In the early 1950s the United States initiated a more activist policy toward Egypt often in contrast with British policies. Israel feared that this policy, which encouraged Britain to withdraw its military forces from the Suez Canal, would embolden Egyptian President Nasser's military ambitions towards Israel. Israel first sought to influence this policy through diplomatic means but was frustrated. [3]
In the summer of 1954 Colonel Binyamin Gibli, the chief of Israel's military intelligence, Aman, initiated Operation Suzannah in order to reverse that decision. The goal of the Operation was to carry out bombings and other acts of violence in Egypt with the aim of creating an atmosphere in which the British and American opponents of British withdrawal from Egypt would be able to gain the upper hand and block the withdrawal.
According to historian Shabtai Teveth, who wrote one of the more detailed accounts, the assignment was "To undermine Western confidence in the existing [Egyptian] regime by generating public insecurity and actions to bring about arrests, demonstrations, and acts of revenge, while totally concealing the Israeli factor. The team was accordingly urged to avoid detection, so that suspicion would fall on the Muslim Brotherhood, the Communists, 'unspecified malcontents' or 'local nationalists'." [1]
The top-secret cell, Unit 131, which was to carry out the operation, had existed since 1948 and under Aman since 1950. At the time of Operation Susannah, Unit 131 was the subject of a bitter dispute between Aman {military intelligence} and Mossad {national intelligence agency} over who should control it.
Unit 131 operatives had been recruited several years before, when the Israeli intelligence officer Avram Dar arrived in Cairo undercover as a British citizen of Gibraltar called John Darling. He had recruited several Egyptian Jews who had previously been active in illegal emigration activities and trained them for covert operations.
Aman decided to activate the network in the spring of 1954. On July 2, they firebombed a post office in Alexandria, and on July 14, they bombed the U.S. Information Agency libraries in Alexandria and Cairo and a British-owned theater. The homemade bombs, consisting of bags containing acid placed over nitroglycerine, were inserted into books, and placed on the shelves of the libraries just before closing time. Several hours later, as the acid ate through the bags, the bombs would explode. They did little damage to the targets and caused no injuries or deaths.
Before the group began Israeli agent Avraham Seidenberg (Avri Elad) was sent to oversee the operations. Seidenberg assumed the identity of Paul Frank, a former SS officer with Nazi underground connections. Avraham Seidenberg allegedly informed the Egyptians resulting in the Egyptian Intelligence Service following a suspect to his target, the Rio Theatre, where a fire engine was standing by. Egyptian authorities arrested this suspect, Philip Natanson, when his bomb accidentally ignited prematurely in his pocket. Having searched his apartment, they found incriminating evidence and names of accomplices to the operation. Several suspects were arrested, including Egyptian Jews and undercover Israelis.
Colonel Dar and Seidenberg had managed to escape. One suspect {Yosef Carmon} was tortured to death in prison and Hungarian born Israeli Meir Max Bineth committed suicide. The trial began on December 11 and lasted until January 27, 1955; two of the accused (Moshe Marzouk and Shmuel Azar) were condemned to execution by hanging and two acquitted with the rest receiving lengthy prison terms. The trial was widely criticized as a show trial, and there were allegations that evidence had been extracted by torture. [4]
Two of the imprisoned operatives, Meir Meyuhas and Meir Za'afran, were released in 1962, after having served seven year jail sentences. The rest were eventually freed in February 1968, in a secret addendum to a prisoner of war exchange.
Soon after the affair, Mossad chief Isser Harel expressed suspicion to Aman concerning the integrity of Avraham Seidenberg. Despite his concerns, Aman continued using Seidenberg for intelligence operations until 1956, when he was caught trying to sell Israeli documents to the Egyptians. Seidenberg was tried and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. In 1980, Harel publicly revealed evidence that Seidenberg had been turned by the Egyptians even before Operation Suzannah.
2. Political aftermath
In meetings with prime minister Moshe Sharett, secretary of defense Pinhas Lavon denied any knowledge of the operation. When intelligence chief Gibli contradicted Lavon, Sharrett commissioned a board of inquiry consisting of Israeli Supreme Court Justice Isaac Olshan and the first chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Yaakov Dori that was unable to find conclusive evidence that Lavon had authorized the operation. Lavon tried to fix the blame on Shimon Peres, who was the secretary general of the defense ministry, and Gibli for insubordination and criminal negligence. Sharett resolved the dilemma by siding with Peres, who along with Moshe Dayan testified against Lavon, after which Lavon resigned. Former prime minister David Ben-Gurion succeeded Lavon as minister of defense. A short time later, Sharett, who did not know about the operation in advance, and who had strongly denied Israel's involvement, resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Ben-Gurion.
In April of 1960, a review of minutes from the inquiry found inconsistencies and possibly a fraudulent document in Gibli's original testimony that seemed to support Lavon's account of events. During this time, it also came to light that Seidenberg (the Israeli agent running Operation Suzannah in Egypt), had committed perjury during the original inquiry. Seidenberg was also suspected of betraying the group to Egyptian authorities; though the charges were never proven, he was eventually sentenced to a jail term of 10 years. Ben-Gurion scheduled closed hearings with a new board of inquiry chaired by Chaim Cohen, a supreme court justice.
This inquiry found that the perjury indeed had been committed, and that Lavon had not authorized the operation. Sharett and Levi Eshkol tried to issue a statement that would placate both Lavon and those who had opposed him. Ben-Gurion refused to accept the compromise and viewed it as a divisive play within the Mapai party. After another investigative committee sided with the Cohen inquiry, Ben-Gurion resigned from his post as defense minister. This led to the expulsion of Lavon from the Histadrut labor union and an early call for new elections which changed the political structure in Israel.
It should be noted that the specifics of Operation Susannah were not public at the time of the political upheaval.
3. Legacy
Operation Suzannah and the Lavon Affair turned out to be disastrous for Israel in several ways:
* Israel lost significant standing and credibility in its relations with the United Kingdom and the United States that would take years to repair.
* The tactics of the operation led to deep-seated suspicion of Israeli intelligence methods, such as agents provocateurs and false flag operations.
* The political aftermath caused considerable political turmoil in Israel that affected the influence of its government.
In March 2005, Israel publicly honored the surviving operatives, and President Moshe Katsav presented each with a certificate of appreciation for their efforts on behalf of the state, ending decades of official denial by Israel. [2]
4. Notes
1. ^ S. Teveth, Ben-Gurion's spy: the story of the political scandal that shaped modern Israel. Columbia University Press, 1996, ISBN 0231104642, p.81.
2. ^ "After half a century of reticence and recrimination, Israel ... honored ... agents-provocateur. Reuters, 30th March 2005. Accessed 2nd July 2007.
3. Hahn, Peter L. United States, Great Britain, and Egypt, 1945-1956: Strategy and Diplomacy. UNC Press. pp. 187. ISBN 0807819425. "In late 1954, the Anglo-Egyptian base agreement and American plans to promote a Northern tier security arrangement generated tension between Israel and Egypt. Israeli officials feared that British troop withdrawal from the Canal zone ... would encourage Egyptial aggressiveness toward Israel and remove Western leverage to modify Egyptian behavior on issues such as Suez Canal restrictions"
4. "The Lavon Affair". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/lavon.html. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
5. References
* Black, Ian and Morris, Benny (1992): Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services, Futura, ISBN 0802132863.
* Ostrovsky, Victor and Hoy, Claire: By Way of Deception. St. Martin's Press, 1991, ISBN 0-312-92614-6.
6. Further reading
* Aviezer Golan (Ninio Marcelle, Victor Levy, Robert Dassa and Philip Natanson (As told to Aviezer Golan) (Translated from Hebrew by Petretz Kidron) (Fwd by Golda Meir): Operation Susannah, Harper & Row, NYC, 1978 ISBN 0-060-11555-6
* Joel Beinin: Nazis and Spies The Discourse of Operation Susannah, ch 4 in The Dispersion Of Egyptian Jewry Culture, Politics, And The Formation Of A Modern Diaspora Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998. Amer Univ in Cairo Pr, 2005, ISBN 9774248902
* Joel Beinin: Egyptian Jewish Identities. Communitarianisms, nationalisms, nostalgias Stanford Humanities Review, 1996
7. External links
* The Lavon Affair - Israel and Terror in Egypt
* The Lavon Affair by Doron Geller, JUICE, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Education Department
* The Lavon Affair by David Hirst, Excerpts from his book: The Gun and the Olive Branch, 1977, 1984, Futura Publications
* The Lavon Affair including quotes from Moshe Sharett’s Diary
* List of books about the Lavon Affair
Categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from April 2009, All articles lacking in-text citations, Arab-Israeli conflict, Egypt-Israel relations, History of Egypt, False flag operations, Jewish Egyptian history, 1960 in Israel, 1960 in Egypt, Political scandals in Israel, Espionage scandals and incidents, Military scandals, Secret military programs
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Welcome to Gaza's Killing Fields where Palestinian Children live
by Wahida C. Valiante
December 26, 2009
So much has appeared in the international press and on the Internet that it would seem to be an exercise in redundancy to offer a perspective on the tragedy that befell the people of Gaza last year, especially the Gazan children. A devastating and colossal tragedy it certainly was; the Israeli attacks by sea, air and land were more brutal than anything the inhabitants of Gaza had ever endured previously.
The pictures that flooded television screens around the world showed a gruesome parade of young corpses and wounded children being loaded into and unloaded from the trunks of private cars that transported them to the only hospital in Gaza worthy of being called a hospital. People of conscience all over the world found these images horrifyingly explicit and they brought home to us both the magnitude of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel’s brutal assault against helpless and innocent Gazan children who had nowhere to run or hide. This latest orgy of air strikes and armed incursions by Israeli military forces turned the besieged and starved Strip into an unbearable inferno - literally into the Killing Fields of Gaza.
In November 2000, the Globe and Mail published my article "Who are the victims here?" in which I described the living conditions of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip during my stay in the occupied territories in 1999:
"I recently observed the effects of the 'peace process’ when I visited the children of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Gaza, Rafah and East Jerusalem. These children know first-hand the effects of military and economic oppression. There is hardly a family that has not experienced torture, imprisonment or economic hardship.
"Most of these children live in refugee camps in houses with corrugated roofs and cramped living spaces. Often, they do not have running water. The children lack adequate schools, health-care facilities, hospitals, social services, public parks, swimming pools, or recreation facilities. In the camps, the streets are their playgrounds, often with open sewers and waste flowing freely. They have seen no other reality."
It is sad that what seems so obvious to rest of the world escapes the minds of apologists for Israeli state terror.
Children make up more than half of crowded Gaza’s 1.4 million people and are the most defenseless victims of Israeli siege of Gaza. Israel's harsh security measures come at an enormous humanitarian cost and the stark reality is that under Israeli occupation, an entire generation of Palestinian children and youth have suffered a litany of horrific, traumatizing events for thirty years. In addition to almost-daily home demolitions, they have witnessed intimidation, humiliation, fear, insecurity, poverty, closures, and the menacing presence of armed settlers.
With all their healthy socializing structures destroyed by the Israeli military, these children have never known peace or security, or the freedom to roam the streets and playgrounds. Gaza’s children, like their parents, continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from living in peace and security, going to school, or doing things that make up the daily fabric of most people's existence. Their parents have not known peace and freedom either, and cannot even dream about a safe and productive future for their children, and the children to come after them.
Ever since the moribund Oslo peace accord, they have been living in large prison camps. Now, locked up and besieged in Gaza by an Israeli army that happens to be one of the most powerful in the world, these children are under attack in their own land, in their own homes, and are being subjected to economic, psychological, physical and emotional terror from the air, sea and ground. Indeed all of Gaza has become a danger zone where children’s homes have been demolished, bombed, and shelled, killing children inside. Other children have been killed while riding in cars with their parents, while playing in the streets, while walking to school, visiting friends, and even while taking refuge in a UN Shelter.
Imagine the psychological and emotional terror experienced by children who grow up knowing that their parents cannot protect them from helicopter gunships, ground missiles, or snipers’ bullets. These children have no escape routes, no options, because the Israeli army and invading settlers are the ones who determine which child, which family, will be shot; which houses and trees will be bulldozed and uprooted; which street or alleyway will be hit by the sharpshooters. Their basic human rights are being trampled on by deliberate policies of the Israeli government whose obscene actions have denied these innocent children education, safety, health, economic well-being and all the amenities of normal life.
This nightmare of the children of Gaza is best described in the pages of Franz Kafka:
Lawrence Davidson in Counter Punch writes that, "In Kafka’s world, the prevailing theme is uncertainty and unpredictability. There are no set rules for behavior and the orders given by authorities seem arbitrary and even contradictory. You do not know what the laws are. The 'authorities’ in Kafka’s work sit in their fortresses and periodically intrude upon the lives of the confused and apparently helpless protagonists."
Similarly, nothing is predictable for Palestinians. Israel’s rules can change from one day to the next without notice or explanation. They live in an arbitrary environment, continuously adapting to circumstances they cannot influence and which increasingly reduce the range of their possibilities. No one really knows how many Palestinian children will continue to re- experience the horrors of conflict psychologically and emotionally throughout their lives.
Yet, as the world witnessed the organized, ruthless killing and maiming of these Palestinian children, there was only deafening silence from our "humane" Canadian government. If Prime Minister Harper so greatly respects the dignity of human life as he stated during his recent visit to China he would have asked Israel long ago to cease its murderous onslaught on the children of Gaza.
During my stay in the occupied territories, I was often asked by Palestinians why the world ignored their sufferings and their right to self-determination. I had no answer then. But today I can tell them that they are not alone; the world is outraged at what it witnessed in Gaza and for the "first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, an international campaign calling for sanctions against Israel for its innumerous violations of International Law has been very successful in drawing huge public attention and initiating a great number of mobilizations and initiatives around the world." (Michel Warschawski)
No amount of "anti-Semitic" or "self-hating" labels pasted on people of conscience who criticize the Israeli occupation can stifle that debate; it is a debate now spreading throughout the world, focusing unavoidable scrutiny on Israel and its brutal occupation of Palestinian territories.
When the dust settles, history will record that the atrocities repeatedly committed by Israel against defenseless Palestinian children in Gaza was a turning-point in the long ordeal of Palestine’s occupation. Things can never be the same again in Palestine because the world knows more of the truth about Israel’s’ cruel agenda than ever before.
----------------------------------------
(Mrs. Wahida Valiante is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. She is a retired professional family counselor who visited Palestine as part of a fact-finding medical team. While there, the team visited refugee camps, health care clinics, hospitals, orphanages, children’s schools, local and international charities and women's refugee centers, as well as speaking extensively with social workers and local Palestinian families.)
December 26, 2009
So much has appeared in the international press and on the Internet that it would seem to be an exercise in redundancy to offer a perspective on the tragedy that befell the people of Gaza last year, especially the Gazan children. A devastating and colossal tragedy it certainly was; the Israeli attacks by sea, air and land were more brutal than anything the inhabitants of Gaza had ever endured previously.
The pictures that flooded television screens around the world showed a gruesome parade of young corpses and wounded children being loaded into and unloaded from the trunks of private cars that transported them to the only hospital in Gaza worthy of being called a hospital. People of conscience all over the world found these images horrifyingly explicit and they brought home to us both the magnitude of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel’s brutal assault against helpless and innocent Gazan children who had nowhere to run or hide. This latest orgy of air strikes and armed incursions by Israeli military forces turned the besieged and starved Strip into an unbearable inferno - literally into the Killing Fields of Gaza.
In November 2000, the Globe and Mail published my article "Who are the victims here?" in which I described the living conditions of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip during my stay in the occupied territories in 1999:
"I recently observed the effects of the 'peace process’ when I visited the children of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Gaza, Rafah and East Jerusalem. These children know first-hand the effects of military and economic oppression. There is hardly a family that has not experienced torture, imprisonment or economic hardship.
"Most of these children live in refugee camps in houses with corrugated roofs and cramped living spaces. Often, they do not have running water. The children lack adequate schools, health-care facilities, hospitals, social services, public parks, swimming pools, or recreation facilities. In the camps, the streets are their playgrounds, often with open sewers and waste flowing freely. They have seen no other reality."
It is sad that what seems so obvious to rest of the world escapes the minds of apologists for Israeli state terror.
Children make up more than half of crowded Gaza’s 1.4 million people and are the most defenseless victims of Israeli siege of Gaza. Israel's harsh security measures come at an enormous humanitarian cost and the stark reality is that under Israeli occupation, an entire generation of Palestinian children and youth have suffered a litany of horrific, traumatizing events for thirty years. In addition to almost-daily home demolitions, they have witnessed intimidation, humiliation, fear, insecurity, poverty, closures, and the menacing presence of armed settlers.
With all their healthy socializing structures destroyed by the Israeli military, these children have never known peace or security, or the freedom to roam the streets and playgrounds. Gaza’s children, like their parents, continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from living in peace and security, going to school, or doing things that make up the daily fabric of most people's existence. Their parents have not known peace and freedom either, and cannot even dream about a safe and productive future for their children, and the children to come after them.
Ever since the moribund Oslo peace accord, they have been living in large prison camps. Now, locked up and besieged in Gaza by an Israeli army that happens to be one of the most powerful in the world, these children are under attack in their own land, in their own homes, and are being subjected to economic, psychological, physical and emotional terror from the air, sea and ground. Indeed all of Gaza has become a danger zone where children’s homes have been demolished, bombed, and shelled, killing children inside. Other children have been killed while riding in cars with their parents, while playing in the streets, while walking to school, visiting friends, and even while taking refuge in a UN Shelter.
Imagine the psychological and emotional terror experienced by children who grow up knowing that their parents cannot protect them from helicopter gunships, ground missiles, or snipers’ bullets. These children have no escape routes, no options, because the Israeli army and invading settlers are the ones who determine which child, which family, will be shot; which houses and trees will be bulldozed and uprooted; which street or alleyway will be hit by the sharpshooters. Their basic human rights are being trampled on by deliberate policies of the Israeli government whose obscene actions have denied these innocent children education, safety, health, economic well-being and all the amenities of normal life.
This nightmare of the children of Gaza is best described in the pages of Franz Kafka:
Lawrence Davidson in Counter Punch writes that, "In Kafka’s world, the prevailing theme is uncertainty and unpredictability. There are no set rules for behavior and the orders given by authorities seem arbitrary and even contradictory. You do not know what the laws are. The 'authorities’ in Kafka’s work sit in their fortresses and periodically intrude upon the lives of the confused and apparently helpless protagonists."
Similarly, nothing is predictable for Palestinians. Israel’s rules can change from one day to the next without notice or explanation. They live in an arbitrary environment, continuously adapting to circumstances they cannot influence and which increasingly reduce the range of their possibilities. No one really knows how many Palestinian children will continue to re- experience the horrors of conflict psychologically and emotionally throughout their lives.
Yet, as the world witnessed the organized, ruthless killing and maiming of these Palestinian children, there was only deafening silence from our "humane" Canadian government. If Prime Minister Harper so greatly respects the dignity of human life as he stated during his recent visit to China he would have asked Israel long ago to cease its murderous onslaught on the children of Gaza.
During my stay in the occupied territories, I was often asked by Palestinians why the world ignored their sufferings and their right to self-determination. I had no answer then. But today I can tell them that they are not alone; the world is outraged at what it witnessed in Gaza and for the "first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, an international campaign calling for sanctions against Israel for its innumerous violations of International Law has been very successful in drawing huge public attention and initiating a great number of mobilizations and initiatives around the world." (Michel Warschawski)
No amount of "anti-Semitic" or "self-hating" labels pasted on people of conscience who criticize the Israeli occupation can stifle that debate; it is a debate now spreading throughout the world, focusing unavoidable scrutiny on Israel and its brutal occupation of Palestinian territories.
When the dust settles, history will record that the atrocities repeatedly committed by Israel against defenseless Palestinian children in Gaza was a turning-point in the long ordeal of Palestine’s occupation. Things can never be the same again in Palestine because the world knows more of the truth about Israel’s’ cruel agenda than ever before.
----------------------------------------
(Mrs. Wahida Valiante is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. She is a retired professional family counselor who visited Palestine as part of a fact-finding medical team. While there, the team visited refugee camps, health care clinics, hospitals, orphanages, children’s schools, local and international charities and women's refugee centers, as well as speaking extensively with social workers and local Palestinian families.)
Monday, December 28, 2009
One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists
By Chris Hedges
December 28, 2009 "Truthdig" -- Syed Fahad Hashmi can tell you about the dark heart of America. He knows that our First Amendment rights have become a joke, that habeas corpus no longer exists and that we torture, not only in black sites such as those at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or at Guantánamo Bay, but also at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. Hashmi is a U.S. citizen of Muslim descent imprisoned on two counts of providing and conspiring to provide material support and two counts of making and conspiring to make a contribution of goods or services to al-Qaida. As his case prepares for trial, his plight illustrates that the gravest threat we face is not from Islamic extremists, but the codification of draconian procedures that deny Americans basic civil liberties and due process. Hashmi would be a better person to tell you this, but he is not allowed to speak.
