All posts by alternativefreepress

Corporate Welfare, Health/Environment

How the EPA Faked the Entire Science of Sewage Sludge Safety: A Whistleblower’s Story

Truth-out : June 15, 2014

US EPA’s 503 sludge rule (1993) allows treated sewage sludges, aka biosolids, to be land-applied to farms, forests, parks, school playgrounds, home gardens and other private and public lands. According to a recent EPA survey, biosolids contain a wide range of mutagenic and neurotoxic chemicals, which are present at a million-fold higher concentrations (ppm versus ppt) compared with their levels in polluted air and water (1). Biosolids contain all of the lipophilic (fat-soluble) chemical wastes that once polluted our rivers and lakes, but which now settle out at sewage treatment plants and become concentrated in sewage sludges. Most biosolids contain ppm concentrations of heavy metals, including chromium, lead, and mercury. They contain similarly high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and semi-volatiles, such as bis (2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate, Benzo(a)pyrene), and polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners (PBDE flame retardants). Most biosolids also contain pathogenic agents and ppm levels of many common drugs, including ciprofloxacin (Cipro), carbamazepine (Tegretol, Equetro), and fluoxetine (Prozac).

While working at EPA Dr David Lewis published evidence that teenager Shayne Conner (of New Hampshire) died and other neighbors were harmed from living near land applied with sewage sludge (Lewis et al 2002). He furthermore became involved after dairy herds of two Georgia farms (McElmurray and Boyce) were poisoned after grazing on sludged land. He testified in lawsuits following each incident, against his employer (EPA), which is where many of the following depositions were obtained. The following article is an excerpt from Chapter 4 (Sludge Magic) of his new book Science for Sale: How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits. The lawsuits referred to are Lewis v. EPA 1999; Lewis v. EPA 2003; and USA, ex rel. Lewis, McElmurray and Boyce v. Walker et al. 2009. The depositions below piece together an unprecedented and coordinated multi-agency scientific scheme involving EPA, USDA, local and city municipalities, Synagro Technologies (a waste management company), various universities, and the National Academies of Science. The effort was intended to misleadingly present sewage sludge as scientifically safe, to hide the evidence that it was not, to deliberately misreport the contents of municipal sludges, and smear David Lewis with a scientific misconduct charge after he blew the whistle.

(read the excerpt from Chapter 4 (Sludge Magic) of Science for Sale: How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits at Truth-out)

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Drugs, Tyranny

The US Government is The World’s Largest Drug Dealer

AlternativeFreePress.com

The US Government, specifically the CIA, is the world’s largest drug dealer. The following videos provide substantial evidence…

The Phony Drug War: How the US Government Deals Drugs (Documentary) :

CIA Agent Says War Is Eugenics & Drug War Is Fake :

The C.I.A. Busted For Dealing Drugs To Americans :

Ex-DEA Head Admits CIA Imported Cocaine :

The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA Drug Smuggling (1995) :

Montel : Mike Levine & Gary Webb – The Big White Lie + Dark Alliance= CIA drug cartel

Privacy, Tyranny

NSA Veterans Expose Shocking History of US Illegal Surveillance Program

Media Roots: June 14, 2014

It’s been over a year since the groundbreaking documents were released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, detailing a massive surveillance apparatus collecting the electronic communications of entire populations. The proof positive spying story sparked a global discussion reevaluating state power and a groundswell of privacy advocates.

However, years before Snowden’s damning disclosures, two former NSA insiders had also blown the whistle on the dragnet spying regime. Bill Binney was NSA Technical Director from 1965 to 2001 and Kirk Wiebe was Senior Analyst within the NSA from 1975 to 2001. They both resigned after 9/11, outraged by the unconstitutional assertions of power within the agency.

As a pioneer of the now-defunct ‘Thin Thread’ program, which upheld the privacy of US citizens, Binney broke away from the NSA after witnessing the erosion of privacy rights under the banner of national security. Wiebe, equally disgusted by the NSA’s blatant disregard for the rule of law, left his post in protest against the indiscriminate violations unfolding outside the view of the American public.

