What Mainstream Media is Not Telling You About the Gulf Oil Cleanup

What Mainstream Media is Not Telling You About the Gulf Oil Cleanup

Paul Fassa
NaturalNews
Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:00

What surface oil dispersant for oil spills is so toxic and ineffective it has been banned in England for a decade? The one that British Petroleum (BP) is using now in the Gulf of Mexico. It's loaded with 2-butoxyethanol, which kills marine and wetland wild life while causing serious lung problems to humans!

It is more toxic than the oil it purports to clean, and it simply sends the newly formed toxic globules of dispersant and oil further into the depths where it forms underwater plumes. It's like pouring paint thinner on spilled paint and letting it drip out onto the lawn and garden, except the underwater plumes of thinned oil and toxic dispersant spread onto the shore lines, wetlands and coral reefs and into the Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and beyond.

Yet there are many less toxic, even 100% green, oil spill solutions available that are more effective.

EPA and BP

It was initially reported that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) had given BP 72 hours to change the current oil dispersant chemicals to something less toxic and more effective. After a sharp reply from BP, the EPA seems to have back pedaled claiming they only want BP to use less of it. It appears somebody with clout stepped in for BP!

BP is involved with a few other large international corporations. Among them is the company that makes the toxic oil dispersant banned in England containing 2-butoxyethanol, which kills what is supposedly being protected! Richard Charter, advisor for Defenders of Wildlife, says this about the chemical dispersant being used in the Gulf: "It's a chemical that the oil industry makes to sell to itself, basically."

So in addition to siphoning some of the oil pouring from the ocean floor into tankers, oil that can be separated from the water and sold later, BP execs are enjoying financially incestuous gains.

Ignored Solutions

Two Florida farmers gave a video presentation (YouTube source below) of how safe and effective hay is for grabbing up oil and being hauled away. Hay was used successfully for the Santa Barbara offshore rig oil spill of 1969. And the health damage to workers and wild life was minimal. This could have given several farmers and others much needed income.

An even more effective oil spill solvent is composed of oil eating microbes, gathered from all over the world, reproduced rapidly, and then formed into powders that can be used directly or mixed with water for hosing the oil spills. The by-products of the oil eating microbes turn into edible foods for marine life. And when the microbes consume all the oil, they die off because there is nothing left to eat.

This was proven in a 1986 contained pool with marine life test by Texas Land Office Commissioner Garry Mauro and Water Commissioner Buck Wynne. The tests were so impressive that the oil eating microbes were allowed to be used successfully for millions of gallons of oil from a burning tanker off the Texas shore, and again when a barge leaked massive amounts of oil into the Texas wetlands.

In each situation, the oil was consumed rapidly and marine and wetland wild life thrived!

Why?

There are and have been other clean-up solutions offered, some a little over the top and others that have been used successfully throughout the world.

Motives for BP's refusing to consider these solutions and why the U.S. Government does nothing to intervene is full of dots to connect for anyone willing to peek closely behind the curtain.

Sources:

Corexit is Killing the Gulf

Oil Eating Microbes Used Successfully by Texas Gov't for Oil Spills

Florida Farmers Propose Hay for Gulf Clean-up

ABC Video Report: Cousteau Jr Dives into the Goop

Siphoning Up Existing Oil for BP Resale

Dots to Connect?

All For One and One For All

The Signs of the Times are bleak indeed, as the mask of sanity the psychopaths of the world are being discarded. If Katrina had normal people wondering, the Gulf oil disaster has proven this fact decisively. But there is hope through unity. Not the unity of protest and violence, but the unity of mind and spirit. To quote Laura Knight-Jadczyk:

The bottom line is this: we are all in this mess together and we sink together, or we get our boat to harbor, but somebody's got to be the one who coordinates or we'll just go endlessly in circles, nobody will be bailing, paddling, or evaluating currents and signs to determine direction. I've created the EE program, right now hundreds, if not thousands of people are doing it and reporting amazing results. I have also created a legal organization for protection of our activities: in a world run by psychopaths, sometimes you have to take a play from their rule book to bootstrap yourself out of their trap: Fellowship of the Cosmic Mind. You can become a member and join with thousands of others who are networking to get themselves cleared and awake and working in a co-linear direction to transform our world.