This corruption of our legal system, if history is any guide, will not be reserved by the state for suspected terrorists, or even Muslim Americans. In the coming turmoil and economic collapse, it will be used to silence all who are branded as disruptive or subversive. Hashmi endures what many others, who are not Muslim, will endure later. Radical activists in the environmental, globalization, anti-nuclear, sustainable agriculture and anarchist movements—who are already being placed by the state in special detention facilities with Muslims charged with terrorism—have discovered that his fate is their fate. Courageous groups have organized protests, including vigils outside the Manhattan detention facility. They can be found at www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org or www.freefahad.com. On Martin Luther King Day, this Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. EST, protesters will hold a large vigil in front of the MCC on 150 Park Row in Lower Manhattan to call for a return of our constitutional rights. Join them if you can.
The case against Hashmi, like most of the terrorist cases launched by the Bush administration, is appallingly weak and built on flimsy circumstantial evidence. This may be the reason the state has set up parallel legal and penal codes to railroad those it charges with links to terrorism. If it were a matter of evidence, activists like Hashmi, who is accused of facilitating the delivery of socks to al-Qaida, would probably never be brought to trial.
Hashmi, who if convicted could face up to 70 years in prison, has been held in solitary confinement for more than 2½ years. Special administrative measures, known as SAMs, have been imposed by the attorney general to prevent or severely restrict communication with other prisoners, attorneys, family, the media and people outside the jail. He also is denied access to the news and other reading material. Hashmi is not allowed to attend group prayer. He is subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring and 23-hour lockdown. He must shower and go to the bathroom on camera. He can write one letter a week to a single member of his family, but he cannot use more than three pieces of paper. He has no access to fresh air and must take his one hour of daily recreation in a cage. His “proclivity for violence” is cited as the reason for these measures although he has never been charged or convicted with committing an act of violence.
“My brother was an activist,” Hashmi’s brother, Faisal, told me by phone from his home in Queens. “He spoke out on Muslim issues, especially those dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His arrest and torture have nothing to do with providing ponchos and socks to al-Qaida, as has been charged, but the manipulation of the law to suppress activists and scare the Muslim American community. My brother is an example. His treatment is meant to show Muslims what will happen to them if they speak about the plight of Muslims. We have lost every single motion to preserve my brother’s humanity and remove the special administrative measures. These measures are designed solely to break the psyche of prisoners and terrorize the Muslim community. These measures exemplify the malice towards Muslims at home and the malice towards the millions of Muslims who are considered as non-humans in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The extreme sensory deprivation used on Hashmi is a form of psychological torture, far more effective in breaking and disorienting detainees. It is torture as science. In Germany, the Gestapo broke bones while its successor, the communist East German Stasi, broke souls. We are like the Stasi. We have refined the art of psychological disintegration and drag bewildered suspects into secretive courts when they no longer have the mental and psychological capability to defend themselves.
“Hashmi’s right to a fair trial has been abridged,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Much of the evidence in the case has been classified under CIPA, and thus Hashmi has not been allowed to review it. The prosecution only recently turned over a significant portion of evidence to the defense. Hashmi may not communicate with the news media, either directly or through his attorneys. The conditions of his detention have impacted his mental state and ability to participate in his own defense.
“The prosecution’s case against Hashmi, an outspoken activist within the Muslim community, abridges his First Amendment rights and threatens the First Amendment rights of others,” Ratner added. “While Hashmi’s political and religious beliefs, speech and associations are constitutionally protected, the government has been given wide latitude by the court to use them as evidence of his frame of mind and, by extension, intent. The material support charges against him depend on criminalization of association. This could have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of others, particularly in activist and Muslim communities.”
Constitutionally protected statements, beliefs and associations can now become a crime. Dissidents, even those who break no laws, can be stripped of their rights and imprisoned without due process. It is the legal equivalent of preemptive war. The state can detain and prosecute people not for what they have done, or even for what they are planning to do, but for holding religious or political beliefs that the state deems seditious. The first of those targeted have been observant Muslims, but they will not be the last.
“Most of the evidence is classified,” Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College who taught Hashmi, told me, “but Hashmi is not allowed to see it. He is an American citizen. But in America you can now go to trial and all the evidence collected against you cannot be reviewed. You can spend 2½ years in solitary confinement before you are convicted of anything. There has been attention paid to extraordinary rendition, Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib with this false idea that if people are tried in the United States things will be fair. But what allowed Guantánamo to happen was the devolution of the rule of law here at home, and this is not only happening to Hashmi.”
Hashmi was, like so many of those arrested during the Bush years, briefly a poster child in the “war on terror.” He was apprehended in Britain on June 6, 2006, on a U.S. warrant. His arrest was the top story on the CBS and NBC nightly news programs, which used graphics that read “Terror Trail” and “Web of Terror.” He was held for 11 months at Belmarsh Prison in London and then became the first U.S. citizen to be extradited by Britain. The year before his arrest, Hashmi, a graduate of Brooklyn College, had completed his master’s degree in international relations at London Metropolitan University. His case has no more substance than the one against the seven men arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, a case where, even though there were five convictions after two mistrials, an FBI deputy director acknowledged that the plan was more “aspirational rather than operational.” And it mirrors the older case of the Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian, now under house arrest in Virginia, who has been hounded by the Justice Department although he should legally have been freed. Judge Leonie Brinkema, currently handling the Al-Arian case, in early March, questioned the U.S. attorney’s actions in Al-Arian’s plea agreement saying curtly: “I think there’s something more important here, and that’s the integrity of the Justice Department.”
The case against Hashmi revolves around the testimony of Junaid Babar, also an American citizen. Babar, in early 2004, stayed with Hashmi at his London apartment for two weeks. In his luggage, the government alleges, Babar had raincoats, ponchos and waterproof socks, which Babar later delivered to a member of al-Qaida in south Waziristan, Pakistan. It was alleged that Hashmi allowed Babar to use his cell phone to call conspirators in other terror plots.
“Hashmi grew up here, was well known here, was very outspoken, very charismatic and very political,” said Theoharis. “This is really a message being sent to American Muslims about the cost of being politically active. It is not about delivering alleged socks and ponchos and rain gear. Do you think al-Qaida can’t get socks and ponchos in Pakistan? The government is planning to introduce tapes of Hashmi’s political talks while he was at Brooklyn College at the trial. Why are we willing to let this happen? Is it because they are Muslims, and we think it will not affect us? People who care about First Amendment rights should be terrified. This is one of the crucial civil rights issues of our time. We ignore this at our own peril.”
Babar, who was arrested in 2004 and has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for al-Qaida, also faces up to 70 years in prison. But he has agreed to serve as a government witness and has already testified for the government in terror trials in Britain and Canada. Babar will receive a reduced sentence for his services, and many speculate he will be set free after the Hashmi trial. Since there is very little evidence to link Hashmi to terrorist activity, the government will rely on Babar to prove intent. This intent will revolve around alleged conversations and statements Hashmi made in Babar’s presence. Hashmi, who was a member of the New York political group Al Muhajiroun as a student at Brooklyn College, has made provocative statements, including calling America “the biggest terrorist in the world,” but Al Muhajiroun is not defined by the government as a terrorist organization. Membership in the group is not illegal. And our complicity in acts of state terror is a historical fact.
There will be more Hashmis, and the Justice Department, planning for future detentions, set up in 2006 a segregated facility, the Communication Management Unit, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Nearly all the inmates transferred to Terre Haute are Muslims. A second facility has been set up at Marion, Ill., where the inmates again are mostly Muslim but also include a sprinkling of animal rights and environmental activists, among them Daniel McGowan, who was charged with two arsons at logging operations in Oregon. His sentence was given “terrorism enhancements” under the Patriot Act. Amnesty International has called the Marion prison facility “inhumane.” All calls and mail—although communication customarily is off-limits to prison officials—are monitored in these two Communication Management Units. Communication among prisoners is required to be only in English. The highest-level terrorists are housed at the Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, known as Supermax, in Florence, Colo., where prisoners have almost no human interaction, physical exercise or mental stimulation, replicating the conditions for most of those held at Guantánamo. If detainees are transferred from Guantánamo to the prison in in Thomson, Ill., they will find little change. They will endure Guantánamo-like conditions in colder weather.
Our descent is the familiar disease of decaying empires. The tyranny we impose on others we finally impose on ourselves. The influx of non-Muslim American activists into these facilities is another ominous development. It presages the continued dismantling of the rule of law, the widening of a system where prisoners are psychologically broken by sensory deprivation, extreme isolation and secretive kangaroo courts where suspects are sentenced on rumors and innuendo and denied the right to view the evidence against them. Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism.
Chris Hedges, whose column is published on Truthdig every Monday, spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He has written nine books, including “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009) and “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” (2003).
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C.
December 28, 2009 "Truthdig" -- Syed Fahad Hashmi can tell you about the dark heart of America. He knows that our First Amendment rights have become a joke, that habeas corpus no longer exists and that we torture, not only in black sites such as those at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or at Guantánamo Bay, but also at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. Hashmi is a U.S. citizen of Muslim descent imprisoned on two counts of providing and conspiring to provide material support and two counts of making and conspiring to make a contribution of goods or services to al-Qaida. As his case prepares for trial, his plight illustrates that the gravest threat we face is not from Islamic extremists, but the codification of draconian procedures that deny Americans basic civil liberties and due process. Hashmi would be a better person to tell you this, but he is not allowed to speak.
This corruption of our legal system, if history is any guide, will not be reserved by the state for suspected terrorists, or even Muslim Americans. In the coming turmoil and economic collapse, it will be used to silence all who are branded as disruptive or subversive. Hashmi endures what many others, who are not Muslim, will endure later. Radical activists in the environmental, globalization, anti-nuclear, sustainable agriculture and anarchist movements—who are already being placed by the state in special detention facilities with Muslims charged with terrorism—have discovered that his fate is their fate. Courageous groups have organized protests, including vigils outside the Manhattan detention facility. They can be found at www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org or www.freefahad.com. On Martin Luther King Day, this Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. EST, protesters will hold a large vigil in front of the MCC on 150 Park Row in Lower Manhattan to call for a return of our constitutional rights. Join them if you can.
The case against Hashmi, like most of the terrorist cases launched by the Bush administration, is appallingly weak and built on flimsy circumstantial evidence. This may be the reason the state has set up parallel legal and penal codes to railroad those it charges with links to terrorism. If it were a matter of evidence, activists like Hashmi, who is accused of facilitating the delivery of socks to al-Qaida, would probably never be brought to trial.
Hashmi, who if convicted could face up to 70 years in prison, has been held in solitary confinement for more than 2½ years. Special administrative measures, known as SAMs, have been imposed by the attorney general to prevent or severely restrict communication with other prisoners, attorneys, family, the media and people outside the jail. He also is denied access to the news and other reading material. Hashmi is not allowed to attend group prayer. He is subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring and 23-hour lockdown. He must shower and go to the bathroom on camera. He can write one letter a week to a single member of his family, but he cannot use more than three pieces of paper. He has no access to fresh air and must take his one hour of daily recreation in a cage. His “proclivity for violence” is cited as the reason for these measures although he has never been charged or convicted with committing an act of violence.
“My brother was an activist,” Hashmi’s brother, Faisal, told me by phone from his home in Queens. “He spoke out on Muslim issues, especially those dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His arrest and torture have nothing to do with providing ponchos and socks to al-Qaida, as has been charged, but the manipulation of the law to suppress activists and scare the Muslim American community. My brother is an example. His treatment is meant to show Muslims what will happen to them if they speak about the plight of Muslims. We have lost every single motion to preserve my brother’s humanity and remove the special administrative measures. These measures are designed solely to break the psyche of prisoners and terrorize the Muslim community. These measures exemplify the malice towards Muslims at home and the malice towards the millions of Muslims who are considered as non-humans in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The extreme sensory deprivation used on Hashmi is a form of psychological torture, far more effective in breaking and disorienting detainees. It is torture as science. In Germany, the Gestapo broke bones while its successor, the communist East German Stasi, broke souls. We are like the Stasi. We have refined the art of psychological disintegration and drag bewildered suspects into secretive courts when they no longer have the mental and psychological capability to defend themselves.
“Hashmi’s right to a fair trial has been abridged,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Much of the evidence in the case has been classified under CIPA, and thus Hashmi has not been allowed to review it. The prosecution only recently turned over a significant portion of evidence to the defense. Hashmi may not communicate with the news media, either directly or through his attorneys. The conditions of his detention have impacted his mental state and ability to participate in his own defense.
“The prosecution’s case against Hashmi, an outspoken activist within the Muslim community, abridges his First Amendment rights and threatens the First Amendment rights of others,” Ratner added. “While Hashmi’s political and religious beliefs, speech and associations are constitutionally protected, the government has been given wide latitude by the court to use them as evidence of his frame of mind and, by extension, intent. The material support charges against him depend on criminalization of association. This could have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of others, particularly in activist and Muslim communities.”
Constitutionally protected statements, beliefs and associations can now become a crime. Dissidents, even those who break no laws, can be stripped of their rights and imprisoned without due process. It is the legal equivalent of preemptive war. The state can detain and prosecute people not for what they have done, or even for what they are planning to do, but for holding religious or political beliefs that the state deems seditious. The first of those targeted have been observant Muslims, but they will not be the last.
“Most of the evidence is classified,” Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College who taught Hashmi, told me, “but Hashmi is not allowed to see it. He is an American citizen. But in America you can now go to trial and all the evidence collected against you cannot be reviewed. You can spend 2½ years in solitary confinement before you are convicted of anything. There has been attention paid to extraordinary rendition, Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib with this false idea that if people are tried in the United States things will be fair. But what allowed Guantánamo to happen was the devolution of the rule of law here at home, and this is not only happening to Hashmi.”
Hashmi was, like so many of those arrested during the Bush years, briefly a poster child in the “war on terror.” He was apprehended in Britain on June 6, 2006, on a U.S. warrant. His arrest was the top story on the CBS and NBC nightly news programs, which used graphics that read “Terror Trail” and “Web of Terror.” He was held for 11 months at Belmarsh Prison in London and then became the first U.S. citizen to be extradited by Britain. The year before his arrest, Hashmi, a graduate of Brooklyn College, had completed his master’s degree in international relations at London Metropolitan University. His case has no more substance than the one against the seven men arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, a case where, even though there were five convictions after two mistrials, an FBI deputy director acknowledged that the plan was more “aspirational rather than operational.” And it mirrors the older case of the Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian, now under house arrest in Virginia, who has been hounded by the Justice Department although he should legally have been freed. Judge Leonie Brinkema, currently handling the Al-Arian case, in early March, questioned the U.S. attorney’s actions in Al-Arian’s plea agreement saying curtly: “I think there’s something more important here, and that’s the integrity of the Justice Department.”
The case against Hashmi revolves around the testimony of Junaid Babar, also an American citizen. Babar, in early 2004, stayed with Hashmi at his London apartment for two weeks. In his luggage, the government alleges, Babar had raincoats, ponchos and waterproof socks, which Babar later delivered to a member of al-Qaida in south Waziristan, Pakistan. It was alleged that Hashmi allowed Babar to use his cell phone to call conspirators in other terror plots.
“Hashmi grew up here, was well known here, was very outspoken, very charismatic and very political,” said Theoharis. “This is really a message being sent to American Muslims about the cost of being politically active. It is not about delivering alleged socks and ponchos and rain gear. Do you think al-Qaida can’t get socks and ponchos in Pakistan? The government is planning to introduce tapes of Hashmi’s political talks while he was at Brooklyn College at the trial. Why are we willing to let this happen? Is it because they are Muslims, and we think it will not affect us? People who care about First Amendment rights should be terrified. This is one of the crucial civil rights issues of our time. We ignore this at our own peril.”
Babar, who was arrested in 2004 and has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for al-Qaida, also faces up to 70 years in prison. But he has agreed to serve as a government witness and has already testified for the government in terror trials in Britain and Canada. Babar will receive a reduced sentence for his services, and many speculate he will be set free after the Hashmi trial. Since there is very little evidence to link Hashmi to terrorist activity, the government will rely on Babar to prove intent. This intent will revolve around alleged conversations and statements Hashmi made in Babar’s presence. Hashmi, who was a member of the New York political group Al Muhajiroun as a student at Brooklyn College, has made provocative statements, including calling America “the biggest terrorist in the world,” but Al Muhajiroun is not defined by the government as a terrorist organization. Membership in the group is not illegal. And our complicity in acts of state terror is a historical fact.
There will be more Hashmis, and the Justice Department, planning for future detentions, set up in 2006 a segregated facility, the Communication Management Unit, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Nearly all the inmates transferred to Terre Haute are Muslims. A second facility has been set up at Marion, Ill., where the inmates again are mostly Muslim but also include a sprinkling of animal rights and environmental activists, among them Daniel McGowan, who was charged with two arsons at logging operations in Oregon. His sentence was given “terrorism enhancements” under the Patriot Act. Amnesty International has called the Marion prison facility “inhumane.” All calls and mail—although communication customarily is off-limits to prison officials—are monitored in these two Communication Management Units. Communication among prisoners is required to be only in English. The highest-level terrorists are housed at the Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, known as Supermax, in Florence, Colo., where prisoners have almost no human interaction, physical exercise or mental stimulation, replicating the conditions for most of those held at Guantánamo. If detainees are transferred from Guantánamo to the prison in in Thomson, Ill., they will find little change. They will endure Guantánamo-like conditions in colder weather.
Our descent is the familiar disease of decaying empires. The tyranny we impose on others we finally impose on ourselves. The influx of non-Muslim American activists into these facilities is another ominous development. It presages the continued dismantling of the rule of law, the widening of a system where prisoners are psychologically broken by sensory deprivation, extreme isolation and secretive kangaroo courts where suspects are sentenced on rumors and innuendo and denied the right to view the evidence against them. Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism.
Chris Hedges, whose column is published on Truthdig every Monday, spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He has written nine books, including “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009) and “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” (2003).
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Overlooked 150 Year Old Household Cleaner a Remedy for Swine Flu?
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
December 15 2009
In today’s modern world of medicine the FDA just will not let companies that sell products make medical claims about them unless they have been tested at great expense, and approved as a drug. But this was not always the case.
In a 1924 booklet published by the Arm & Hammer Soda Company, the company starts off saying, “The proven value of Arm & Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda as a therapeutic agent is further evinced by the following evidence of a prominent physician named Dr. Volney S. Cheney, in a letter to the Church & Dwight Company:
“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘Flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.”
Recommended dosages from the Arm and Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:
* During the first day take six doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
* During the second day take four doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
* During the third day take two doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter half teaspoonful in glass of cool water each morning until cold is cured
Sources:
Sodium Bicarbonate November 30, 2009
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Follow me on facebook
Baking soda (also known as sodium bicarbonate), popularized by Arm & Hammer some 155 years ago, is derived from a natural occurring mineral, and is one of the safest and most versatile substances around. In fact, if you search for “baking soda” on my site, you’ll find a number of articles detailing its potential uses, including using it as a:
* Household cleaner
* Sunburn remedy
* Alternative to toxic antiperspirants
* Sports performance enhancer
Few people realize, however, that baking soda also has potent medicinal properties. Taken internally, it helps maintain the pH balance in your bloodstream. This is likely the basic premise behind its recommended uses against both colds and influenza symptoms, and even cancer.
WARNING!!!
Many believe that Arm and Hammer Baking Soda is contaminated with aluminum even though the company that makes it claims it does not. We have been able to confirm that there are aluminum free baking sodas like Bob's Red Mill Baking Soda. If you have any information on this please add it to the comment section below.
Baking Soda as an All-Natural Cold Remedy
In their booklet “Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Medical Uses,” published in 1924, Dr. Volney S. Cheney recounts his clinical successes with sodium bicarbonate in treating cold and flu:
“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely anyone who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.
I have since that time treated all cases of ‘cold,’ influenza and LaGripe by first giving generous doses of bicarbonate of soda, and in many, many instances within 36 hours the symptoms would have entirely abated.
Further, within my own household, before Woman’s Clubs and Parent-Teachers’ Associations, I have advocated the use of bicarbonate of soda as a preventive for “colds,” with the result that now many reports are coming in stating that those who took “soda” were not affected, while nearly everyone around them had the “flu.”
According to the Materia Medica by Walter Bastedo, sodium bicarbonate taken internally can soothe your mucous membranes and dissolve thick mucus.
It’s worth noting that I have personally never tried this cold remedy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it worked, as maintaining proper acid-alkalinity balance in your body will have a beneficial impact on your natural immune system function.
If any of you have experience using baking soda as a cold remedy, I’d love to hear about it.