(Read the full article at Media Roots)

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Privacy

Supreme Court rules Canadians have right to online anonymity; Conservatives mum on changing privacy bills

Canadians have right to online anonymity, Supreme Court rules

Rejecting government fears of a “crime-friendly Internet,” the Supreme Court of Canada said anonymity is vital to personal privacy in the digital era. It told police they need a judge’s permission before asking Internet providers for basic information that would identify their customers – such as a suspected child pornographer at the heart of a 2007 Saskatchewan investigation.

Legal observers called the unanimous ruling a privacy landmark, with implications for everything from child porn investigations to snooping by national security agencies to police powers under the Conservative government’s cyberbullying bill.

David Fraser, a Halifax privacy lawyer, said that “the message to police is ‘Come back with a warrant;’ customers’ names and addresses are not as innocuous as police might think, or want us to believe.” The Conservative government would not say whether it would amend proposed laws that expand the sharing of that kind of private information.
(Read full article at Globe & Mail)

Conservatives mum on changing privacy bills after Supreme Court ruling

After a Supreme Court ruling that Canadians have a right to privacy with IP addresses and other online data, the Conservative government is staying silent on whether it will amend bills that expand the sharing of that kind of private information.

Friday’s court ruling comes as the Conservative government pushes ahead with Bill C-13 and Bill S-4, each of which has privacy implications and is under fire from academics, lawyers and privacy watchdogs.

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Daniel Therrien, called the decision a “seminal” ruling and urged MPs to “carefully consider the implications” in consideration of C-13 and S-4.

Among many criticized provisions, C-13 offers immunity to private companies – such as major telecommunications companies – that hand over subscriber information or other data voluntarily to police. The telecom industry got 1.2-million such requests from government agencies in 2011. S-4, meanwhile, overhauls the rules for voluntary data sharing between private companies, and critics have warned it will lead to more sharing of private information without judicial oversight.

In Question Period on Friday, shortly after the release of the decision, the government was under fire from the opposition.

“Police must have a mandate. This new defeat [from the court] underscores the fact that all too often [the government’s] approach is unconstitutional. Will the Conservatives amend bills on electronic monitoring in order to comply with the Supreme Court decision?” NDP House Leader Peter Julian said.

Conservative MP Bob Dechert, who is the parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister Peter MacKay, sidestepped the question.

(read the full article at Globe & Mail)

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Privacy

Facebook will provide advertisers with data on your visits to external websites

RT: June 12, 2014

Facebook is to start providing advertisers with more user data, drawing from browsing habits and external websites visited, in addition to their current ‘likes.’ This will be the first time that Facebook has used information from outside the network.

The company announced the change early on Thursday, saying the move is aimed at targeting individual users more efficiently.

“If you live in the US, you’ll be able to use ad preferences in the next few weeks, and we are working hard to expand globally in the coming months,” Facebook stated in a blog post on Thursday.

However, the move has sparked concern among privacy advocates and will likely ignite further criticism about its respect – or lack thereof – of users’ personal data.

“Facebook is continuing on a campaign to push the data envelope, raising troubling privacy and consumer-protection concerns,” Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, told The Wall Street Journal.

(read the full article at RT)

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Corporate Welfare

Leaked memo confirms that Globe and Mail wants journalists to write advertorials

[…]the following document, marked as “intended only for members of the Local 87-M bargaining unit at the Globe & Mail” and containing direct passages from a proposal presented to media union Unifor by Globe and Mail management, vetted by Editor-in-Chief David Walmsley. […] Globe management wants journalists to generate articles directly paid for and approved by advertisers, or at least is asking for such as a feint in the bargaining process.[…]

Company wants Editorial staff to produce “branded content”

Globe executives want to monetize the integrity and reputations of The Globe and Mail’s journalists – the same award-winning reporters and editors that management proudly (and rightly) claims are vital to the enterprise’s future as a powerful, independent, fearless and profitable news organization.

