PANGNIRTUNG, Nunavut – At age 85, Inusiq Nasalik has seen some changes in his day.

Born in an old whaling settlement, he lived in igloos and sod houses as a child and drove a dog team to hunt on the tundra through much of his life. Now he lives in a comfortable house with a plush sofa in his living room, a Westinghouse range and microwave oven in his modern kitchen and a big stereo to play his favorite old Eskimo songs.

Life is good for him, he says, but he is worried about the changes he sees in the wildlife that surrounds this hamlet on the shores of an icy glacier fiord just below the Arctic circle.

He says the caribou are skinny, and so are the ringed seals, whose fur has become thin and patchy. The Arctic char that swim in local streams are covered with scratches, apparently from sharp rocks in waters that are becoming shallower because of climactic shifts. The beluga whales and seals do not come around Pangnirtung fiord as much anymore, perhaps because increased motorboat traffic is making too much noise.

“Maybe this is just the way it is supposed to be, but the animals are changing and I cannot tell you why,” Mr. Nasalik said, between bites of raw caribou from an animal he had just caught. “Young people now prefer to eat young seals because they think the older seals are more contaminated.”

Scientists say the problems Mr. Nasalik observes result from climate change and the gradual increase in contaminants like pesticides and industrial compounds like mercury and PCB’s that are transported by wind and currents from the industrialized south and accumulate in the fatty tissues of Arctic animals. The people who eat such animals are also affected, and high levels of contaminants have been found in the breast milk of Eskimo women.

Full Article: New York Times

Yeah those silly ‘Eskimos’, always ‘fretting’ about some little thing or other…

(more…)

by Chris McGreal

Israel is pressing foreign donors to finance the construction of a web of roads through the occupied territories – made necessary by the building of the vast “security” barrier and Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Israeli government seeks foreign funding to upgrade the back roads that Palestinians are forced to use – after being banned from routes used by Jewish settlers.
It also wants funding to build new roads which take account of the barrier and its settlements. The plan envisages roads that would run parallel to each other – one for Jews, the other for Arabs.

European donors have recoiled from the proposal, in part because they are concerned that funding the new roads will breach July’s International Court of Justice ruling against support for construction of the barrier. The court said it should be torn down because it breaches the Geneva conventions.

But diplomats say the US may be more willing to pay…

Full Article: Guardian UK

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. military command in Baghdad has confirmed that seven Marines and three Iraqi guardsmen were killed in a car bomb in Falluja.

The attack occurred late Monday morning on the outskirts of the city.

The explosions sent the engine from the car used in the bombing “a good distance” from the site, AP quoted a military official as saying on condition of anonymity.

Two Humvees were destroyed in the attack, AP reported witnesses as saying.

U.S. forces have not patrolled inside Fallujah since April, when U.S. Marines ended a three-week siege, AP said. The city has since fallen into the hands of insurgents who have used it as a base to manufacture car bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces.

Full Article: cnn.com

by James Risen and David Johnston
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 – It began like most national security investigations, with a squad of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents surreptitiously tailing two men, noting where they went and whom they met. What was different about this case was that the surveillance subjects were lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and one of their contacts turned out to be a policy analyst at the Pentagon.

The ensuing criminal investigation into whether Aipac officials passed classified information from the Pentagon official to Israel has become one of the most byzantine counterintelligence stories in recent memory. So far, the Justice Department has not accused anyone of wrongdoing and no one has been arrested.

Aipac has dismissed the accusations as baseless, and Israel has denied conducting espionage operations in the United States.

Behind the scenes, however, the case has reignited a furious and long-running debate about the close relationship between Aipac, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, and a conservative group of Republican civilian officials at the defense department, who are in charge of the office that employs Lawrence A. Franklin, the Pentagon analyst.

Their hard-line policy views on Iraq, Iran and the rest of the Middle East have been controversial and influential within the Bush administration.

“They have no case,” said Michael Ledeen, a conservative scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a friend of Mr. Franklin. “If they have a case, why hasn’t anybody been arrested or indicted?”

Nearly a dozen officials who have been briefed on the investigation said in interviews last week that the F.B.I. began the inquiry as a national security matter based on specific accusations that Aipac employees had been a conduit for secrets between Israel and the Pentagon. These officials said that the F.B.I., in consultation with the Justice Department, had established the necessary legal foundation required under the law before beginning the investigation.