The administration is easy enough, and is harmless even if you should not experience relief from your cold symptoms. Simply dissolve the recommended amount of baking soda in a glass of cold water and drink it.
Recommended dosages from the Arm & Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:
* Day 1 -- Take six doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
* Day 2 -- Take four doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
* Day 3 -- Take two doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter ½ teaspoon in glass of cool water each morning until cold symptoms are gone
Further dosing recommendations and instructions for taking sodium bicarbonate can be found in Mark Sircus’ book Sodium Bicarbonate – Rich Mans Poor Mans Cancer Treatment, which is also available in Kindle edition.
According to Arm & Hammer’s dosing instructions, do not exceed seven doses of ½ teaspoon per day, or three doses of ½ teaspoon daily if you’re over the age of 60. In addition, do not use the maximum dosage for more than two weeks.
The Potent Healing Power of Baking Soda
Dr. Tullio Simonici and Mark Sircus, Ac, OMD both advocate using baking soda for even the most serious of diseases – cancer!
Unfortunately, despite all the evidence showing that baking soda indeed has enormous potential as an effective and non-toxic cancer treatment, conventional medicine is refusing to take notice, as baking soda will never be a huge profit center for any drug company.
Even worse, the industry tries to discredit or downright destroy those who dare bring inexpensive treatment options like baking soda to the forefront. Make no mistake about it, cancer treatment is big business, and for all the promises to find a cure, there seems to be an unwritten law somewhere stating it will only be studied and accepted if there’s big profits to be had.
Dr. Simoncini, who is an oncologist (cancer specialist), was ousted from the medical community when he refused to use conventional cancer treatment methods and elected instead to administer sodium bicarbonate.
This despite the fact that he’s been able to show that 99 percent of breast- and bladder cancer can heal in just six days, entirely without the use of surgery, chemo or radiation, using just a local infiltration device (such as a catheter) to deliver the sodium bicarbonate directly to the infected site in your breast tissue or bladder!
You can watch actual before and after footage of the treatment working in this video.
In his book Winning the War on Cancer, Dr. Sircus writes:
“Sodium bicarbonate is the time honored method to 'speed up' the return of the body’s bicarbonate levels to normal. Bicarbonate is inorganic, very alkaline and like other mineral type substances, supports an extensive list of biological functions.
Sodium bicarbonate happens to be one of our most useful medicines because bicarbonate physiology is fundamental to life and health.”
Many chemotherapy treatments actually include sodium bicarbonate to help protect the patient’s kidneys, heart and nervous system. It’s been said that administering chemotherapy without bicarbonate could possibly kill you on the spot.
Could it be that while mixing chemo poisons with baking soda, any improvements seen are the result of the baking soda, and not the toxic poisons? Dr. Sircus believes that may be the case.
“There are no studies separating the effects of bicarbonate from the toxic chemotherapy agents, nor will there ever be,” he says.
Final Thoughts
If you keep an open mind, you will quickly learn that there are numerous ways to support your body in healing that have nothing to do with toxic drugs, vaccines, or surgery, even when it comes to a serious condition like cancer.
For my Top 12 all-natural cancer prevention strategies, please review my previous article, Winning the War on Cancer.
As for preventive measures against cold and flu, please read through the three articles listed below. They’re all chockfull of helpful tips and guidelines to make cold and flu symptoms a thing of the past.
Related Links:
How to Prevent the Flu -- as Easy as 1, 2, 3...
Avoid Flu Shots With the One Vitamin that Will Stop Flu in Its Tracks
Top 12 Foods for Healthy Immune Response
December 15 2009
In today’s modern world of medicine the FDA just will not let companies that sell products make medical claims about them unless they have been tested at great expense, and approved as a drug. But this was not always the case.
In a 1924 booklet published by the Arm & Hammer Soda Company, the company starts off saying, “The proven value of Arm & Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda as a therapeutic agent is further evinced by the following evidence of a prominent physician named Dr. Volney S. Cheney, in a letter to the Church & Dwight Company:
“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘Flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.”
Recommended dosages from the Arm and Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:
* During the first day take six doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
* During the second day take four doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
* During the third day take two doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter half teaspoonful in glass of cool water each morning until cold is cured
Sources:
Sodium Bicarbonate November 30, 2009
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Follow me on facebook
Baking soda (also known as sodium bicarbonate), popularized by Arm & Hammer some 155 years ago, is derived from a natural occurring mineral, and is one of the safest and most versatile substances around. In fact, if you search for “baking soda” on my site, you’ll find a number of articles detailing its potential uses, including using it as a:
* Household cleaner
* Sunburn remedy
* Alternative to toxic antiperspirants
* Sports performance enhancer
Few people realize, however, that baking soda also has potent medicinal properties. Taken internally, it helps maintain the pH balance in your bloodstream. This is likely the basic premise behind its recommended uses against both colds and influenza symptoms, and even cancer.
WARNING!!!
Many believe that Arm and Hammer Baking Soda is contaminated with aluminum even though the company that makes it claims it does not. We have been able to confirm that there are aluminum free baking sodas like Bob's Red Mill Baking Soda. If you have any information on this please add it to the comment section below.
Baking Soda as an All-Natural Cold Remedy
In their booklet “Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Medical Uses,” published in 1924, Dr. Volney S. Cheney recounts his clinical successes with sodium bicarbonate in treating cold and flu:
“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely anyone who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.
I have since that time treated all cases of ‘cold,’ influenza and LaGripe by first giving generous doses of bicarbonate of soda, and in many, many instances within 36 hours the symptoms would have entirely abated.
Further, within my own household, before Woman’s Clubs and Parent-Teachers’ Associations, I have advocated the use of bicarbonate of soda as a preventive for “colds,” with the result that now many reports are coming in stating that those who took “soda” were not affected, while nearly everyone around them had the “flu.”
According to the Materia Medica by Walter Bastedo, sodium bicarbonate taken internally can soothe your mucous membranes and dissolve thick mucus.
It’s worth noting that I have personally never tried this cold remedy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it worked, as maintaining proper acid-alkalinity balance in your body will have a beneficial impact on your natural immune system function.
If any of you have experience using baking soda as a cold remedy, I’d love to hear about it.
The administration is easy enough, and is harmless even if you should not experience relief from your cold symptoms. Simply dissolve the recommended amount of baking soda in a glass of cold water and drink it.
Recommended dosages from the Arm & Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:
* Day 1 -- Take six doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
* Day 2 -- Take four doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
* Day 3 -- Take two doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter ½ teaspoon in glass of cool water each morning until cold symptoms are gone
Further dosing recommendations and instructions for taking sodium bicarbonate can be found in Mark Sircus’ book Sodium Bicarbonate – Rich Mans Poor Mans Cancer Treatment, which is also available in Kindle edition.
According to Arm & Hammer’s dosing instructions, do not exceed seven doses of ½ teaspoon per day, or three doses of ½ teaspoon daily if you’re over the age of 60. In addition, do not use the maximum dosage for more than two weeks.
The Potent Healing Power of Baking Soda
Dr. Tullio Simonici and Mark Sircus, Ac, OMD both advocate using baking soda for even the most serious of diseases – cancer!
Unfortunately, despite all the evidence showing that baking soda indeed has enormous potential as an effective and non-toxic cancer treatment, conventional medicine is refusing to take notice, as baking soda will never be a huge profit center for any drug company.
Even worse, the industry tries to discredit or downright destroy those who dare bring inexpensive treatment options like baking soda to the forefront. Make no mistake about it, cancer treatment is big business, and for all the promises to find a cure, there seems to be an unwritten law somewhere stating it will only be studied and accepted if there’s big profits to be had.
Dr. Simoncini, who is an oncologist (cancer specialist), was ousted from the medical community when he refused to use conventional cancer treatment methods and elected instead to administer sodium bicarbonate.
This despite the fact that he’s been able to show that 99 percent of breast- and bladder cancer can heal in just six days, entirely without the use of surgery, chemo or radiation, using just a local infiltration device (such as a catheter) to deliver the sodium bicarbonate directly to the infected site in your breast tissue or bladder!
You can watch actual before and after footage of the treatment working in this video.
In his book Winning the War on Cancer, Dr. Sircus writes:
“Sodium bicarbonate is the time honored method to 'speed up' the return of the body’s bicarbonate levels to normal. Bicarbonate is inorganic, very alkaline and like other mineral type substances, supports an extensive list of biological functions.
Sodium bicarbonate happens to be one of our most useful medicines because bicarbonate physiology is fundamental to life and health.”
Many chemotherapy treatments actually include sodium bicarbonate to help protect the patient’s kidneys, heart and nervous system. It’s been said that administering chemotherapy without bicarbonate could possibly kill you on the spot.
Could it be that while mixing chemo poisons with baking soda, any improvements seen are the result of the baking soda, and not the toxic poisons? Dr. Sircus believes that may be the case.
“There are no studies separating the effects of bicarbonate from the toxic chemotherapy agents, nor will there ever be,” he says.
Final Thoughts
If you keep an open mind, you will quickly learn that there are numerous ways to support your body in healing that have nothing to do with toxic drugs, vaccines, or surgery, even when it comes to a serious condition like cancer.
For my Top 12 all-natural cancer prevention strategies, please review my previous article, Winning the War on Cancer.
As for preventive measures against cold and flu, please read through the three articles listed below. They’re all chockfull of helpful tips and guidelines to make cold and flu symptoms a thing of the past.
Related Links:
How to Prevent the Flu -- as Easy as 1, 2, 3...
Avoid Flu Shots With the One Vitamin that Will Stop Flu in Its Tracks
Top 12 Foods for Healthy Immune Response
Shas party spiritual leader on Muslims: “Their religion is as ugly as they are.”
by Yaniv Reich
December 14, 2009
An outrageously large number of Israeli politicians express violently racist sentiments in public. What must they say in private?
Today’s case study in Israeli racism toward Arabs/Palestinians/Persians/Muslims (aren’t they all the same anyway?) comes from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is the spiritual leader of Shas, a right-wing, religious party in Israeli with 11 Knesset seats (out of 120). It is the fifth largest political block at the moment and sits in PM Netanyahu’s coalition government. Its party members currently hold four cabinet posts, including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. In other words, Shas is not some fringe group of outpost settlers (although settlers are, of course, duly supported by them), but rather an integral part of Israeli government and society.
This is what their spiritual leader had to say about Muslims:
"They’re stupid. Their religion is as ugly as they are."
(Thanks to Coteret for initially posting this article.)
December 14, 2009
An outrageously large number of Israeli politicians express violently racist sentiments in public. What must they say in private?
Today’s case study in Israeli racism toward Arabs/Palestinians/Persians/Muslims (aren’t they all the same anyway?) comes from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is the spiritual leader of Shas, a right-wing, religious party in Israeli with 11 Knesset seats (out of 120). It is the fifth largest political block at the moment and sits in PM Netanyahu’s coalition government. Its party members currently hold four cabinet posts, including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. In other words, Shas is not some fringe group of outpost settlers (although settlers are, of course, duly supported by them), but rather an integral part of Israeli government and society.
This is what their spiritual leader had to say about Muslims:
"They’re stupid. Their religion is as ugly as they are."
(Thanks to Coteret for initially posting this article.)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Pakistan withdrawing troops from Balochistan
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:12:19 GMT
Pakistan is withdrawing its troops from parts of the country's southwestern Balochistan province that has been rocked by ethnic unrest in recent years.
The withdrawal, which was ordered by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani, started on Wednesday morning.
Islamabad says the move is part of a Balochistan Rights Initiative package.
However, the head of a Pakistani opposition political party says Baloch leaders have rejected the package altogether.
The Chairman of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STP) accuses Islamabad of being hypocritical.
Qadir Magsi says the Pakistani government is supporting terrorists while at the same time it is launching operations against militants.
In 2004, the Baloch rebels took up arms against the federal government, demanding autonomy for the province and greater shares from the region's natural resources.
Pakistan is withdrawing its troops from parts of the country's southwestern Balochistan province that has been rocked by ethnic unrest in recent years.
The withdrawal, which was ordered by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani, started on Wednesday morning.
Islamabad says the move is part of a Balochistan Rights Initiative package.
However, the head of a Pakistani opposition political party says Baloch leaders have rejected the package altogether.
The Chairman of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STP) accuses Islamabad of being hypocritical.
Qadir Magsi says the Pakistani government is supporting terrorists while at the same time it is launching operations against militants.
In 2004, the Baloch rebels took up arms against the federal government, demanding autonomy for the province and greater shares from the region's natural resources.
Egypt's iron wall to block Gaza tunnels
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:54:32 GMT
Egypt is building a massive iron wall along its border with the Gaza Strip to disrupt the tunnels Palestinians use to transfer food and other basic needs into the blockaded territory.
The wall which will be 9 to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) long, and will go as deep as 20 to 30 meters into the ground, Haaretz reported.
The structure is made of huge slates of steel, and will be impossible to cut or melt, the daily quoted Egyptian sources as saying.
The barrier wall is the latest move by the Cairo government in assisting Israel with its crippling siege on the Hamas-run coastal enclave since the closure started in June 2007.
The Egyptian forces demolish tunnels or fill them with gas almost every week, often with people still inside them, resulting in Palestinian casualties in the tunnels which are also regularly pounded by Israeli planes.
Joint American-Egyptian patrols have been seen in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah as they try to detect tunnels using underground sensors.
Palestinians say the tunnels are the only resort to provide food and other basic needs for the starving population in the impoverished territory.
Egypt is building a massive iron wall along its border with the Gaza Strip to disrupt the tunnels Palestinians use to transfer food and other basic needs into the blockaded territory.
The wall which will be 9 to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) long, and will go as deep as 20 to 30 meters into the ground, Haaretz reported.
The structure is made of huge slates of steel, and will be impossible to cut or melt, the daily quoted Egyptian sources as saying.
The barrier wall is the latest move by the Cairo government in assisting Israel with its crippling siege on the Hamas-run coastal enclave since the closure started in June 2007.
The Egyptian forces demolish tunnels or fill them with gas almost every week, often with people still inside them, resulting in Palestinian casualties in the tunnels which are also regularly pounded by Israeli planes.
Joint American-Egyptian patrols have been seen in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah as they try to detect tunnels using underground sensors.
Palestinians say the tunnels are the only resort to provide food and other basic needs for the starving population in the impoverished territory.
Christians, Muslims warn of moves against Al-Aqsa
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:28:53 GMT
Christian and Muslim figures have warned that Israel intends to impose a fait accompli at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of its Judaization campaign that targets East Jerusalem Al-Quds.
During an emergency meeting held in Jerusalem Al-Quds on Monday, the attendees stated that such serious moves against the Al-Aqsa Mosque will raise the ire of the Muslim world and cause an international crisis, according to the Palestinian Information Center.
The meeting also addressed the Israeli decisions to prevent a number of Palestinian scholars, preachers, and national figures from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to impose a ban on the Muslim prayer call at Jerusalem Al-Quds mosques and elsewhere in occupied Palestine.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the participants emphasized the importance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Muslim faith, adding that the mosque and its entire premises belong to all Muslims.
Muslims consider the frequent Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as part of a Judaization campaign that targets the holy city of Jerusalem Al-Quds.
MP/HGL
Christian and Muslim figures have warned that Israel intends to impose a fait accompli at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of its Judaization campaign that targets East Jerusalem Al-Quds.
During an emergency meeting held in Jerusalem Al-Quds on Monday, the attendees stated that such serious moves against the Al-Aqsa Mosque will raise the ire of the Muslim world and cause an international crisis, according to the Palestinian Information Center.
The meeting also addressed the Israeli decisions to prevent a number of Palestinian scholars, preachers, and national figures from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to impose a ban on the Muslim prayer call at Jerusalem Al-Quds mosques and elsewhere in occupied Palestine.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the participants emphasized the importance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Muslim faith, adding that the mosque and its entire premises belong to all Muslims.
Muslims consider the frequent Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as part of a Judaization campaign that targets the holy city of Jerusalem Al-Quds.
MP/HGL
Imitating non-Muslims and taking part in their celebrations
Muslims celebrating Christmas
Question
Can a Muslim celebrate Christmas? Is there any Aalim who tells that it is Haram to celebrate? If so who? Is there any Fatwa about celebrating Christmas? Is it written in the holy Qur'an about Christmas?
Fatwa
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
A Muslim should be thankful to Allah for His great blessings upon him. He Who Guided him to the right path. So he should keep on supplicating Allah to make him steadfast on this path which is the path of blessed people and to keeping him away from the path of those who deserve His Anger and of those who went astray.
The Kuffars spare no efforts to draw the Muslims away from the straight path and to cut their relation with their true religion. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {Many of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) wish that if they could turn you away as disbelievers after you have believed, out of envy from their ownselves, even, after the truth (that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is Allâh's Messenger) has become manifest unto them. But forgive and overlook, till Allâh brings His Command. Verily, Allâh is Able to do all things.}[2:109].
We the Muslims are proud of our religion that was revealed to us by Allah and are thankful that Allah has chosen us for his religion.
Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {… This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islâm as your religion. …}[5:3].
The Kuffars' celebrations such as the second millenium, Christmas Day, etc. are among the falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And those who do not witness falsehood, and if they pass by some evil play or evil talk, they pass by it with dignity.}[25:72].
Many known ancestors made clear that the "falsehood" in the above verse means feasts of Kuffars. Imam Ahmad in his book of Hadith al-Musnad and Imam Tirmizi in his book of Sunan reported on the authority of Anas who said that the Prophet came to Madinah while people there had two days in which they played. The Prophet asked, "What are these two days?" They said, "These are two days we used to play in, in our Jahiliyyah! The Prophet said, "Allah has replaced them with two better days. Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr".
A person came to the Prophet and said: "I have taken a vow to sacrifice a camel at Buwanah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked: Did the place contain any idol worshipped in pre-Islamic times? They (the people) said: No. He asked: Was any pre-Islamic festival observed there? They replied: No. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Fulfil your vow, for a vow to do an act of disobedience to Allah must not be fulfilled, neither must one do something over which a human being has no control."
No doubt celebrating such feasts is actually imitating unbelievers. The companion of the Prophet Abdullah Bin Amar bin al-'Aas said: 'Whoever celebrates the Persian New Year's Day or their carnival and imitates them till his death he will be resurrected with them on the Day of Judgment'.
The Prophet said as reported in a sound Hadith: "Who imitates non-Muslims he is one of them" [Imams Ahmad and Abu Dawood].
Therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them. Nor, does a Muslim celebrate any of their other feast days. A Muslim celebrates only the Islamic Eid days.
Many times Allah has mentioned the details of the birth of Jesus in the Qur'an but He did not mention any celebration to be done on this occasion.
Please read the Fatwa: 82006.
Allah knows best.
Question
Can a Muslim celebrate Christmas? Is there any Aalim who tells that it is Haram to celebrate? If so who? Is there any Fatwa about celebrating Christmas? Is it written in the holy Qur'an about Christmas?
Fatwa
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
A Muslim should be thankful to Allah for His great blessings upon him. He Who Guided him to the right path. So he should keep on supplicating Allah to make him steadfast on this path which is the path of blessed people and to keeping him away from the path of those who deserve His Anger and of those who went astray.
The Kuffars spare no efforts to draw the Muslims away from the straight path and to cut their relation with their true religion. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {Many of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) wish that if they could turn you away as disbelievers after you have believed, out of envy from their ownselves, even, after the truth (that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is Allâh's Messenger) has become manifest unto them. But forgive and overlook, till Allâh brings His Command. Verily, Allâh is Able to do all things.}[2:109].
We the Muslims are proud of our religion that was revealed to us by Allah and are thankful that Allah has chosen us for his religion.
Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {… This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islâm as your religion. …}[5:3].
The Kuffars' celebrations such as the second millenium, Christmas Day, etc. are among the falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And those who do not witness falsehood, and if they pass by some evil play or evil talk, they pass by it with dignity.}[25:72].
Many known ancestors made clear that the "falsehood" in the above verse means feasts of Kuffars. Imam Ahmad in his book of Hadith al-Musnad and Imam Tirmizi in his book of Sunan reported on the authority of Anas who said that the Prophet came to Madinah while people there had two days in which they played. The Prophet asked, "What are these two days?" They said, "These are two days we used to play in, in our Jahiliyyah! The Prophet said, "Allah has replaced them with two better days. Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr".
A person came to the Prophet and said: "I have taken a vow to sacrifice a camel at Buwanah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked: Did the place contain any idol worshipped in pre-Islamic times? They (the people) said: No. He asked: Was any pre-Islamic festival observed there? They replied: No. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Fulfil your vow, for a vow to do an act of disobedience to Allah must not be fulfilled, neither must one do something over which a human being has no control."
No doubt celebrating such feasts is actually imitating unbelievers. The companion of the Prophet Abdullah Bin Amar bin al-'Aas said: 'Whoever celebrates the Persian New Year's Day or their carnival and imitates them till his death he will be resurrected with them on the Day of Judgment'.