Blue Ibis

All For One and One For All

Laura Knight-Jadczyk
laura-knight-jadczyk.blogspot.com
Thu, 24 Jun 2010

The issue of methane and outgassing has occupied me to quite some extent for the past few years particularly after writing New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection. I even asked the SOTT.net editors to keep their eyes open for news items about anything that might be related to outgassings. There's quite a collection in the database if you search. And now, with the recent news about the methane involvement in the BP Gusher, and that news getting more dire every day, I started digging around for some data I knew I had written about and, after finding a few things, I thought: how interesting that this "Mother of all Gushers" may give birth to the "Mother of all Storms." You'll understand what I mean in a minute!

First, read this bit that is current on SOTT: The Real Consequences of An Ocean Floor Collapse.

Note that it says:

The two possible scenarios are either a complete collapse of the ocean floor right above the Deepwater Horizon well and surroundings or a partial collapse in the form of a mud slide on one side of the well.

In this article I wrote back in 2007: Fire and Ice The Day After Tomorrow there's a bunch of collected articles which includes one about The Lake Nyos Gas Explosion, Cameroon 1986 where we read:

Lake Nyos is one of only three lakes in the world known to be saturated with carbon dioxide -- the others are Lake Monoun, also in Cameroon about 100 km away, and Lake Kivu in Rwanda. A magma chamber beneath the region is an abundant source of carbon dioxide, which seeps up through the lake bed, charging the waters of Lake Nyos with an estimated 90 million tonnes of CO2

Lake Nyos is thermally stratified, with layers of warm, less dense water near the surface floating on the colder, denser water layers near the lake's bottom. Over long periods, carbon dioxide gas seeping into the cold water at the lake's bottom is dissolved in great amounts.

Most of the time, the lake is stable and the CO2 remains in solution in the lower layers. However, over time the water becomes supersaturated, and if an event such as an earthquake or volcanic eruption occurs, large amounts of CO2 may suddenly come out of solution.

Although a sudden outgassing of CO2 had occurred at Lake Monoun in 1984, killing 37 local residents, a similar threat from Lake Nyos was not anticipated. However, on August 21, 1986, a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. The gas rushed down two nearby valleys, displacing all the air and suffocating up to 1,800 people within 20 km of the lake, mostly rural villagers, as well as 3,500 livestock. About 4,000 inhabitants fled the area, and many of these developed respiratory problems, burns, and paralysis as a result of the gases.

It is not known what triggered the catastrophic outgassing. Most geologists suspect a landslide, but some believe that a small volcanic eruption may have occurred on the bed of the lake. A third possibility is that cool rainwater falling on one side of the lake triggered the overturn. Whatever the cause, the event resulted in the rapid mixing of the supersaturated deep water with the upper layers of the lake, where the reduced pressure allowed the stored CO2 to effervesce out of solution.

It is believed that up to a cubic kilometre of gas was released. Because CO2 is denser than air, the gas flowed off the mountainous flank in which Lake Nyos rests and down two adjoining valleys in a layer tens of metres deep, displacing the air and suffocating all the people and animals before it could dissipate. The normally blue waters of the lake turned a deep red after the outgassing, due to iron-rich water from the deep rising to the surface and being oxidised by the air. The level of the lake dropped by about a metre, representing the volume of gas released. The outgassing probably also caused an overflow of the waters of the lake. Trees near the lake were knocked down.

The lake Nyos situation was about a different kind of gas... maybe. In any case, a similar event with methane is even more problematical.

