Sivert Høyem 'Prisoner of the Road' - TV-aksjonen 2010

Sivert Høyem is launching the song "Prisoner of the road" today in order to raise awareness for NRC, which is this year's recipient of the Norwegian National Telethon.

Tobacco industry casts doubt on scientific research

Compilation of documentaries produced or sponsored by tobacco companies. These videos express industry position that stress and genetics rather than smoking causes tobacco related illnesses. Film uses scientists and doctors to refute the Surgeon General's findings that smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. Focusing on the weaknesses of an epidemiological approach, videos question the cause and effect relationship between tobacco and disease. Tobacco companies dispute the scientific validity of public health research about secondhand smoke and indentify poor ventilation and filtration as the cause of indoor air pollution.

Whistle Where You Work #14 - A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Wigand

In a special WWYW episode, we sit down for a lengthy conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, noted tobacco whistleblower and subject of the movie The Insider. In 1995, Dr. Wigand achieved national prominence when he became the tobacco industrys highest ranking former executive to address public health and smoking issues.

The episode was filmed in March 2009 during the National Whistleblowers Assembly.

WWYW is a multimedia program focusing on issues of accountability, that is produced by the Government Accountability Project, the nations leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.




Dr. Jeffrey Wigand testifies about his experience as a whistleblower at a Workforce Protections subcommittee hearing on whistleblower protections on May 15, 2007.

Denying the Evidence of the Internal Tobacco Documents in Argentina

Denying the Evidence of the Internal Tobacco Documents in Argentina from Marty Otañez on Vimeo.

Further on the subject of tobacco industry revelations:

Searching the American Legacy Tobacco Documents

9 students quickly learned how to search the 52 million pages of once secret, internal tobacco industry letters, e-mails, notes and videos. This is the anti-tobacco video we made. "You just never know what you will find"... try searching the American Legacy Library of Tobacco Documents yourself at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/ memefilms is an experiment combining Media Literacy Education, Health Education and Media Production with youth. To see other videos we have made search memefilms on Google Video. James Valastro Director/Cameraman/Editor


Stanford researcher's online map pinpoints cigarette factories around the world

Anthropologist Matthew Kohrman has plotted the international whereabouts of more than 300 cigarette factories, so far. His Cigarette Citadels project gives the public a better understanding of where the tobacco industry operates, and shares information that could combat the single largest cause of preventable death.

US syphilis tests in Guatemala 'crime against humanity'

The Guatemalan President says the US committed a crime against humanity when hundreds in his country were deliberately infected with gonorrhea and syphilis more than sixty years ago. America has apologized for the recently unearthed experiment conducted in a psychiatric hospital. The U.S. says it will investigate the case further, before making any decisions on compensation.

Secret jail torturer becomes police chief in Israel

The appointment of an infamous Israeli interrogator to a high-ranking police post has sent shockwaves among human rights groups. Known among inmates as Captain George, he's accused of numerous cases of torture and abuse of Arabs. Now that he's in charge of Arab affairs, many Palestinians fear for their lives. RT's Paula Slier reports from Israel.

One Of History's Greatest Crimes

By Stephen Lendman, rense.com

America's hidden history is ugly and disturbing. No nation ever matched it. To Iraq alone, over the past two decades, it includes ongoing genocide, destruction, terror, occupation, and contamination - a horrendous combination of crimes, unmentioned in Western discourse.
 
Environmental Engineering Professor Souad N. Al-Azzawi documents them, including in his report titled, "Crime of the Century: Iraq's Occupation and DU Contamination," a detailed account of US culpability.
 
America's strategic aims, he explains, include:
 
-- controlling most of the world's oil and other natural resources;
 
-- remaining permanently in the Middle East, "the intersection zone of the three continents where 80% of the world('s) population" lives; and
 
-- if the above two objectives are achieved, America will control the world's economy, or enough of it to matter.
 
