US: Leaking a trail of toxic racism http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/03/us-leaking-trail-of-toxic-racism.html

Asarco's copper smelting plant is a monument to environmental racism, a visual proclamation of how corporations poison communities. By locating in downtown El Paso, on the border of Juarez, Mexico, alongside the Rio Grande, Asarco violated every aspect of human rights and decency. Asarco poisoned families in the US and Mexico, leaving children with diseases and learning disabilities.The Justice Department announced a settlement involving Asarco in December. In one of the largest environmental bankruptcies in U.S. history, the American Smelting and Refining Company, known as Asarco, will pay a record $1.79 billion to settle claims for hazardous waste pollution at 80 sites in as many as 20 states.

NPR reports, "As a result, sulfur dioxide and heavy metals fell on the colonias and schools and playgrounds of El Paso's sister city, where federal and state regulators had no jurisdiction. 'It is very clear that a majority of what came out of that flue and was deposited over 100 years landed in Mexico,' says Texas state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, one of those who led the fight to close down Asarco. Colonia Ladrillera, in Juarez, is located less than a half-mile from the smelter. People here complained of skin rashes, allergies and asthma when Asarco was operating." While Asarco's complete disregard for health is abrupt and visible, much of the toxic and detrimental waste dumped in and around Indian country has been invisible to the human eye.

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Indigenous Achuar From Peruvian Amazon Face Off Against Occidental Petroleum in Crucial Ninth Circuit Hearing http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/view_news.php?id=2017

 A key hearing will be held in the Ninth Circuit Court on Wednesday, March 3, in the landmark environmental and public health case brought by the indigenous Peruvian Achuar community and the U.S.-based NGO Amazon Watch against oil giant Occidental Petroleum (OXY). The hearing will likely determine whether OXY will have to defend its 30 year-old legacy of massive pollution in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon just miles from its world headquarters in Los Angeles, or whether the case will move to Peru. If the case is moved to South America, it could mean years of protracted litigation, similar to Chevron's $27 billion dollar albatross in Ecuador.

In the early 1970s, OXY began oil exploration and production in what is known as Block 1AB, home to the indigenous Achuar people, in the Corrientes River Basin in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. Plaintiffs allege that OXY knowingly engaged in destructive practices which severely contaminated unique and sensitive ecosystems and caused profound impacts upon the rights and health of the communities living there.  The suit alleges that OXY contaminated the rivers and the lands of the Achuar, causing death, widespread poisoning, destruction of their traditional way of life, and property damage; OXY deliberately ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices in its operations, resulting in severe cadmium and lead poisoning among indigenous communities. In addition to alleging that OXY illegally dumped toxic wastewater, the Achuar place the blame on OXY for generating acid rain with gas flares, failing to warn the community of health dangers, and improperly storing chemical waste in unlined pits.

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Pressure Grows for Chevron to Clean Up Ecuador http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/view_news.php?id=2018

"It is time for Chevron to listen to Emergildo, the 30,000 Ecuadoreans who are suffering and dying because of Chevron's policies, and the 325,000+ people from around the globe who believe that energy shouldn't cost lives," said Maria Ramos, Change Chevron Director at Rainforest Action Network. "New Chevron CEO John Watson has a responsibility to do the right thing and clean up his company's toxic legacy in Ecuador, and around the globe." 

In early January 2010, John Watson assumed leadership of Chevron, California's largest corporation and the 3rd largest oil corporation in the world. Global campaigning organizations Amazon Watch, Avaaz, CREDO Action, and Rainforest Action Network, launched an online effort to collect signatures of people from around the globe urging Chevron CEO John Watson to do the right thing and clean up Ecuador. High-profile individuals such as Alicia Silverstone and Daryl Hannah are among the over 325,000 people from 150 countries who have signed the letter to Watson. 

"People around the world want to see compensation for communities ravaged by billions of gallons of poisonous waste from Chevron oil fields, and new corporate policies to prevent similar toxic tragedies in the future," said Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz.org. "Watson has a chance to show he can step up to corporate responsibilities and begin a new accountable approach to the environment and human rights by cleaning up this mess."

