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The US holds the solution: it can make trafficked Iraqi women a priority resettlement group and put greater pressure on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to follow suit. Doing this would finally provide Iraqi victims of trafficking with a resettlement option that is fast and effective enough to actually help them. For the first time in US history, military troops (vs local aw enforcement) are allowed to do police actions in US cities. Historically this has been illegal according to ongstanding Posse Comitatus statutes. There is good reason for the constructive friction between existing law enforcement agencies so that power is distributed in a democracy, and local law enforcement is responsible to local citizens. It should concern us all that there has been a loss of local authority and that there are sustained preparations for he possibility of martial law. eed eee eS 12. Pacific Garbage Dump of Discarded Plastic concern us all that there has been a loss of local There is a swirling mass of plastic in the middle of the — authority and that there are sustained preparations for Pacific Ocean that qualifies as the planet's largest the possibility of martial law. garbage dump. Much of the world's trash has accumulated in part of the Pacific Ocean (roughly 135°W 14, Genital Mutilation Continues in Kenya o 155°W and 35°N to 42°N), based on the movement of Girls as young as nine years old were threatened with ocean currents. The 5 Gyres Project estimates that there death if they tried to escape Kamunera, in the Mount are 315 billion pounds of plastic in the ocean right now. Elgon district of Kenya, where they awaited female genital Not all plastic in the recycling bin gets recycled, and —_ mutilation. In December 2010, over 100 girls in this region people carelessly toss plastics away. Plastic litter often | were targeted for circumcision but were rescued by ends up in waterways, and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake currents carry it out into the Organisation officials. ocean. These pieces of plastic Parents and grandparents in ave a dire effect on marine life. 1 7 H this area tell the girls that they or the first time in Turtles confuse plastic bags for will never get married and tha jellyfish, and birds confuse US history, military troops no man will want them if they bottle caps for food. They don't have the procedure. No ingest them but can't digest (vs local law enforcement) many girls are left to pursue hem, so their stomachs fill with are allowed to do police education beyond the standard actions in US cities. age of eight years old. They are told that education is not meant for girls because plastic and they starve to death. At the moment there is no easy way to clean up this major rash accumulation. However, they are supposed to ge we can stop it from getting married and take care of their worse by following the Ocean Conservancy's list of 10 husbands. Uncircumcised women generally are looked hings you can do, including living by the concept of | down upon and discriminated against for not having the ess is more: don't buy stuff you don't need, and choose genital mutilation procedure. Because of this, girls items that use less packaging. Other actions are at agree to go through with the surgery so they can be ttp:/www.oceanconservancy.org. included in the rites of passage and be accepted by their community. 12) Ctntn Af Den nnnannnnis tn Crimancndan Canntitnitinn? US history, military troops (vs local law enforcement) ‘are allowed to do police actions in US cities. 13. State of Emergency to Supersede Constitution? A program dating back to the Eisenhower era, of emergency measures for an America devastated in a nuclear attack, has now been converted to bestow secret powers on the President for anything he considers to be an emergency. The National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR 645), introduced into Congress in January 2009, calls for the establishment of "national emergency centers" in major regions in the USA. The stated purpose of these centres is to provide "temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency, major disaster" or to "meet other appropriate needs" determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. Recent "Continuity of Government" planning has quietly removed time-honoured constitutional protections and increased the militarisation of civilian law enforcement. 15. Big Polluters Freed from Environmental Oversight The Obama administration has distributed billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation's biggest polluters and has granted exemptions from basic environmental errors. The administration's main goal, in Secretary of Energy Dr Steven Chu's words, is to “get the money out and spent as quickly as possible”. It is trying to boost the economy and create more jobs for he unemployed. The administration has awarded more than 179,000 “categorical exclusions" to stimulus projects funded by ederal agencies, freeing those projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Coal-burning utilities like Westar Energy and Duke Energy, chemical manufacturer DuPont and ethanol maker Didion Milling are among the firms with histories of serious environmental violations that have won blanket NEPA exemptions. NEXUS ¢ 27 For the first time in DECEMBER 2011 - JANUARY 2012 www.nexusmagazine.com