S

onoma State University's Project Censored team has released its list of the top 25
most under-covered news stories in the United States during 1999–2000. Media
students, faculty staff and community experts are involved in the selection, screen -
ing and evaluation process. These top 25 stories, as ranked by Project Censored's
national judges, are summarised below in edited form. We recommend that you visit the
website projectcensored.org for additional text, references and updates. — Editor

1. World Bank and Multinational Corporations Seek to Privatise Water

According to the
G lobal consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of
human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion
[1,000,000,000] people already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends per-
sist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 per cent more than the
Project Censored amount of water that is currently available.
Multinational corporations recognise these trends and are trying to monopolise water
voting team, these supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel and other global multinationals are seeking
are the top 25 news control of world water systems and supplies. The World Bank recently adopted a policy
of water privatisation and full-cost water pricing. This policy is causing great distress in
stories that should many Third World countries, which fear that their citizens will not be able to afford for-
profit water.
have received San Francisco's Bechtel Enterprises was contracted to manage the water system in
Cochambamba, Bolivia, after the World Bank required Bolivia to privatise. When
major coverage in Bechtel pushed up the price of water, the entire city went on a general strike. The military
killed a 17-year-old boy and arrested the water rights leaders. But after four months of
the US mass media unrest, the Bolivian government forced Bechtel out of Cochambamba. Bechtel Group
Inc., a corporation with a long history of environmental abuses, now contracts with the
last year, but didn't. city of San Francisco to upgrade the city's water system. Bechtel employees are working
side by side with government workers in a privatisation move that activists fear will lead
to an eventual take-over of San Francisco's water system.
Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy
group, and a director of the International Forum on Globalization, states: "Governments
around the world must act now to declare water a fundamental human right and prevent
efforts to privatise, export and sell for profit a substance essential to all life."
Governments are signing away their control over domestic water supplies by participat-
ing in trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in
institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). These agreements give
transnational corporations the unprecedented right to the water of signatory companies.
Water-related conflicts are springing up around the globe. Monsanto estimates that water
compiled by will become a multibillion-dollar market in the coming decades.
References
Project Censored © 2001 • Maude Barlow (www.canadians.org), "The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of
Sonoma State University the World's Water Supply", International Forum on Globalization: Special Report, June 1999,
1801 East Cotati Avenue in Prime, July 10, 2000, www.ifg.org/bgsummary.html
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609, USA • Jim Shultz ([email protected]), "Water Fallout", Canadian Dimension, February
Telephone: +1 (707) 664 2500 2000; "Water Fallout: Bolivians Battle Globalization", In These Times , May 15, 2000,
Email: [email protected] www.inthesetimes.com; "Just Add Water", THIS, July/August 2000
Website: www.projectcensored.org • Vandana Shiva, "Monsanto's Billion-Dollar Water Monopoly Plans", Canadian Dimension,
February 2000, www.purefood.org/Monsanto/waterfish.cfm