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Union Members Slain Last Year in Colombia http://mamaradio.blogspot.com/2010/03/union-members-slain-last-year-in.html

This is a disturbing news release on the current situation facing trade unionists in Colombia under the Administration of Alvaro Uribe, sent to me by our friends at Labor Exchange. It is followed by a report on the European Union's concerns about the human rights violations being carried out against trade unionists in Colombia. As talk increases about rekindling free trade talks between the U.S. and Colombia, and Obama talks favorably about such a bilateral trade deal, this information poses serious questions about the "improvements" on the ground for the labor movement. Will the U.S. President do yet another about face from his progressive talk during his long forgotten campaign in 2008?

– Forty union members were murdered last year in Colombia as the Andean nation remained the world’s most dangerous country for labor activists, union officials said Thursday in the northwestern city of Medellin.The figure signifies that “60 percent of the trade unionists killed worldwide are Colombians,” the head of the Human Rights and Solidarity Department of the CUT labor federation, Alberto Vanegas, told Efe.“This forms part of a systematic policy of violation of human rights, of violation of union rights,” Vanegas said after speaking at the opening of a two-day conference in Medellin on anti-labor violence.The gathering was organized by the CUT, the National Union School, the Center for Popular Research and Education and the Jose Alvear Restrepo Attorneys Collective.

Roughly half of the 150 attendees are relatives of slain union members, while the remainder includes representatives of human rights groups and U.N. agencies.More than 2,700 labor activists have been murdered in Colombia since 1986, according to the CUT. The vast majority of those killings have gone unpunished.“It’s a complete genocide of the union movement,” Vanegas said. “The families of the murdered unionists struggle for truth, justice and reparation.” EFE

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Bolivian President Donates Half Pay to Victims http://news.brunei.fm/2010/03/03/bolivian-president-and-vp-donate-half-salaries-to-chilean-haiti-quake-victims/

Bolivian president Evo Morales will donate half of his salary to victims of the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.At the presentation of the national campaign “Chile and Haiti need you” Morales said he and the Vice President Alvaro Garcia will give half of their March salaries.In addition, ministers and deputy ministers agreed to hand over 30 percent of their salaries for March.

Bolivia is also initiating a five-day campaign to raise funds for the two countries affected by natural disasters.Morales called on citizens to deliver at least one boliviano ($ 0.15) to collect a total of 10 million bolivianos (US$1.5 million) in support of the people of Haiti and Chile.The funds will be channelled through a state bank which will close the campaign on Sat March 6 at a sports center in La Paz, where there will be a draw for prizes given by state enterprises.

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Honduras Government Not Recognized By Argentina And That Worries U.S. http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/march/03/centam-10030304.htm

After the meeting between President Cristina Fernandez and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, merged the opposite sides that both countries have taken in the recognition of Porfirio Lobo as President of Honduras.One of Hillary’s main topics to touch in Latin America is to collaborate with the new Honduran president so as them to reintegrate the world market after the conflict Manuel Zelaya - Roberto Micheletti.

A lot of countries have already normalized their relations with Honduras, including the United Nations, European Union, Canada, Central American Parliament, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Peru, and of course the United States. Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Argentina are among the states that so far stand out.

“Free and fair elections made Honduras mark the time to move to the next page for that country,” Hillary argued.Fernandez stated: “We have different positions, although we are serious and mature people.”According to Argentina’s president, the stance of “move to the next page” that Obama wants to establish in the region, is the controversial point which makes Fernandez thinks that expectations in Latin America were not met by the American leader.

comment-also see...ISS - Key leaders of Honduras military coup trained in U.S http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/06/key-leaders-of-honduras-military-coup-trained-in-us.html    Washington behind the Honduras coup: Here is the evidence http://links.org.au/node/1147   The Honduran coup: another US destabilization operation http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14171  Foreign Policy in Focus | Honduran Coup: The U.S. Connection http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6329

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Coca-Cola Faces New Violence Claims In Guatemala http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/march/03/centam-10030303.htm

Guatemalan union leaders and their families are pursuing a lawsuit in a New York court against Coca-Cola Co., accusing the world's biggest beverage company of negligence and complicity in violence aimed at union activists, as well as deception.

The case draws together a coalition of lawyers and activists who participated in previous legal battles against Coca-Cola centering on its labor practices in Colombia. The lead attorney is Terry Collingsworth, who has pushed lawsuits against Coca-Cola for a decade. The unofficial public relations wing is the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, one of the company's most aggressive and vociferous foes.