Anyway, there is a lot in that article I wrote in 2007 that applies to the present situation, most particularly:

John Barnes, in his fiction novel, Mother of Storms, described the release of vast quantities of methane as the trigger for a global superstorm that nearly destroys the earth.

Mother of Storms takes place about thirty years from now. The UN has become dominant and at the start of the book the US President is maneuvering desperately to avoid losing any more sovereignty to the UN. The UN undertakes a nuclear strike against the Siberian Republic's secret--and illegal--nuclear weapons caches buried in the Arctic seabed. The explosions result in the release of huge amount of methane from the methane clathrates buried there. The methane causes a near-runaway greenhouse effect with global temperatures going up by 10 degrees F in a matter of months.

The hot, wet oceans are perfect breeding grounds for hurricanes which rapidly develop into storms of unprecedented strength, duration and number.

Obviously, if such a scenario were to play out at present, the roles would be reversed to what Barnes imagined: it would be the U.S. undertaking a nuclear strike that unleashes the methane that triggers the Global Superstorm. It would probably only be in such a manner that enough methane would be released fast enough to make such an impact.

The above really caught my eye. In the book, Mother of Storms, the methane is released by a nuclear explosion in the arctic... well, so far they haven't set off any nukes in the Gulf of Mexico, but it looks like the situation there is developing rather similarly to what John Barnes described in his novel. He did a lot of research on the science, by the way, so it's worth reading just to get an idea of what COULD happen!

Then, there is the issue of earthquakes in the Gulf of Mexico. A few years ago I noted that there was an unusual earthquake in the Gulf and we archived the item on SOTT.net: 5.2 Earthquake Dead Center In Gulf Of Mexico - Precursor to a New Madrid Big One? Just read it and think about it.

Next, History Channel Mega Disasters - Methane Explosion, just to give you an idea of what all this means.

Even if nothing so cataclysmic happens, we have to deal with Gulf Coast Toxicity Syndrome which could kill and/or disable millions.

Many different gases from hydrogen sulfate to benzene are being released into the air at around 4000 times what it considered safe to humans. As a result of this people are going to become gravely ill. People are going to be poisoned and unfortunately some are going to die. We have already seen breathing problems in the Gulf region and now reports are coming in as far away as Atlanta, Georgia. [...]

In addition to destroying the wildlife, killing animals and devastating the coastal economy, the massive oil spill in the Gulf will have damaging psychological and physical consequences for Gulf coast residents, the entire state of Florida, and now it seems that Georgia and the rest of the southeastern United States could be threatened considering we are already seeing problems from people in Atlanta. And we are not even talking worse case scenarios. [...]

Others are worried about a massive loss of life through a methane explosion that would create a tidal wave that would take out all of Florida and most of the rest of the Gulf region. Included in the worst case scenarios is a toxic rain falling upon tens of millions further north from the Gulf as wind patterns and or a hurricane comes barreling into the region. Others see the entire North Atlantic turning into a black and very dead sea and the nightmare scenarios go on and on making any serious readers' stomach sick to death over what has been done to our planet. We have allowed corporate capitalists do something they cannot undo and this is sad and truly tragic for the future of our children.

I know that all of us are feeling a little shell-shocked with the current events. It really is scary and for a good reason: it is a dangerous time to be alive. According to the Cs, we have very little time left. And, based on what we are seeing with the climate change business, adding the possible effects of the BP Gusher on Florida, the "coming global superstorm" is not so crazy an idea anymore. It could be next winter, or the winter after... and the planet could be locked down in ice for the next 10,000 years or so. We don't know.

We DO know that economically, this next year is going to be tough. I'm seeing failed harvests all over the globe due to the weather and the price of food going through the roof. Revolution is also possible. One thing is certain, Florida is going to be a place to get out of and stay out of because the situation is so unstable there.

Human beings were only able to evolve because of social ties. Trusting others seems to be an evolutionary strategy that served us well for a long time. In that evolutionary struggle, man was opposed to a "natural enemy," the environment and all it contained. All he had was his bigger brain to compensate for his smaller strength and speed; and, of course, his network.

