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LY DY © oF VEN? SERIOUS BLUNDER OVER BSE BRAINS STUDY industry equipment and services to Iraq through two of its subsidiaries, Dresser Rand and Ingersoll—Dresser Pump, which helped rebuild Iraq's war-damaged petroleum production infrastructure. The combined value of these contracts exceeded those of any other US company doing business with Baghdad. (Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 13, 2000) Scientss at Edinburgh's presti- \ gious Animal Health Institute have been under pressure to resign after it emerged that a five-year study into BSE in sheep was wast- ed because they studied cattle brains, not sheep brains. The spectacular blunder, which went unnoticed for five years, now means that the study to determine whether BSE has spread to the national sheep flock is worthless. The blunder only came to light when samples of the brain material were sent to the Laboratory of the Government Chemist for DNA analysis. It means that results from the study, which took five years and cost £217,000, are "completely uninterpretable", according to Professor Peter Smith, Chairman of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC). (Source: The Scotsman, October 20, 2001, www.thescotsman.co.uk) RESULTS OF SOY FORMULA STUDY MISREPORTED Rees dispute the findings of a recent study on soy infant formula, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (August 15, 2001) and widely reported in the press as a vindication of soy formula. The research team, headed by Dr Brian L. Strom, called the results "reassuring", but other scientists disagree with this conclusion. Dr Mary Enig, President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association, points out that the researchers found higher rates of reproductive disorders, asthma and allergies in those who had received soy formula as infants. "This is in line with a number of reports in the scientific literature," said Dr Enig. "The research team glossed over negative findings and omitted them from the abstract and conclusions, noting only that women who had been fed soy formula reported slightly longer duration of men- strual bleeding and greater discomfort with menstruation." Other gynaecological prob- a, lems, which were omitted from the main body of the report, ER. include higher rates of cervical y cancer, polycystic ovarian syn- drome, blocked fallopian tubes, pelvic inflammatory disease and hormonal disorders. In addition, although the study | did not specifically determine thyroid function, soy-fed females reported higher rates of sedentary activity and use of weight-loss t medicines, thus adding new evi- dence to numerous scientific | | reports of soy-induced thyroid problems. The soy formula study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the International Party's] Vice Presidential candidate. Of course, US firms aren't generally sup- posed to do business with Saddam Hussein. But thanks to legal loopholes large enough to steer an oil tanker through, Halliburton profited big-time from deals with the Iraqi dictatorship. Conducted dis- creetly through several Halliburton sub- sidiaries in Europe, these greasy transac- tions helped Saddam Hussein retain his grip on power, while lining the pockets of Cheney and company. According to the Financial Times of London, between September 1988 and winter 1999 Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, oversaw US$23.8 million of business contracts for the sale of oil- CHENEY MADE MILLIONS FROM OIL DEALS WITH IRAQ uring former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney's five-year tenure as Chief Executive of Halliburton, Inc., his oil services firm raked in big bucks from dubious commercial dealings with Iraq. Cheney left Halliburton with a US$34 million retirement package in July 2000 when he became the GOP's [Grand Old WHAT ARE z you, DREAMS|/ CAN'T 6 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2001 — JANUARY 2002