JUNE – JULY 2001 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 13

2. OSHA Fails to Protect United States Workers 4. Did the United States Deliberately Bomb the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade?
U nited States labour laws are poorly enforced and fail to meet
the basic human rights of US workers. Each year, about
6,000 workers die on the job from accidents and another 50,000 to E lements within the CIA may have deliberately targeted the
Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, without NATO approval,
70,000 workers die annually from "occupationally acquired because it was serving as a rebroadcast station for the
diseases". Yugoslavian Army. The London Observer and the Copenhagen
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is Politiken [dates not given] reported that, according to senior US
not capable of effectively overseeing US workplaces. The entire and European military sources, NATO knew very well where the
federal and state worker health and safety apparatus involves just Chinese Embassy was located and listed it as a "strictly prohibited
2,300 inspectors who must cover America's 102 million workers target" at the beginning of the war.
in 6.7 million workplaces. That comes to one inspector for every The Observer stated that the CIA and its British equivalent,
44,348 workers. Theoretically, it would take OSHA 110 years to MI6, had been listening to communications from the Chinese
inspect each workplace under its jurisdiction just once. Embassy routinely since it moved to its new site in 1996. The
Needed by labour and despised by business, OSHA may be Chinese Embassy was taken off the prohibited target list after
workers' best friend in government, but crit- NATO detected it sending Yugoslavian
ics say OSHA has never been weaker or less Army signals to forces in the field.
worker-friendly. Recent studies show that "Nearly everyone involved in NATO air
United States labour laws have loopholes, operations (radio) signals command knows
are poorly enforced and fail to meet human
rights standards required of other countries.
"Nearly everyone that the bombing was deliberate," said Jens
Holsoe of P o l i t i k e n, lead investigative
In these times, it is hard to get the atten- involved in NATO reporter with the news team reporting on the
tion of an OSHA inspector as there are so
few of them, and OSHA is woefully ill-
air operations (radio) story. President Clinton called the bombing
a "tragic mistake" and said it was the result
equipped to monitor the workplaces of signals command of a mix-up. NATO claimed that they were
America.
Reference
knows that the using old maps and got the address wrong.
However, O b s e r v e r reporters quoted a
• Christopher D. Cook ([email protected]), bombing Naples-based flight controller who said the
"Losing Life and Limb on the Job", The NATO maps used during the campaign
Progressive, February 2000, www.pro -
[of the Chinese had correctly identified the Chinese
gressive.org/cook0200.htm Embassy] Embassy.
A French Ministry of Defence report
3. US Army's Psychological
was deliberate." stated that the flight that targeted the
Operations Personnel Worked at Chinese Embassy was not under NATO
CNN — Jens Holsoe, Politiken command but, rather, was an indepen-

F rom June 1999 to March 2000,

CNN employed military specialists
in "psychological operations" (Psyops)
dent US bombing raid.
In July 1999, CIA director George
Tenet testified before Congress that, of
in their Southeast TV bureau and CNN the 900 sites struck by NATO during
radio division. the bombing campaign, the only one
CNN had hosted a total of five targeted by the CIA was the Chinese
interns from US Army Psyops: two in Embassy.
television, two in radio and one in satellite operations. The mili- References
tary/CNN personnel belonged to the airmobile Fourth • Yoichi Shimatsu, "Reports Showing US Deliberately Bombed
Psychological Operations Group, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Chinese Embassy Deliberately Ignored by USMedia", Pacific News,
Carolina. One of the main tasks of this group of almost 1,200 sol- October 20, 1999
diers and officers is to spread "selected information". • Joel Bleifuss ([email protected]), "A Tragic Mistake?", In These
The propaganda group was involved in the Gulf War, the war in Times, December 12, 1999, www.inthesetimes.com
Bosnia and the crisis in Kosovo. The military personnel stayed
with CNN for at least two weeks "to get to know the company and 5. United States Taxpayers Underwrite Global Nuclear
to broaden their horizons". Power Plant Sales
Still, the Psyops people in Arlington were not entirely satisfied
with news handling during the war on Serbia. In their opinion,
too much information about the results of the bombings came to
T he US tax–supported Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is solidly
backing major US nuclear contractors such as Westinghouse,
Bechtel and General Electric in its efforts to seek foreign markets
the surface. for nuclear reactors.
CNN reports and other media coverage of the war in Kosovo Between 1959 and 1993, Ex-Im spent US$7.7 billion to help
have attracted criticism for being one-sided, overly emotional, sell American-made reactors abroad. Most countries do not have
oversimplified and too heavily reliant on NATO officials. On the the capital to buy nuclear power, so contractors, in order to be
other hand, journalists have complained about the lack of reliable competitive, provide 100 per cent of the financing. Ex-Im offers
information from NATO; for almost all of them, it was impossible terms too good for Third World and Eastern European buyers to
to be on the battlefield and file first-hand reports. pass up. If the host country defaults on its loan, Ex-Im steps in
Reference with American taxpayer dollars.
• Alexander Cockburn, "CNN and Psyops", CounterPunch, February Westinghouse built the Bataan nuclear power facility in The
16 and March 1, 2000, www.counterpunch.org/cnnpsyops.html Philippines in 1985 at a cost of $1.2 billion, 150 per cent above its