Spread over a large enough area, depleted uranium (DU) is a weapon of mass destruction, because it's radioactive and chemically toxic. If ingested or inhaled through food, air, water or other means, it enters the human body, remaining for decades. An earlier article reported the dangers, accessed through the following link:
 
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2006/01/depleted-uranium-hidden-looming_16.html
 
It explained that continued DU use has the potential to end planetary life, yet few understand the risk, or that weaponized DU is used regularly in missiles, bombs, shells and bullets wherever America wages war - first during the 1991 Gulf War.
 
Its danger comes from radiation residue after use. On impact, DU munitions penetrate deeply and aerosolize into a fine spray, polluting surrounding air, water and soil. It's microscopic, sub-miscroscopic, and permanent. Spread over vast areas as radioactive atmospheric dust, its contamination causes virtually all known illnesses and diseases from severe headaches, muscle pain and general fatigue, to major birth defects, infections, depression, cardiovascular disease, and many types of cancers. It also causes permanent disability and death.
 
Over the past two decades in Iraq alone, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons have been used, irradiating the entire country, some areas more than others. In his October 2009 presentation to the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia International Conference to Criminalize War, Azzawi accused America and Britain of:
 
"subject(ing) the whole nation of Iraq for two decades to torture and slow death through the intentional use of radioactive weapons and the sanctions. The continuous and intentional use of (these) weapons is a crime against humanity due to its undifferentiating harmful health effects on civilians in contaminated areas tens of years to come after the military engagements." Radiation, in fact, is permanent, affecting unborn generations like living ones.

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Contender for Nobel prize is in Chinese prison

When the police came for Liu Xiaobo on a December night nearly two years ago, they didn't tell the dissident author why he was being taken away again. The line in the detention order for his “suspected crime” was left blank.

But Liu and the dozen officers who crowded into his dark Beijing apartment knew the reason. He was hours from releasing Charter 08, the China democracy movement's most comprehensive call yet for peaceful reform. The document would be viewed by the ruling Communist Party as a direct challenge to its 60-year monopoly on political power.

Liu, who over the past two decades had endured stints in prison and re-education camp, looked at the blank detention notice and lost his temper.

“At that moment, I knew the day I was expecting had finally come,” his wife, Liu Xia, said recently as she recounted the night of 8 December 2008. Thinking of the Beijing winter, she said she brought him a down coat and cigarettes. The police took the cigarettes away.

Liu was sentenced last Christmas Day to 11 years in prison for subversion. The 54-year old literary critic is now a favourite to win the Nobel Peace Prize — in what would be a major embarrassment to the Chinese government.

He is the best shot the country's dissident movement has had in winning the prestigious award since it began pushing for democratic change after China's authoritarian leaders launched economic, but not political, reforms three decades ago.

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Man leaves behind 1905-page suicide note

A 35-year-old man, who shot himself near Harvard University here a week ago, has left behind a 1905-page suicide note, an online document he had been working on for the last five years.

Mitchell Heisman shot himself at Harvard Yard on September 18.

His family and about 400 friends received the 1,905-page suicide note in a posthumous e-mail.

In the note Heisman wrote that he took his life as part of a philosophical exploration he called "an experiment in nihilism."

The lengthy document included 1,433 footnotes, a 20-page bibliography, over 1,700 references to God and 200 references to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

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IMF admits that the West is stuck in near depression

The IMF report – "Will It Hurt? Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Consolidation" – implicitly argues that austerity will do more damage than so far admitted.

Normally, tightening of 1pc of GDP in one country leads to a 0.5pc loss of growth after two years. It is another story when half the globe is in trouble and tightening in lockstep. Lost growth would be double if interest rates are already zero, and if everybody cuts spending at once.

"Not all countries can reduce the value of their currency and increase net exports at the same time," it said. Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz goes further, warning that damn may break altogether in parts of Europe, setting off a "death spiral".

The Fund said damage also doubles for states that cannot cut rates or devalue – think Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Italy, all trapped in EMU at overvalued exchange rates.