The Prophet said as reported in a sound Hadith: "Who imitates non-Muslims he is one of them" [Imams Ahmad and Abu Dawood].
Therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them. Nor, does a Muslim celebrate any of their other feast days. A Muslim celebrates only the Islamic Eid days.
Many times Allah has mentioned the details of the birth of Jesus in the Qur'an but He did not mention any celebration to be done on this occasion.
Please read the Fatwa: 82006.
Allah knows best.
Monday, December 7, 2009
A Message From The Taliban Who Is Responsible for the Anarchy in Afghanistan?
By Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
December 06, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Dec, 04, 2009 -- Obama’s new strategy which is the result of the same mentality that wants to continue the occupation of Afghanistan by military means, will add to the anarchy prevailing in the country. In fact, Americans are responsible for the chaotic situation. They handed over power to notorious warlords, venal officials and mafia-linked governors;
But still, they claim that they want a clean government in Kabul while their convoys of logistics are escorted by some murderous militias involved in kidnapping and extortion of arbitrary taxes. There are hundreds of private unregistered militias in Afghanistan under the name of security guards who carry heroin in official vehicles. These militias have links with warlords who have hold over high government positions. They carry out their criminal activities with impunity.
The warlords usurp government and people’s lands and buildings. No one can ask them why. A government land in Shirpur, located to the north-east of the Kabul city is a good example on hand. Once a property of the Ministry of Defense, now it is a posh area usurped by the warlords who have built luxurious houses there. Karzai himself has granted 6000-7000 acres of lands to his favorites. Many drug-smugglers who had been sentenced to prison by court have been released by decrees of the President.
General Khudaidad, Minister of the Narcotic Campaign of the Kabul Administration has acknowledged in a press conference that US military officers had hands in drug trafficking. Abdul Jabbar Sabit, former attorney-general of the Kabul Administration, says he was not able to lay his hand on some notorious governors involved in drug-trafficking and bribery because they were protected by high-ups in the government. Ultimately, Abdul Jabar Sabit was forced to resign. American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, many times has referred to Afghanistan as a Mafia State but she did not say that the Mafia State was their handiwork.
Independent analysts around the world believe that USA wants to keep a corrupt government installed in Kabul because this will provide a justification to maintain American military presence in the country. Similarly, on the one hand, the White House Security Advisor James Jones says there are fewer than 100 Al-qaeda members in Afghanistan and on the other hand, Obama sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. This high gap between words and deeds shows that America has other colonialist objectives in Afghanistan and in the region, ostensibly under the name of the so-called War on Terror. Furthermore, they claim that they want to resolve the Afghan issue through negotiation and reconciliation; but practically, they want Mujahideen to lay down arms and accept the Constitution conceived and framed by America and want to keep their bases in Afghanistan for a longer period. Thus under the ploy of negotiation, the White House wants to find a pretext to continue their occupation of Afghanistan.
The Afghans, particularly the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has no agenda of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and is ready to give legal guarantee if the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan. But the Mujahideen are not ready to allow foreign bases in Afghanistan or trade on the independence of the country. Ironically, after American invasion of Afghanistan, the country has been turned into a battle ground of rival intelligence agencies which are linked with the regime in Kabul and have hidden agendas against surrounding countries.
Bomb blasts in public places are the work of these agencies. The more the foreign troops stay in Afghanistan, the more such gruesome events will take place. In the present time, the Mujahideen are the only force which wants to release the Afghans and the country from being hostage in the cobweb of foreign agencies. With the victory of Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the whole region will take a breath of relief and the current bloodshed will come to an end. But it is responsibility of all who have free conscious to morally help Mujahideen to free the region from the vortex of the colonialist machinations.
Official website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban).
December 06, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Dec, 04, 2009 -- Obama’s new strategy which is the result of the same mentality that wants to continue the occupation of Afghanistan by military means, will add to the anarchy prevailing in the country. In fact, Americans are responsible for the chaotic situation. They handed over power to notorious warlords, venal officials and mafia-linked governors;
But still, they claim that they want a clean government in Kabul while their convoys of logistics are escorted by some murderous militias involved in kidnapping and extortion of arbitrary taxes. There are hundreds of private unregistered militias in Afghanistan under the name of security guards who carry heroin in official vehicles. These militias have links with warlords who have hold over high government positions. They carry out their criminal activities with impunity.
The warlords usurp government and people’s lands and buildings. No one can ask them why. A government land in Shirpur, located to the north-east of the Kabul city is a good example on hand. Once a property of the Ministry of Defense, now it is a posh area usurped by the warlords who have built luxurious houses there. Karzai himself has granted 6000-7000 acres of lands to his favorites. Many drug-smugglers who had been sentenced to prison by court have been released by decrees of the President.
General Khudaidad, Minister of the Narcotic Campaign of the Kabul Administration has acknowledged in a press conference that US military officers had hands in drug trafficking. Abdul Jabbar Sabit, former attorney-general of the Kabul Administration, says he was not able to lay his hand on some notorious governors involved in drug-trafficking and bribery because they were protected by high-ups in the government. Ultimately, Abdul Jabar Sabit was forced to resign. American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, many times has referred to Afghanistan as a Mafia State but she did not say that the Mafia State was their handiwork.
Independent analysts around the world believe that USA wants to keep a corrupt government installed in Kabul because this will provide a justification to maintain American military presence in the country. Similarly, on the one hand, the White House Security Advisor James Jones says there are fewer than 100 Al-qaeda members in Afghanistan and on the other hand, Obama sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. This high gap between words and deeds shows that America has other colonialist objectives in Afghanistan and in the region, ostensibly under the name of the so-called War on Terror. Furthermore, they claim that they want to resolve the Afghan issue through negotiation and reconciliation; but practically, they want Mujahideen to lay down arms and accept the Constitution conceived and framed by America and want to keep their bases in Afghanistan for a longer period. Thus under the ploy of negotiation, the White House wants to find a pretext to continue their occupation of Afghanistan.
The Afghans, particularly the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has no agenda of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and is ready to give legal guarantee if the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan. But the Mujahideen are not ready to allow foreign bases in Afghanistan or trade on the independence of the country. Ironically, after American invasion of Afghanistan, the country has been turned into a battle ground of rival intelligence agencies which are linked with the regime in Kabul and have hidden agendas against surrounding countries.
Bomb blasts in public places are the work of these agencies. The more the foreign troops stay in Afghanistan, the more such gruesome events will take place. In the present time, the Mujahideen are the only force which wants to release the Afghans and the country from being hostage in the cobweb of foreign agencies. With the victory of Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the whole region will take a breath of relief and the current bloodshed will come to an end. But it is responsibility of all who have free conscious to morally help Mujahideen to free the region from the vortex of the colonialist machinations.
Official website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban).
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Swine flu vaccine side effects: Miscarriages and more
Swine flu vaccine alert: Many pregnant mothers are reporting miscarriages shortly after taking the swine flu vaccine. Various websites and blogs are receiving disturbing reports of miscarriage and other dangerous side effects which occurred within hours to days after individuals received the vaccine. Yet these reports are receiving little to no press coverage.
Here a a few of the many examples of miscarriages from comments posted after a short article on about.com: Sue says: "I had the H1N1 vaccination and 24 hours later had a miscarriage." Linda Hill says: "My daughter in law was 10 weeks pregnant and had the H1N1 vaccine on Friday. That night she miscarried." EBWashington: "I was so excited to be pregnant after trying for a year. Last Monday, I got the H1N1 vaccine. On Tuesday morning, I started cramping and on Wednesday I started bleeding heavily. I was almost 6 weeks along. I am an emotional wreck."
In his informative article on these miscarriages, the highly respected Dr. Mercola also states, "the package inserts for the swine flu vaccines actually say that the safety of these vaccines for pregnant women has not been established." Another woman posts, "If you read the novartis or baxter pkg insert available on the web you will find that ... its not recommended for children under 2. Is not a fetus a child under 2?"
Some might argue that miscarriages happen in 15% of pregnancies, but do they happen within hours to days after taking a vaccine? Read the comments at the first link above to see how many women reported miscarriages not long after getting the swine flu shot on one this one webpage alone. Imagine how many other women that represents who have lost the precious life growing in their bellies. Most doctors are not reporting these cases, so unfortunately there is no accurate tracking of this devastating side effect.
I tried yesterday to access the VAERS website, the government's official website for reporting swine flu vaccine side effects at www.vaers.hhs.gov, to see how a miscarriage would be reported. Strangely, the website was down all day and is still down today as I post this. As the most important means of monitoring vaccine side effects, why is it down? How many people have tried to report disturbing side effects and were unable to access the website? For a revealing list of many reported damaging side effects from the vaccine on a popular health website, click here.
Though the swine flu has turned out to be little more damaging than the regular flu, the pharmaceutical companies have made literally billions of dollars from our tax money on their heavily pushed vaccines. And did you know that after the avian flu scare several years ago, The Independent, a leading newspaper in the U.K. reported that Donald Rumsfeld alone made $5 million in profit from sales of Tamiflu at the time. Many don't know that Rumsfeld was the chairman of the board of Tamiflu producer Gilead before he became U.S. secretary of defense. The massive amounts of Tamiflu purchased by the government at the time will soon expire, thus wasting many millions of our tax dollars.
Where there are large sums of money to be made, there is almost certainly corruption. For an article by the former editor in chief of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine exposing massive corruption in the health care industry, click here. For lots more on the risks and dangers of the swine flu vaccine by the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, read her well researched article available here. And to learn how blatant fear mongering in the 1976 swine flu scare killed at least hundreds and paralyzed many thousands more, click here.
The box below provides several ideas on what you can do to further educate yourself and spread the word on the risks and dangers of miscarriage and other side effects from the swine flu vaccine. We also invite you to comment below and let us know what you think. Should the government be promoting vaccines for pregnant women when the safety of the vaccines is not tested?
What you can do:
* To read other reliable, eye-opening articles that other media won't report on various aspects of the swine flu, including swine flu vaccine side effects, click here.
* Inform your media and political representatives of this vital information. To contact those near you, click here. Urge them to learn about swine flu vaccine risks and to stop drug companies from promoting legislation which puts profits above public health.
* Read concise summaries of revealing media reports on the flu scares available here.
* Learn more key information of vital importance to the health of you, your family, and your loved ones in the powerful online lesson on health available here.
* Explore inspiring ideas on how we can build a brighter future for all by reading this short essay.
* Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon on this page, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference.
Fred Burks served as personal language interpreter to Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Gore, and other top dignitaries in secret meetings. As part of an international network of researchers and news analysts, Fred obtains and disseminates key, reliable information about powerful, yet little-known forces which shape our world. For more, see articles and links in the right column of this page.
Here a a few of the many examples of miscarriages from comments posted after a short article on about.com: Sue says: "I had the H1N1 vaccination and 24 hours later had a miscarriage." Linda Hill says: "My daughter in law was 10 weeks pregnant and had the H1N1 vaccine on Friday. That night she miscarried." EBWashington: "I was so excited to be pregnant after trying for a year. Last Monday, I got the H1N1 vaccine. On Tuesday morning, I started cramping and on Wednesday I started bleeding heavily. I was almost 6 weeks along. I am an emotional wreck."
In his informative article on these miscarriages, the highly respected Dr. Mercola also states, "the package inserts for the swine flu vaccines actually say that the safety of these vaccines for pregnant women has not been established." Another woman posts, "If you read the novartis or baxter pkg insert available on the web you will find that ... its not recommended for children under 2. Is not a fetus a child under 2?"
Some might argue that miscarriages happen in 15% of pregnancies, but do they happen within hours to days after taking a vaccine? Read the comments at the first link above to see how many women reported miscarriages not long after getting the swine flu shot on one this one webpage alone. Imagine how many other women that represents who have lost the precious life growing in their bellies. Most doctors are not reporting these cases, so unfortunately there is no accurate tracking of this devastating side effect.
I tried yesterday to access the VAERS website, the government's official website for reporting swine flu vaccine side effects at www.vaers.hhs.gov, to see how a miscarriage would be reported. Strangely, the website was down all day and is still down today as I post this. As the most important means of monitoring vaccine side effects, why is it down? How many people have tried to report disturbing side effects and were unable to access the website? For a revealing list of many reported damaging side effects from the vaccine on a popular health website, click here.
Though the swine flu has turned out to be little more damaging than the regular flu, the pharmaceutical companies have made literally billions of dollars from our tax money on their heavily pushed vaccines. And did you know that after the avian flu scare several years ago, The Independent, a leading newspaper in the U.K. reported that Donald Rumsfeld alone made $5 million in profit from sales of Tamiflu at the time. Many don't know that Rumsfeld was the chairman of the board of Tamiflu producer Gilead before he became U.S. secretary of defense. The massive amounts of Tamiflu purchased by the government at the time will soon expire, thus wasting many millions of our tax dollars.
Where there are large sums of money to be made, there is almost certainly corruption. For an article by the former editor in chief of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine exposing massive corruption in the health care industry, click here. For lots more on the risks and dangers of the swine flu vaccine by the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, read her well researched article available here. And to learn how blatant fear mongering in the 1976 swine flu scare killed at least hundreds and paralyzed many thousands more, click here.
The box below provides several ideas on what you can do to further educate yourself and spread the word on the risks and dangers of miscarriage and other side effects from the swine flu vaccine. We also invite you to comment below and let us know what you think. Should the government be promoting vaccines for pregnant women when the safety of the vaccines is not tested?
What you can do:
* To read other reliable, eye-opening articles that other media won't report on various aspects of the swine flu, including swine flu vaccine side effects, click here.
* Inform your media and political representatives of this vital information. To contact those near you, click here. Urge them to learn about swine flu vaccine risks and to stop drug companies from promoting legislation which puts profits above public health.
* Read concise summaries of revealing media reports on the flu scares available here.
* Learn more key information of vital importance to the health of you, your family, and your loved ones in the powerful online lesson on health available here.
* Explore inspiring ideas on how we can build a brighter future for all by reading this short essay.
* Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon on this page, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference.
Fred Burks served as personal language interpreter to Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Gore, and other top dignitaries in secret meetings. As part of an international network of researchers and news analysts, Fred obtains and disseminates key, reliable information about powerful, yet little-known forces which shape our world. For more, see articles and links in the right column of this page.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Israel begins work on new tunnels to storm Al Aqsa Mosque
Middle East Monitor
November 19, 2009
The Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities began excavation works at Al Sharaf alley, tens of meters west of the Al Aqsa Mosque, in preparation for the construction of two tunnels and two electric elevators to connect between the alley, which was confiscated by the Israeli authorities in 1967, and the Al Buraq area and Al Maghariba Gate of the mosque.
The Foundation said that the aim of digging these tunnels and building the elevators is to "deliver a greater number of Jewish settlers to the Western Wall and the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially the Al Maghariba Gate, through which foreign tourists and Jewish groups can storm into the Al Aqsa Mosque."
The Foundation considered this to be "a judaization project through which Israel seeks to Judaize the Al Aqsa Mosque."
It added that, during a tour it conducted Tuesday, November 17, it found works of deep excavations, by the so-called Israeli Antiquities Authority, in the Al Sharaf alley tens of meters west of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. During these excavation works, historical and archaeological monuments, dating back to Ottoman and Mumluke eras, were being destroyed and obliterated.
The Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage had revealed in a media report on March 3, 2009 the intention of the occupation authorities and its executive arms to dig two new tunnels, one of them 56 meters long and the other 22 meters, in order to link the Palestinian Al Sharaf Alley, in the Old City, to Jerusalem.
It also revealed the Israeli authorities' intention to install an electric elevator in the vertical tunnel and electric corridor in the horizontal tunnel. The location of these two tunnels is to be the meeting point of several archaeological sites, through which Israel "is trying to develop an illusionary Hebrew history."
It explained that this Judaizational project would cost 10 million shekels (about U.S. $ 2.5 million), and will be implemented in collaboration between the occupation's municipality of Jerusalem, the so-called the Jewish Quarter Preservation and Development Company, the Monuments Authority, and the National Insurance Institute. The project will be funded through donations from Baruch Klein.
Al Sharaf Alley is an Islamic area located inside the boundaries of the Old City with an area of more than 133 square meters. It was occupied by Israel in 1967. It is the closest neighborhood to the Moroccan (Al Maghariba) district, which was destroyed by the Occupation authorities on 11/6/1967, after the fall of Al Sharaf Alley. Thousands of Palestinians were expelled from it, their houses, lands, and real estate properties were confiscated; then, private Israeli companies were immediately established. These companies seized the homes, real estate properties and lands of the area and housed the Jewish settlers and built new homes. They changed its name into the Jewish Quarter - and only a handful of Palestinians were left in it, in addition to two mosques - one of them is closed and the other is open only for Dhur (noon) and Asr (mid-afternoon) prayers, with the Azan (call to prayer) being banned.
November 19, 2009
The Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities began excavation works at Al Sharaf alley, tens of meters west of the Al Aqsa Mosque, in preparation for the construction of two tunnels and two electric elevators to connect between the alley, which was confiscated by the Israeli authorities in 1967, and the Al Buraq area and Al Maghariba Gate of the mosque.
The Foundation said that the aim of digging these tunnels and building the elevators is to "deliver a greater number of Jewish settlers to the Western Wall and the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially the Al Maghariba Gate, through which foreign tourists and Jewish groups can storm into the Al Aqsa Mosque."
The Foundation considered this to be "a judaization project through which Israel seeks to Judaize the Al Aqsa Mosque."
It added that, during a tour it conducted Tuesday, November 17, it found works of deep excavations, by the so-called Israeli Antiquities Authority, in the Al Sharaf alley tens of meters west of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. During these excavation works, historical and archaeological monuments, dating back to Ottoman and Mumluke eras, were being destroyed and obliterated.
The Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage had revealed in a media report on March 3, 2009 the intention of the occupation authorities and its executive arms to dig two new tunnels, one of them 56 meters long and the other 22 meters, in order to link the Palestinian Al Sharaf Alley, in the Old City, to Jerusalem.
It also revealed the Israeli authorities' intention to install an electric elevator in the vertical tunnel and electric corridor in the horizontal tunnel. The location of these two tunnels is to be the meeting point of several archaeological sites, through which Israel "is trying to develop an illusionary Hebrew history."
It explained that this Judaizational project would cost 10 million shekels (about U.S. $ 2.5 million), and will be implemented in collaboration between the occupation's municipality of Jerusalem, the so-called the Jewish Quarter Preservation and Development Company, the Monuments Authority, and the National Insurance Institute. The project will be funded through donations from Baruch Klein.
Al Sharaf Alley is an Islamic area located inside the boundaries of the Old City with an area of more than 133 square meters. It was occupied by Israel in 1967. It is the closest neighborhood to the Moroccan (Al Maghariba) district, which was destroyed by the Occupation authorities on 11/6/1967, after the fall of Al Sharaf Alley. Thousands of Palestinians were expelled from it, their houses, lands, and real estate properties were confiscated; then, private Israeli companies were immediately established. These companies seized the homes, real estate properties and lands of the area and housed the Jewish settlers and built new homes. They changed its name into the Jewish Quarter - and only a handful of Palestinians were left in it, in addition to two mosques - one of them is closed and the other is open only for Dhur (noon) and Asr (mid-afternoon) prayers, with the Azan (call to prayer) being banned.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Islamabad under pressure over Blackwater presence
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:11:30 GMT
Islamabad is under pressure to meet a deadline to explain the alleged sanctioning of the presence of a notorious US security contractor, formerly known as Blackwater, on the Pakistani soil.
At the request of the Lahore High Court (LHC), the government is supposed to file an explanation by Friday, November 20, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The court started to press the authorities on the matter, acting on a petition filed by Pakistan's Wattan Party, the Pakistani daily The News International had reported earlier in the month.
Urging the across-the-board disarmament of the Pakistan-based US officials and military personnel as well as prosecution of alleged subversive elements, the party's Punjab President, Hashim Shaukat Khan said the Interior Ministry let 200 Blackwater staffers enter Pakistan without clearing the customs "under American pressure," the newspaper added.
Blackwater, now known as Xe Services LLC, attracted international condemnation for killing 17 civilians in Iraq in 2007. The State Department, however, has refused to waive the company's permission to carry arms there.
It also continues to be extensively involved in Afghanistan where nearly 70,000 US-commissioned contractors almost doubly outnumber the US troops.
Washington has been exceedingly deputizing the companies, which are infamous for misusing their State Department-issued gun licenses. The move has been denounced as an effort at putting a non-military face on the US pursuits overseas.
Islamabad is under pressure to meet a deadline to explain the alleged sanctioning of the presence of a notorious US security contractor, formerly known as Blackwater, on the Pakistani soil.
At the request of the Lahore High Court (LHC), the government is supposed to file an explanation by Friday, November 20, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The court started to press the authorities on the matter, acting on a petition filed by Pakistan's Wattan Party, the Pakistani daily The News International had reported earlier in the month.