14 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2001

projections. However, the Bataan plant was never brought on line 7. Independent Study Points to Dangers of GE Foods
due to the fact that it was near an active volcano. Despite this,
The Philippines still pays about $300,000 a day in interest on the
Ex-Im loan that funded the project. Should The Philippines
I
n 1998, Arpad Pusztai, a researcher at Rowett Research Institute
in Aberdeen, Scotland, performed the first independent, non-
industry-sponsored study analysing genetically engineered food
default, US taxpayers will pick up the tab. and its effects on mammals. The study had been undertaken to
"American contractors are selling a product that most people determine whether or not the spliced genes themselves could be
don't want," says Dave Martin of the Toronto-based Nuclear damaging to the mammal ingesting them. However, preliminary
Awareness Campaign. US taxpayers are subsidising this industry. data from the study suggested something even more startling.
Without Ex-Im, which offers terms just too good for Third World Pusztai's study found that rats fed transgenic potatoes (artificial-
countries to pass up, American firms would not succeed in selling ly bioengineered to include a gene from another species) showed
nuclear power plants worldwide. evidence of organ damage, thickening of the small intestine and
Reference poor brain development. The potatoes used in the study had been
• Ken Silverstein and Ian Urbina ([email protected]), "Pushing the genetically engineered to contain lectin, a sugar-binding protein,
Nuclear Plants: A US Agency Hooks Foreign Clients", T h e to make the plants pest-resistant. The adverse reactions only
Progressive, March 2000, www.progressive.org occurred in the group that was fed the transgenic potatoes, and
were not caused by the added lectin but by the process of genetic
6. International Report Blames United States and engineering itself.
Others for Genocide in Rwanda In August 1998, Pusztai appeared on the British television pro-

B ill Clinton and his administration allowed

the genocide of 500,000 to 800,000 peo-
ple in Rwanda in 1994. In a clear effort to
gram The World in Action to report the find-
ings of his study. In an attempt to quell the
resulting public furore, Rowett Institute direc-
avoid responsibility and embarrassment, the tor Philip James (who had approved Pusztai's
Clinton administration has refused to TV appearance) said the research didn't exist.
acknowledge its role in failing to prevent the He fired Pusztai, broke up his research team,
genocide in Rwanda. Physicians know seized the data and halted six other similar
This allegation comes from the recent projects. It came out later that Monsanto, a
report released in July 2000 by a panel affili- that antidepressants leading US biotech firm, had given the
ated with the Organization for African Unity are only part of the Rowett Institute a US$224,000 grant prior to
(OAU). OAU set up a panel comprised of Pusztai's interview.
two African heads of state, chairwomen of the answer for mental Evidence emerged to support the legitimacy
Swedish Committee for UNICEF, a former health, but marketing of Pusztai's research. The British medical
Chief Justice to the Indian Supreme journal L a n c e t published a peer-
Court and a former Canadian by drug companies reviewed paper that Pusztai had co-
Ambassador to the United Nations. has created the authored, supporting the research.
The panel was asked to review the Back in 1992, the US Food and Drug
1994 genocide, the actions preceding the mythology of pills Administration determined that geneti-
massacre and the world's response to the as cure-alls. cally engineered foods were in most
killings. The panel concluded that the cases "the same as or substantially simi-
nations and international bodies that lar to substances commonly found in
should have attempted to stop the killing food" and thus are not required to under-
chose not to do so. The report convinc- go specific safety tests prior to entering
ingly condemns the United Nations, the market.
Belgium (a former colonial occupier), References
France (which maintained close relations • Ben Lilliston ([email protected]),
with Rwanda) and the United States. "Don't Ask, Don't Know", Multinational
The panel found that after the genocide began, the Clinton admin- M o n i t o r, January–February 2000, www.essential.org/monitor/
istration chose not to acknowledge that it was taking place. mm2000/mm0001.05.html
According to the report, the killings could have been stopped • Joel Bleifuss, "No Small (Genetic) Potatoes", In These Times,
before they began. The report refers to the well-known fax that January 10, 2000, www.inthesetimes.com
Canadian Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire, commander of the
UN peacekeeping troops in Rwanda, sent to the UN three months 8. Drug Companies Influence Doctors and Health
before the genocide began. In it, Dallaire warned that an extermi- Organisations to Push Medications
nation campaign was coming. He asked for an additional 3,000
UN troops, which would have brought the total to 5,000—a num-
ber likely to have been able to prevent the genocide. However,
M ore than 130 million prescriptions were written in 1999 [in
the USA] for depression and mental health–related symp-
toms at a cost of US$8.58 billion. Physicians know that antide-
Madeleine Albright played a key role in the UN Security Council pressants are only part of the answer for mental health, but mar-
in blocking the troop expansion. keting by drug companies has created the mythology of pills as
References cure-alls. However, a 1999 federal research study found that the
• David Corn, "Loyal Opposition: Clinton Allowed Genocide", newer antidepressants were effective in only half of the cases and
Alternet, July 25, 2000, www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9494 outperformed placebos by only 18 per cent.
• Ellen Ray, "The Role of the US Military", Covert Action Quarterly, Drug companies spend $5 billion annually to send sales repre-
Spring/Summer 2000 sentatives to doctors' offices. Sales reps keep FBI-style dossiers
• OAU report, www.oau-oua.org/Document/ipep/ipep.htm on physicians, which include information such as the names of

