Menu



error This forum is not active, and new posts may not be made in it.
PromoteFacebookTwitter!
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
10/25/2015 6:14:47 PM

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal U.S. Government Planned to “Retaliate & Cause Pain” on Countries Refusing GMOs

wikileakshttp://www.healthfreedoms.org/wikileaks-cables-reveal-u-s-government-planned-to-retaliate-cause-pain-on-countries-refusing-gmos/

Studies that link Genetically Modified (GM) food to multiple human health ailments are not the only thing that has millions of people questioning the production of GM food. There is fact that previously classified secret government documents exist which show how the Bush administration developed ways to retaliate against countries that were refusing to use GM seeds, for example. If information about our food needs to be concealed from the public domain, then something has gone seriously wrong with the food industry. It’s great to have an organization like WikiLeaks shed some light into the world that’s been hidden from us for so many years.

The cables reveal that the State Department was lobbying all over the world for Monsanto and other major biotech corporations. They reveal that American diplomats requested funding to send lobbyists for the biotech industry to meet with politicians and agricultural officials in “target countries.” These included countries in Africa, Latin America, and Europe.

A non-profit consumer protection group called Food & Water Watch published a report showing the details of the partnership between the federal government and a number of biotech companies who have pushed their GMO products on multiple countries for a number of years.

“The United States has aggressively pursued foreign policies in food and agriculture that benefit the largest seed companies. The U.S. State department has launched a concerted strategy to promote agricultural biotechnology, often over the opposition of the public and government, to the near exclusion of other more sustainable, more appropriate agricultural policy alternatives. The U.S. State department has also lobbied foreign governments to adopt pro-agricultural biotechnology politics and laws, operated a rigorous public relations campaign to improve the image of biotechnology and challenged common sense biotechnology safeguards and rules – even including opposing laws requiring the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods.” (source)

HERE is one cable (out of many) from Morocco.

HERE is a 2008 cable that summarizes a French documentary called “The World According to Monsanto,” which attacks the U.S. biotech industry and the fact that Monsanto and the U.S. Government constantly swap employees and positions. Below is a excerpt from the cable:

Corporations Dictate Government Policy

“The film argues that Monsanto exerted undue influence on the USG. Former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman is interviewed saying he had felt that he was under pressure and that more tests should have been conducted on biotech products before they were approved. Jeffrey Smith, Director, Institute for Responsible Technology, who is interviewed says that a number of Bush Administration officers were close to Monsanto, either having obtained campaign contributions from the company or having worked directly for it: John Ashcroft, Secretary of Justice, received contributions from Monsanto when he was re-elected, as did Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health; Ann Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture, was director of Calgene which belonged to Monsanto; and Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, was CEO of Searle, a Monsanto subsidiary; and Justice Clarence Thomas was a former lawyer for Monsanto.”

This is just one example that clearly shows how giant corporations pretty much dictate government policy. These food corporations are responsible for forcing independent agriculturists to go out of business. They control the world’s seed supply, forcing farmers to become dependent on their seed. Monsanto and corporations like it have created patented GMO seeds and are preventing farmers from seed saving and sharing, resulting in a dependence on their genetically modified product.

“The state department sent annual cables to ‘encourage the use of agricultural biotechnology,’ encouraging every diplomatic post worldwide to ‘pursue an active biotech agenda’ that promotes agricultural biotechnology, encourages the export of biotech crops and foods and advocated for pro-biotech policies and laws.”(source)

“The US Department of State is selling seeds instead of democracy. This report provides a chilling snapshot of how a handful of giant biotechnology companies are unduly influencing US foreign policy and undermining our diplomatic efforts to promote security, international development and transparency worldwide. This report is a call to action for Americans because public policy should not be for sale to the highest bidder.” – Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive (source)

One of the most revealing cables is from 2007, it looks at French efforts to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety. HERE is a cable that shows Craig Stapleton, former ambassador to France under the Bush administration, asking Washington to punish the EU countries that did not support the use of GM crops:

“Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices.” (see source in above paragraph)

The U.S. government was not only working for the biotech industry, they were also threatening other governments who did not comply. Think about that for a moment. Over the years the United States government and Monsanto have collectively pushed their GMO agenda upon the rest of the world. Why? Do you really think it is to help feed the world? This could easily be achieved if we came together and pooled our resources. The entire planet could have access to organic food and it could be done for free.