The plaintiffs say they brought the case in New York because the Guatemalan court system is corrupt. Coca-Cola called the tactic "forum-shopping" and a "misuse of the U.S. judicial system." The company may answer the complaint or file a motion to have it thrown out or moved to Guatemala. The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages.

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UN Says US Military Not Cooperative in Haiti: Will the Excessive Number of Haitian Deaths Prove It? http://hcvanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/un-says-us-military-not-cooperative-in-haiti-will-the-excessive-number-of-haitian-deaths-prove-it/

-”The all military, all the time” plane landings forced tons of aid and doctors to make overland passage from the Dominican Republic. This delay of assistance, so critical for saving lives within the first few days, caused many unnecessary deaths. -The US military withheld shipments at the airport of aid, food, and water as its spokesperson repeatedly mumbled something about “not knowing where it all was supposed to go.” This led to many deaths from dehydration, hunger, and earthquake injuries-The US military’s lack of direct assistance to Haitians caused many deaths as well. The military could and should have done many things, but was obviously not authorized to do so.  

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US Generosity: $2000 per Dead Afghan Child http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/us-generosity-2000-per-dead-afghan.html

$2000 per dead child! That's the amount of compensation offered by the Pentagon for the "collateral damage" which it has caused in Afghanistan. As the war escalates and more innocent victims of Washington's aggressive actions accumulate in number, the U.S. military calculates what it will take to placate grieving Afghan parents.

Eight years into a war deemed "necessary" by both Republican and Democratic Administrations, the death and destruction visited upon Afghan civilians seems reducible to neat and cheap compensation packages. And, yet, the real physical and psychological damage inflicted by the war-makers remains strangely abstract and without comprehension of the very real unintended consequences.

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Colombian Gov’t signs accord with Indigenous People after Sixty-Three Day Occupation http://intercontinentalcry.org/colombian-govt-signs-accord-with-indigenous-people-after-sixty-three-day-occupation/

This mobilization had caught the attention of US solidarity activists concerned about US support of the Colombian military and for eradication campaigns that cause displacement in places like Puerto Leguízamo. Military aid and eradication campaigns have been major components of Plan Colombia, which has received some $7 billion in funding from the US. Plan Colombia has been officially described as both part of the War on Drugs and as a war against Colombian insurgents. However, in each, the plan has been a failure. Cocaine production in Colombia is actually on the rise.

Meanwhile, there has been a reconstitution of guerrilla forces and newly announced unity between the two largest such armies, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (National Army of Liberation).In the proposed 2011 federal budget announced by the Obama Administration, there is no funding allocated for Plan Colombia. Colombia will continue receiving military and other forms of aid, but with 20% less than last year. Right now a lobbying campaign is underway by the Colombian government to make sure that any budget passed includes monies for Plan Colombia.

Tom Burke of the Colombia Action Network believes, in light of the agreement for the US to deploy on seven Colombian Air Force bases, that we are witnessing a change in strategies for the US. According to Burke, “Colombia solidarity activists should recognize that Plan Colombia is a failure and has only brought poverty, displacement and death. We should continue to mobilize against it during the upcoming budget debate. But the expansion into these new bases signifies that US military intervention in and around Colombia is being taken to a new level. The US is trying to take more direct control of an already doomed situation. People should call the White House and Congress and demand that there be no new funding for Plan Colombia and no new bases.

comment-also see...VIDEO-Indigenous Colombians Begin 10,000-Strong March Against Uribe Government http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/indigenous_colombians_begin_10_000_strong    ASOCOLOM: Uribe is NOT welcome in Canada PRESS RELEASE – JUNE 10, 2009, Montreal -Canada.FROM: Colombia Action and Solidarity Network (ASOCOLOM)http://canadacolombiaproject.blogspot.com/2009/06/asocolom-uribe-is-not-welcome-in-canada.html  Stop Fascism in Colombia http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/content/view/155/54/  Colombians Refuse to Be Displaced: Over 5,000 Occupy the Piñuña Negro Police Inspectors Office in Putumayo Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Campesinos Demand an End to Coca Eradication and Plan Colombiahttp://www.narconews.com/Issue63/article3998.html  

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European Court Set to Give Public Figures Chance to Gag Press on Damaging Stories http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mosley-case-on-privacy-laws-is-being-fasttracked-1911315.html

It could spell the end of the kiss and tell: public figures might, within 18 months, have the power to stifle bad news stories before they are published, a senior lawyer has warned.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is currently fast-tracking a landmark case, brought by Max Mosley, to tighten UK privacy laws. Mark Stephens, a lawyer acting for a group of media and free speech organisations opposing Mr Mosley in court, believes that the extraordinary pace with which it is proceeding suggests that the judges are about to rule in the former Formula One boss’s favour.

