent interest and that interest
income were taxed at just 30 percent, these investments would have generated
income tax revenues between $190 and $280 billion, according to the analysis.
.
Domestically,
the Federal Reserve reported that the top seven US banks hold more than $10
trillion in assets, recorded in over 14,000 created “subsidiaries” to avoid
taxes.
.
Henry
identified this hidden wealth as “a huge black hole in the world economy that
has never before been measured,” and noted that the finding is particularly
significant at a time when “governments around the world are starved for
resources, and we are more conscious than ever of the costs of economic inequality.”
.
CENSORED #2
RICHEST GLOBAL 1 PERCENT HIDE TRILLIONS IN TAX HAVENS
.
Student Researcher: Lyndsey Casey (Sonoma State
University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State
University)
1.
BRADLEY MANNING AND THE FAILURE OF CORPORATE MEDIA
In February
2013, United States military intelligence analyst Bradley Manning confessed in
court to providing vast archives of military and diplomatic files to the
anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, saying he wanted the information to become public
“to make the world a better place” and that he hoped to “spark a domestic
debate on the role of the military in (US) foreign policy.” The 700,000
released documents revealed a multitude of previously secret crimes and acts of
deceit and corruption by US military and government officials.
.
According to
Manning’s testimony in February 2013, he tried to release the Afghanistan and
Iraq War Logs through conventional sources. In winter 2010, he contacted the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Politico in hopes that they would
publish the materials. Only after being rebuffed by these three outlets did
Manning begin uploading documents to WikiLeaks. Al Jazeera reported that
Manning’s testimony “raises the question of whether the mainstream press was
prepared to host the debate on US interventions and foreign policy that Manning
had in mind.”
.
Indeed, US
corporate media have largely shunned Manning’s case, not to mention the
importance of the information he released. When corporate media have focused on
Manning, this coverage has often emphasized his sexual orientation and past
life, rather than his First Amendment rights or the abusive nature of his
imprisonment, which includes almost three years without trial and nearly one
year in “administrative segregation,” the military equivalent of solitary.
.
In his
February 2013 court appearance, Manning pled guilty to twelve of the twenty-two
charges against him, including the capital offense of “aiding and abetting the
enemy.” He faces the possibility of a life sentence without parole. His severe
treatment is a warning to other possible whistleblowers.
.
CENSORED
#1
BRADLEY
MANNING AND THE FAILURE OF CORPORATE MEDIA
.
Janet
Reitman, “Did the Mainstream Media Fail Bradley Manning?,” Rolling Stone, March 1, 2013,
.
Student Researcher: Amanda Renteria (San Francisco State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Kenn Burrows (San Francisco State University)