The World’s Resistance To GMOs

The past two years alone have seen millions of people from across the globe gather to show their opposition towards Monsanto and similar corporations. The “March Against Monsanto” is clear evidence of this. The people of the world are starting to see through the veil that’s been blinding the masses for years, and our food industry is one small but important area where that veil is being lifted.

Activism and awareness have contributed to the banning of GMO products and the pesticides that go with them in multiple countries across the planet, it’s time for North America to follow suit.

Source(s):

www.collective-evolution.com

wikileaks.org

www.cablegatesearch.net

www.cablegatesearch.net

www.foodandwaterwatch.org

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
10/25/2015 11:46:58 PM

Early prison release will test drug felons, re-entry groups

Associated Press

This 1990 photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Myrna Suren. In November 2015, Suren is expected to leave the federal prison in downtown Philadelphia where she has spent the past 25 years. She is one of the 6,000 drug felons set for release on Nov. 1 as part of a national effort to reduce what the U.S. Sentencing Commission now deems overly harsh drug sentences from that era. (Philadelphia Police Department/Philadelphia Daily News via AP)


PHILADELPHIA (AP) — She was the queen of the "OK Corral," a tot-toting grandmother who stepped up to rent out street corners and run the bustling cocaine trade in her north Philadelphia neighborhood after her 20-year-old son was gunned down.

By the time a younger son finished testifying against her in federal court in 1990, Myrna Suren was sent off to serve a life sentence. She was 41 years old.

Now 67, Suren will soon leave the federal prison in downtown Philadelphia where she has spent the past 25 years. She is one of the 6,000 drug felons set for release around Nov. 1 as part of a national effort to reduce what the U.S. Sentencing Commission now deems to be overly harsh — and expensive — drug laws enacted during the era's "War on Drugs."

Whatever their hopes and dreams, the thousands of inmates returning to communities across the U.S. may find re-entry more difficult than they imagined. And it's unclear — from Associated Press interviews with lawyers, prisoner advocates, parole officials and a federal judge — how much support they'll find.

"Some are coming out after three years, some after 20," said Elizabeth Toplin, a federal public defender who reviewed about 800 drug cases in the Philadelphia region. "It's a different world. These guys come out of jail and they've never seen a cellphone. ... Unless we intervene properly, when people come home, they just don't have the resources not to go back."

Many of those returning home expect a smooth landing, according to their petitions for early release.

Jose Antonio Pagan plans to seek work, possibly in marine mechanics, after his sentence for smuggling hundreds of kilos of cocaine by boat from the Bahamas to Florida was cut from 14 to 11 years. Pagan said his life derailed after he "drifted to a singular crime of monumental consequences." He and his wife are divorcing, but he said his parents will take him in.

"You've got a bunch of people coming back, and once they're here they have very basic human needs, and those are housing, employment and the family reunification factor," said Tina Naidoo, executive director of the Dallas-based Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative, which has 10 full-time employees and hopes to recruit volunteers to handle the additional caseload.

About 50,000 federal inmates are typically released from prison each year. The early release program will save taxpayers millions, given the $30,000 annual cost of a prison stay, compared with $3,900 for supervised release. About 2,000 of the 6,000 being released soon are set to be deported.

Most have already been moved to halfway houses or home confinement over the past year, as their sentences were recalculated.

In Philadelphia, five or 10 people of the 45 getting early release will be tapped for an intensive probation program for at-risk offenders known as Re-Entry Court. The program — which says it has cut recidivism in half, to about 20 percent of the nearly 240 participants in the past five years — offers a broad array of social services, including counseling, tutoring, housing, health care and job training, most provided by volunteers.

"They can't do it alone. And I think for too long society really ignored that reality," said U.S. Magistrate Timothy Rice, a former federal prosecutor who helped start the program in 2007. "The odds are stacked against them unless somebody reaches out to help walk them through this."

The concept is expanding nationwide, but far more people are steered to traditional probation.

All participants being released are drug offenders. Prosecutors around the country signed off on most petitions but had the right to challenge those they considered a danger to the community. Judges had the final say. Nationally, about three-quarters of the petitioners have won early release.

Suren, now a great-grandmother, remains illiterate in both English and her native Spanish. It's not clear whether she will return to the Hunting Park neighborhood, or whether anyone there would welcome her back. She's spent the last quarter-century at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, just a few miles from home, where her family's "Gray Tape" posse once slugged it out with rival gangs to control the $1.5 million-a-month neighborhood drug trade.

