Nexus - 0604 - New Times Magazine-pages

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No. 5: US BIO-WEAPONS & UN SANCTIONS LINKED TO DEATHS OF HALF A MILLION IRAQI CHILDREN For the first time in history, research is being done for the bene- fit of corporations, sometimes in direct opposition to farmers’ interests. It is noteworthy that the USDA stands to earn five per cent royalties of net sales if this technology is commercialised. Historically the USDA has received government money for research aimed at benefiting farmers, but recently the USDA has been turning more often to private companies for funding. Terminator plants, if introduced on a wide scale, will effective- ly constrict worldwide crop diversity by preventing farmers from engaging in the seed selection and cross breeding practices that for thousands of years have given them the ability to adapt crops to local conditions. (See "Terminator Technology", NEXUS 6/01, Dec-Jan 1998-99; Global News, NEXUS 5/04, June-July 1998.) F°. the past seven years, the United States has supported sanc- tions against Iraq that have taken the lives of more Iraqi citi- zens than did the Gulf War itself. The Iraqi people are being pun- ished for their leader's reticence to comply fully with US-support- ed UN demands "to search every structure in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction". Ironically, 1994 US Senate findings uncovered evidence that US firms supplied at least some of the very biologi- cal material that the UN inspection teams are now seeking. Although the United States defames the Iraqi Government for damaging the environment and ignoring UN Security Council res- olutions, it has itself engaged in covert wars in defiance of the World Court, and left behind a swath of ecological disasters in its continuing geopolitical crusade. The US demands are both excessive and hypocritical, says jour- nalist Bill Blum ("Punishing Saddam or the Iraqis", /.F. magazine, March/April 1998). A 1994 US Senate panel report indicated that between 1985 and 1989, US firms supplied micro-organisms needed for the production of Iraq's chemical and biological war- fare program. The Senate panel wrote: "It was later learned that these micro-organisms exported by the United States were identi- cal to those the United Nations inspectors found and removed from the Iraqi biological warfare program." Shipments included biological agents such as E. coli and those that cause anthrax and botulism. The shipments were cleared, even though it was known at the time that Iraq had already been using chemical and possibly biological weapons since the early 1980s. The real significance of "Made in America" is not only that the US and its allies played a significant role in arming Iraq with weapons of mass destruction, but that those companies and politi- cians who were responsible for this lucrative but deadly policy were never held accountable. (See Global News, NEXUS 5/03; "Gulf War Syndrome: Biological Black Magic", NEXUS 4/05, August-September 1997.) No. 4: RADIOACTIVE METALS IN YOUR HOME Ux special government permits, "decontaminated" radioac- tive metal is being sold to manufacture everything from knives, forks and belt buckles to zippers, eyeglasses, dental fill- ings and IUDs. The Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the radioactive metal pro- cessing industry are pushing for new regulations that would relax current standards and dispense with the need for special radioac- tive recycling licensing. By one estimate, the DOE disposed of 7,500 tons of these troublesome metals in 1996 alone. The new standards being sought would allow companies to recycle millions of tons of low-level radioactive metal a year, while raising the acceptable levels of millirems (the unit of measure that estimates the damage radiation does to human tissue). By the NRC's own estimate, the proposed standards could cause 100,000 cancer fatalities in the United States alone. While the DOE waits for new standards to be released, "hot metal" is being marketed to other countries. Three major US oil companies, Texaco, Mobil and Phillips, shipped 5.5 million pounds of radioactive scrap metal to China in 1993. In June 1996, Chinese officials stopped a US shipment of 78 tons of radioactive scrap metal that exceeded China's safety limit, some by as much as thirtyfold. As of January 1998, 178 buildings in Taiwan con- taining 1,573 residential apartments had been identified as radioactive. Radioactive recycled metal has shown up in domes- tic markets as well. (See Global News, NEXUS 5/03, April-May 1998.) scrap metal that exceeded Chin: afety limit, some by as much No. 6: US NUCLEAR PROGRAM SUBVERTS UNITED as thirtyfold. As of January 1998, 178 buildings in Taiwan con- | NATIONS COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY taining 1,573 residential apartments had been identified as hen scientists in India conducted a deep underground radioactive. Radioactive recycled metal has shown up in domes- nuclear test on 11 May 1998, it was seen as a violation of tic markets as well. the United Nations Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), (See Global News, NEXUS 5/03, April-May 1998.) even though that country did not sign the document. But two months earlier, an underground test carried out by the United States went HEY, THAPKS FOR ComwG largely unnoticed by the American media. on THE Stow Tom IGT, Code-named Stagecoach, the US experi- $0, WHAT'S (T us, ment called for the detonation of a 227- pene A CLONE: pound nuclear bomb at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site which is co-man- aged by corporate superpowers Bechtel, Lockheed Martin and Johnson Controls. While perceived as a hostile act by many nations, US officials claim that since it was a "subcritical" test—meaning that no nuclear chain reaction was maintained—it was "fully consistent with the spirit and let- ter of the CTBT". Some foreign leaders believe that Stagecoach was designed to test the effec- tiveness of US weapons in case they were ever needed again. The European Parliament issued an official warning to the US, declaring that further experiments 14 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 1999