JUNE – JULY 2001 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 15

family members, golf handicaps and clothing preferences. Hard is a devastating effect on the workers themselves.
sales tactics and small gifts are part of the pitch. In addition, AFL-CIO Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson accuses the
pharmaceutical companies provide perks and outright compensa- industry of using the H1-B visa program to keep their workers in
tion to doctors for their participation in the prescribing of particu- a position of dependence. She points out that these workers are
lar drugs to their mental health patients. often hired under individual contracts, which by US law means
On another front, pharmaceutical companies are reaping big they don't have the right to organise. The H1-B program gives
profits by promoting forced drug use through programs at the employers the power not only to hire and fire workers but to grant
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). Mother Jones legal immigration status as well. If an employer does not like
researchers used internal documents to prove that NAMI received something a worker does, the employer has the power to deport
$11.72 million from the psychiatric drug industry in just two-and- the worker. Labour advocates say the problem is not a labour
a-half years. NAMI's leading donor is Eli Lilly and Company, the shortage but the industry's unwillingness to pay the salaries that
maker of Prozac. American high-tech workers demand.
Reference Reference
• Ken Silverstein, "Prozac.org", Mother Jones , MOJO Wire • David Bacon ([email protected]), "Silicon Valley Sweatshops",
Magazine, November/December 1999, www.motherjones.com/ Washington Free Press, July–August 2000
mother_jones/ND99/nami.html
11. UN Corporate Partnerships: A Human Rights Peril
9. EPA Plans to Disburse Toxic/Radioactive Wastes into
Denver's Sewage System I n a move to make the United Nations more corporate-friendly,
officials are calling for UN–corporate partnerships. The UN's

T he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to pump

toxic waste water into Denver's sewer system in order to clean
up a Superfund site at the Lowry
new partners include multinational giants like McDonald's,
Disney, Dow and Unocal. A business-friendly ideology at the UN
is based on a desire to gain favour
landfill. with the United States, the UN's
Between 1950 and 1980 at the largest funder, and to raise money
Lowry landfill near Denver, mil- through private sources.
lions of gallons of hazardous indus- UN agencies have entered into an
trial wastes were dumped into shal- array of partnerships with giant cor-
low unlined pits. The EPA declared Cuba has developed one of porations, including many which
the 480-acre site a Superfund site in
1984. Now the EPA wants to treat
the most efficient organic citizens movements have
denounced for violations of human
the contaminated groundwater at the
landfill and discharge it into the
agriculture systems in and labour rights.
Human rights groups around the
Denver metro sewage system. The the world. world are increasingly challenging
sewage system would then use the the new partnership arrangements
sludge from the treated water to fer- for fear that these new relationships
tilise Colorado farmlands. will undermine the UN's ability to
Citizen groups say that the land- serve as a counterbalance to global
fill is widely contaminated with corporate power.
highly radioactive plutonium and Reference
other deadly wastes. Adrienne Anderson, a lawyer and instructor • Danielle Knight, "Perilous Partnerships", Multinational Monitor,
at the University of Boulder, stated that the EPA's plan is a way to March 2000, www.essential.org/monitor/mm2000/00march/econom -
"legally pump plutonium into the sewer line". Anderson and her ics1.html
students have accrued some 200,000 files on the Lowry landfill.
One document—"Preliminary Evaluation of Potential 12. Cuba Leads the World in Organic Farming
Department of Energy Radioactive Wastes", dated December 13,
1991—showed that the levels of plutonium and radioactive ameri-
cium detected at the Lowry landfill were 10 to 10,000 times
C uba has developed one of the most efficient organic agricul-
ture systems in the world. Due to the US embargo and the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba was unable to import chemi-
greater than the average levels reported for a nuclear weapons cals or modern farming machines to uphold a high-tech corporate
plant in that area. The document had been released by the Lowry farming culture. The lost buying power for agricultural imports
Coalition, a group of corporations and government agencies that led to a general diversification within farming on the island.
dumped materials at the site. Cuba's new revolution is founded upon the development of an
References organic agricultural system. The migration of small farms and
• Will Fantle, "Plutonium Pancakes", The Progressive, May 2000, gardens into densely populated urban areas has also played a cru-
www.progressive.org cial role in feeding citizens. Havana, with nearly 20 per cent of
Cuba's population, now has more than 8,000 officially recognised
10. Silicon Valley Uses Immigrant Engineers to Keep gardens, which are in turn cultivated by more than 30,000 people
Salaries Low and cover nearly 30 per cent of the available land. The quality