Urging the across-the-board disarmament of the Pakistan-based US officials and military personnel as well as prosecution of alleged subversive elements, the party's Punjab President, Hashim Shaukat Khan said the Interior Ministry let 200 Blackwater staffers enter Pakistan without clearing the customs "under American pressure," the newspaper added.
Blackwater, now known as Xe Services LLC, attracted international condemnation for killing 17 civilians in Iraq in 2007. The State Department, however, has refused to waive the company's permission to carry arms there.
It also continues to be extensively involved in Afghanistan where nearly 70,000 US-commissioned contractors almost doubly outnumber the US troops.
Washington has been exceedingly deputizing the companies, which are infamous for misusing their State Department-issued gun licenses. The move has been denounced as an effort at putting a non-military face on the US pursuits overseas.
Hamas vows to win Palestinian rights by resistance
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:38:46 GMT
Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal vows of planning a new political initiative that would discard vain negotiations and instead adopt resistance to redress Palestinian rights.
"Not much hope could be upheld for a future Palestinian state as long as the Zionist occupation persists; Israel pushes ahead with plans to build more homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem Al-Quds as well as the West Bank; and Palestinians are shorn of the right to free decision-making," Meshaal told al-Jazeera TV network on Wednesday.
The Hamas also noted that it was no surprise to hear that the so-called peace process with Israel has completely failed due to the 'Zionist obstinate refusal' to withhold commitments, the unswerving US support for Israel, and the bitter rifts among Palestinian factions and Arab weaknesses .
"The only way out of the current ordeal is the unanimous Palestinian factions' adoption of the resistance option," Meshaal said, describing the declaration of a Palestinian state as deceptive since there could be no independent state until the occupied lands are entirely liberated.
Speaking at a televised speech in the West Bank City of Ramallah on November 5, the 74-year-old acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel for the collapse of the political process, saying that the Palestinian Authority has carried out all its commitments and obligations while Israel continues to steal Palestinian land and build Jewish settlements.
This is while Israel gave approval on Tuesday for the construction of hundreds of new housing units in illegally annexed East Jerusalem Al-Quds, drawing international criticism as it drove another stake into troubled Middle East 'peace' efforts.
Calling the plan for construction of 900 new units in Gilo settlement as 'illegal', UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to Israel to respect its commitments to cease all settlement activity under the Road Map.
Under the 2002 Roadmap for a 'Peace plan' brokered by the united States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, Israel has to 'dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities.'
It is estimated that there are almost 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers in the twelve or so Israeli settlements in Jerusalem Al-Quds. There are also about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers living in settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank.
MP/MB
Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal vows of planning a new political initiative that would discard vain negotiations and instead adopt resistance to redress Palestinian rights.
"Not much hope could be upheld for a future Palestinian state as long as the Zionist occupation persists; Israel pushes ahead with plans to build more homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem Al-Quds as well as the West Bank; and Palestinians are shorn of the right to free decision-making," Meshaal told al-Jazeera TV network on Wednesday.
The Hamas also noted that it was no surprise to hear that the so-called peace process with Israel has completely failed due to the 'Zionist obstinate refusal' to withhold commitments, the unswerving US support for Israel, and the bitter rifts among Palestinian factions and Arab weaknesses .
"The only way out of the current ordeal is the unanimous Palestinian factions' adoption of the resistance option," Meshaal said, describing the declaration of a Palestinian state as deceptive since there could be no independent state until the occupied lands are entirely liberated.
Speaking at a televised speech in the West Bank City of Ramallah on November 5, the 74-year-old acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel for the collapse of the political process, saying that the Palestinian Authority has carried out all its commitments and obligations while Israel continues to steal Palestinian land and build Jewish settlements.
This is while Israel gave approval on Tuesday for the construction of hundreds of new housing units in illegally annexed East Jerusalem Al-Quds, drawing international criticism as it drove another stake into troubled Middle East 'peace' efforts.
Calling the plan for construction of 900 new units in Gilo settlement as 'illegal', UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to Israel to respect its commitments to cease all settlement activity under the Road Map.
Under the 2002 Roadmap for a 'Peace plan' brokered by the united States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, Israel has to 'dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities.'
It is estimated that there are almost 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers in the twelve or so Israeli settlements in Jerusalem Al-Quds. There are also about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers living in settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank.
MP/MB
Friday, November 20, 2009
Jordanians demonstrate against Israeli measures in Jerusalem
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:34:12 GMT
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Amman - About 3,000 Jordanians demonstrated in Amman on Friday to protest what they called an Israeli conspiracy against al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, which the Jewish state seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. The rally, organized by the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement and its political arm the Islamic Action Front (IAF), was held under the slogan "al-Aqsa in Danger".
Participants condemned Arab and Muslim governments for their failure to challenge Israeli attempts to "Judaize" East Jerusalem.
The protesters also claimed that Israel would attempt eventually to demolish al-Aqsa Mosque to rebuild the biblical Solomon's temple in its place.
Speakers during the rally called on the Jordanian government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and urged Arab countries to back "resistance" against Israeli occupation.
The Jordanian government concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but the Islamic-led opposition parties and the country's 14 trade unions are still against the pace pact and the normalization of ties with Israel.
Under the provisions of the pact, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy shrines in East Jerusalem.
A series of raids into al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli troops over the past months prompted the Jordanian government to accuse Israel of failing to honour its commitments under international law as an occupation power.
Print this article email this article Comment on this article
Amman - About 3,000 Jordanians demonstrated in Amman on Friday to protest what they called an Israeli conspiracy against al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, which the Jewish state seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. The rally, organized by the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement and its political arm the Islamic Action Front (IAF), was held under the slogan "al-Aqsa in Danger".
Participants condemned Arab and Muslim governments for their failure to challenge Israeli attempts to "Judaize" East Jerusalem.
The protesters also claimed that Israel would attempt eventually to demolish al-Aqsa Mosque to rebuild the biblical Solomon's temple in its place.
Speakers during the rally called on the Jordanian government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and urged Arab countries to back "resistance" against Israeli occupation.
The Jordanian government concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but the Islamic-led opposition parties and the country's 14 trade unions are still against the pace pact and the normalization of ties with Israel.
Under the provisions of the pact, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy shrines in East Jerusalem.
A series of raids into al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli troops over the past months prompted the Jordanian government to accuse Israel of failing to honour its commitments under international law as an occupation power.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Dark Chocolate Definitely Eases Emotional Stress
posted by Melissa Breyer Nov 14, 2009 5:01 pm
OK, honestly? It doesn’t take a scientist to tell me that chocolate makes me feel better. But they’re saying it anyway–new evidence that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress was just published in “Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects.” I don’t know how my gut microbiota feel about it, but it’s doing wonders for my mood.
The study found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.The daily dose also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. And that’s not all…Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Although studies in the past have suggested that chocolate may ease emotional stress, there was little evidence until now from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.
In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say. Sign me up…
For more about the importance of Fair Trade Certified chocolate, see Easy Greening: Chocolate.
OK, honestly? It doesn’t take a scientist to tell me that chocolate makes me feel better. But they’re saying it anyway–new evidence that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress was just published in “Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects.” I don’t know how my gut microbiota feel about it, but it’s doing wonders for my mood.
The study found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.The daily dose also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. And that’s not all…Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Although studies in the past have suggested that chocolate may ease emotional stress, there was little evidence until now from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.
In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say. Sign me up…
For more about the importance of Fair Trade Certified chocolate, see Easy Greening: Chocolate.
Cook with Garlic to Fight the Flu
posted by Michelle Schoffro Cook Nov 12, 2009 1:01 pm
It’s flu season again. Every year those nasty little viruses take hold of our bodies (probably to get a bit of warmth) and rule just about everything we say, do, feel, or think–at least for a few days. This year’s swine flu has people particularly nervous. If you’re trying to survive flu season unscathed or to beat the flu you already have, make sure you eat plenty of garlic. Your friends won’t like you, but neither will the flu bugs and other viruses you want to keep at bay.
Not only does garlic beat off flu viruses, that small clove helps lower high blood pressure, prevents hardening of the arteries and lessens cholesterol buildup in the heart. Thanks to many studies on garlic’s medicinal properties, we also know it is antibacterial and antifungal. Research even implicates garlic in the prevention of stomach cancer and in giving the immune system an overall boost. Just what the doctor ordered at this time of year.
While garlic contains potassium and germanium, two minerals that are critical to health, it is best known for its sulfur compounds, particularly allicin. These are the main phytochemicals (natural plant chemicals) you’ll want in your diet.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers of garlic supplements haven’t captured enough of the active ingredient to make the pills worth popping. However, some of the aged garlic extracts are effective. Forget garlic powder you can purchase in most grocery stores. It is the lazy person’s garlic and doesn’t offer many rewards in exchange for the saved time. Pill or powder, neither compares to the real thing.
So, heat up your oven and start chopping. It’s time to throw some fresh garlic into your favorite soup, stew, chili, stir-fry, meat, or veggie dish. For those of you scared to offend the significant other in your life, try roasting garlic by cutting off the stem, exposing the top of each clove and drizzling a bit of olive oil over it. Wrap it in foil or place in a garlic roaster and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour. This greatly minimizes its powerful aroma but creates a spread that tastes fabulous and has the consistency of butter. For even more potent health benefits, add raw garlic to your meal after it has been cooked. Or, top your favorite toasted bread with minced garlic, some sea salt, chopped tomatoes and a dash of olive oil for a fast and delicious bruschetta.
There are three main types of garlic: Creole, Italian or Mexican, and Tahitian. Most of the garlic on our grocery store shelves comes from California and is likely of the Creole variety. Italian or Mexican garlic is a bit smaller than its Creole counterpart and has a slightly purplish-coloured skin. Tahitian garlic is also known as elephant garlic largely because of its size. It is several times larger than its Creole, Italian or Mexican sisters. But, don’t let the size fool you. When it comes to garlic, good things come in small packages; the Italian or Mexican variety is the most potent.
Look for garlic that is firm and free of black mildew on the skin. Store it at room temperature in a well-ventilated spot such as a garlic keeper. Most experts suggest trying to get at least one clove a day to reap the maximum health benefits. But, if your taste buds shout for more, let them have it.
So, if your flu hasn’t already abandoned ship at all this talk of garlic, whip up a garlic-laden dinner and it will be running scared.
So will your friends, you say? Find some friendship among fellow garlic eaters. And consider that Roman centurions marched side-by-side into battle and across the European countryside sporting their finest military garb and cloves of garlic between their toes (to ward off fungal infections).
How’s that for friendship among the ranks?
Michelle Schoffro Cook, RNCP, ROHP, DAc, DNM, is a best-selling and six-time book author and doctor of natural medicine, whose works include: The Life Force Diet, The Ultimate pH Solution, and The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan. Learn more at: www.TheLifeForceDiet.com.
More on Cold and Flu (27 articles available)
More from Michelle Schoffro Cook (43 articles available)
It’s flu season again. Every year those nasty little viruses take hold of our bodies (probably to get a bit of warmth) and rule just about everything we say, do, feel, or think–at least for a few days. This year’s swine flu has people particularly nervous. If you’re trying to survive flu season unscathed or to beat the flu you already have, make sure you eat plenty of garlic. Your friends won’t like you, but neither will the flu bugs and other viruses you want to keep at bay.
Not only does garlic beat off flu viruses, that small clove helps lower high blood pressure, prevents hardening of the arteries and lessens cholesterol buildup in the heart. Thanks to many studies on garlic’s medicinal properties, we also know it is antibacterial and antifungal. Research even implicates garlic in the prevention of stomach cancer and in giving the immune system an overall boost. Just what the doctor ordered at this time of year.
While garlic contains potassium and germanium, two minerals that are critical to health, it is best known for its sulfur compounds, particularly allicin. These are the main phytochemicals (natural plant chemicals) you’ll want in your diet.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers of garlic supplements haven’t captured enough of the active ingredient to make the pills worth popping. However, some of the aged garlic extracts are effective. Forget garlic powder you can purchase in most grocery stores. It is the lazy person’s garlic and doesn’t offer many rewards in exchange for the saved time. Pill or powder, neither compares to the real thing.
So, heat up your oven and start chopping. It’s time to throw some fresh garlic into your favorite soup, stew, chili, stir-fry, meat, or veggie dish. For those of you scared to offend the significant other in your life, try roasting garlic by cutting off the stem, exposing the top of each clove and drizzling a bit of olive oil over it. Wrap it in foil or place in a garlic roaster and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour. This greatly minimizes its powerful aroma but creates a spread that tastes fabulous and has the consistency of butter. For even more potent health benefits, add raw garlic to your meal after it has been cooked. Or, top your favorite toasted bread with minced garlic, some sea salt, chopped tomatoes and a dash of olive oil for a fast and delicious bruschetta.
There are three main types of garlic: Creole, Italian or Mexican, and Tahitian. Most of the garlic on our grocery store shelves comes from California and is likely of the Creole variety. Italian or Mexican garlic is a bit smaller than its Creole counterpart and has a slightly purplish-coloured skin. Tahitian garlic is also known as elephant garlic largely because of its size. It is several times larger than its Creole, Italian or Mexican sisters. But, don’t let the size fool you. When it comes to garlic, good things come in small packages; the Italian or Mexican variety is the most potent.
Look for garlic that is firm and free of black mildew on the skin. Store it at room temperature in a well-ventilated spot such as a garlic keeper. Most experts suggest trying to get at least one clove a day to reap the maximum health benefits. But, if your taste buds shout for more, let them have it.
So, if your flu hasn’t already abandoned ship at all this talk of garlic, whip up a garlic-laden dinner and it will be running scared.
So will your friends, you say? Find some friendship among fellow garlic eaters. And consider that Roman centurions marched side-by-side into battle and across the European countryside sporting their finest military garb and cloves of garlic between their toes (to ward off fungal infections).
How’s that for friendship among the ranks?
Michelle Schoffro Cook, RNCP, ROHP, DAc, DNM, is a best-selling and six-time book author and doctor of natural medicine, whose works include: The Life Force Diet, The Ultimate pH Solution, and The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan. Learn more at: www.TheLifeForceDiet.com.
More on Cold and Flu (27 articles available)
More from Michelle Schoffro Cook (43 articles available)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Vaccines and Pregnancy Do Not Mix
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by: Paul Fassa, citizen journalist
(NaturalNews) From an internet forum: "I got both vaccines [seasonal and swine flu] on Thursday. I was 9 weeks pregnant. I miscarried on Sunday. I was told by several doctors to get these vaccines. Now I wish I followed my gut feeling and not get them at ALL!" This is not an isolated case.
Here's another report: "I feel like I had a healthy baby and I caused this by getting the H1N1 vaccine. My doctors pushed it. I researched online and there have been many miscarriages after the H1N1 vaccine but they haven't been reported since it is hard to say what caused the miscarriages."
She researched online, the only source reporting vaccination tragedies throughout the world.
Lies Under the Light of Truth
First of all, the Swine Flu is less harmful than a normal seasonal flu. Research with ferrets, real statistics released by independent researchers, as well as reports from uncorrupted medical authorities have confirmed this. The CDC and mainstream media bury that information. Instead, they circulate alarming false swine flu statistics.
But one mainstream media outlet, CBS Washington Unplugged, did inadvertently reveal true swine flu statistics. They had tried to get information from the CDC about swine flu episodes actually confirmed. The CDC skirted the issue and stonewalled them.
So they surveyed all 50 USA state medical laboratories themselves. The results were that most states had confirmed five percent or less of reported cases as swine flu. Most labs reported half or more cases were not any kind of flu! So much for hysteria.
Dr. Michael Bronze of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, stated on WebMD that the actual risk of pregnant women getting hospitalized for swine flu infections is one in 300 thousand.
The Australian/New Zealand's flu season was surveyed by American epidemiological statisticians. The data from around the middle of that flu season indicated that pregnant women are 99.97 percent sure of avoiding hospital care for any flu.
Of those few admitted and held in ICU 7.7 percent died. Not a high figure. And even those few had other health complications prior to being infected with the swine flu.
Vaccinations Are The Real Danger.
According to Dr. Russel Blaylock, retired neurosurgeon and author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, various studies have proven that artificially stimulating the immune system causes a cytokine immune reaction that damages the forming brain of a fetus.
Throw in thimerosal mercury additives as well as formaldehyde and other toxic materials delivered in the vaccines. These circulate through the fetus if a pregnant woman is vaccinated. The child can become prone to seizures, autism, schizophrenia, and a host of other neurological problems.
There is the case of Desiree Jennings, the young Washington Redskins cheerleader who was diagnosed with dystonia by doctors at John Hopkins and Fairfax Inova. They determined her dystonia, which caused chronic severe spasms and partial paralysis, was a reaction to her seasonal flu shot.
Right, she wasn't pregnant. She was also active and healthy. But her story links the miscarriage stories to Dr. Blaylock's conclusion, "The bottom line is vaccinating a pregnant women is vary hazardous to the mother's health as well as the baby."
As for miscarriages, there has been a history of sterilization agents planted surreptitiously in vaccines intended for women in developing countries. Some vaccines were examined and recovered before further damage could be done. More at - http://www.naturalnews.com/026907_f...
And now special flu jab centers are being set up for pregnant women here?
Sources for this article include:
Organic Health: Shocking H1N1 Vaccination Miscarriage Stories
http://organichealthadviser.com/arc...
Swine Flu -- One of the Most Massive Cover-ups in American History
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...
Dr. Blaylock: Vaccine Dangers to Pregnant Women and Small Children http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/headli...
(NaturalNews) From an internet forum: "I got both vaccines [seasonal and swine flu] on Thursday. I was 9 weeks pregnant. I miscarried on Sunday. I was told by several doctors to get these vaccines. Now I wish I followed my gut feeling and not get them at ALL!" This is not an isolated case.
Here's another report: "I feel like I had a healthy baby and I caused this by getting the H1N1 vaccine. My doctors pushed it. I researched online and there have been many miscarriages after the H1N1 vaccine but they haven't been reported since it is hard to say what caused the miscarriages."
She researched online, the only source reporting vaccination tragedies throughout the world.
Lies Under the Light of Truth
First of all, the Swine Flu is less harmful than a normal seasonal flu. Research with ferrets, real statistics released by independent researchers, as well as reports from uncorrupted medical authorities have confirmed this. The CDC and mainstream media bury that information. Instead, they circulate alarming false swine flu statistics.
But one mainstream media outlet, CBS Washington Unplugged, did inadvertently reveal true swine flu statistics. They had tried to get information from the CDC about swine flu episodes actually confirmed. The CDC skirted the issue and stonewalled them.
So they surveyed all 50 USA state medical laboratories themselves. The results were that most states had confirmed five percent or less of reported cases as swine flu. Most labs reported half or more cases were not any kind of flu! So much for hysteria.
Dr. Michael Bronze of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, stated on WebMD that the actual risk of pregnant women getting hospitalized for swine flu infections is one in 300 thousand.
The Australian/New Zealand's flu season was surveyed by American epidemiological statisticians. The data from around the middle of that flu season indicated that pregnant women are 99.97 percent sure of avoiding hospital care for any flu.
Of those few admitted and held in ICU 7.7 percent died. Not a high figure. And even those few had other health complications prior to being infected with the swine flu.
Vaccinations Are The Real Danger.
According to Dr. Russel Blaylock, retired neurosurgeon and author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, various studies have proven that artificially stimulating the immune system causes a cytokine immune reaction that damages the forming brain of a fetus.
Throw in thimerosal mercury additives as well as formaldehyde and other toxic materials delivered in the vaccines. These circulate through the fetus if a pregnant woman is vaccinated. The child can become prone to seizures, autism, schizophrenia, and a host of other neurological problems.
There is the case of Desiree Jennings, the young Washington Redskins cheerleader who was diagnosed with dystonia by doctors at John Hopkins and Fairfax Inova. They determined her dystonia, which caused chronic severe spasms and partial paralysis, was a reaction to her seasonal flu shot.
Right, she wasn't pregnant. She was also active and healthy. But her story links the miscarriage stories to Dr. Blaylock's conclusion, "The bottom line is vaccinating a pregnant women is vary hazardous to the mother's health as well as the baby."
As for miscarriages, there has been a history of sterilization agents planted surreptitiously in vaccines intended for women in developing countries. Some vaccines were examined and recovered before further damage could be done. More at - http://www.naturalnews.com/026907_f...
And now special flu jab centers are being set up for pregnant women here?
Sources for this article include:
Organic Health: Shocking H1N1 Vaccination Miscarriage Stories
http://organichealthadviser.com/arc...
Swine Flu -- One of the Most Massive Cover-ups in American History
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...
Dr. Blaylock: Vaccine Dangers to Pregnant Women and Small Children http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/headli...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Israeli army rabbi urges 'no mercy' in war
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:00:53 GMT
The Israeli Army's chief rabbi has called on military students to 'show no mercy' when they fight a war or they will be "damned."