"I think she never thought that she would be tried, and never in 100 years did she expect to get life," said Carina Laguzzi, a private lawyer working with Rusen's granddaughter to win her release. "I have guys who have shot people, maimed people, and they're not serving life."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press reporters Curt Anderson in Miami; Donald Thompson in Sacramento, California; Will Weissert in Austin, Texas; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Jim Salter in St. Louis, Missouri; Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio; and Deepti Hajela in New York.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
10/25/2015 11:55:50 PM

EU, Balkan leaders struggle to defuse tensions over migrants

AFP

A migrant tries to reach the shore as he arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, on October 24, 2015, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey (AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

AFP

Brussels (AFP) - European Union and Balkan leaders struggled Sunday to reduce tensions over how to tackle the migrant crisis as Slovenia warned the bloc will "start falling apart" if it fails to take concrete action within weeks.

The mini summit, called by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, grouped the heads of 10 EU nations, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the leaders of non-EU Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.

"This is an important opportunity to have them around one table," European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters in Brussels.

"Today we need a dialogue and talks among Balkan leaders to avoid unnecessary possible misunderstandings and tensions in the whole region."

But Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia revealed progress was slow.

"I'm not sure that we're going to conclude something that will be very helpful immediately," Vucic said after a dinner break.

"But I'm sure that at least we understood each other and that we will be ready to take actions jointly in the future," he said, adding he hoped countries could "overcome all the disputes and all the problems regarding blame games".

More than 670,000 people have landed on European shores this year -- many of them fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- in the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II. Some 3,000 people have died making the dangerous Mediterranean sea crossing.

There have been scenes of chaos and suffering as migrants in their thousands make the gruelling journey up from Greek beaches through eastern Europe, heading for Germany and other wealthy northern EU countries.

Fears are rising that the crisis is threatening the cherished "Schengen" system of borderless travel, one of the bedrock achievements of a united Europe.

Faced with a huge influx heading north, Hungary has closed off its borders with Serbia and Croatia.

Tiny Slovenia has now threatened to build border fences if it does not receive help, having become the main entry point to the Schengen zone following Hungary's clampdown.

- 'We won't be a buffer zone' -

"If we do not deliver some immediate and concrete actions on the ground in the next few days and weeks I believe the EU and Europe as a whole will start falling apart," Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar warned as he arrived for the talks.

Slovenia, which numbers two million people, has been swamped by more than 60,000 migrants in a matter of days.

Cerar called on neighbour Croatia not to continue pushing migrants onward to Slovenia on their way to other countries in the EU.

Juncker had outlined 16 proposals for the talks, according to a draft seen by AFP, including an undertaking that no country will let migrants through to an adjoining state without first getting their neighbour's agreement.

But officials from EU countries have been working to revise the draft amid disagreements over what is the best course.

Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia on Saturday warned they would not accept being turned into a "buffer zone" for the tens of thousands of arrivals streaming into Europe.

"If Germany and Austria and other countries close their borders ... we will be ready to also close our borders at that very same moment," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said.

With winter looming, Amnesty International on Saturday warned of a humanitarian disaster if migrants are stranded at borders.

- 'We're drowning' -

Turkey, the starting point for most of the migrants, was absent from the meeting but was on leaders' minds, with officials viewing its help as crucial in stemming the influx to Europe.

The 10 leaders from the 28-nation European Union who are invited to the mini summit are from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.

An EU source said Greece appears ready to accept a reception camp for 30,000, which is well short of the 50,000 officials were hoping for.

The meeting takes place amid a clear split in the EU over how to best handle the crisis.

Some see it mainly as a border security problem, while others believe it is a humanitarian challenge requiring the bloc to show solidarity and redistribute refugees among them all.

Germany, which expects up to a million migrants this year, saw 4,000 arrive on Saturday in Passau on the border with Austria.

"Today, we're drowning," the area's police spokesman Frank Koller told the DPA news agency.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
10/26/2015 12:28:49 AM

Air Pollutants Are Entering Our Bodies Through Our Skin, Study Finds

Posted ago by

air-pollutants-are-entering-our-bodies-through-our-skin-study-finds

In heavily polluted areas, we all know that we should try to avoid inhaling whatever toxins are floating around as much as possible. That’s why when pollution gets especially bad in China, people are advised to stay indoors, and it’s one of the reasons behind the rise in surgical masks being worn in Tokyo, Japan.

But a new study has found that when it comes to certain airborne pollutants, called phthalates, our skin can absorb just as much as we’re breathing in. “We’re big sponges for these chemicals,” lead researcher, John Kissel from the University of Washington in the US, told Science News.