Under the company proposal, editorial staff would be assigned to write or produce advertiser sponsored “branded content” (i.e. native advertising) that is vetted by the advertiser prior to publication and held out to readers as staff-written content.

That content cannot offend a paying advertiser’s specific opinions and corporate interests or it will be changed.

You can read the company’s own memo (below) of how it claims it can make this work.

But the bottom line seems obvious. Hiring out our journalists to corporate interests compromises the integrity of Globe editorial staff, regardless of whether they continue to work at the Globe or elsewhere.

This proposal was presented to us by editorial management and has been vetted by the Editor-in-Chief.

Here’s the company’s position in its own words:

Negotiations resume June 9.

I am writing in order to clarify the Employer’s latest position with regard to their view on bargaining unit employees engaging in Advertiser-sponsored work.

First, the Employer has stated that protecting The Globe’s brand – its integrity and the integrity of its employees – is the Employer’s primary interest.

As this can be a complicated subject, I will start by defining the different types of work associated with advertisers:

1. Custom Content: This is work that advertisers sponsor but do not direct or approve. Reporters and Editors already work on Custom Content work. Ex. Canada’s Top 100 Employers in the ROB

2. Branded Content: Print and digital content that is approved by the advertiser but is not about the advertiser. Ex. Native Advertising and Dogs Annual Magazine

3. Advertorial: This is work that is always approved by the advertiser and is always about the advertiser.

The Employer proposes the following for bargaining unit production and content creators:

Production Employees – Production Employees will be responsible for editing and posting all of this work so long as the employee finds that there is not a direct conflict of interest apparent in them doing the work. Specifically, a copy editor will not be asked to edit a piece that would create a conflict of interest to their current work. For example, an investment editor would not be asked to edit a piece on the Bank of Montreal.

Content Creators- Content Creators will be asked to engage in Custom Content work (as per current practice). Content Creators will not be asked to engage in Advertorial work. Content Creators may be asked to work on Branded Content, so long as that work does not pose a conflict of interest. The following test will be applied to determine if a conflict of interest exists for a Content Creator:

Step 1: Does the assignment pose a conflict of interest to the Content Creator in regard to the beat that they are currently writing for? If yes, they will not be given the assignment. If no, the Content Creator is responsible for completing the assignment and moves to

Step 2. Step 2: After the advertiser has reviewed it, the Content Creator has a right to pull the assignment if they believe that a conflict of interest exists with regard to changes that the advertiser has made. If there is a conflict of interest, the assignment will be pulled. If not, the assignment will be printed/posted.

It is the Employer’s position that the above test will protect the integrity of The Globe and its employees.

This communication is intended only for members of the Local 87-M bargaining unit at the Globe & Mail.

(Read the full article at Canadaland)

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Privacy

IRS Sent Database Containing Confidential Taxpayer Information to FBI

Eliana Johnson
National Review: June 9, 2014

The Internal Revenue Service may have been caught violating federal tax law: In October 2010, the agency sent a database on 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups containing confidential taxpayer information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to documents obtained by a House panel.

The information was transmitted in advance of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s meeting the same month with Justice Department officials about the possibility of using campaign-finance laws to prosecute certain nonprofit groups. E-mails between Lerner and Richard Pilger, the director of the Justice Department’s election-crimes branch, obtained through a subpoena to Attorney General Eric Holder, show Lerner asking about the format in which the FBI preferred the data to be sent.

“This revelation that the IRS sent 1.1 million pages of nonprofit tax-return data — including confidential taxpayer information — to the FBI confirms suspicions that the IRS worked with the Justice Department to facilitate the potential investigation of nonprofit groups engaged in lawful political speech,” Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan wrote in a letter to IRS commissioner John Koskinen. The two lawmakers also raise questions about the timing of the meeting, just weeks before the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans recaptured a majority in the House of Representatives.

