Last April 20 the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published an on-line article entitled "Short-term and Long-term Health Risks of Nuclear-Power-Plant Accidents" by Dr. Eli Glatstein and five other authors. The article was riddled with distortions and misinformation, and overall was very poor research. As the NEJM is a peer reviewed journal and has a significant letters section, I wrote a letter pointing out some of the errors committed by the authors, and a longer piece containing a comprehensive critique.

The NEJM demands that letters to the journal contain material that has not been submitted or published elsewhere, so I had to refrain from submitting my longer piece anywhere until the NEMJ made a decision on my letter. When my letter did not appear after a couple of weeks I inquired, and was told that the article would soon appear in the printed version of the Journal, and that no letters about the article could be published until after the print version came out. The printed version finally appeared on June 16.

However, on July 1,I was notified by the NEMJ that they would not publish my letter due to "space constraints." The four letters that they did publish in response to the article were at most only mildly critical and missed the glaring short-comings of the report. In other words, NEMJ sat on my letter and effectively stifled my critique of what can only be described as industry propaganda for almost three months until public attention had moved on to other matters. However, with attention once again focused on the still-out of control Fukushima reactors on the first anniversary of the accident, my expose on how the media and academia have joined together to downplay the dangers of nuclear power is a poignant as ever.

Since the nuclear disaster in Fukushima started in March, the media has been full of misinformation about the dangers posed by the nuclear accidents and the damage caused by past accidents such as those at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Whether it is Jay Lehr on Fox News¹ or George Monbiot on Democracy Now,² the story line is the same: there were only dozens of deaths from the Chernobyl and none from TMI, the health consequences for the general population are negligible, and all things considered nuclear power is among the safest forms of energy. In some cases the lines are spoken by industry hacks whose true motive is to protect profits, while other times the spokesperson is a global warming tunnel visionist who has lost sight of the fact that we as humans have ingeniously devised a multitude of ways to mess up our planet, including nuclear wars and disasters.

The trial over pedophile priests, cover-ups, and Monsignor William Lynn took a new turn when in a bid to save his skin Lynn submitted that he had prepared a list of 35 actively pedophile priests and submitted it to late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. While trying to establish that Bevailacqua had ordered the list to be destroyed (pretty easy since Cardinal Bevilacqua can't speak back from his grave) Lynn inadvertently admitted the charges of the prosecution. The fact that he had prepared such a list in 1994 only backs the prosecution's contentions that pedophilia was widely practiced and systemically tolerated for long in the Philadelphia Diocese.

Reverend Thomas Doyle, an expert on Roman Catholic law, testified at the trial and said that Church law requires church officials to investigate such complaints and requires the archbishop to offer pastoral care to the victims.

Reverend Doyle, the expert on Canonical law, was angry and incredulous: "He's got a list of men who are sexually abusing children, and he's going to shred it?" The defense lawyers of Lynn failed to explain why Monsignor Lynn did not take any action when the Cardinal Bevilacqua shredded the list of pedophiles. And why Lynn remained silent for so long until he has been dragged to court.

In this new Sott Report, Joe Quinn reveals the shocking truth behind modern 'suicide cults' and how they are used by Western government-sponsored 'anti-cult' organisations to suppress basic human freedoms and true human evolution.


The following documentary, Scientology, the CIA, and MIVILUDES: Cults of Abuse provides compelling evidence of deep and disturbing connections between intelligence agencies, abusive cults, pedophile networks, and the refusal of government sponsored so-called anti-cult organizations like MIVILUDES to investigate the widespread reports of ritual child abuse around the world. Understanding these connections is key to understanding the psycho-political control of human beings around the world.

29-year-old Tarek Mehanna, a United States citizen and graduate from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, was recently sentenced to seventeen and a half years in prison, followed by seven years of supervised release, on federal criminal charges of "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and providing or attempting to provide material support to terrorists."

Mehanna, through instant messages and emails, communicated his opposition of U.S. military operations in the Middle East and openly criticized what he viewed as "the oppression of Muslims in the United States"; as per his defense council, Tarek had been under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to his knowledge, since approximately 2005 wherein he was periodically interviewed and monitored:

"The FBI has monitored a large amount of Internet-based text conversations that involve Tarek. The instant messages reveal that Tarek was aware of the monitoring activities, or at least believed that they were occurring. Despite this awareness, he did not cease speaking online. He discussed the monitoring activities with his friends and correspondents, and he was repeatedly clear as to why he would not stop his online activities: he was breaking no laws."

In US v. Mehanna the State's case largely relied on allegations of his watching videos about "jihad", discussing his views about suicide bombings online, translating texts readily available on the Internet, and looking for information about the 9/11 attackers.

Tarek Mehanna's research, commentary and viewing of alleged "jihad" footage have condemned him live with the label of damnation, the elusive characterization of "terrorist." His Muslim faith, his beard, his seemingly atypical beliefs which challenge the mainstream and corrupt American ethos in regards to terrorism and his defiance all played a role in his sentencing.

Israel barred 43 pro-Palestinian activists who tried to enter the country for a 'Welcome to Palestine' campaign, as hundreds more would-be protesters were stranded at airports across Europe.