That would mean a change in the law that would force the press to contact anyone that they are intending to run a story about to warn them if it could potentially breach their privacy, giving public figures a chance to gag newspapers before publication.

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Huancahuari Congresswoman Warns Of Government's Intention To Displace Native Peasants http://tiny.cc/MEjrm

Executive submits amendment to Law 28,223 on displaced  The Act protects internal displacement of persons or groups affected by armed conflict or natural disasters meant to be used to promote mega-scale mining, oil and dams that would be declared and overriding local interests, denounced Congresswoman Jane Huancahuari Paucar.  Juana Huancahuari Páucar"The government insists on pursuing a policy of dispossession of land and razing of the rights of peasant communities in the Amazon with the intention of letting the Amazon, water sources, minerals and hydrocarbons, are at the mercy of the extractive industries "he said. "By approving the project, the State may dispose of the communal lands and for the sake of national interest (extraction of minerals, oil, gas, dams) that the Indians will have to go elsewhere. It is undermining the character of a law that was created to protect the rights of the displaced, "he said.In Apurimac, mining company Xstrata has tried unsuccessfully to displace the community Fuerabamba to another department away from the area of operations of the project's Bambas. 

In October 2007, the government presented the draft 1640 which declared the "national interest" to 20 mining projects, without regard to overlap with protected areas or community lands. Also in that year, the government tried to present a project which cut 200 thousand hectares of the park Bahuaja Sonene.  At present, the government of President Garcia is interested in promoting Inambari project construction in the department of Madre de Dios, and other mega infrastructure projects including the IIRSA.

comment-also see...StopPeruFTA - Free Trade Agreement With Peru http://stopperufta.org/

Peruanista: URGENT: PLEASE CALL CONGRESS TODAY TO STOP US-PERU FTA http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2007/11/urgent-please-call-congress-to-stop-us.html

CIP Americas Program | Massacre in the Amazon: The U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6191

The US-Peru Free Trade Agreement Sparks a Battle Over Land and Resources http://www.stwr.org/latin-america-caribbean/the-us-peru-free-trade-agreement-sparks-a-battle-over-land-and-resources.html

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US SPECIAL FORCES IN THE CONGO; COUP IN NIGER http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7630-0-20-20--.html

In February 2010 we learned that U.S. special forces have begun training Congolese troops.These same Congolese troops have been accused of attacking civilians and committing extreme abuses. "The government army came to the village... They raped and killed people and burned them in their houses." (Congo: 'The soldiers meant to protect us are the same ones killing people')

Declassified memos and cables between former U.S. presidents and State Department officials over the last four decades named Mr. Tempelsman with direct input in the destabilization of Congo, Sierra Leone, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Rwanda and Ghana.He earned his stripes with western powers in the overthrow of Ghana's first elected president, Kwame Nkrumah, and the CIA-backed assassination of Congo's first-elected president, Patrice Lumumba, documents reveal.

As late as 1997, Mr. Tempelsman was named in the ongoing cover-up of U.S.-CIA covert support of the former president of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]), Mobuto Sese Seko, who died in exile in 1997 after the overthrow of his regime by recently assassinated Congolese President Laurent Kabila. Mr. Tempelsman is named as the agent in charge of selling off the gross excess of the strategic diamond stockpile in the United States that was used to fund the deceased dictator's exploits.

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Every 3rd person killed by US drones in Pak is civilian http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/770156/FeaturedArticles/14/20/14

Every third person killed by US drone strikes in Pakistan's restive northwestern region is a civilian, says an American think-tank which described the unmanned missile hits as an"unpopular but necessary evil".In its latest report'The Year of the Drone', the New America Foundation said that 32 per cent of those individuals killed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan by US drones over the past six years have been civilians.

According to the authors Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann,"The study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, including 18 in 2010, from 2004 to the present, have killed approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals"."Of these, around 549 to 849 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average.Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 per cent,"The Dawn quoted the report as saying.The report, however, described the drone strikes as an"unpopular, but necessary evil."2009 was the year of the drone under President Barack Obama, as there were 51 reported strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas, compared to a total of 45 during two terms under George W Bush.