(read the full article at National Review)

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Geopolitics/War, Tyranny

Moncton Shooting : Active Shooter Drill Took Place Week Before; Potential Sign of False Flag?

AlternativeFreePress.com

On June 4, 2014 in Moncton, New Brunswick, a 24-year-old shot five officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), killing three and severely injuring two. The Sackville Tribune-Post reported on May 21, 2014 that on May 29, 2014 there would be a training exercise involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and an active shooter in Sackville, NB.

Local emergency responders, such as Sackville RMCP, the fire & rescue department, Ambulance New Brunswick and EMO personnel, will partner with the town and Mount Allison University in the exercise, which is being planned for Thursday, May 29, and will involve a mock fire and shooting on the Mount A campus.

Source: Emergency response will be tested during upcoming simulation exercise

Of course this isn’t the first time government drills have occurred either near or on the very same day as acts of terror which they mirror.

Dick Cheney was managing multiple war games and terror drills on 9/11 that paralyzed U.S. Air Force response:

In May of 2001 Dick Cheney was placed directly in charge of managing the “seamless integration” of all training exercises throughout the federal government and military agencies by presidential mandate.
The morning of 9/11 began with multiple training exercises of war games and terror drills which Cheney, as mandated by the president, was placed in charge of managing.
War games & terror drills included live-fly exercises with military aircraft posing as hijacked aircraft over the United States, as well as simulated exercises that placed “false blips” (radar injects indicating virtual planes) on FAA radar screens. One exercise titled NORTHERN VIGILANCE pulled Air Force fighters up into Canada simulating a Russian air attack, so there were very few fighters remaining on the east coast to respond. All of this paralyzed Air Force response ensuring that fighter jocks couldn’t stop 9/11.
An unknown individual or command center referred to by Major Don Arias of NORAD as the “maestro” coordinated the war games. It is possible there was more than one maestro, but no one will name names. FTW has asked this question of everyone in relevant government and military positions, to no avail. Our investigation has found the maestro was either Dick Cheney, General Ralph “Ed” Eberhart, or both.
Whoever was coordinating the Air Force war games was under the management and direction of Dick Cheney, who was also in charge of managing a terror drill being set up on the West Side of downtown New York on 9/11 titled Tripod 2. This exercise set up a command and control center on 9/11 that was configured exactly like the one lost that morning in WTC 7. It was the perfect command center to respond to the crisis, and it was under Dick Cheney’s management before the hijackings occurred. How convenient.
Dick Cheney was one of the main government officials deciding that such extensive war games would take place on 9/11. This was when American intelligence had collected dozens of warnings from governments and intelligence agencies indicating that terrorists were planning to hijack civilian aircraft and crash them into American targets on the ground during the week of September 9th, 2001.

Source: Simplifying the case against Dick Cheney

In 2005 in London an anti-terror drill included multiple bomb attacks on London’s underground which took place at exactly the same time as the bomb attack which did occur on July 7, 2005:

Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor Consultants, a private firm on contract to the London Metropolitan Police, described in a BBC interview how he had organized and conducted the anti-terror drill, on behalf of an unnamed business client.

The fictional scenario was based on simultaneous bombs going off at exactly the same time at the underground stations where the real attacks were occurring:

POWER: At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now.

HOST: To get this quite straight, you were running an exercise to see how you would cope with this and it happened while you were running the exercise?

POWER: Precisely, and it was about half past nine this morning, we planned this for a company and for obvious reasons I don’t want to reveal their name but they’re listening and they’ll know it. And we had a room full of crisis managers for the first time they’d met and so within five minutes we made a pretty rapid decision that this is the real one and so we went through the correct drills of activating crisis management procedures to jump from slow time to quick time thinking and so on.

(BBC Radio Interview, 7 July 2005)

Source: 7/7 Mock Terror Drill: What Relationship to the Real Time Terror Attacks?