A half dozen people sympathetic to Aipac and the civilian group at the defense department said they viewed the investigation in different terms, as a politically motivated attempt to discredit Aipac and the Pentagon group. Supporters of Aipac have said the organization is being dragged into an intelligence controversy largely because of its close ties to a Republican administration and the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Friends and associates of the civilian group at the Pentagon believe they are under assault by adversaries from within the intelligence community who have opposed them since before the war in Iraq. The Pentagon civilians, led by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, and Douglas J. Feith, the undersecretary for policy, were among the first in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks to urge military action to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, an approach favored by Aipac and Israel.

Mr. Wolfowitz and Mr. Feith were part of a larger network of policy experts inside and out of the Bush administration who forcefully made the case that the war with Iraq was part of the larger fight against terrorism.

The Pentagon group circulated its own intelligence assessments, which have since been discredited by the Central Intelligence Agency and by the independent Sept. 11 commission, arguing that there was a terrorist alliance between the Hussein regime and Al Qaeda.

The group has also advocated that the Bush administration adopt a more aggressive policy toward Iran, and some of its members have quietly begun to argue for regime change in Tehran. The administration has not yet adopted that stance, however, and the Pentagon conservatives have been engaged in a debate with officials at the State Department and other agencies urging a more moderate approach to Iran.

Full Article: New York Times

It’s hard to figure out what’s going on here, but it seems like there are whistleblowers who are willing to take Wolfowitz, Ledeen, et al, on. The issue is not about feeding intel to Israel, that’s for sure. The CFR is strongly against taking Iran on militarily, at least for now. I keep saying this, but Bush might really get Watergated after his re-election.

by Mike Oduniyi and Ahamefula Ogbu
Following continued investigations on the alleged $180 million (about N25.2billion) bribery scandal over the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Project, Halliburton yesterday submitted documents listing the names of Nigeria government officials involved in the scandal to a French judge in Paris.

But in Abuja, the House of Representatives yesterday resolved that all companies linked with TSKJ and Halliburton in Nigeria should be excluded from new contracts pending conclusion of investigations on the matter.

In a bid to absolve itself of any criminal liability, Halliburton has submitted documents listing the names of Federal Government officials involved in the scandal to the French Judge presiding over the investigation in Paris yesterday.

The documents that are in the form of hand written notes are bound to cause a lot of discomfort for both present and past government officials, as it details out the precise amounts set aside for each government functionary with the intent to bribe.

Sources disclosed that the documents were submitted by executives of Halliburton to the French magistrate, Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke at 5 p.m. in Paris as part of efforts by the US oil service firm to cooperate with authorities investigating the bribery scandal.

Halliburton has insisted on its innocence since investigations began last year by both the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US and French authorities, and has maintained that the alleged bribing of Nigerian officials occurred before its acquisition of Kellog Brown & Root (KBR). Halliburton has also instructed its representatives in Nigeria to submit the same documents to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC), which waded into the investigation in Nigeria last month.

Full Article: allafrica.com

by Haider Rizvi
NEW YORK – ”Do you want these? They are so fresh,” says Catherine, holding up a bunch of grapes she just pulled out from one of the trash bags piled up on the sidewalk. ”Take this, man. It’s good too,” adds her friend Morlan, holding out a loaf of bread.

Though happy to have found something for dinner, both Catherine, 21, and Morlan, 19, wonder why some edible food is thrown out as garbage in New York City

”They only sell this food to the rich,” says Catherine pointing to the upscale grocery store that put out the bags.

Inside the store, the manager is visibly upset with Catherine and other young people who are stuffing their backpacks with fruits and vegetables from the trash bags. ”They are picking up garbage,” says the manager. ”I don’t know why they are doing this.”

”I have zero cash right now, and no place to stay,” Morlan told Tierramérica. ”What do you expect me to do?”

Such scenes are becoming increasingly commonplace on the streets of U.S. cities, despite the enormous quantity of food that the world’s most affluent nation produces every year.

Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds (160 billion kg) of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds (45 billion kg) — including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products — are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers.

By contrast, the amount of food required to meet the needs of the hungry is only four billion pounds, according to Food Not Bombs, an advocacy group, which estimates that every year more than 30 million people in the United States are going hungry on regular basis.

Full Article: commondreams.org

U.S. Near Seizing bin Laden, Official Says
By Matthew Pennington

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) – The United States and its allies have moved closer to capturing Osama bin Laden in the last two months, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.

“If he has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught,” Joseph Cofer Black, the U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told private Geo television network.

Asked if concrete progress had been made during the last two months – when Pakistan has arrested dozens of terror suspects including some key al-Qaida operatives – Black said, “Yes, I would say this.”