"A fall in the value of the currency plays a key role in softening the impact. The result is consistent with standard Mundell-Fleming theory that fiscal multipliers are larger in economies with fixed exchange rate regimes." Exactly.

Let us avoid the crude claim that spending cuts in a slump are wicked or self-defeating. Britain did exactly that after leaving the Gold Standard in 1931, and the ERM in 1992, both times with success. A liberated Bank of England was able to cut interest rates. Sterling fell. The key point is whether you can offset the budget cuts.

But by the same token, it is fallacious to cite the austerity cures of Canada, and Scandinavia in the 1990s – as the European Central Bank does – as evidence that budget cuts pave the way for recovery. These countries were able export to a booming world. They could lower interest rates, and were small enough to carry out `beggar-thy-neighbour' devaluations without attracting much notice. We were not then in our New World Order of "currency wars".

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Musical Innerlube: John Cipollina with the Dead

Citigroup, Ally Sued for Racketeering Over Database

Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc. units were sued by homeowners in Kentucky for allegedly conspiring with Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. to falsely foreclose on loans.

The lawsuit, filed as a civil-racketeering class action on behalf all Kentucky homeowners facing foreclosure, also names as a defendant Reston, Virginia-based MERS, the company that handles mortgage transfers among member banks. The suit claims that through MERS the banks are foreclosing on homes even when they don't hold titles to the properties.

“Defendants have filed foreclosures throughout the state of Kentucky and the United States of America knowing that they were not the 'owners' or beneficiaries of the loan they filed foreclosure upon,” the homeowners wrote in their complaint filed Sept. 28 in federal court in Louisville, Kentucky.

The homeowners claim the defendants filed or caused to be filed mortgages with forged signatures, filed foreclosure actions months before they acquired any legal interest in the properties and falsely claimed to own notes executed with mortgages.

The lawsuit is one of multiple cases against MERS and banks alleging that the process allows wrongful foreclosures. Several of these cases, combined in a multidistrict litigation in Phoenix, were dismissed Sept. 30, with the judge allowing the plaintiffs to re-file their complaints.

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Boy Scouts Refuse to Release Files on Child Molestors

By Tom Henderson
Sep 13th 2010 1:00PM

The guy who lives down the street next to the playground is a pervert who likes to fondle young boys. You know it. You even investigated him to make absolutely sure.

You compiled everything you learned -- and it's some pretty damning stuff -- in a massive file. The police would love to take a look at it.

Sorry. You only use that file to protect your own kids. Other kids just have to take their chances.

Multiply that scenario by the untold thousands, and you get a sense why some people are miffed at the Boy Scouts of America.

As scout leaders have checked out potential volunteers and responded to complaints over the past 90 years, they've uncovered some unsavory secrets. They have identified perverts, thieves and assorted (or sordid) other people unfit to be around kids.

Critics say these files, if made available to law enforcement and other agencies, would provide an invaluable cross-referencing and research tool.

Scout leaders, however, say the files are strictly confidential.

[ ... ]

Kenneth V. Lanning, a retired FBI agent who specializes in crimes against children, tells the Dallas Morning News he resigned from a scouting expert advisory panel after 10 years.

Lanning said in his resignation letters that the scouts' national leadership "fails to convey an adequate understanding and recognition of the problem of the sexual exploitation of children."

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Britain held secret war talks with U.S. general 11 months before Iraq invasion

America's most senior general flew into Britain for top secret talks on the invasion of Iraq 11 months before the attack on Saddam Hussein's regime.

Details of the classified meeting, held at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, suggest Tony Blair's Government was involved in detailed discussions about toppling the Iraqi dictator earlier than previously disclosed.

American General Tommy Franks flew in to the base in April 2002 to attend a summit meeting called by the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.
It followed similar meetings Gen Franks had in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Secret Pentagon documents reveal Mr Hoon asked about 'US plans for Iraq'.