Nowadays, we are no longer opposed to the natural world out there as the sparring partner, we are opposed to a culture that has been slowly infiltrated and taken over by pathologicals. At the same time, this outer world that has been shaped by pathology, also represents a certain pathological state within normal humans - their lack of ability to see pathology in individuals that look like themselves - an intra-species predator. Humanity's failure to perceive this, to adapt, means that our inner world, taken into us from the outside by means of identification, has become an "independent power" which, in its turn, by means of projection, is our own creation. After all, it is normal humans, not pathologicals, who have the real power to "create reality" as a group. Pathologicals only influence us - mostly women - to believe certain things are the norm, and we then act as they pull our strings.

This outer reality which has such a powerful influence on the formation of our character and the focusing of our creativity, has become a power itself and we are being challenged to become "new beings" that can evolutionarily adapt to this changing situation. Either we become fully pathological, in which case there will be no stress (the Service To Self route), or we return to our roots taking with us the knowledge of the new "opponent" that will enable us to rebuild our social bonds and structures and survive through the massive changes that are ahead of us.

Because, realistically, even if no cataclysmic scenario of any external kind manifests, anybody with two neurons firing can see that we are most definitely heading straight into a "clash of civilizations" though it is not at all what is being touted. It is a clash of normal humans with pathologicals and right now, they have all the assets (which they have by trickery, cunning, cheating). Even the mildest scenario of the future is not pleasant to contemplate: Climate Change and its effects on humanity. It's not a pretty picture.

This principle that the inner world is taken in from the outside by means of identification, and then, in its turn, by way of projection, alters the external world so that it corresponds to the inner world even more closely, requires some serious thought. Basically, we have to bootstrap ourselves out of here by reversing the process: we must create an inner world in the face of the opposition of the outer world, that then becomes strong enough, EN MASSE, to change the outer world.

The creative individual must be able to create and develop his standards beyond the identifications of the external pathological world. This means, in the simplest of terms, connecting with the higher self so that this part consciously guides and rules the creative will even in terms of the personality. The important factor here is that groups of individuals must get from here to there - here being the false personality created in us by the pathological external world, there being the merging with the higher self - by consciously choosing those factors that he will identify with.

This must be a group effort.

The only solution I can see at this point is for humanity to unite their consciousnesses in awakening and DOing what needs to be done to ameliorate the situation if possible, and pass through this Horror that psychopaths have created on our planet. The big question is: how to do that effectively and efficiently? In other words, something that really works. Something that really gets everyone on the same page, going in the same direction toward Truth... and the answer that I see is to follow what the Cassiopaeans have outlined as the only possible way out: to engage in practice that will help to rapidly clear old emotional programs that get in the way of both effective networking and effective SEEing and discernment: the Éiriú Eolas program that I have created with the help of the Cassiopaeans. And no, I'm not selling it though it will help us a lot if you DO buy the DVDs. We can then make more of them to give away. No, in fact, you can watch the whole program for free on the EE website.

So, that's the first order of business: getting clear. The second is for all of humanity to be praying in the same "direction." For that, the Prayer of the Soul which is part of the EE program is exactly designed to help you awaken. The breathing exercises combined with the meditation and prayer will quickly help you to achieve that state of consciousness necessary to be able to see the unseen and know what it is you must do in concert with others.

As I explain in the video introduction to EE, stress is a worldwide epidemic. The number one disease of adults in the world is depression. Depression is the most extreme form of stress in your nervous system.

But here's the rub: stress response is vital for survival in times of danger. The problem comes when it is turned on too strong, too often.

The very fact that our stress response has gone off the charts tells us that our bodies are telling us something about our world! There is DANGER out there, only it is hiding amongst us in the form of pathologicals! We are constantly in a state of stress because we are in a state of cognitive dissonance. We sense the danger, but we cannot SEE it because we have been programmed NOT to see it by lies and false reality constructs.