H ighly skilled immigrant workers in Silicon Valley are being

exploited by employers. Existing immigration law sets a cap
on the number of H1-B visas the industry can use to hire immi-
and quantity of crop yields have increased—at a lower cost and
with fewer health and environmental side effects than ever.
References
grant engineers, so this year the Silicon Valley electronics giants • Alison Auld, "Farming with Fidel", Sustainable Times, Fall 1999
have been pushing for more H1-B workers. • Hugh Warwick, "Cuba's Organic Revolution", Third World
While H1-B-status labourers boost corporate bottom lines, there Resurgence, issues 118–119, Spring 2000

16 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2001

13. The WTO is an Illegal Institution the World Trade Organization came into being, Gerber dropped

S omething not mentioned by the corporate press, or most of the

1,200 groups from 85 countries that opposed the World Trade
Organization (WTO) policies during and after the Seattle
its claim regarding expropriation and began to challenge
Guatemala before a WTO tribunal. Guatemala realised it was in
battle with an immense power. The government changed its law
demonstrations in 1999, is the fact that the WTO is actually an to concede to Gerber's marketing practices.
illegal institution. Reference
The WTO was put in place following the signing, in 1994 in • Peter Montague ([email protected]), "Corporate Rights vs Human
Morocco, of a "technical document" negotiated behind closed Need", Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly , November 18,
doors. Following the Morocco meeting, the agreement was either 1999, www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4
rubber-stamped or never formally ratified by national govern-
16. Human Genome Project Opens the Door to
ments, yet membership in the WTO requires acceptance of its pre-
cepts without exception. Ethnically Specific Bioweapons
The 1994 agreement has been casually embodied in international
law, bypassing the democratic process in mostly all of the member
countries. It blatantly overrides national laws and constitutions
T
he Human Genome Project may now open the door to the
development and use of genetic weapons targeted at specific
ethnic groups. This project is currently being conducted under the
while providing extensive powers to global banks and auspices of the US Energy Department, which also oversees
multinational corporations. This totalitarian intergovernmental
America's nuclear weapons arsenal.
body has been empowered under international law to "police" Current estimates of the cost of developing a "gene weapon"
country-level economic and social policies, suppressing the rights
have been placed at around $50 million—well within the capabili-
of national governments. Also, the WTO neutralises the authority
ties of covert government programs.
of UN agencies, such as the International Labor Organization, On November 15, 1998, the London Times reported that Israel
designed to oversee international trade conduct. It furthermore
claims to have successfully developed a genetically specific
contradicts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "ethnic bullet" that targets Arabs. When an Israeli government
Reference spokesman was asked, he did not deny that they had them.
• Michel Chossudovsky, "Seattle and References
Beyond: The Illegality of the WTO", • Roy Blake, "Genetic Bullets, Ethnically
Covert Action Quarterly , Spring– Specific Bioweapons", Washington Free
Summer 2000, www.caq.com Something not mentioned by Press, Jan/Feb 2000
the corporate press, or most • Greg Bishop, "Ethnic Weapons for
14. Europe Holds Companies Ethnic Cleansing", Konformist, March
Environmentally Responsible of the 1,200 groups from 85 2000, www.konformist.com