Exactly what was said has been censored, but declassified sections of the documents show Gen Franks had a separate meeting with Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, then Britain's chief of defence staff, and senior officers.

At that meeting, 'regional issues' including Iraq were discussed, and Gen Franks was told the Ministry of Defence had 'put together a small cell' for 'thinking strategically about Iraq' and 'what courses of action are available to handle the regime'.

Mr Hoon did not mention the meeting when he gave evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq earlier this year. And Admiral Boyce, now Lord Boyce, told the Chilcot panel he had set up an Iraq planning group, but only in May 2002.

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A Skeptical FBI Agent's Investigation Guide for Ritual Child Abuse

From INVESTIGATOR'S GUIDE TO ALLEGATIONS OF "RITUAL" CHILD ABUSE, by Kenneth V. Lanning:

Since 1981 I have been assigned to the Behavioral Science Unit at
the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and have specialized in
studying all aspects of the sexual victimization of children. The
FBI Behavioral Science Unit provides assistance to criminal justice
professionals in the United States and foreign countries. It
attempts to develop practical applications of the behavioral
sciences to the criminal justice system. As a result of training and
research conducted by the Unit and its successes in analyzing
violent crime, many professionals contact the Behavioral Science
Unit for assistance and guidance in dealing with violent crime,
especially those cases considered different, unusual, or bizarre.
This service is provided at no cost and is not limited to crimes
under the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI.

In 1983 and 1984, when I first began to hear stories of what sounded
like satanic or occult activity in connection with allegations of
sexual victimization of children (allegations that have come to be
referred to most often as "ritual" child abuse), I tended to believe
them. I had been dealing with bizarre, deviant behavior for many
years and had long since realized that almost anything is possible.
Just when you think that you have heard it all, along comes another
strange case. The idea that there are a few cunning, secretive
individuals in positions of power somewhere in this country
regularly killing a few people as part of some satanic ritual or
ceremony and getting away with it is certainly within the realm of
possibility. But the number of alleged cases began to grow and grow.
We now have hundreds of victims alleging that thousands of offenders
are abusing and even murdering tens of thousands of people as part
of organized satanic cults, and there is little or no corroborative
evidence. The very reason many "experts" cite for believing these
allegations (i.e. many victims, who never met each other, reporting
the same events), is the primary reason I began to question at least
some aspects of these allegations.

I have devoted more than seven years part-time, and eleven years
full-time, of my professional life to researching, training, and
consulting in the area of the sexual victimization of children. The
issues of child sexual abuse and exploitation are a big part of my
professional life's work. I have no reason to deny their existence
or nature. In fact I have done everything I can to make people more
aware of the problem Some have even blamed me for helping to create
the hysteria that has led to these bizarre allegations. I can accept
no outside income and am paid the same salary by the FBI whether or
not children are abused and exploited - and whether the number is
one or one million. As someone deeply concerned about and
professionally committed to the issue, I did not lightly question
the allegations of hundreds of victims child sexual abuse and
exploitation.

In response to accusations by a few that I am a "satanist" who has
infiltrated the FBI to facilitate cover-up, how does anyone (or
should anyone have to) disprove such allegations? Although reluctant
to dignify such absurd accusations with a reply, all I can say to
those who have made such allegations that they are wrong and to
those who heard such allegations is to carefully consider the
source.

The reason I have taken the position I have is not because I support
or believe in "satanism", but because I sincerely believe that my
approach is the proper and most effective investigative strategy. I
believe that my approach is in the best interest of victims of child
sexual abuse. It would have been easy to sit back, as many have, and
say nothing publicly about this controversy. I have spoken out and
published on this issue because I am concerned about the credibility
of the child sexual abuse issue and outraged that, in some cases,
individuals are getting away with molesting children because we
can't prove they are satanic devil worshippers who engage in
brainwashing, human sacrifice, and cannibalism as part of a large
conspiracy.

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