James Surowiecki's book, The Wisdom of Crowds, suggests that multiple viewpoints from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds, rather than the restricted viewpoints of experts or specialists, are crucial in reaching informed decisions on complex topics. Getting input from a broad variety of people is like getting input from a wide variety of devices such as microscopes, telescopes, litmus paper, tensile testors, ultrasound devices, scales, and so on.

Here, of course, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there". Even if we are agreeing that there is a real reality and it is what it is, no one of us has the all-encompassing way of perceiving that would give us the understanding of EVERY ASPECT of what is out there.

So, in this sense, the network itself is the Teacher.

But in order for a network to go anywhere and not just fall into entropy, there must be a direction and in that sense there must be a vanguard.

Vanguard: Etymology: Middle English vauntgard, from Anglo-French vantgarde, avantgarde, 1: the troops moving at the head of an army 2: the forefront of an action or movement.

It is also reflective of true evolutionary social activities that there are some who are trailblazers and others who support and "watch the back" of the trailblazers. Once the trail is blazed, and the destination is reached, the others not only benefit from the struggles of the trailblazer, they also set about organizing the details of the new environment and stabilizing it. So, everyone plays a role and if the network is tight, they all arrive pretty much together.

The bottom line is this: we are all in this mess together and we sink together, or we get our boat to harbor, but somebody's got to be the one who coordinates or we'll just go endlessly in circles, nobody will be bailing, paddling, or evaluating currents and signs to determine direction. I've created the EE program, right now hundreds, if not thousands of people are doing it and reporting amazing results. I have also created a legal organization for protection of our activities: in a world run by psychopaths, sometimes you have to take a play from their rule book to bootstrap yourself out of their trap: Fellowship of the Cosmic Mind. You can become a member and join with thousands of others who are networking to get themselves cleared and awake and working in a co-linear direction to transform our world.

As I said, we evolved to trust one another - but that was a world where others were trustworthy. We live in a different world now. The cheaters in our world have evolved ways to induce us to trust them, but we can tell by our stress that we are going in the wrong direction, we are in mortal peril. But still, to get anything done at all, we MUST TRUST. And to figure out who to trust, we need to rely, again, on the network of observations from many observers. Again, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there" and what really seems to work, to explain things, and has internal consistency over time.

Those who are able to accomplish this task of rebuilding social connections based on the new evolutionary standard of accounting for pathology in the equations, will evolve. Those who do not evolve will perish.

In short, I think the Cassiopaeans are right: we have just a couple years, if that. We really need to get people on the EE program ASAP. If you are not currently doing it, or involved in some way with sharing it with others, I hope that you can begin to feel the urgency of the situation. As I have said before, I don't see anything more important to be doing now than that, not only for the potential of the self, but also because, in coming times, an awake and aware nucleus of people is going to be needed to provide leadership to the lost sheep.

That's what I see from where I sit right now. United we Stand, Divided we Fall. All for One and One for All.

Profiles in Courage: Forget Sarah Palin. Run The Gulf's Kindra Arnesen for President!

Profiles in Courage: Forget Sarah Palin. Run The Gulf's Kindra Arnesen for President!

Mac McKinney
OpEdNews
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:15 EDT

Kindra Arnesen has emerged in the public eye as quickly as Athena sprang from the head of Zeus, fully grown and ready for combat with the enemies of truth and justice. She is an exemplary example of an ordinary citizen daring to get involved when everyone around her is cowed into silence. Whether she has ever met fellow Louisianan Tab Benoit, she is in sync with his message to us all: It is time to get involved.

On May 28th of this year I ran over to the Jewish Mother Restaurant in Virginia Beach. Tab Benoit, award-winning Cajun Bluesman, environmental activist and creator of the Voice of the Wetlands Music Festival in Houma, Louisiana was doing another gig there; in fact it is one of his favorite venues, where he can get really down and dirty with us, speaking from the heart without any fear of repercussions, and so he did, about BP and the Gulf of Mexico to a packed audience on that hot Friday night.