"In times of war, whoever doesn't fight with all his heart and soul is damned, if he keeps his sword from bloodshed, if he shows mercy toward his enemy when no mercy should be shown," The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki as saying at the Hesder yeshiva in the occupied West Bank.
"Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood," added the rabbi.
Regarding the Israeli three week war on the Gaza Strip last December, the army rabbi hailed the military's performance which led to the death of at least 1,350 people including women and children.
"Everyone fought with all their heart and soul, and that includes bravery of course, but also fighting with all the resources one has, to fight as if to truly determine the mission," he reiterated.
Rontzki, who had also sanctioned the killing of Palestinian civilians during the Gaza war, drew harsh criticism form human rights groups.
During the war, some other leading rabbis also issued rulings that gave free hands to Israeli commanders to attack the civilian population in Gaza.
The Israeli Army's chief rabbi has called on military students to 'show no mercy' when they fight a war or they will be "damned."
"In times of war, whoever doesn't fight with all his heart and soul is damned, if he keeps his sword from bloodshed, if he shows mercy toward his enemy when no mercy should be shown," The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki as saying at the Hesder yeshiva in the occupied West Bank.
"Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood," added the rabbi.
Regarding the Israeli three week war on the Gaza Strip last December, the army rabbi hailed the military's performance which led to the death of at least 1,350 people including women and children.
"Everyone fought with all their heart and soul, and that includes bravery of course, but also fighting with all the resources one has, to fight as if to truly determine the mission," he reiterated.
Rontzki, who had also sanctioned the killing of Palestinian civilians during the Gaza war, drew harsh criticism form human rights groups.
During the war, some other leading rabbis also issued rulings that gave free hands to Israeli commanders to attack the civilian population in Gaza.
Hamas says Israel lobbying against Gaza
14:19, November 15, 2009
Islamic Hamas movement on Saturday accused Israel of lobbying against the Gaza Strip to launch a military operation in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
"There are escalating Israeli intentions toward aggressive act against Gaza," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, in a written statement sent to the press.
His remarks were made after an Israeli newspaper on Friday reported that Hamas has test-fired another long-range missile that could fly for 75 kilometers, putting farther Israeli communities at risk.
"These reports come as part of the incitement against Gaza and the searching for pretexts to commit new crimes here and cover the crimes Israel had committed in the past," Barhoum added.
Barhoum called on the Arab and Muslim states "to sever all their ties with Israel in response to its threats against Gaza."
Members of the military wing of Hamas' movement fired the rocket to the sea from northern Gaza Strip Friday afternoon and the test has succeeded, Maariv daily reported on its website.
The rocket is the second one to be tested this month. Earlier, Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin revealed that Hamas had fired what it seemed to be an Iranian-made rocket.
Source: Xinhua
Islamic Hamas movement on Saturday accused Israel of lobbying against the Gaza Strip to launch a military operation in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
"There are escalating Israeli intentions toward aggressive act against Gaza," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, in a written statement sent to the press.
His remarks were made after an Israeli newspaper on Friday reported that Hamas has test-fired another long-range missile that could fly for 75 kilometers, putting farther Israeli communities at risk.
"These reports come as part of the incitement against Gaza and the searching for pretexts to commit new crimes here and cover the crimes Israel had committed in the past," Barhoum added.
Barhoum called on the Arab and Muslim states "to sever all their ties with Israel in response to its threats against Gaza."
Members of the military wing of Hamas' movement fired the rocket to the sea from northern Gaza Strip Friday afternoon and the test has succeeded, Maariv daily reported on its website.
The rocket is the second one to be tested this month. Earlier, Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin revealed that Hamas had fired what it seemed to be an Iranian-made rocket.
Source: Xinhua
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Vaccination: Federal Health Agencies Continue to Deceive Americans
Congressional Report on a Vaccine Mercury-Autism Link Ignored for Six Years
by Richard Gale and Dr Gary Null
I have no doubt whatever that vaccination is an unscientific abomination and should be made a criminal practice. G. Bernard Shaw
Under normal circumstances, when a public health measure is advocated or mandated, and it is accepted without question by all Federal health agencies, state and local health departments, and promoted by the mainstream media with unquestioning support from the orthodox medical community, then it is assumed that such measures at the very least meet basic scientifically proven criteria. Foremost should be public health safety and that the proven efficacy of a health program be implemented according to rigorous scientific gold standards. When this standard is ignored and denied, as is now being done by our health officials, then the wellbeing of the nation is placed at risk. Consequently, we see the concerns regarding the swine flu vaccine focusing upon supply rather than health. For our government health officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), vaccines have been baptized safe and, therefore, there is no reason for further debate. In fact, so certain are those in charge of the nation’s vaccination programs, even democratic discourse about vaccination controversies has been marginalized and smothered. There is no dissenting opinion published in any major industrial medical journal or magazine, nor found on any of government health websites.
When put to the test, a meticulous review of the scientific literature finds that virtually all of the Federal health agencies assumptions are held in error. Furthermore, we are shocked that the CDC, FDA and HHS, with all of their resources, refuse to take into consideration the large body of clinical evidence that contradicts their biased vaccine policies. Our review of the scientific literature is at two levels. First, there is a direct relationship between vaccination and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This evidence, as we shall see, was taken under oath during a three year Congressional investigation, which clearly shows that Federal health officials were complicit in covering up the associations between vaccines and neurological damage.
The second level shows irrefutable evidence, from peered reviewed journals in immunology, neurology, toxicology, etc., that the very same mercury used at high toxic levels in the flu vaccines, as well as in trace amounts in other vaccines, is toxic in all circumstances. The pronouncements by the CDC and HHS, promulgated by tabloid medical writers at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, are deceptions based upon medical denialism. We believe it is a crime to inject mercury into the bodies of any pregnant woman and child, while knowing that thimerosal is extremely toxic.
During a televised interview to prepare the American public for a massive campaign to inoculate the population for the H1N1 flu virus, President Obama’s HHS Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Sebelius, told the nation, “study after study, scientist after scientist, has determined that there really is no safety risk with thimerosal.”[1] Glancing at the foot-high stack of published clinical studies on the desk, years of independent research identifying certain neurological impairments, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and cellular organ damage resulting from vaccines containing the toxic ethylmercury preservative commonly known as thimerosal, it is incomprehensible to fathom the depth of scientific denial in Sebelius’ statement. Was the Secretary blatantly lying to Americans, especially parents of small children six months and older and pregnant mothers, to convince us to line up for flu shots? If we unpack Sebelius’ misleading propaganda and properly rephrase her pronouncement, we can uncover a semblance of truth in her words. Instead it would have been proper for her to inform the nation that “study after study of spurious and flawed research that would likely never pass a graduate school examination, scientist after scientist affiliated or with financial ties to the vaccine industry now dominating our academies and health agencies, have determined that there really is no safety risk with thimerosal.”
This should have been the Secretary’s response if she were honest in addressing many people’s concerns about vaccine safety. Yet, this is not just our interpretive spin about the lack of scientific integrity within the CDC’s and FDA’s pharmaceutical-friendly stance regarding the vaccine-autism controversy; rather it accurately reflects the conclusions from a three year investigation conducted by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness in the House’s Committee on Government Reform, spearheaded by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana). Published in May 2003, the Committee’s 80-page report, “Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks,” is a clear indictment charging the CDC, FDA and HHS with scientific bias, prejudiced financial interests with vaccine makers, and administrative incompetence and indecision that puts Americans’ health at risk.[2]
It is a sorry state of affairs when a Congressional committee is forced to undertake a more thorough, concise review of the scientific literature related to a national health crisis, i.e., thimerosal as a causative factor behind the epidemic scourge of neurological and developmental disorders in America’s children, because our Federal health agencies prefer to not upset their clients (or masters) in the pharmaceutical industrial complex. But what is even more disturbing is that after six years since the Committee’s report, nothing has fundamentally changed. Instead, the CDC, FDA and HHS continue their rogue campaigns to spread unfounded medical propaganda and have done next to nothing, aside from issuing promises and marginalizing opposing medical views, to fund and launch the independent research necessary to determine once and for all vaccine safety in young children, developing fetuses and pregnant mothers. And as we wait for medical sanity to descend upon our government agencies, more and more children are injured from the increasing number of scheduled vaccinations, while the burden of health costs continue to mount on the shoulders of parents with neurologically and physically damaged children.
Therefore reviewing some of the Committee’s major findings is warranted to bring them up to date with recent information showing the thimerosal-autism link and to provide evidence for the CDC’s, FDA’s and HHS’s ongoing medical denialism about vaccine safety and their laxity in preserving and addressing public health.
Committee Finding 1: “Mercury is hazardous to humans. Its use in medicinal products is undesirable, unnecessary and should be minimized or eliminated entirely.”
Mercury, in its two most common forms that threaten human health--methylmercury and ethylmercury (thimerosal used in vaccines)--is the second most toxic substance perhaps after uranium. It is over one hundred times more toxic than lead. Therefore ask yourself the question, would you submit your child, or even yourself, to having lead injected directly into his or her bloodstream, permitting it to pass through your child’s neurological system? If you answer in the negative, then know that the mercury in that flu shot being offered at Costco is far more toxic than the lead you just refused.
Although more research has been conducted showing methylmercury’s severe health risks, the Committee, basing its decision on sound scientific evidence, concluded that thimerosal’s toxicity is the same as methylmercury. Among the more serious adverse effects are multiple organ system disorders over the course of a lifetime, neurological and behavioral defects, renal damage, cardiovascular effects even at very low dosages, increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and injury to the immune system, and adverse effects on the reproductive system. Contrary to Sebelius’denialism, a pregnant mother’s exposure to thimerosal due to vaccination runs the risk of mercury crossing the placenta and affecting the developing fetus. The CDC’s current stance that it makes no difference whether vaccines with thimerosal are given to pregnant mothers flies in the face of biomolecular reason and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) own warnings. Medical evidence for methylmercury disturbing the neuro-development of an infant in utero has been conclusive for many years.[3] The EPA’s website states that for women in reproductive ages, there is the risk of 300,000 newborns each year incurring learning disabilities due to in utero exposure to mercury. Even the FDA acknowledged mercury’s toxic risks to infants back in 1994. According to a National Institutes of Health document, “For fetuses, infants and children, the primary health effects of mercury are on neurological development. Even low levels of mercury exposure, such as result from a mother’s consumption of methylmercury in dietary sources, can adversely affect the brain and nervous system. Impact on memory, attention, language and other skills have been found in children exposed to moderate levels in the womb.” Do any of these symptoms sound like ASD? And if eating a can of tuna fish poses a potential risk, how much greater are the potential neurological injuries when vaccine mercury is injected intramuscularly?
The EPA, unlike the FDA, has conducted research into mercury’s toxicity and health risks. While the EPA sets a limit exposure of mercury at 0.1 micrograms/kg, the FDA in its favoritism towards mercury’s use in vaccines raises the stakes to 0.4 micrograms. The FDA’s figure has no valid supporting scientific data and is arbitrary in order to continue sanctioning the use of in vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the limit higher; this may account for the WHO’s aggressive campaigns to inoculate the world’s poorer populations with heavily laced-mercury and stockpiled vaccines from the drug makers. The Committee, however, found the EPA evaluation to be “scientifically validated.” Consequently, a person receiving a single flu shot, with 25 mcg/kg of thimerosal would need to weigh approximately 550 pounds for it to be considered a safe quantity. Therefore it is no surprise that the series of four thimerosal-laced flu shots, or 100 mcg/kg, can lead to long-term cumulative damage for any age group, including the later onset of dementia conditions such as Alzheimer’s.[4]
Dr. David Baskin, Professor of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine, told the Committee that brain tissue absorbs mercury five times more than other body tissues. And infants and small children are furthermore five times more sensitive to mercury’s toxicological effects compared to adults. Dr. Baskin reported on his own studies at Baylor:
“We have the opportunity to actually grow human frontal cortex cells in cell culture. So these are cells from the front part of the brain... We incubate these cells with thimerosal at various doses... [then] detect cell death and cell damage... [showing a slide] These are the cells committing the suicide program and breaking themselves into tiny little pieces with a very low dose of mercury... Don’t forget, we did this in adult brain cells. Remember that infant brain cells are much more sensitive, so there’s a real cause for concern.”
Similar studies conducted at Columbia University have confirmed the Baylor findings.
So why can’t the CDC and other government agencies reproduce these clinical studies to confirm whether or not there is a clear thimerosal-autism link? Well, the CDC, and other research agencies such as the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), simply don’t perform gold standard clinical science. Instead, the CDC relies upon statistical analyses and mathematical algorithms to arrive at their conclusions about vaccines’ and thimerosal’s safety. Preferring to cower in the back of Plato’s cave, concise scientific protocol and biomolecular studies in a laboratory is almost anathema to them. In addition, the kind of studies the vaccine orthodoxy hail as proof to deny a correlation between thimerosal and autism rely upon dreadful research design and ridiculously low numbers of participants. For example, a University of Rochester study comparing children injected with mercury-vaccines versus vaccines without mercury only enrolled 40 subjects; yet, this single study remains in the pro-vaccine orthodoxy’s arsenal against vaccine skeptics. If autism at the time of the study affected 1 in 150 children, then enrolling 40 children is baseless for achieving any valid data. For this reason, another finding by the Committee states:
Committee Finding 2: “To date, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute any correlation between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed. The CDC’s rush to support and promote such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse reactions from vaccinations.”
The Committee also reports, “Upon thorough review of the scientific literature and internal documents from government and industry, the Committee did in fact find evidence that thimerosal posed a risk. The possible risk for harm from either low dose chronic or one time high level (bolus dose) exposure to thimerosal is not ‘theoretical,’ but very real and documented in the medical literature.”
Furthermore, the report continues,
“Of additional concern has been the CDC’s bias against theories regarding vaccine-induced autism. Rather than aggressively working to replicate clinical findings with laboratory data that showed a relationship between vaccines and autism... the CDC funded researchers who also worked for vaccine manufacturers to conduct population-based epidemiological studies to look at the possible correlation between vaccine injury and a subset of the population that might be injured. The CDC to date has relied too heavily on epidemiological findings. While epidemiological studies are important, they are not a substitute for focused, clinical research.”
And independent clinical research exists. There is lots of it from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of California at Irvine, Baylor Medical School, Prof. Boyd Haley at the University of Kentucky, and the dozens of studies by Dr. Mark Geier at the Institute of Chronic Illnesses, all providing evidence for thimerosal’s adverse effects in adults and in the developing brain of a child.
Committee Finding 3: “Manufacturers of vaccines and thimerosal have never conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal. The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct adequate safety testing on thimerosal and ethylmercury compounds.”
For many decades, the FDA has known about the neurotoxic effects of thimersosal. A review of internal documents from Eli Lilly, the original inventor of ethylmercury in the 1920s, reveals that only one study has ever been performed to investigate thimerosal’s safety in humans and it was “woefully inadequate.” During the actual Committee hearings, Rep. Burton remarked, “You mean to tell me since 1929 we’ve been using thimerosal and the only test you know of is the one that was done in 1929, and every one of those people got meningitis and died?”[5]
In the 1940’s, thimerosal was used in teething powders for infants and resulted in fatal outbreaks of Pink’s Disease (severe mercury poisoning) before being removed in the 50’s. Since many children today receive vaccines with trace amounts of thimerosal, in addition to vaccines containing adjuvant aluminum compounds, an important 1972 study published in the British Medical Journal noted that mercury increases aluminum’s oxidation and produces abnormal heat. In recent years, there is growing evidence of mitochondrial oxidation and cellular damage that may be due to this interaction between mercury and aluminum in vaccines. With a child now receiving 31 and more vaccinations during its first 18 months of life, it would seem that this barbaric practice would have been fully investigated by our health officials to account for the epidemic rise in neurological and behavioral disorders, adult diabetes and asthmatic conditions in American children. Instead, our health officials continue to pump out junk science, for example the recent, seriously flawed NIAID study on H1N1 vaccine safety in pregnant women reported over the major media, to deceive Americans and enroll them in their national vaccination campaigns. The protocol in that study listed any pregnant woman who had a history of alcohol or drug abuse during a 6 year period, diabetes, compromised immune systems, asthmatic and allergic conditions, history of cancer-treatment drugs for 3 years, prescription to psychiatric drugs, and many other conditions as unqualified for the study. These conditions alone would disqualify the large majority of the nation’s pregnant women. Furthermore, any pregnant woman who enrolled in the trial, who spiked a temperature of 100 degrees or greater during the first 72 hours following vaccination, were excluded from the trial. Nevertheless, the CDC and its cronies in the media, particularly the pharmaceutical shills at The New York Times, touted this deranged trial as conclusive evidence that the swine flu vaccine was safe for all pregnant women. These are the kinds of medical distortions we have come to expect from the Federal health agencies.
The Committee’s report states,
“It appears that our Federal regulatory framework (the FDA and its predecessor organizations) failed to require manufacturers to prove thimerosal was safe. They failed to require industry to conduct adequate testing to determine how thimerosal is metabolized. The FDA failed to require that industry conduct studies to determine the maximum safe exposure level of thimerosal. These basic issues should have been proven prior to the introduction of thimerosal into the marketplace, but more than 70 years after its introduction, these issues have still not been adequately addressed... It is clear that the guiding principal for FDA policymakers has been to avoid shaking the public’s confidence in the safety of vaccines. For this reason, many FDA officials have stubbornly denied that thimerosal may cause adverse reactions... given the serious concerns about the safety of thimerosal, the FDA should have acted years earlier to remove this preservative from vaccines and other medications.”
Nevertheless, even during this so-called flu season, the Federal agencies continue to remain entranced in a stupor of scientific denial, perhaps acting in a criminally negligent manner, as thimerosal remains at highly toxic levels in the flu vaccines, and remains in trace amounts in the DTaP, some Hib, and Hepatitis B vaccines.
Although the FDA has repeatedly agreed that mercury is unsafe for over-the-counter medications, one would think that the government could arrive at the simple deduction of an elementary school pupil in agreeing that intramuscular injection of thimerosal would be far more dangerous. During the Committee’s proceedings, Dr. Bernard Schwetz, former Director of the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research, has stated, “... the fact that we know that ethylmercury is a skin sensitizer when its put on the skin, and now we’re injecting this IM (intramuscularly) at a time when the immune system is just developing, the functionality of the immune system is just being set at this age [infancy]... What is the effect on the functional development of the immune system when you give a chemical of that kind repeatedly IM?”
Committee Finding 4: “At the same time that the incidence of autism was growing, the number of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal was growing, increasing the amount of ethylmercury to which infants were exposed threefold... The FDA and CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the immunization schedule.”
The Commission report states, “There was tremendous reluctance on the part of some officials that a mistake had been made in allowing ethylmercury to be used in vaccines.” The FDA damns itself in a 1999 email by a former FDA official, Dr. Peter Patriarca, then Director of the FDA’s Division of Viral Products, who opines that hastening the removal of thimerosal from vaccines would “raise questions about the FDA being ‘asleep at the switch’ for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products.”
While the Federal health agencies and the professional medical organizations serving the vaccine industrial complex, such as the American Pediatric Association, repeatedly tell us there is no causal relationship between ASD and vaccine mercury, there is a growing body of prestigious scientists, researchers and physicians who feel otherwise. Last October 2009, a Harvard survey reported in the journal Pediatrics the US’s ASD rate needs to be upgraded to 1 in 91, a greater than 30% increase from the previous 1 in 150 ratio several years back.[6] Consequently, the thimerasol-autism debate is far from over and should be pursued with aggressive due diligence and urgency. Moreover, the past history of CDC negligence and its reliance upon poorly designed and flawed science indicates there is no reason why any rational citizen should believe any statistical declaration or medical claim about vaccine safety from government health officials. These are people with severe allergic reactions to real science.
The Autism Society of America (ASA), the world’s largest autism organization and heavily funded by private industry and CDC support, continues to rely on archaic treatments not too dissimilar to BF Skinner’s behavioral work with pigeons. The ASA and the National Alliance for Autism, another advocacy organization supporting research to discredit vaccine-autism links, have been accused of conflict of interests and biased studies. In early 2009, Alison Singer, the senior executive of ASA and an advocate of the fanatical vaccine multi-millionaire and former advisor to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, Dr. Paul Offit—who believes in a fantasy vaccine heaven where children can survive 10,000 vaccinations unscathed—resigned in protest over her organization’s recent leanings to reconsider a vaccination-autism connection. Each organization’s platform fundamentally ignores a possible vaccine-caused autism and instead favors genetic etiology that has yet to be conclusively discovered—instead, blame the parents’ DNA, not the drug makers and their government collaborators. Yet while the search for a mysterious autism gene persists, more and more children are being neurologically and developmentally damaged. Furthermore, even if such a gene is found, it would be many years before anything medically practical could be done with it.
