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Obama Believed to Be Behind GMO Alfalfa Push

Leah Zerbe
Rodale News
Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:48 UTC
cows
© Rodale
Dark days ahead: Unrestricted approval of GMO alfalfa is bad news for cattle.
USDA fails to restrict GMO alfalfa plantings and protect organic farmers and consumers; did the White House "want to appease Monsanto?"

On Thursday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would allow the unrestricted, nationwide planting of genetically engineered alfalfa, which is also known as GE, GMO, or Roundup Ready alfalfa. The decision to allow this genetically manipulated crop into the environment - and ultimately onto our plates in some form or another - flies in the face of what consumers say they want. A survey released late last year found that the majority of Americans don't want GMO ingredients in the food chain, and more than 90 percent believe GMO ingredients should be labeled, which currently is not required by law. (Organic farming bans the use of GMO seeds and the pesticides used on GMO crops.)

The announcement to allow farmers to plant GMO alfalfa anywhere - even right beside an organic field - came as something of a surprise to many observers. Though the approval seemed a foregone conclusion, the USDA seemed to be, for the first time, open to the idea of "coexistence" between GMO, conventional, and organic farmers. For instance, one of the proposed options involved keeping a five-mile buffer between GMO alfalfa and organic plantings. And while many scientists believe coexistence is impossible because cross-pollination threatens to contaminate organic crops with modified genes, it was still unprecedented for USDA to even consider organic farmers at the negotiating table. That gave some organic advocates hope.

Cross-contamination - transfer of genes from GMOs to other crops - is already occurring in annual Roundup Ready GMO soy and corn.
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X

Propaganda Alert: TSA testing 'more modest' full-body scanners

Cristina Silva
Associated Press
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:36 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Depiction and reality. 'TSA' body scanner image and images.
Las Vegas - Federal aviation officials are giving airport scanners another try. This time, they are not looking as closely under traveler's clothes.

The Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday began testing a new, more modest body scanning system at three airports. They hope it will assuage critics' concerns that the nearly 500 full-body scanners at 78 airports reveal too much.

"We believe it addresses the privacy issues that have been raised," TSA chief John Pistole said at a news conference at Reagan National Airport in Washington, one of the airports testing the technology.

The system does not involve new machines. Instead, it relies on new software.

The software discards the X-ray-style image that revealed the contours of the traveler's body - the one that left many uncomfortable at the thought of screeners being able to see them with the rough outlines of their undergarments.

Now, there is just a generic image - like the chalk outline of a body at a crime scene.

Comment: The problem with these devices, outside of the obvious privacy issue, inconvenience and fear-mongering is simple. Full-Body Scanners Used on Air Passengers May Damage Human DNA and Airport body-scan radiation [should be] under scrutiny. Is it also possible that, for the public there is going to be a chalk image and in a control room the full nude image? We're left to wonder.

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Light Sabers

Mubarak won't seek another term; protesters defiant


msnbc.com
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:49 UTC
Image
© msnbc-tv
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tells his nation in a prerecorded speech aired on state TV that he won't seek re-election but intends to complete his term.
Embattled President Hosni Mubarak announced Tuesday that he would not run for another term in office, a concession that seemingly failed to appease many Egyptians who marched a million strong to demand that his 30-year-rule end immediately.

Mubarak said he would serve out the last months of his term, which expires in September, and "die on Egyptian soil." He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.

Many on the streets renewed their calls for the 82-year-old leader to quit now and make way for a transitional unity government. "We will not leave! He will leave!" some chanted in Cairo.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said he spoke with Mubarak after the speech, and the Egyptian leader "recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and a change must take place."

"What is clear and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now," Obama said.
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Mr. Potato

Mubarak Declines to Run for Re-Election


Stratfor
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:28 UTC
mubarak
© AFP/Getty Images
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo in December 2010

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Feb. 1 he would not seek another term as president in elections slated for September but that he will complete his current term. In a televised national address, his second since the Egyptian unrest began the previous week, Mubarak said he would use the remainder of his term to oversee the transition of power. He also called on the parliament to amend the Egyptian Constitution's Article 76 (which narrows the pool of potential presidential candidates) and Article 77 (which allows for unlimited presidential terms). It is currently unclear whether these measures will be considered.

The opposition immediately rejected the pronouncement. Each political concession offered during this crisis by the Egyptian political establishment - which until this point had ruled with absolute authority since the 1950s - has only emboldened the opposition. Unrest is thus likely to continue, which means the Egyptian military likely will attempt to force Mubarak to step down before the elections. However, even this will not likely resolve matters, as the need to create a neutral caretaker government until elections can be held will be the basis for further struggles between the regime and the opposition.
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Cowboy Hat

The great carbon trading scandal

Rowena Mason
The Telegraph
Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:47 UTC
chemical works

Utility companies and heavy industrial polluters are given permits to emit carbon...
Carbon allowances, Europe's main weapon against climate change, have an impact on every household, yet the scheme is open to fraudsters and profiteers.

Within a few clicks of a computer mouse, stolen goods worth €28m (£24m) had bounced from the Czech Republic to Poland, Estonia and Liechtenstein before disappearing.

Distracting local regulators with a fake bomb scare, thieves behind the heist had made off with 500,000 carbon allowances - intangible products worth around €14 each that are the European Union's main weapon against climate change.
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Megaphone

If Egypt falls, Syria must follow

Farid Ghadry
Reuters
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:38 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
A protester walks in front of a fire in downtown Cairo January 28, 2011.
When watching the riots in Tunisia and Egypt, the question on everyone's mind is, what outcome will these organic and popular uprisings will produce?