Sorry I didn't record the entire speech, but you get the drift: We all have to find out what is really happening down there, jump in the fire and do what we're supposed to do in our hearts to save the country.

During the intermission between sets Tab also stood outside in the Jewish Mother courtyard and spoke to a dozen or so of us. The bottom line, he leveled with us, is that BP is running the whole show, and the government, Homeland Security, Obama, the Coast Guard, they are all in BP's lap! Tab is a licensed pilot, yet he mourned how he couldn't even take his plane up to see what was going on in the Gulf, because of the No Fly zone being extended daily across the Gulf!

Again and again he reiterated how all of us have got to take action, meaningful action to stop what I call this black hole of destruction, this vile collaboration between Big Oil and corrupt government that is now becoming not just a threat to Louisiana, but to the entire Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Someone exclaimed, "It sounds like we need a revolution" I seconded that motion. Tab nodded in agreement. Again he underscored that is up to all of us to take responsibility for saving the day.

Needed, Some Terry Malloys

It is common knowledge that almost everyone is scared shitless of BP on the Gulf. Why? Because they are the King (how British) of Oil down there. They have taken over the Good Ole Boy Network and now make cops, sheriffs and Coast Guard admirals hop when they say "JUMP!" Don't want reporters snooping around? Call security and intimidate them! Don't want photographers and videographers filming dead dolphins and scorched sea-turtles? Call security and drive them off! Don't want embarrassing videos getting on or staying on major websites? Call some corporate, white-shoe boys who can get them yanked!

Don't want to stop using deadly, deadly Corexit, because that hides the surface oil, even after the EPA says to stop using it? Call the double-breasted-suit boys in Washington who are on your lobbying list. The EPA will soon dance to your tune!

So the thousands and thousands of hard-pressed fishermen and workers on the Gulf, put out of business by BP's deeds of hubris, now have to come begging, hat in hat, for clean-up jobs, and they all get the message: Shut up and do as you're told or your family and you will starve and/or face eviction!

And to add injury to insult, BP, playing its little liability game, turns around and says, you know, not only am I going to screw you once by ruining your livelihoods, but I'm going to really rub it in to protect my bottom line: I am going to screw you twice! We are going to pretend that none of this oil, benzene, methane, Corexit, etc. is hazardous to your health. You are NOT going to even wear respirators, and you are going to get poisoned, slowly but surely, if not quickly and surely. Screw OSHA, BP must be thinking, they're in our lap too.

I used to work at what was once known as NORSHIPCO Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia (the British, BAE Systems that is, now own that too!) With all the toxins in the air on some of the big tankers we worked on, down in the ballast/fuel oil tanks especially, if you didn't wear a respirator when down there, and with the right kind of filters to boot, you were asking for trouble, illness, even death. So who the Hell is BP kidding, filling the Gulf of Mexico with over a million gallons of Corexit and counting, and telling its employees not even to wear respirators!

Seize BP!

BP and its bosses, and the way they are strong-arming and silencing, impoverishing and sickening everyone, reminds me of this scene from that famous movie:

No one ever said it would be easy, standing up for the truth, for justice, the living, or even honoring the dead.

Like Tab Benoit implored, who is going to jump into the fire and take some of the pressure off those who are struggling against this monstrosity?

Enter Kindra Arnesen

On the street level, among the fishermen and clean-up workers, fear still holds sway, ruling the day, and night. There have been a few who have spoken out from the wetland grass roots level, but it hasn't been enough so far. However, I stumbled across one voice just now that is indeed loud and clear, and the voice of a woman, not a man. I see we should spell Terry with an i, so we can recruit both men and women to break the silence and fight back against BP and its spider-web of government collaborators.