T he European Union will soon hold countries that oppose WTO

any company that enters the 17. IMF and World Bank Staff
European market responsible for the policies, is the fact that the Tightly Connected to New
environmental impacts of its products. Yugoslav Government
WTO is actually an illegal
Known as Extended Producer
Responsibility (EPR), the new EU
rules will make manufacturers change
institution. T he G-17 is a Yugoslav economists
group that supported presidential
candidate Vojislav Kostunica and
product design, the materials used in wrote the policy statements for the
manufacturing and the methods by post-election economic reform of
which products are disposed to ensure environmental integrity. Yugoslavia.
The regulations will cover products that contain electrical circuits, The impression the G-17 likes to give is that it is an indepen-
and the phasing out of toxic metals used in the production of dent and Yugoslav-oriented group. The reality is vastly different.
consumables like refrigerators and computers. It is actually funded through the Washington-based Center for
Reference International Private Enterprise (CIPE)—a group set up through
• Joel Bleifuss, "The Big Stick Approach", In These Times, April 17, the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA-related group cre-
2000, www.inthesetimes.com ated in 1983. The G-17 group calls for Yugoslavia to work more
closely with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) towards the
15. Gerber Uses WTO to Suppress Laws Promoting development of a market economy. Former Eastern bloc neigh-
Breastfeeding bouring countries that have followed this tactic have had massive

G erber Baby Foods Corporation has used the World Trade

Organization to suppress a Guatemalan law that encouraged
mothers to breastfeed their children.
wage deflation and increased poverty for the bulk of their citizens.
According to writer and IMF researcher Professor Michel
Chossudovsky, the G-17 paradigm economic program for
In 1983, the government of Guatemala passed a law and regula- Yugoslavia contains the same measures the IMF forced on Russia,
tions with the goal of inspiring new mothers to breastfeed their Ukraine, Bulgaria, Peru and many other nations. The results have
infants and understand fully the harm that could be done to their been social and economic devastation.
baby if they used breast-milk substitutes. References
Gerber objected to Guatemala's law. It refused to remove its • Christian Parenti, "Colony Kosovo", San Francisco Bay Guardian,
trademark picture of a smiling chubby baby from its product August 23, 2000, www.sfbg.com/News/34/47/47wvkoso.html
labels. It also refused to add a phrase to the labels saying that • Michel Chossudovsky ([email protected]) and Jared
breast milk is superior. In November 1993, Gerber lost its appeal Israel ([email protected]), "The International Monetary Fund
but opened up a new line of attack on Guatemala, stating that the and the Yugoslav Election", Emperor's New Clothes, September 28,
law was an "expropriation of Gerber's trademark". In 1995, when 2000, emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm

JUNE – JULY 2001 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 17

18. Indigenous People Challenge Private Ownership International Physics, found fusarium to be "highly toxic".
and Patenting of Life According to his data, the mortality rate among hospital patients