On June 8, 2013 the Boston Globe reported that the government had planned a training exercise “with a real terrorist attack executed in a frighteningly similar fashion” to the real Boston Bombings:

Months of painstaking planning had gone into the exercise, dubbed “Operation Urban Shield,” meant to train dozens of detectives in the Greater Boston area to work together to thwart a terrorist threat. The hypothetical terrorist group was even given a name: Free America Citizens, a home-grown cadre of militiamen whose logo would be a metal skull wearing an Uncle Sam hat and a furious expression, according to a copy of the plans obtained by the Boston Globe.

But two months before the training exercise was to take place, the city was hit with a real terrorist attack executed in a frighteningly similar fashion. The chaos of the Boston Marathon bombings disrupted plans for the exercise, initially scheduled for this weekend, forcing police to postpone. Now officials must retool aspects of the training.

Source: Police response training planned, but bombs hit first

Coincidences? Likely in some cases, but certainly not all.

Compiled by Alternative Free Press
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Health/Environment, Original

New Study Links GMO To Leukemia; Bt is toxic

AlternativeFreePress.com

A new study published in the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases entitled Hematotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis as Spore-crystal Strains Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac or Cry2Aa in Swiss Albino Mice. indicates that genetically modified crops with Bacillus Thuringensis (Bt), may contribute to blood abnormalities such as leukemia. Many GM crops contain Bt.

The Brazilian study sought to establish the purported human and environmental safety of GM crops, in particular they looked at the impact that the Bt toxin has on species which it is not intended to target.

The study concludes:

Results showed that the Bt spore-crystals genetically modified to express individually Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac or Cry2A can cause some hematological risks to vertebrates,increasing their toxic effects with long-term exposure. Taking into account the increased risk of human and animal exposures to significant levels of these toxins, especially through diet, our results suggest that further studies are required to clarify the mechanism involved in the hematotoxicity found in mice, and to establish the toxicological risks to non-target organisms, especially mammals, before concluding that these microbiological control agents are safe for mammals.

This study makes a strong case that GMOs have not proven to be safe, as these scientists believe “further studies are required … before concluding that these microbiological control agents are safe for mammals.”

Interesting findings include:

– Bt toxins are capable of targeting mammalian cells, particularly red blood cells, this results in significant damage.
– Bt toxins suppress bone marrow proliferation resulting in abnormal lymphocyte patterns which can be consistent with leukemia.
– Bt toxin can cause blood changes indicating damage to bone marrow.
– Genetically Modified Bt spore-crystals induce hematotoxicity, cause in vitro hemolysis in cell lines of rat, mouse, sheep, horse, and human erythrocytes & the plasma membrane of susceptible cells may be the primary target for the toxins.
– Bt toxins can produce adverse effects when suspended in distilled water, this contradicts past claims of not requiring alkalinization via insect physiology to become activated.
– Bt toxin can cause blood changes indicating damage to bone marrow.
– Even just 27 mg/kg Cry1Ab can induce hypochromic anemia in mice.
– Bt toxins accumulate in fatty tissue and persist in the environment as their toxic impact increases after 72 hours of exposure.

Source: Hematotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis as Spore-crystal Strains Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac or Cry2Aa in Swiss Albino Mice

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Drugs, Health/Environment, Original

Study says alcohol can lead to psychosis, but not cannabis

AlternativeFreePress.com

The University of Calgary has published a study entitled “Impact of substance use on conversion to psychosis in youth at clinical high risk of psychosis” in the journal Schizophrenia Research. The 4 year study looks at substance use of alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco in an attempt to determine each substance’s association with the development of psychosis.

Researchers determined that cannabis did not increase the likelihood of psychosis. On the other hand, the study suggests that alcohol use could increase the likelihood of psychosis.

The Abstract reads: “Results revealed that low use of alcohol, but neither cannabis use nor tobacco use at baseline, contributed to the prediction of psychosis in the CHR sample.”

Source: Schizophrenia Research

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Study says alcohol can lead to psychosis, but not cannabis by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.