The woman I am referring to is Kindra Arnesen, who ended up being interviewed on CNN recently after her fisherman husband and the crews of eight shrimp boats had come down sick as dogs after getting downwind of the oil spill. Watch, as she speaks out:

She calls BP and the EPA on their lies, the only one the above CNN reporter could find who WOULD speak out. "It starts with one" Kindra says, "and if I have to be the one, I have to be the one."

Her husband coming down ill, losing his livelihood, then being forced to work for BP while signing a gag order, then her children getting ill and her entire, beloved environment going to Hell, all this only sharpened Kindra's tongue, strengthened her convictions and heightened her awareness, leading her to get more and more active, jumping deeper and deeper into the fire until finally on June 19, 2010 at the Gulf Emergency Summit in New Orleans, she gave one of the most eloquent, forceful J'accuse speeches I have ever heard against a de facto criminal syndicate:

Kindra is a unique resident of the equally unique fishing "village" of Venice, Louisiana, which was all but destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But It was another one of those American towns too tough to die. Actually, Venice isn't even incorporated, sports a population only in the hundreds unless you include nearby Boothville, which jacks the figure up to 2740, and is nicknamed, ominously, "the end of the world". That is because it is the last drivable-to outpost on the southernmost reach of the Mississippi River.

Consequently, it has also been one of the first communities in the state to become inundated with first tar-balls and then waves of BP oil, which is now wrecking havoc upon the flora and fauna, the wetlands, birds and fish of Venice and surrounding territories.

However, Venice also has this singular importance: it is the home of what has become a key Coast Guard response center against the catastrophic BP oil and gas rupture, and all manner of important officials and politicos from President Obama on down have been wandering in and out of here.

And perhaps this parade also helped prompt Kindra to challenge these ranks and their endless bromides and nonsense projections. Nothing like some local, common sense expertise and straight talk to bring folks back to earth, is there? And ever since she first spoke out in the above CNN video, the phone has been ringing off the hook, literally if not figuratively to hear more from her. To quote from Rocky Kistner of the NRDC:

Kindra has been the focus of media attention ever since she began speaking out over a month ago. When I visited her comfortable but cluttered home in Venice, a documentary film crew from Chicago was filming her family during dinner, while another film crew waited outdoors. Her husband cooked while the kids fought over the remote control.

Kindra didn't seem fazed by all the attention. She was angry and had one thing on her mind; protect her family, her community and the place she loves. She's on the warpath against the BS that she believes flows like the spewing oil well out BP reps' and politicians' mouths. Her mission is to get people involved and organized. It's a non-stop task, and her cell phone doesn't stop ringing. Network TV and national newspapers and magazines call on her regularly. She's become the Erin Brockovich of Venice (the environmental legal aid who took on mammoth PG&E in California).(source)

Here is a real, salt of the earth and daughter of the sea American with superb fighting spirit, taking up the sword of truth for about the most important cause on earth right now, saving the Gulf of Mexico and indirectly, all the oceans. Hell, run her for president! All the phony, posturing, calculating politicians out there, male or female, will just, in her presence, wither away.

Another organ trafficking ring surfaces in Israel

Another organ trafficking ring surfaces in Israel

Saed Bannour
International Middle East Media Center
Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:06 EDT

© Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Brazilian man whose kidneywas sold via an Israeli broker

Just months after the Israeli government's chief pathologist was exposed admitting years of involvement in organ trafficking involving both Israeli and Palestinian civilians without their consent, another major organ trafficking ring has been exposed by Israeli police on Wednesday.

According to Israeli police reports, six suspects were arrested in a sting operation of the organ trafficking ring on Wednesday, including two lawyers and a retired Brigadier General from the Israeli military who was the recipient of a Medal of Valour in the 1967 war.

"We ran an undercover investigation and we were shocked by the proportions of this", said Israeli police superintendent Ahron Galor. The six suspects arrested in the raid have had their remand extended for an additional six days, according to the Magistrate for the District of Nazareth in northern Israel.