Committee Finding 5: “A growing number of scientists and researchers believe that a relationship between the increase in neurodevelopmental disorders of autism... and the increased use of thimerosal in vaccines is plausible and deserves more scrutiny.”
In fact, the CDC in June 2000 discovered “a statistically significant positive correlation between the cumulative exposure” of thimerosal and ASD symptoms. The CDC’s analysis of approximately 110,000 records of children with adverse reactions to vaccines, flying in the face of federal health officials’ previous claims about vaccine safety, led to a secretive meeting between top government health officials and vaccine industry representatives at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center near Atlanta. The transcripts of that meeting were later obtained by Robert Kennedy Jr through a Freedom of Information Act. During the meeting, the CDC study’s chief scientist, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, stated, “This analysis suggests that in our study population, the risks of tics, ADD, language and speech delays, and developmental delays in general may be increased by exposures to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines during the first six months of life.” The Congressional review of the Simpsonwood conversations concluded that “It appears that many who participated in the thimerosal debates allowed their standards to be dictated by their desire to disprove an unpleasant theory.” Indeed, this is what eventually occurred after the meeting.
The clandestine Simpsonwood gathering decided to withhold its findings from the public and, instead, proceeded with a new investigation to doctor the same data by employing confounders (subjective, unscientific criteria used to bias a study to prove a desired result). Consequently the CDC’s subsequent study released several years later denied any relationship between thimerosal and ASD. At the end of 2009, this remains the policy position and mindset of the CDC, FDA and HHS while a large body of independent research, with no conflict of interests with government or the vaccine industry, continues to mount against our policy makers reliance upon tabloid science and futile efforts to find causes unrelated to vaccines. And Dr. Thomas Verstaeten? Last heard he joined the vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline and continued to deny the truth of the CDC’s original Simpsonwood findings.
Since then, Dr. Mark Geier at the Institutes of Chronic Illnesses, through a Freedom of Information Act, obtained all the CDC’s vaccine injury data in its database. After conducting an independent epidemiological study, based on tens of millions of vaccine doses administered in the US, he confirmed the Simpsonwood findings and significant other data to show thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine as contributing causes behind the country’s autism epidemic.[7]
Today, our tax dollars are being spent by our health agencies to sidestep the entire question of vaccine safety and efficacy, and are trying to project autism’s causes on genetic factors. This was the case in 2003, as it is now, when the Committee raised concerns over the NIH’s $27 billion budget, investing only $56 million into autism research, and the majority of that towards genetic causes. Compare that with the $2.2 billion spent on HIV/AIDS research that affects only a tiny percent of the population compared to the hundreds of thousands of children across the nation suffering autism spectrum disorder and neurological damage that they will live with for the remainder of their lives.
In 1975, the FDA undertook a five year review of mercury’s dangers in over-the-counter drugs and topical medicines and ointments. The advisory panel’s report to the FDA concluded that not only “mercury compounds as a class are of dubious value for anti-microbial use” but also “thimerosal was 35-times more toxic to the heart tissue it was meant to protect than the bacteria it was meant to kill.” So why is thimerosal still used in vaccines? Rather than manufacturing single dose vials, which would not require mercury, vaccine makers have found it more cost effective to manufacture multi-dose vials and simply add mercury as a preservative for longer shelf-life. A story in the Columbus Dispatch unveiled that Ohio’s decision to purchase larger quantities of thimerosal-laced flu vaccine rather than the alternative thimerosal-free version was purely based on a financial decision.[8]
Committee Finding 6: “The CDC’s failure to state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines in 2000 and again 2001 was an abdication of their responsibility.”
After reviewing the CDC’s long-standing habit for promoting illness and staging a war on health, there is a case of one vaccine manufacturer offering to remove thimerosal from its vaccine but being denied permission to do so from the CDC. This incident led the Committee to state, “The CDC’s decision not to endorse thimerosal-free vaccines in 2001 is particularly troubling... Just as disappointing, and even more difficult to understand, is the fact that the CDC, on two separate occasions, refused to publicly state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines.”
Testimony by Federal health officials before the Committee included a litany of excuses based on financial rationales for not concerning itself with the health of American children. The statements by Dr. Roger Bernier from the CDC exemplifies the dangerous level of denial and Federal officials’ refusal to accept preventative health measures, a dire negligence that continues to plague government health agencies in general, and the unproven and potentially unsafe H1N1 vaccine in particular:
“It [removing thimerosal from vaccines] could entail financial losses of inventory if current vaccine inventory is wasted. It could harm one or more manufacturers and may then decrease the number of suppliers”
“The evidence justifying this kind of abrupt policy change [immediate removal of mercury from all vaccines] does not appear to exist, and it could entail financial losses for all existing stocks of vaccines that contain thimerosal.”
The Committee’s interpretation of the CDC’s vaccine policy includes, “The financial health of the industry should never have been a factor in this decision [thimerosal removal]. The financial health of vaccine manufacturers certainly should never have been more important to the Federal health officials than the health and well being of the nation’s children. The CDC has a responsibility to protect the health of the American public. If there were any doubts about the neurological effects of ethylmercury in vaccines on children—and there were substantial doubts—the prevailing consideration should have been how best to protect children from potential harm. However, it appears that protecting the industry’s profits took precedent over protecting children from mercury damage.”
Committee Finding 7: “Thimerosal should be removed from these vaccines. No amount of mercury is appropriate in any childhood vaccine.”
Although thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines, mercury remains in trace amounts in some vaccines, as noted above, and remains at high toxic levels in the flu shots. Studies show that in the presence of aluminum compounds mercury’s toxicity increases dramatically. Vaccines that contain aluminum compounds include the DTaP, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal, anthrax, and the HPV vaccine. Unfortunately, no studies have been funded by government agencies nor have the vaccine makers undertaken efforts to determine adverse neurological effects when multiple vaccines are given together, as is so often the case when small children visit their pediatricians.
A comparison of the FDA, CDC and HHS claims on thimerosal and multiple vaccination safety with documents from the Department of Defense (DoD) leaves one with the feeling that our national health service is a madhouse, a leper colony of welfare scientists and indecisive medical bureaucrats torn between their allegiance to pharmaceutical firms and the health of the nation. Medical journalist David Kirby has reported on DoD documents he received showing the military raising legitimate concerns about vaccines (thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine) as causative factors for the critical epidemic of ASD among military children.[9] In her article “Autism in the Military, “ Angela Warren calculates the military autism rate at 1 in 67, substantially higher than the recent Harvard study for the civilian population.[10] In addition to thimerosal’s dangers, the military claims its ongoing studies suggest that “a relationship between adverse events and multiple vaccinations exist.” The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology also acknowledges that “exposure to mercury in utero and children may cause mild to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment.”[11]
Why would the military health officials take a completely different stand on thimerosal and vaccine safety from that of the CDC and HHS? During a recent conversation with a retired Colonel and former Command Surgeon of the US Army Special Operations Command in Africa, Dr. Frank Anders explained why the military health policies and recognition of scientific facts are more accurate and medically humane than that of our Federal health officials. According to Col. Anders, the “power and money these pharmaceutical companies wield [on the FDA and CDC] is awesome.” When he was asked whether or not there is any conformity or agreement between the Department of Defense’s health divisions and the Federal health agencies, including President Obama’s appointments, he stated there was nothing that could affect preventative and therapeutic health policy. There are far more financial incentives, including funds from Congress at the behest of pharmaceutical lobbyists, for FDA and CDC personnel to forge relationships with the drug and vaccine makers. On the other hand, since military health personnel are solely employees of the DoD removed from the vaccine industry and Big Pharma lobbyists, there is less bias and greater scientific integrity towards medical facts and sound science.[12]
Curiously, David Kirby reports that the military health clinics are adopting alternative treatments for ASD--methyl B12, chelation and glutathione--which are not actively promoted by the FDA in their preference for pharmaceutical and psychiatric drugs and behavioral modality treatment. When we asked Col. Anders why this was the case, he responded that it is simply because these alternative treatments work. For example, independent studies show convincingly that thimerosal depletes glutathione in vaccinated children with autism. Glutathione provides cells with the primary defense against heavy metal oxidation, a condition that has been observed extensively in children with ASD. Without glutathione, heavy metal oxidation inflicts severe neurological damage. Alternative treatment for autism includes glutathione replacement; however, this form of treatment is not recognized by the CDC and the orthodox autism organizations in bed with the pharmaceutical industrial complex.[13]
Committee Recommendations: There were two important recommendations made by Rep. Dan Burton’s Committee that Americans should demand from our government and Federal health agencies. First is the recommendation that “studies be conducted that pool the results of independent research that has been done thus far, and a comprehensive approach should be developed to rid humans, animals and the environment from this dangerous toxin [ethyl- and methylmercury].”
The second urgent recommendation is that Congress “enact legislation that prohibits federal funds from being used to provide products or pharmaceuticals that contain mercury, methylmercury or ethylmercury unless no reasonable alternative is available.”
Today, neither of these recommendations have been acted upon. Instead the Obama administration has continued the previous Bush act to provide sanctuary to vaccine makers from lawsuits due to vaccine injury. Our health officials have sunk themselves deeper into dangerously reductive and determinist views about infectious diseases, such as the swine flu, and have strengthened their denial that their entire vaccination program might be leading America’s health to further ruin.
It is unusual for our government and Congress to get anything correct these days and to make sincere, thoughtful decisions that truly benefit American citizens. However, there are those rare occasions when a spark of wisdom actually flares briefly somewhere in Washington. The Rep. Burton’s Committee report’s final statement is as relevant today as it was in mid 2003. Perhaps even more so as we witness the CDC’s public relations campaign threatening citizens with misleading statistics, distorted science (‘science’ being a term that can barely be applied to the kind of tabloid research that Federal officials rely upon today), and unproven fears to shepherd us towards the H1N1 and seasonal flu lines.
“Thimserosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to his known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”
As we have witnessed during the recent CDC’s public relations campaign behind the H1N1 vaccine, and the uproar of dissent that questions the safety and national need for mass inoculation, medical discourse has been shut down. This raises the serious concern whether America’s health sciences and democracy can co-exist any longer in the United States. The words of H.H. the Dalai Lama are apropos for understanding the fish tank Federal officials and their sponsored cohorts settled into, “To deny authority of empirical evidence is to disqualify oneself as someone worthy of critical engagement in a dialogue.” Nothing has changed within the US government’s vaccine policy programs, six years after Congress indicted our health leaders with medical denialism.
Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the genomic industry.
Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on nutrition and natural health and a multi-award-winning director of progressive documentary films, including Vaccine Nation (2008) and Autism: Made in the USA (2009)
Notes
[1] Kathleen Sebelius interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS, July 30, 2009.
[2] All statements in quotations, unless noted, are from the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness report, “Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks,” published May 2003.
[3] Magos L, Brown AW, Sparrow S, Bailey E, Snowden RT, Skipp WR. “The comparative toxicology of ethyl- and methylmercury.” Archives of Toxicology. (1985) 57: 260-267.
[4] Haley, Boyd (Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky). “The relationship of the toxic effects of mercury to exacerbation of the medical condition classified as Alzheimer’s disease.” Presented at Autism One Conference. May 26-29, 2005.
[5] Kirby, David. Evidence of Harm. St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2005.
[6] Kogan MD, Blumberg J, Schieve LA, Boyle CA, Perrin JM, Ghandour RM, Singh GK, Strickland BB, Trevathan E, van Dyck PC. “Prevalence of Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children in the US, 2007” Pediatrics. Published online October 5, 2009.
[7] Geier M, Geier D. “Neurodevelopmental disorders after thimerosal-containing vaccines: A brief communication.” Experimental Biology and Medicine. (2003) Vol. 228, n 6, 660-664.
[8] McCoy, Roger. “Some See Threat in Ohio’s Flu Shot.” The Columbus Dispatch. February 17, 2004.
[9] Kirby, David. “The Pentagon: A Voice of Reason on Vaccines and Autism?” Wellsphere.com December 4, 2008.
[10] Warner, Angela. “Autism in the Military” Age of Autism. July 8, 2008.
[11] Kirby. Op cit.
[12] Private conversation with Col. Frank Anders, November 2009.
[13] James SJ, Slikker W, Melnyk S, New E, Jernigan S. “Thimerosal neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion: protection with glutathione precursors.” Neurotoxicity. (2005) Vol. 26, 1-8.
Global Research Articles by Richard Gale
Global Research Articles by Gary Null
by Richard Gale and Dr Gary Null
I have no doubt whatever that vaccination is an unscientific abomination and should be made a criminal practice. G. Bernard Shaw
Under normal circumstances, when a public health measure is advocated or mandated, and it is accepted without question by all Federal health agencies, state and local health departments, and promoted by the mainstream media with unquestioning support from the orthodox medical community, then it is assumed that such measures at the very least meet basic scientifically proven criteria. Foremost should be public health safety and that the proven efficacy of a health program be implemented according to rigorous scientific gold standards. When this standard is ignored and denied, as is now being done by our health officials, then the wellbeing of the nation is placed at risk. Consequently, we see the concerns regarding the swine flu vaccine focusing upon supply rather than health. For our government health officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), vaccines have been baptized safe and, therefore, there is no reason for further debate. In fact, so certain are those in charge of the nation’s vaccination programs, even democratic discourse about vaccination controversies has been marginalized and smothered. There is no dissenting opinion published in any major industrial medical journal or magazine, nor found on any of government health websites.
When put to the test, a meticulous review of the scientific literature finds that virtually all of the Federal health agencies assumptions are held in error. Furthermore, we are shocked that the CDC, FDA and HHS, with all of their resources, refuse to take into consideration the large body of clinical evidence that contradicts their biased vaccine policies. Our review of the scientific literature is at two levels. First, there is a direct relationship between vaccination and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This evidence, as we shall see, was taken under oath during a three year Congressional investigation, which clearly shows that Federal health officials were complicit in covering up the associations between vaccines and neurological damage.
The second level shows irrefutable evidence, from peered reviewed journals in immunology, neurology, toxicology, etc., that the very same mercury used at high toxic levels in the flu vaccines, as well as in trace amounts in other vaccines, is toxic in all circumstances. The pronouncements by the CDC and HHS, promulgated by tabloid medical writers at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, are deceptions based upon medical denialism. We believe it is a crime to inject mercury into the bodies of any pregnant woman and child, while knowing that thimerosal is extremely toxic.
During a televised interview to prepare the American public for a massive campaign to inoculate the population for the H1N1 flu virus, President Obama’s HHS Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Sebelius, told the nation, “study after study, scientist after scientist, has determined that there really is no safety risk with thimerosal.”[1] Glancing at the foot-high stack of published clinical studies on the desk, years of independent research identifying certain neurological impairments, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and cellular organ damage resulting from vaccines containing the toxic ethylmercury preservative commonly known as thimerosal, it is incomprehensible to fathom the depth of scientific denial in Sebelius’ statement. Was the Secretary blatantly lying to Americans, especially parents of small children six months and older and pregnant mothers, to convince us to line up for flu shots? If we unpack Sebelius’ misleading propaganda and properly rephrase her pronouncement, we can uncover a semblance of truth in her words. Instead it would have been proper for her to inform the nation that “study after study of spurious and flawed research that would likely never pass a graduate school examination, scientist after scientist affiliated or with financial ties to the vaccine industry now dominating our academies and health agencies, have determined that there really is no safety risk with thimerosal.”
This should have been the Secretary’s response if she were honest in addressing many people’s concerns about vaccine safety. Yet, this is not just our interpretive spin about the lack of scientific integrity within the CDC’s and FDA’s pharmaceutical-friendly stance regarding the vaccine-autism controversy; rather it accurately reflects the conclusions from a three year investigation conducted by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness in the House’s Committee on Government Reform, spearheaded by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana). Published in May 2003, the Committee’s 80-page report, “Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks,” is a clear indictment charging the CDC, FDA and HHS with scientific bias, prejudiced financial interests with vaccine makers, and administrative incompetence and indecision that puts Americans’ health at risk.[2]
It is a sorry state of affairs when a Congressional committee is forced to undertake a more thorough, concise review of the scientific literature related to a national health crisis, i.e., thimerosal as a causative factor behind the epidemic scourge of neurological and developmental disorders in America’s children, because our Federal health agencies prefer to not upset their clients (or masters) in the pharmaceutical industrial complex. But what is even more disturbing is that after six years since the Committee’s report, nothing has fundamentally changed. Instead, the CDC, FDA and HHS continue their rogue campaigns to spread unfounded medical propaganda and have done next to nothing, aside from issuing promises and marginalizing opposing medical views, to fund and launch the independent research necessary to determine once and for all vaccine safety in young children, developing fetuses and pregnant mothers. And as we wait for medical sanity to descend upon our government agencies, more and more children are injured from the increasing number of scheduled vaccinations, while the burden of health costs continue to mount on the shoulders of parents with neurologically and physically damaged children.
Therefore reviewing some of the Committee’s major findings is warranted to bring them up to date with recent information showing the thimerosal-autism link and to provide evidence for the CDC’s, FDA’s and HHS’s ongoing medical denialism about vaccine safety and their laxity in preserving and addressing public health.
Committee Finding 1: “Mercury is hazardous to humans. Its use in medicinal products is undesirable, unnecessary and should be minimized or eliminated entirely.”
Mercury, in its two most common forms that threaten human health--methylmercury and ethylmercury (thimerosal used in vaccines)--is the second most toxic substance perhaps after uranium. It is over one hundred times more toxic than lead. Therefore ask yourself the question, would you submit your child, or even yourself, to having lead injected directly into his or her bloodstream, permitting it to pass through your child’s neurological system? If you answer in the negative, then know that the mercury in that flu shot being offered at Costco is far more toxic than the lead you just refused.
Although more research has been conducted showing methylmercury’s severe health risks, the Committee, basing its decision on sound scientific evidence, concluded that thimerosal’s toxicity is the same as methylmercury. Among the more serious adverse effects are multiple organ system disorders over the course of a lifetime, neurological and behavioral defects, renal damage, cardiovascular effects even at very low dosages, increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and injury to the immune system, and adverse effects on the reproductive system. Contrary to Sebelius’denialism, a pregnant mother’s exposure to thimerosal due to vaccination runs the risk of mercury crossing the placenta and affecting the developing fetus. The CDC’s current stance that it makes no difference whether vaccines with thimerosal are given to pregnant mothers flies in the face of biomolecular reason and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) own warnings. Medical evidence for methylmercury disturbing the neuro-development of an infant in utero has been conclusive for many years.[3] The EPA’s website states that for women in reproductive ages, there is the risk of 300,000 newborns each year incurring learning disabilities due to in utero exposure to mercury. Even the FDA acknowledged mercury’s toxic risks to infants back in 1994. According to a National Institutes of Health document, “For fetuses, infants and children, the primary health effects of mercury are on neurological development. Even low levels of mercury exposure, such as result from a mother’s consumption of methylmercury in dietary sources, can adversely affect the brain and nervous system. Impact on memory, attention, language and other skills have been found in children exposed to moderate levels in the womb.” Do any of these symptoms sound like ASD? And if eating a can of tuna fish poses a potential risk, how much greater are the potential neurological injuries when vaccine mercury is injected intramuscularly?
The EPA, unlike the FDA, has conducted research into mercury’s toxicity and health risks. While the EPA sets a limit exposure of mercury at 0.1 micrograms/kg, the FDA in its favoritism towards mercury’s use in vaccines raises the stakes to 0.4 micrograms. The FDA’s figure has no valid supporting scientific data and is arbitrary in order to continue sanctioning the use of in vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the limit higher; this may account for the WHO’s aggressive campaigns to inoculate the world’s poorer populations with heavily laced-mercury and stockpiled vaccines from the drug makers. The Committee, however, found the EPA evaluation to be “scientifically validated.” Consequently, a person receiving a single flu shot, with 25 mcg/kg of thimerosal would need to weigh approximately 550 pounds for it to be considered a safe quantity. Therefore it is no surprise that the series of four thimerosal-laced flu shots, or 100 mcg/kg, can lead to long-term cumulative damage for any age group, including the later onset of dementia conditions such as Alzheimer’s.[4]
Dr. David Baskin, Professor of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine, told the Committee that brain tissue absorbs mercury five times more than other body tissues. And infants and small children are furthermore five times more sensitive to mercury’s toxicological effects compared to adults. Dr. Baskin reported on his own studies at Baylor:
“We have the opportunity to actually grow human frontal cortex cells in cell culture. So these are cells from the front part of the brain... We incubate these cells with thimerosal at various doses... [then] detect cell death and cell damage... [showing a slide] These are the cells committing the suicide program and breaking themselves into tiny little pieces with a very low dose of mercury... Don’t forget, we did this in adult brain cells. Remember that infant brain cells are much more sensitive, so there’s a real cause for concern.”
Similar studies conducted at Columbia University have confirmed the Baylor findings.