T here is a portion of the WTO agreement, called Trade-Related

Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), that will
allow multinational corporations to apply for patents on living
who were immune-deficient and infected by the fungus was 76
per cent. "The mutated fungi can cause disease in a large number
of crops, including tomatoes, peppers, flowers, corn and vines,"
creatures and life processes. However, indigenous peoples from he said. He added that the mutated genus could stay in the ground
around the world believe that private ownership of life forms is for 40 years.
unnatural and inappropriate. Reference
On July 25, 1999, a gathering of indigenous peoples signed a • Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair, "McCaffery's Plagues:
document that called for an amendment to the TRIPs agreement, New Biowar on Drugs", CounterPunch, Observer, London, June
which would be put as a priority item on the agenda at the WTO 1–15, 2000 and July 2, 2000
Ministerial Conference in Seattle. The document eloquently
states that all life forms and life-creating processes are sacred and 20. Disabled Most Likely to be Victims of Serious Crime
should not be subject to proprietary ownership.
Specifically targeted is Article 27.3b of TRIPs, which will deni-
grate and undermine rights to cultural and intellectual heritage,
R esearch consistently finds that people with substantial disabil-
ities suffer from violent and other major crime at rates 4 to 10
times higher than that of the general population.
destroy plant, animal and genetic resources and even discriminate Estimates are that around five million disabled people are vic-
against indigenous ways of thinking and behaving. The people tims of serious crime annually in the United States. Disabilities
are very specific that the amendments to Article 27.3b should often make people easy targets for crime and abuse.
clearly prohibit the patenting of plants and animals. They aim to Several studies suggest that 80–85% of criminal abuse of resi-
ensure that a system is created that will protect dents in institutions is never reported to author-
knowledge, innovations and practices in farm- ities. Evidence also shows that when these
ing, agriculture, health and medical care and crimes are reported, there are lower rates of
conserve the biodiversity of indigenous peo- police follow-up, prosecutions and convictions.
ples and farmers. There is a portion of Reference
References the WTO agreement, • Dan Sorensen (dsorense@dmhhq. state.ca.us),
• Kimberly Wilson, "Indigenous Peoples' "The Invisible Victims", Tash Newsletter, March
Statement on the Trade-Related Aspects of
called Trade-Related 2000, 158.96.231.221/dmhsearch/dmhquery. asp
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and the Aspects of Intellectual
WTO Agreement", GeneWatch, October 1999
• "A Call for Support for African Group Proposal
Property Rights (TRIPs), 21. US Military Bombing Range
Destroys Korean Village Life
that will allow
on TRIPS Article 27.3(b) on Patenting of Life",
Third World Resurgence , nos. 110, 111,
Fall 1999
multinational E very weekday for the past 50 years,
from 8 o'clock in the morning to 11
o'clock at night, US fighter planes in
corporations to apply Korea have dropped 400 to 700 bombs on
19. United States Using Dangerous patents on living the Koon-ni range less than one mile from
Fungus to Eradicate Coca Plants in local villages.
Colombia creatures and life The targets for the bombs are islands in
processes.
T he United States plans to deploy, or
may have already deployed, new bio-
logical weapons for the war on drugs that
the beautiful Aia Bay where the people
derive their livelihoods by fishing. As the
A10 and F-16 US fighter aircraft swoop
seriously threaten both humans and the over the countryside, they drop depleted
environment. uranium (DU) shells. The DU shells add
The bioweapon is Fusarium EN-4, a radioactive contamination to the other
plant fungus used in many chemical weapons developed by the toxic wastes and oil that have been accumulating near these vil-
United States in 1950s and '60s. Fusarium is being redesigned to lages for the last half-century.
attack coca, cannabis and opium crops in producer countries in Throughout the years, at least 12 people have been killed and
the Third World. This work is proceeding despite evidence that numerous others have been wounded. The number of cancer
the fusarium, if deployed, will have profound and disastrous cases is disproportionately large and growing, and women are
impacts on the humans and ecologies of the countries in which increasingly experiencing miscarriages and birth defects. Noise
they are used. levels have been measured off the decibel scale. Mental health is
Pathogens developed long ago at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the a serious issue, with constant tension from noise.
centre for the US biowarfare program, were frozen but not Lockheed–Martin now owns the Koon-ni range. This kind of
destroyed when the facility was closed by President Nixon in privatisation of the military comes as no surprise, because 50
1969. Veterans of the Soviet biological warfare effort are now years of dropping bombs and spraying bullets has been very lucra-
working on this research with UN funding in order to shield the tive for arms manufacturers.
United States from charges of violating the internationally negoti- For the good part of 50 years, most Koreans knew nothing
ated Biological Weapons Convention. about this, but protests are growing.
Peru has already banned the testing and/or deployment of the References
fusarium fungus. Colombia, however, was forced to accept spray- • Karen Talbot, "US Bombing Range in South Korea: 'Hell On
ing as part of a $1.8 billion aid package that was approved by US Earth!'", Freespeech.org, September 1, 2000, www.freespeech.org
Congress in July 2000. • Corporate media coverage: Christian Science Monitor, June 2,
Eduardo Posada, president of the Colombian Center for 2000; New York Times, June 18, 2000