As hundreds of police deployed at Israel's main international airport in a bid to stop activists from entering, Europe's main airlines faced a wave of passenger fury after cancelling some 300 tickets following heavy Israeli pressure.

By late afternoon, Israeli police said they had detained 43 passengers on suspicion of being part of the fly-in campaign, which has become known as the "flytilla," with all facing deportation.

Organisers of 'Welcome to Palestine', now in its third year, had been expecting to welcome up to 1,500 people as part of a campaign to expose Israel's control of movement both into and out of the occupied territories.

But only three activists managed to reach a news conference held by organisers in the West Bank town of Bethlehem in the early evening.

© Woodcock

Domestic Drones and Spies in Mosques

Americans have become remarkably careless about their civil liberties -- issues that previous generations fought and died for, like the right to vote and the right to religious freedom with liberty and justice for all. The United States today is home to millions of immigrants and their families who fled their own countries because of their fear of secret police, the dreaded knock on the door in the middle of the night, arrest without trial, surveillance by the Gestapo, the Mukhabarat, the Stasi, or the KGB and now the morals police of the Taliban. It is outrageous that some of these communities should now be under surveillance today in the "land of the free."

But where is the outrage? There is a huge presence of apathy and complacency in the land, with people ignoring abuses of civil liberties as long as it is happening to the "other" -- immigrant communities of a different religion, language, color or documentation. Courageous minority voices still speak up in their defense, but there is a disturbing acceptance of practices that seem totally un-American. Torture, arrest without trial and surveillance without cause are being justified because people are afraid and these practices are deemed to be keeping America safe from terrorism.

The recent revelations about the role of NYPD and the CIA in monitoring Arab and Muslim communities in New York and New Jersey would be almost amusing if it were not so sinister. Secret reports have been filed containing trite and irrelevant information such as -- "Observed a female named Rasha working in the travel agency -- she recommended the Royal Jordanian Airline." In spite of the Attorney General's assurance that police should only monitor activity when there is a basis to believe that something inappropriate is occurring or potentially could occur, this intrusive police surveillance of Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian and Shi'a Muslim communities clearly falls outside these guidelines.


Trust have been broken. Fear and suspicion has been generated; prejudice and negative perceptions have been reinforced. That this is totally counter-productive in the search for terrorists seems to have escaped the notice of the NYPD and the CIA and their blundering spying in mosques and meeting places is not only an enormous waste of public resources, it is a violation of fundamental rights of citizens to be free of intrusive government surveillance as they go about their everyday activities.

The U.S. soldier charged with murdering 17 unarmed Afghan civilians last month is refusing to participate in an examination aimed at determining his mental state, according to his lawyers.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was due to be examined in what's called a "sanity board" examination by Army doctors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, seeking to evaluate his mental health and find out what his mental state might have been at the time of the massacre.

John Henry Browne, Bales's attorney, said Friday he advised Bales to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent because the Army will not allow Bales to have an attorney present at the sanity board review.

Was it a momentary lapse of concentration or an honest admission?

Last week, in an interview with Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor in Jerusalem, I heard something I have not heard before.

Let's start with the background.

With the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) talks on Iran's nuclear programme about to kick off, and the air thick with talk of a military attack on Iran, it seemed appropriate to try to gain some perspective from the Israeli establishment.

As Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy with a background in Iran issues, Meridor was the perfect man to talk to to.

Within the first few months of 2011, the U.S. and its allies lost three loyal "friends": Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Zine el-Abbidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Saad Hariri in Lebanon. While Mubarak and Ali were driven out of power by widespread popular uprisings, Hariri was ousted by the parliament.

Inspired by these liberating developments, pro-democracy rebellions against autocratic rulers (and their Western backers) soon spread to other countries such as Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

As these revolutionary developments tended to politically benefit the "axis of resistance" (consisting of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas) in the Middle East, the US-Israeli"axis of aggression"and their client states in the region mounted an all-out counterrevolutionary offensive.

Caught off-guard by the initial wave of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia, the US and its allies struck back with a vengeance. They employed a number of simultaneous tactics to sabotage the Arab Spring. These included (1) instigating fake instances of the Arab Spring in countries that were/are headed by insubordinate regimes such as those ruling Iran, Syria and Libya; (2) co-optingrevolutionary movements in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen;(3) crushing pro-democracy movements against "friendly" regimes ruling countries such as Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia"before they get out of hand," as they did in Egypt and Tunisia; and (4) using the age-old divide and rule trick by playing the sectarian trump card of Sunnis vs. Shias, or Iranians vs. Arabs.

An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He's diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions and his residence in yet another. He doesn't depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.

Living as an international man used to be just an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the US used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so there was nothing pressing about becoming an international man.

Things change, however, and being rooted like a plant, at least if you have a choice, is a suboptimal strategy for surviving and prospering. Throughout history, almost every place has at some point become dangerous for those who were stuck there. It may be America's turn.

For those who can take up the life of an international man, it's no longer just an interesting lifestyle decision. It has become, at a minimum, an asset saver, and it could be a life saver. That said, I understand the hesitation you may feel about taking action; pulling up one's roots (or at least grafting some of them to a new location) can be almost as traumatic to a man as to a vegetable.