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15 Reasons Why The U.S. Economic Crisis Is Really An Economic Consolidation By The Elite Banking Powers http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/15-reasons-why-the-u-s-economic-crisis-is-really-an-economic-consolidation-by-the-elite-banking-powers

Is the United States experiencing an "economic crisis" or an "economic consolidation"? Did the financial problems of the last several years "happen on their own", or are they part of a broader plan to consolidate financial power in the United States? Before you dismiss that possibility, just remember what happened back during the Great Depression. During that era, the big financial powers cut off the flow of credit, hoarded cash and reduced the money supply. Suddenly nobody had any money and the economy tanked.

The big financial powers were then able to swoop back in and buy up valuable assets and real estate for pennies on the dollar. So are there signs that such a financial consolidation is happening again?Well, yes, there are.The U.S. government is making sure that the big banks are getting all the cash they need to make sure that they don't fail during these rocky economic times, but the U.S. government is letting small banks fail in droves. In fact, in many instances the U.S. government is actually directing these small banks to sell themselves to the big sharks. 

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Irish town snubs Israeli envoy http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/03/201032112623264313.html

An Irish town council has removed a page in its guestbook signed by the Israeli ambassador to Ireland in protest at Israel's diplomatic record. The move, reported by the BBC on Tuesday, follows the alleged use of fake Irish passports in the murder of a Hamas commander, an operation widely thought to have been carried out by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

Matt Carthy, a local councillor, said: "I think if a government is responsible for a wholesale disregard for international law then local authorities, as well as our own government, have a responsibility to tell them we expect a higher standard."

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Consumer Protection: GMO Contamination of Organic Food http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17870

The Obama administration is set on approving the use of genetically modified Alfalfa. Global Research says GMOs are designed to sell pesticides, especially Monsanto's weed killer RoundUp, which its genetically modified corn, cotton, soy, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa, are engineered to withstand. A 2009 study showed that, over the last 13 years, Roundup Ready crops dramatically increased herbicide use by 383 million pounds. 

US Dept of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is trying to get a court-ordered ban on Roundup Ready alfalfa lifted by issuing a new environmental impact statement. This would set the stage for the Obama Administration to approve Roundup Ready alfalfa, a key source of dairy forage. According to an earlier Environmental Impact Statement, consumers who ingest RoundUp may experience "general and non-specific signs of toxicity .. changes in liver weight, blood chemistry, liver pathology, and weight of the pituitary gland."

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Progress Energy abandons dirty coal front group ACCCE http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/01/progress-energy/

The web site Think Progress reports utility giant Progress Energy is the latest company to abandon the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the scandal-ridden coal-industry front group. Progress Energy, an energy company serving 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida, quietly quit the group last year, following Duke Energy, Alstom, Alcoa, and First Energy. Think Progress says its move away from coal follows a recent decision to shut down coal plants and move to cleaner power.

Progress paid $1 million to ACCCE in 2008, putting the company among the group’s biggest contributors. But Progress announced in December it was shutting down 11 coal-fired power plants and moving to natural gas, a less greenhouse-gas intensive fuel. Spending over $40 million a year to promote so-called “clean coal,” ACCCE has exploited veterans, covered up fraud, and promoted mountaintop coal removal in Appalachia.

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EU Federal Economic Government Proposal Mirrors Nazi Plan For Fourth Reich http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/march2010/030110_nazi_plan.htm 

The web site Propaganda Matrix says a new proposal by France and Germany to create a federal European economic government in the name of mandating fiscal responsibility mirrors similar plans put forward by top Nazis in the 1940's. Spiegel Online stated: "With Greek finances dragging down the euro, calls for coordinated fiscal policy within the common currency zone have become more frequent.

Now, Germany and France have presented a paper outlining what such a regime might look like," Spiegel Online says the move towards a centrally-planned economy with Brussels exercising complete control over of the financial affairs of member states is a shocking lurch towards economic fascism. Propaganda Matrix says US Military Intelligence’s Red House Report detailed how top Nazis, knowing Germany was on the brink of defeat, conspired to create a Fourth Reich – a pan-European economic empire based around a European common market, precisely what the new German-French proposal calls for.