18 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2001

22. US Repressed Marijuana Tumour Research 24. Pentagon Seeks Mega-Mergers Between
International Arms Corporations
A Spanish medical team's study released in Madrid in February
2000 has shown that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active
chemical in marijuana, destroys tumours in lab rats. The research A US Government task force has released its final report to the
public, recommending globalisation of the US defence indus-
was conducted by a medical team led by Dr Manuel Guzman of try, even if it results in proliferation of conventional weapons.
Complutence University in Madrid. The Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Globalization
These findings, however, are not news to the US Government. and Security is a 27-member appointed board, composed mostly
A study in Virginia in 1974 yielded similar results but was sup- of Department of Defense (DoD) and private industry representa-
pressed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The tives. The DSB encourages the Pentagon to facilitate transnation-
1974 study—published in an article, "Antineoplastic Activity of al mergers of defence corporations in order to avoid eventual con-
Cannabinoids", in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in flicts with European countries over global arms market shares.
1975—does not mention breast cancer tumours. These were fea- Overall, the DSB Task Force advocates reducing the DoD's role
tured in the only newspaper story ever to appear about the 1974 in controlling arms exports.
study. The Washington Post story (August 18, 1974) read in part: A few large companies already dominate the American arms
"The active chemical agent in marijuana curbs the growth of three industry, and Europe's defence firms are rapidly consolidating as
kinds of cancer in mice and may also suppress well. Germany's Daimler-Chrysler and
the immunity reaction that causes rejection of France's Aérospatiale announced a planned
organ transplants... The researchers found that merger to form the European Aeronautics,
THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, Defence and Space Co. (EADS), and BAE
breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in Systems now monopolises the UK defence
laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by industry.
as much as 36 percent." ...transnational Increased partnership between US and EU
In 1976, President Ford put an end to all defence corporations is needed, DSB warns, to
public cannabis research and granted exclu- arms mergers will avoid a protectionist "Fortress America" from
sive research rights to major pharmaceutical create very powerful going to war with a hostile "Fortress Europe"
companies. In 1983, the Reagan/Bush admin-
istration tried to persuade US universities and defence companies, over market share.
The Federation of American Scientists is
researchers to destroy all cannabis research further shifting concerned that transnational arms mergers will
work done between 1966 and 1976 as create very powerful defence companies,
well as compendiums in libraries. control away from further shifting control away from gov-
References governments and ernments and towards private industry.
• Corporate media coverage: AP and UPI Reference
news wires, February 29, 2000 towards private • Federation of American Scientists, "Arms
• Raymond Cushing (raymondcushing@ire - industry. Company of the Future:
land.com), "Pot Shrinks Tumors; BoeingBAELockheedEADS, Inc?", A r m s
Government Knew in '74", Alternet, May Sales Monitor, January 2000, www.fas.org
31, 2000, www.alternet.org/
25. Community Activists Outsit
23. Very Small Levels of Chemical McDonald's
Exposures Can be Dangerous

F or years, the public has been told that

a low level of chemical exposure
O n Sunday December 13, 1998, local
residents of Hinchley Wood,
England, occupied the parking lot of their
holds no significant risk to humans. However, the results of local pub to prevent McDonald's from building on the site. Their
recent studies show that even small amounts of chemicals (in 24-hours-a-day sit-in campaign lasted 18 months, received nation-
drinking water, in foods) may in fact be very damaging. al publicity and galvanised community support against
New research in the field of endocrine disrupters has shown McDonald's.
that chemicals like dioxin, PCBs and DDT act at very low levels The community organised to become Residents Against
to interfere with normal hormone functions of the body. Very low McDonald's (RAM). Their campaign forced McDonald's onto the
levels of these chemicals have been linked to a wide variety of defensive, stopping all work on the site. RAM exposed how local
health problems, such as neurological and developmental prob- planning laws allow companies to steamroll over the wishes of
lems, immune system disruption, learning disabilities, birth communities, ignoring expressed concerns over the quality of
defects and other reproductive anomalies. local lives and environment.
According to Dr Pete Myers, co-author of Our Stolen Future, When McDonald's leases or purchases neighbourhood pubs to
chemical attacks against foetal development work because some avoid the usual local planning applications and guidelines, local
chemicals act as imposters, insinuating themselves in the body's residents become outraged and feel compelled to resist. This time
natural hormone system that normally directs foetal development. the residents were successful.
What is becoming apparent is that important low-level effects, After RAM's incredible 552-day continuous occupation,
such as disruption of a hormone signalling system, may be hidden McDonald's threw in the towel and handed back the lease on the
by higher levels of chemical exposure, which cause more obvious pub to the original owners. RAM celebrated an historic victory.
impacts that are easier to measure. Reference
Reference • McLibel Support Campaign, "Residents defeat McDonald's after
• Stephen Lester, "Understanding 'Low Level' Chemical Exposures", mammoth 552-day occupation", A-Infos New Service, June 16, 2000,
Everyone's Backyard, Summer 2000 www.mcspotlight.org

JUNE – JULY 2001 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 19