So why can’t the CDC and other government agencies reproduce these clinical studies to confirm whether or not there is a clear thimerosal-autism link? Well, the CDC, and other research agencies such as the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), simply don’t perform gold standard clinical science. Instead, the CDC relies upon statistical analyses and mathematical algorithms to arrive at their conclusions about vaccines’ and thimerosal’s safety. Preferring to cower in the back of Plato’s cave, concise scientific protocol and biomolecular studies in a laboratory is almost anathema to them. In addition, the kind of studies the vaccine orthodoxy hail as proof to deny a correlation between thimerosal and autism rely upon dreadful research design and ridiculously low numbers of participants. For example, a University of Rochester study comparing children injected with mercury-vaccines versus vaccines without mercury only enrolled 40 subjects; yet, this single study remains in the pro-vaccine orthodoxy’s arsenal against vaccine skeptics. If autism at the time of the study affected 1 in 150 children, then enrolling 40 children is baseless for achieving any valid data. For this reason, another finding by the Committee states:
Committee Finding 2: “To date, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute any correlation between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed. The CDC’s rush to support and promote such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse reactions from vaccinations.”
The Committee also reports, “Upon thorough review of the scientific literature and internal documents from government and industry, the Committee did in fact find evidence that thimerosal posed a risk. The possible risk for harm from either low dose chronic or one time high level (bolus dose) exposure to thimerosal is not ‘theoretical,’ but very real and documented in the medical literature.”
Furthermore, the report continues,
“Of additional concern has been the CDC’s bias against theories regarding vaccine-induced autism. Rather than aggressively working to replicate clinical findings with laboratory data that showed a relationship between vaccines and autism... the CDC funded researchers who also worked for vaccine manufacturers to conduct population-based epidemiological studies to look at the possible correlation between vaccine injury and a subset of the population that might be injured. The CDC to date has relied too heavily on epidemiological findings. While epidemiological studies are important, they are not a substitute for focused, clinical research.”
And independent clinical research exists. There is lots of it from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of California at Irvine, Baylor Medical School, Prof. Boyd Haley at the University of Kentucky, and the dozens of studies by Dr. Mark Geier at the Institute of Chronic Illnesses, all providing evidence for thimerosal’s adverse effects in adults and in the developing brain of a child.
Committee Finding 3: “Manufacturers of vaccines and thimerosal have never conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal. The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct adequate safety testing on thimerosal and ethylmercury compounds.”
For many decades, the FDA has known about the neurotoxic effects of thimersosal. A review of internal documents from Eli Lilly, the original inventor of ethylmercury in the 1920s, reveals that only one study has ever been performed to investigate thimerosal’s safety in humans and it was “woefully inadequate.” During the actual Committee hearings, Rep. Burton remarked, “You mean to tell me since 1929 we’ve been using thimerosal and the only test you know of is the one that was done in 1929, and every one of those people got meningitis and died?”[5]
In the 1940’s, thimerosal was used in teething powders for infants and resulted in fatal outbreaks of Pink’s Disease (severe mercury poisoning) before being removed in the 50’s. Since many children today receive vaccines with trace amounts of thimerosal, in addition to vaccines containing adjuvant aluminum compounds, an important 1972 study published in the British Medical Journal noted that mercury increases aluminum’s oxidation and produces abnormal heat. In recent years, there is growing evidence of mitochondrial oxidation and cellular damage that may be due to this interaction between mercury and aluminum in vaccines. With a child now receiving 31 and more vaccinations during its first 18 months of life, it would seem that this barbaric practice would have been fully investigated by our health officials to account for the epidemic rise in neurological and behavioral disorders, adult diabetes and asthmatic conditions in American children. Instead, our health officials continue to pump out junk science, for example the recent, seriously flawed NIAID study on H1N1 vaccine safety in pregnant women reported over the major media, to deceive Americans and enroll them in their national vaccination campaigns. The protocol in that study listed any pregnant woman who had a history of alcohol or drug abuse during a 6 year period, diabetes, compromised immune systems, asthmatic and allergic conditions, history of cancer-treatment drugs for 3 years, prescription to psychiatric drugs, and many other conditions as unqualified for the study. These conditions alone would disqualify the large majority of the nation’s pregnant women. Furthermore, any pregnant woman who enrolled in the trial, who spiked a temperature of 100 degrees or greater during the first 72 hours following vaccination, were excluded from the trial. Nevertheless, the CDC and its cronies in the media, particularly the pharmaceutical shills at The New York Times, touted this deranged trial as conclusive evidence that the swine flu vaccine was safe for all pregnant women. These are the kinds of medical distortions we have come to expect from the Federal health agencies.
The Committee’s report states,
“It appears that our Federal regulatory framework (the FDA and its predecessor organizations) failed to require manufacturers to prove thimerosal was safe. They failed to require industry to conduct adequate testing to determine how thimerosal is metabolized. The FDA failed to require that industry conduct studies to determine the maximum safe exposure level of thimerosal. These basic issues should have been proven prior to the introduction of thimerosal into the marketplace, but more than 70 years after its introduction, these issues have still not been adequately addressed... It is clear that the guiding principal for FDA policymakers has been to avoid shaking the public’s confidence in the safety of vaccines. For this reason, many FDA officials have stubbornly denied that thimerosal may cause adverse reactions... given the serious concerns about the safety of thimerosal, the FDA should have acted years earlier to remove this preservative from vaccines and other medications.”
Nevertheless, even during this so-called flu season, the Federal agencies continue to remain entranced in a stupor of scientific denial, perhaps acting in a criminally negligent manner, as thimerosal remains at highly toxic levels in the flu vaccines, and remains in trace amounts in the DTaP, some Hib, and Hepatitis B vaccines.
Although the FDA has repeatedly agreed that mercury is unsafe for over-the-counter medications, one would think that the government could arrive at the simple deduction of an elementary school pupil in agreeing that intramuscular injection of thimerosal would be far more dangerous. During the Committee’s proceedings, Dr. Bernard Schwetz, former Director of the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research, has stated, “... the fact that we know that ethylmercury is a skin sensitizer when its put on the skin, and now we’re injecting this IM (intramuscularly) at a time when the immune system is just developing, the functionality of the immune system is just being set at this age [infancy]... What is the effect on the functional development of the immune system when you give a chemical of that kind repeatedly IM?”
Committee Finding 4: “At the same time that the incidence of autism was growing, the number of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal was growing, increasing the amount of ethylmercury to which infants were exposed threefold... The FDA and CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the immunization schedule.”
The Commission report states, “There was tremendous reluctance on the part of some officials that a mistake had been made in allowing ethylmercury to be used in vaccines.” The FDA damns itself in a 1999 email by a former FDA official, Dr. Peter Patriarca, then Director of the FDA’s Division of Viral Products, who opines that hastening the removal of thimerosal from vaccines would “raise questions about the FDA being ‘asleep at the switch’ for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products.”
While the Federal health agencies and the professional medical organizations serving the vaccine industrial complex, such as the American Pediatric Association, repeatedly tell us there is no causal relationship between ASD and vaccine mercury, there is a growing body of prestigious scientists, researchers and physicians who feel otherwise. Last October 2009, a Harvard survey reported in the journal Pediatrics the US’s ASD rate needs to be upgraded to 1 in 91, a greater than 30% increase from the previous 1 in 150 ratio several years back.[6] Consequently, the thimerasol-autism debate is far from over and should be pursued with aggressive due diligence and urgency. Moreover, the past history of CDC negligence and its reliance upon poorly designed and flawed science indicates there is no reason why any rational citizen should believe any statistical declaration or medical claim about vaccine safety from government health officials. These are people with severe allergic reactions to real science.
The Autism Society of America (ASA), the world’s largest autism organization and heavily funded by private industry and CDC support, continues to rely on archaic treatments not too dissimilar to BF Skinner’s behavioral work with pigeons. The ASA and the National Alliance for Autism, another advocacy organization supporting research to discredit vaccine-autism links, have been accused of conflict of interests and biased studies. In early 2009, Alison Singer, the senior executive of ASA and an advocate of the fanatical vaccine multi-millionaire and former advisor to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, Dr. Paul Offit—who believes in a fantasy vaccine heaven where children can survive 10,000 vaccinations unscathed—resigned in protest over her organization’s recent leanings to reconsider a vaccination-autism connection. Each organization’s platform fundamentally ignores a possible vaccine-caused autism and instead favors genetic etiology that has yet to be conclusively discovered—instead, blame the parents’ DNA, not the drug makers and their government collaborators. Yet while the search for a mysterious autism gene persists, more and more children are being neurologically and developmentally damaged. Furthermore, even if such a gene is found, it would be many years before anything medically practical could be done with it.
Committee Finding 5: “A growing number of scientists and researchers believe that a relationship between the increase in neurodevelopmental disorders of autism... and the increased use of thimerosal in vaccines is plausible and deserves more scrutiny.”
In fact, the CDC in June 2000 discovered “a statistically significant positive correlation between the cumulative exposure” of thimerosal and ASD symptoms. The CDC’s analysis of approximately 110,000 records of children with adverse reactions to vaccines, flying in the face of federal health officials’ previous claims about vaccine safety, led to a secretive meeting between top government health officials and vaccine industry representatives at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center near Atlanta. The transcripts of that meeting were later obtained by Robert Kennedy Jr through a Freedom of Information Act. During the meeting, the CDC study’s chief scientist, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, stated, “This analysis suggests that in our study population, the risks of tics, ADD, language and speech delays, and developmental delays in general may be increased by exposures to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines during the first six months of life.” The Congressional review of the Simpsonwood conversations concluded that “It appears that many who participated in the thimerosal debates allowed their standards to be dictated by their desire to disprove an unpleasant theory.” Indeed, this is what eventually occurred after the meeting.
The clandestine Simpsonwood gathering decided to withhold its findings from the public and, instead, proceeded with a new investigation to doctor the same data by employing confounders (subjective, unscientific criteria used to bias a study to prove a desired result). Consequently the CDC’s subsequent study released several years later denied any relationship between thimerosal and ASD. At the end of 2009, this remains the policy position and mindset of the CDC, FDA and HHS while a large body of independent research, with no conflict of interests with government or the vaccine industry, continues to mount against our policy makers reliance upon tabloid science and futile efforts to find causes unrelated to vaccines. And Dr. Thomas Verstaeten? Last heard he joined the vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline and continued to deny the truth of the CDC’s original Simpsonwood findings.
Since then, Dr. Mark Geier at the Institutes of Chronic Illnesses, through a Freedom of Information Act, obtained all the CDC’s vaccine injury data in its database. After conducting an independent epidemiological study, based on tens of millions of vaccine doses administered in the US, he confirmed the Simpsonwood findings and significant other data to show thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine as contributing causes behind the country’s autism epidemic.[7]
Today, our tax dollars are being spent by our health agencies to sidestep the entire question of vaccine safety and efficacy, and are trying to project autism’s causes on genetic factors. This was the case in 2003, as it is now, when the Committee raised concerns over the NIH’s $27 billion budget, investing only $56 million into autism research, and the majority of that towards genetic causes. Compare that with the $2.2 billion spent on HIV/AIDS research that affects only a tiny percent of the population compared to the hundreds of thousands of children across the nation suffering autism spectrum disorder and neurological damage that they will live with for the remainder of their lives.
In 1975, the FDA undertook a five year review of mercury’s dangers in over-the-counter drugs and topical medicines and ointments. The advisory panel’s report to the FDA concluded that not only “mercury compounds as a class are of dubious value for anti-microbial use” but also “thimerosal was 35-times more toxic to the heart tissue it was meant to protect than the bacteria it was meant to kill.” So why is thimerosal still used in vaccines? Rather than manufacturing single dose vials, which would not require mercury, vaccine makers have found it more cost effective to manufacture multi-dose vials and simply add mercury as a preservative for longer shelf-life. A story in the Columbus Dispatch unveiled that Ohio’s decision to purchase larger quantities of thimerosal-laced flu vaccine rather than the alternative thimerosal-free version was purely based on a financial decision.[8]
Committee Finding 6: “The CDC’s failure to state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines in 2000 and again 2001 was an abdication of their responsibility.”
After reviewing the CDC’s long-standing habit for promoting illness and staging a war on health, there is a case of one vaccine manufacturer offering to remove thimerosal from its vaccine but being denied permission to do so from the CDC. This incident led the Committee to state, “The CDC’s decision not to endorse thimerosal-free vaccines in 2001 is particularly troubling... Just as disappointing, and even more difficult to understand, is the fact that the CDC, on two separate occasions, refused to publicly state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines.”
Testimony by Federal health officials before the Committee included a litany of excuses based on financial rationales for not concerning itself with the health of American children. The statements by Dr. Roger Bernier from the CDC exemplifies the dangerous level of denial and Federal officials’ refusal to accept preventative health measures, a dire negligence that continues to plague government health agencies in general, and the unproven and potentially unsafe H1N1 vaccine in particular:
“It [removing thimerosal from vaccines] could entail financial losses of inventory if current vaccine inventory is wasted. It could harm one or more manufacturers and may then decrease the number of suppliers”
“The evidence justifying this kind of abrupt policy change [immediate removal of mercury from all vaccines] does not appear to exist, and it could entail financial losses for all existing stocks of vaccines that contain thimerosal.”
The Committee’s interpretation of the CDC’s vaccine policy includes, “The financial health of the industry should never have been a factor in this decision [thimerosal removal]. The financial health of vaccine manufacturers certainly should never have been more important to the Federal health officials than the health and well being of the nation’s children. The CDC has a responsibility to protect the health of the American public. If there were any doubts about the neurological effects of ethylmercury in vaccines on children—and there were substantial doubts—the prevailing consideration should have been how best to protect children from potential harm. However, it appears that protecting the industry’s profits took precedent over protecting children from mercury damage.”
Committee Finding 7: “Thimerosal should be removed from these vaccines. No amount of mercury is appropriate in any childhood vaccine.”
Although thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines, mercury remains in trace amounts in some vaccines, as noted above, and remains at high toxic levels in the flu shots. Studies show that in the presence of aluminum compounds mercury’s toxicity increases dramatically. Vaccines that contain aluminum compounds include the DTaP, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal, anthrax, and the HPV vaccine. Unfortunately, no studies have been funded by government agencies nor have the vaccine makers undertaken efforts to determine adverse neurological effects when multiple vaccines are given together, as is so often the case when small children visit their pediatricians.
A comparison of the FDA, CDC and HHS claims on thimerosal and multiple vaccination safety with documents from the Department of Defense (DoD) leaves one with the feeling that our national health service is a madhouse, a leper colony of welfare scientists and indecisive medical bureaucrats torn between their allegiance to pharmaceutical firms and the health of the nation. Medical journalist David Kirby has reported on DoD documents he received showing the military raising legitimate concerns about vaccines (thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine) as causative factors for the critical epidemic of ASD among military children.[9] In her article “Autism in the Military, “ Angela Warren calculates the military autism rate at 1 in 67, substantially higher than the recent Harvard study for the civilian population.[10] In addition to thimerosal’s dangers, the military claims its ongoing studies suggest that “a relationship between adverse events and multiple vaccinations exist.” The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology also acknowledges that “exposure to mercury in utero and children may cause mild to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment.”[11]
Why would the military health officials take a completely different stand on thimerosal and vaccine safety from that of the CDC and HHS? During a recent conversation with a retired Colonel and former Command Surgeon of the US Army Special Operations Command in Africa, Dr. Frank Anders explained why the military health policies and recognition of scientific facts are more accurate and medically humane than that of our Federal health officials. According to Col. Anders, the “power and money these pharmaceutical companies wield [on the FDA and CDC] is awesome.” When he was asked whether or not there is any conformity or agreement between the Department of Defense’s health divisions and the Federal health agencies, including President Obama’s appointments, he stated there was nothing that could affect preventative and therapeutic health policy. There are far more financial incentives, including funds from Congress at the behest of pharmaceutical lobbyists, for FDA and CDC personnel to forge relationships with the drug and vaccine makers. On the other hand, since military health personnel are solely employees of the DoD removed from the vaccine industry and Big Pharma lobbyists, there is less bias and greater scientific integrity towards medical facts and sound science.[12]
Curiously, David Kirby reports that the military health clinics are adopting alternative treatments for ASD--methyl B12, chelation and glutathione--which are not actively promoted by the FDA in their preference for pharmaceutical and psychiatric drugs and behavioral modality treatment. When we asked Col. Anders why this was the case, he responded that it is simply because these alternative treatments work. For example, independent studies show convincingly that thimerosal depletes glutathione in vaccinated children with autism. Glutathione provides cells with the primary defense against heavy metal oxidation, a condition that has been observed extensively in children with ASD. Without glutathione, heavy metal oxidation inflicts severe neurological damage. Alternative treatment for autism includes glutathione replacement; however, this form of treatment is not recognized by the CDC and the orthodox autism organizations in bed with the pharmaceutical industrial complex.[13]
Committee Recommendations: There were two important recommendations made by Rep. Dan Burton’s Committee that Americans should demand from our government and Federal health agencies. First is the recommendation that “studies be conducted that pool the results of independent research that has been done thus far, and a comprehensive approach should be developed to rid humans, animals and the environment from this dangerous toxin [ethyl- and methylmercury].”
The second urgent recommendation is that Congress “enact legislation that prohibits federal funds from being used to provide products or pharmaceuticals that contain mercury, methylmercury or ethylmercury unless no reasonable alternative is available.”
Today, neither of these recommendations have been acted upon. Instead the Obama administration has continued the previous Bush act to provide sanctuary to vaccine makers from lawsuits due to vaccine injury. Our health officials have sunk themselves deeper into dangerously reductive and determinist views about infectious diseases, such as the swine flu, and have strengthened their denial that their entire vaccination program might be leading America’s health to further ruin.
It is unusual for our government and Congress to get anything correct these days and to make sincere, thoughtful decisions that truly benefit American citizens. However, there are those rare occasions when a spark of wisdom actually flares briefly somewhere in Washington. The Rep. Burton’s Committee report’s final statement is as relevant today as it was in mid 2003. Perhaps even more so as we witness the CDC’s public relations campaign threatening citizens with misleading statistics, distorted science (‘science’ being a term that can barely be applied to the kind of tabloid research that Federal officials rely upon today), and unproven fears to shepherd us towards the H1N1 and seasonal flu lines.
“Thimserosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to his known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”
As we have witnessed during the recent CDC’s public relations campaign behind the H1N1 vaccine, and the uproar of dissent that questions the safety and national need for mass inoculation, medical discourse has been shut down. This raises the serious concern whether America’s health sciences and democracy can co-exist any longer in the United States. The words of H.H. the Dalai Lama are apropos for understanding the fish tank Federal officials and their sponsored cohorts settled into, “To deny authority of empirical evidence is to disqualify oneself as someone worthy of critical engagement in a dialogue.” Nothing has changed within the US government’s vaccine policy programs, six years after Congress indicted our health leaders with medical denialism.
Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the genomic industry.
Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on nutrition and natural health and a multi-award-winning director of progressive documentary films, including Vaccine Nation (2008) and Autism: Made in the USA (2009)
Notes
[1] Kathleen Sebelius interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS, July 30, 2009.
[2] All statements in quotations, unless noted, are from the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness report, “Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks,” published May 2003.
[3] Magos L, Brown AW, Sparrow S, Bailey E, Snowden RT, Skipp WR. “The comparative toxicology of ethyl- and methylmercury.” Archives of Toxicology. (1985) 57: 260-267.
[4] Haley, Boyd (Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky). “The relationship of the toxic effects of mercury to exacerbation of the medical condition classified as Alzheimer’s disease.” Presented at Autism One Conference. May 26-29, 2005.
[5] Kirby, David. Evidence of Harm. St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2005.
[6] Kogan MD, Blumberg J, Schieve LA, Boyle CA, Perrin JM, Ghandour RM, Singh GK, Strickland BB, Trevathan E, van Dyck PC. “Prevalence of Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children in the US, 2007” Pediatrics. Published online October 5, 2009.
[7] Geier M, Geier D. “Neurodevelopmental disorders after thimerosal-containing vaccines: A brief communication.” Experimental Biology and Medicine. (2003) Vol. 228, n 6, 660-664.
[8] McCoy, Roger. “Some See Threat in Ohio’s Flu Shot.” The Columbus Dispatch. February 17, 2004.
[9] Kirby, David. “The Pentagon: A Voice of Reason on Vaccines and Autism?” Wellsphere.com December 4, 2008.
[10] Warner, Angela. “Autism in the Military” Age of Autism. July 8, 2008.
[11] Kirby. Op cit.
[12] Private conversation with Col. Frank Anders, November 2009.
[13] James SJ, Slikker W, Melnyk S, New E, Jernigan S. “Thimerosal neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion: protection with glutathione precursors.” Neurotoxicity. (2005) Vol. 26, 1-8.
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