Phthalates are a group of ‘semi-volatile’ chemicals that are used to make plastic soft and flexible, or as dissolving agents for other types of materials, and are found in all kinds of cosmetics, fragrances, and household cleaners. Derived from oil, around 2 million tonnes of phthalates are produced across the world each year, and more than 20 different types are in common use.

Over the past 50 years, they’ve become the most widely used ‘plasticisers’ in the world, but growing concern over what prolonged exposure – through indoor air, dust, and food packaging, for example – is doing to our health has seen some types banned in Europe and the US.

Studies have shown that phthalates can end up in our bloodstream, breast milk, and urine, and they’ve been classified as ‘endocrine disruptors’, because of the way they affect our body’s hormonal systems, such as the oestrogen and androgen hormone systems.

Preliminary research has linked certain phthalates to the incidences of asthma, with a 2008 study suggesting that heated PVC fumes could contribute to development of asthma in adults, while phthalate exposure in the home could put children at a higher risk of asthma and allergies. There are also indications that exposure could lead to a higher risk of breast cancer, but the research has not yet been definitive.

Kissel and his colleagues wanted to investigate the effect of ‘dermal uptake’ – or absorption through the skin – on the levels of phthalates found in human bloodstreams. They recruited six healthy male participants, and exposed them to elevated air concentrations of two types of phthalates: diethyl phthalate (DEP) and di(n-butyl) phthalate (DnBP). According to Tim Sandle at The Latest News, DEP is used as a solvent in personal care products, such as moisturiser, and DnBP is used as a plasticiser in products like nail polish.

The six volunteers were exposed to the chemicals over a 6-hour period in a special chamber, first with specialised breathing hoods on that prevented them from inhaling any of the phthalates, and then without hoods the following week. The only other clothes they were allowed to wear during exposure was shorts, and they were placed on a restricted diet and restricted use of personal care products 12 hours before entering the chamber and until their urine was collected 66 hours later.

“Metabolite concentrations were lower when the participants were exposed to chamber air while wearing a hood, but the levels were still substantially higher than levels measured before the participants entered the chamber, indicating significant uptake of DEP and DnBP while participants were wearing a hood,”the researchers report in the journal Environmental Health Perspective.

The team found that the dermal uptake of DEP was about 10 percent higher than its inhalation intake, and the dermal uptake of DnBP was 82 percent of its inhalation intake. And the older the participant, the higher the dermal uptakes of both DEP and DnBP from the air. They said that based on the very limited sample of six, the impact of age was surprisingly strong. “The uptake of DEP by the 66-year-old is five times greater than that of the 27-year-old, while the uptake of DnBP is seven times greater,” they report.

The researchers are yet to test how wearing more than just shorts would affect phthalate levels, and yep, that sample size is tiny, but the results warrant some follow-up investigations. Skin is the largest organ in the human body, so if it’s really not protecting us against these commonly used chemicals, that’s a problem. Earlier research has shown that semi-volatile chemicals like phthalates tend to pass through the skin relatively slowly, but they could still build up to damaging levels over several years.

“[I]f the whole body is exposed, then even low rates of exposure can deliver what turns out to be nontrivial amounts of these chemicals,” Kissel told Janet Raloff at Science News.

Source: www.sciencealert.com


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
10/26/2015 10:34:33 AM

The US Navy is worried that Russia might be planning to cut the undersea cables that carry 95% of internet traffic

  • 282



A Russian submarine.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The presence of Russian submarines and spy ships near undersea cables carrying most global Internet communications has U.S. officials concerned that Russia could be planning to sever the lines in periods of conflict, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The Times said there was no evidence of cable cutting but that the concerns reflected increased wariness among U.S. and allied officials over growing Russian military activity around the world.

The newspaper quoted naval commanders and intelligence officials as saying they were monitoring significantly greater Russian activity along the cables' known routes from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and waters closer to the United States.

“It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics,”

U.S. Navy spokesman Commander William Marks told the Times.

Last month, the United States closely monitored the Russian spy ship Yantar, which equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised off the U.S. East Coast toward Cuba, where one cable lands near the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Times.

Naval officials said the ship and the submersible craft were capable of cutting cables miles (km) deep beneath the sea, the Times said.

While cables are frequently cut by ship anchors or natural disasters and then quickly repaired, Pentagon officials are concerned that the Russians seem to be looking for vulnerabilities at much greater depths where cable breaks are harder to locate and repair, the paper said.

It said the cables carried more than $10 trillion daily in global business and more than 95 percent of daily communications.


(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2015. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1