Black, who briefed a group of Pakistani journalists after talks with officials here Friday, said he could not predict exactly when bin Laden and other top al-Qaida fugitives would be nabbed.

“What I tell people, I would be surprised but not necessarily shocked if we wake up tomorrow and he’s been caught along with all his lieutenants. That can happen because of the programs and infrastructure in place,” he told Geo.

Bin Laden and his top associate, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding some place along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Officials have divulged no solid intelligence about bin Laden’s precise whereabouts, and it’s not clear if they have any.
Full Article: myway.com

by Stephen Green
[Editors’ Note: This is a slightly updated version of a ground-breaking essay exposing the relationship of the neo-cons embedded in the Bush administration with the government of Israel.]

Since 9-11, a small group of “neo-conservatives” in the Administration have effectively gutted–they would say reformed–traditional American foreign and security policy. Notable features of the new Bush doctrine include the pre-emptive use of unilateral force, and the undermining of the United Nations and the principle instruments and institutions of international law….all in the cause of fighting terrorism and promoting homeland security.

Some skeptics, noting the neo-cons’ past academic and professional associations, writings and public utterances, have suggested that their underlying agenda is the alignment of U.S. foreign and security policies with those of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli right wing. The administration’s new hard line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict certainly suggests that, as perhaps does the destruction, with U.S. soldiers and funds, of the military capacity of Iraq, and the current belligerent neo-con campaign against the other two countries which constitute a remaining counterforce to Israeli military hegemony in the region–Iran and Syria.

Have the neo-conservatives–many of whom are senior officials in the Defense Department, National Security Council and Office of the Vice President–had dual agendas, while professing to work for the internal security of the United States against its terrorist enemies?

A review of the internal security backgrounds of some of the best known among them strongly suggests the answer.

Full Article: counterpunch.org

This is a good survey of the Wolfowitz. Perle et al rogues’ gallery. Pat Buchanan was on Meet the Press this morning and asked why on earth the neo-cons who led Bush and us into this disaster are not kicked out of office, why people can’t see that the terrorists are not fighting American principles, but American policy, including rabid support for Sharon and ones to his right like Netanyahu. He said he doubts Osama got a hold of the Declaration of Independence and had a temper tantrum. Weird times. When Pat Buchanan speaks to the opinions of ones like me.

BAGHDAD, Sept. 4 — About 1,100 U.S. soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq during August, by far the highest combat injury toll for any month since the war began and an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas.

U.S. medical commanders say the sharp rise in battlefield injuries reflects more than three weeks of fighting by two Army and one Marine battalion in the southern city of Najaf. At the same time, U.S. units frequently faced combat in a sprawling Shiite Muslim slum in Baghdad and in the Sunni cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra, all of which remain under the control of insurgents two months after the transfer of political authority.

“They were doing battlefield urban operations in four places at one time,” said Lt. Col. Albert Maas, operations officer for the 2nd Medical Brigade, which oversees U.S. combat hospitals in Iraq. “It’s like working in downtown Detroit. You’re going literally building to building.”

…There were also indications that troops might have suffered more severe wounds in August than in previous months.

At the Baghdad hospital, staff members are accustomed to seeing the most severely injured soldiers and Marines. The hospital, the only one in Iraq where the military’s brain and eye surgeons work, handles the worst head wounds. Normally, perhaps half the patients who come to the emergency room qualify as “acute” cases, a term that indicates severity and urgency.

In August, however, the rate of acute cases jumped to three of four ER patients.

“It was intense,” said Lt. Col. Greg Kidwell, who oversees the emergency room at the hospital.

Full Article: Washington Post

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Prominent members of rebel Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s movement have become the latest targets in a shadowy insurgency gripping Iraq, raising fears of more unrest in a country plagued by violence.

Sadr’s followers say they believe the attacks are part of a wider campaign to target Iraq’s Shi’ite majority, destined for power in a democratic Iraq having been sidelined for decades by Sunni Arab rulers.

Last Tuesday, members of Sadr’s movement heading to Najaf were attacked by gunmen on a road notorious for drive-by shootings and kidnappings near Latifiya, south of Baghdad.

The attack, which killed three, including a political leader in the group, Basheer al-Jazairi, came a day after another member of the group, Ali al-Mohammadawi, was shot dead outside his home in southern Baghdad.

Full Article:Reuters

A ‘shadowy insurgency’? Come on. Baathists and fundamentalists. ‘Sunni triangle.’ They control the entire western part of the country and a lot north of Bagdhad. This mystification is deliberate. Otherwise they would have to admit to the magnitude of the disaster.