The world may be witnessing a new dawn in the Middle East fostered by enlightenment or a new Egyptian government trailing behind Syria as the latest conquest the Mullahs of Iran can claim is the result of their wise policies.

With Hezbollah's latest dismantlement of a Lebanese government, aided by the complicity of the Assad regime and an Egypt whose future remains uncertain, it is essential for US and European policy makers to view Syria as a clear and present danger rather than the country stabilizing the region. No matter what happens, Egypt is a changed country. If it falls in the "L" column, Syria and Iran will play an essential role in supplying Egypt, as they did to Hezbollah, with the necessary tools to destabilize North Africa. This outcome will place a heavy military burden on Israel, the result of which may engulf the region with intermittent wars for many years to come.

As the world watches images of Egypt erupting, similar images are being reproduced in Syria. We have witnessed today many demonstrations in Damascus, Aleppo, and Qamoshli. With 10,000 IRGC (the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution) personnel residing permanently in Syria, we also witnessed them, mixed with Syrian Army Battalions, deploy in several cities around the country. Yet, the international media, and al-Jazeera especially, have gone dark on Syria.
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Bomb

Bolton: If Mubarak Falls In Egypt, Israel Should Bomb Iran

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:20 UTC
John Bolton
© The Raw Story

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the ouster of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would speed the timetable for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"Do you think that the Israelis are going to have to strike - they are going to have to take action?" Fox News Republican opinion host Sean Hannity asked the former ambassador on his radio program Monday.

"As you pointed out, ElBaradei ran cover for the Iranians for all those years that he was with the IAEA. And, I just don't think the Israelis have much longer to wait... they're going to have to act in fairly short order."

"I think that's right," Bolton responded. "I don't think there's much time to act. And I think the fall of a Egyptian government committed to the peace agreement will almost certainly speed that timetable up."

Comment: Israel admits Iran incapable of producing nuclear weapon before 2015

So what's the big hurry, Bolton?

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Bad Guys

How much longer can Mubarak cling on?

Robert Fisk
The Independent
Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:21 UTC
Mohamed ElBaradei Cairo
© Getty
Mohamed ElBaradei, front left, with a crowd of supporters in Cairo yesterday
The old lady in the red scarf was standing inches from the front of am American-made M1 Abrams tank of the Egyptian Third Army, right on the edge of Tahrir Square. Its soldiers were paratroops, some in red berets, others in helmets, gun barrels pointed across the square, heavy machine guns mounted on the turrets. "If they fire on the Egyptian people, Mubarak is finished," she said. "And if they don't fire on the Egyptian people, Mubarak is finished." Of such wisdom are Egyptians now possessed.

Shortly before dusk, four F-16 Falcons - again, of course, manufactured by President Barack Obama's country - came screaming over the square, echoes bouncing off the shabby grey buildings and the giant Nasserist block, as the eyes of the tens of thousands of people in the square stared upwards. "They are on our side," the cry went up from the crowds. Somehow, I didn't think so. And those tanks, new to the square, 14 in all that arrived with no slogans painted on them, their soldiers sullen and apprehensive, had not come - as the protesters fondly believed - to protect them.

But then, when I talked to an officer on one of the tanks, he burst out with a smile. "We will never fire on our people - even if we are ordered to do so," he shouted over the roar of his engine. Again, I was not so sure. President Hosni Mubarak - or perhaps we should now say "president" in quotation marks - was at the military headquarters, having appointed his new junta of former military and intelligence officers. The rumour went round the square: the old wolf would try to fight on to the end. Others said it didn't matter. "Can he kill 80 million Egyptians?"
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Evil Rays

Rights NGO claims that Israeli planes carrying crowd dispersal weapons have arrived in Egypt


Middle East Monitor
Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:54 UTC
Israeli cargo plane

Three Israeli planes landed at Cairo's Mina International Airport on Saturday carrying hazardous equipment for use in dispersing and suppressing large crowds.
The International Network for Rights and Development has claimed that Israeli logistical support has been sent to Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak to help his regime confront demonstrations demanding that he steps down as head of state. According to reports by the non-governmental organisation, three Israeli planes landed at Cairo's Mina International Airport on Saturday carrying hazardous equipment for use in dispersing and suppressing large crowds.

In the statement circulated by the International Network, it was disclosed that Egyptian security forces received the complete cargoes on three Israeli planes which were, it is claimed, carrying an abundant supply of internationally proscribed gas to disperse unwanted crowds. If the reports are accurate, this suggests that the Egyptian regime is preparing for the worse in defence of its position, despite the country sinking into chaos.
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Stormtrooper

Mass FBI raids target pro-WikiLeaks 'Operation Payback'

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:52 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Operation Pay Back Screen Shot.
Following the arrest of five people in Britain in connection with the "Operation Payback" cyber-attacks in support of WikiLeaks, the FBI announced mass raids across the United States in connection with the case.

"FBI agents today executed more than 40 search warrants throughout the United States as part of an ongoing investigation into recent coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations," a bureau press release states.

Though the bureau did not say if any individuals were arrested during the raids, it did confirm a link between the US raids and the arrests in Britain. The bureau said suspects, if charged, could face up to 10 years in prison.

The police actions indicate that governments on both sides of the Atlantic are determined to prevent hacktivists from taking revenge against companies that ceased to do business with WikiLeaks following the release of US State Department cables late last year.
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