The lawyers involved in the scandal allegedly forged documents, including Israeli medical records and travel documents, in order for desperate Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to travel abroad to have a kidney or other organ removed. The trafficking ring would then sell the organ in Israel or abroad for $140,000. This meant quite a profit for those involved, as the person would be paid as little as $20,000 for their organ.

Several victims were named in the case, including a 50-year old woman from Nazareth who was flown to Azerbaijan to have her kidney removed, and was promised $100,000, which she never received. An 18-year old teen was flown to the Philippines, and offered $80,000, which he never received.

This is not the first time an Israeli organ-trafficking ring has been uncovered - despite Israeli claims that such allegations are 'blood libel' and 'anti-Semitism'. When the Swedish paper Aftonbladet published an article in August 2009 quoting Palestinian sources who claimed that loved ones who were killed during Israeli military operations sometimes had their bodies returned with missing organs. The article raised an uproar, including calls for censorship by the Israeli government, petitions for the removal of the article's author signed by the heads of major Jewish organizations, the recall of the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, and numerous op-eds asserting that the article was indicative of a trend of 'growing anti-Semitism' in Sweden and throughout Europe. But months afterward, when a video surfaced documenting Israel's chief pathologist confirming the claims made in the Aftonbladet article, few media outlets reported it.

When the US Federal Bureau of Investigation busted a major crime ring in New Jersey in July 2009, including Rabbis, Mayors and Congressmembers, one of the most shocking parts of the crime ring was the exposure of an international organ trafficking trade between Israel, the US and other countries around the globe, led by Levy Itzak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn. At that time, the leading expert in organ trafficking in the US, Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes, said that she was not surprised by Rosenbaum's arrest, adding that she had told law enforcement agencies about his involvement in organ trafficking way back in 2001. But according to Scheper-Hughes, although most of the trade originated in Israel, "It was a public secret," she said, "It was normalized in Israel."

The Return of the Body Snatchers

The Return of the Body Snatchers

Israel Shamir
IsraelShamir.net
Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:12 UTC

© Unknown

In the Turkish blockbuster action movie Valley of the Wolves, an American Jewish doctor in Abu Ghraib prison gently removes a kidney out of a live and suffering Arab prisoner and places it into a special vessel with the label "To Tel Aviv", thus reinforcing the Israeli-American bond of eternal friendship. Real life imitates cinema, as we learn from the dreadful story of Palestinian youths being hunted for their inner organs by that most moral army in the world, Israel's, as published by a leading Swedish newspaper [read its English translation here].

Donald Boström, a Swedish photographer who worked in the West Bank in 1992, was tipped off by UN officials to follow the bloody trail of Israeli soldiers who had kidnapped young Palestinians and returned their dead bodies five days later "with a slit from the abdomen up to the chin." The families in the West Bank and in Gaza felt that they knew exactly what had happened: "Our sons were used as involuntary organ donors; they disappeared for a number of days only to be returned in the dark of night, dead and autopsied. Why did they keep their bodies for five days before letting us bury them? What happened to their bodies in the meantime? Why are they performing autopsies, against our will, when the cause of death is obvious? Why were their bodies returned at night time? Why was this done with a military escort? Why was the area closed off during the funeral? Why was the power supply interrupted?"

These questions continued to haunt Boström. He took gruesome pictures of the returned bodies. Like Vanunu, he smuggled his films abroad. When back in Sweden, he offered the story to Dagens Nyheter, a liberal newspaper which, incidentally, is owned by the Jewish Bonnier family. DN refused to publish it. The story was laid to rest until now, when the Social Democrat newspaper Aftonbladet decided to let it run.

In Israel, the reaction was hysterical. The country is in danger of busting its guts in rage. Huge pressure has been exerted upon Swedish authorities to condemn the newspaper, to punish the offending author and to beg forgiveness. The Swedish Ambassador in Tel Aviv, a member of the rich and influential Jewish family Bonnier who incidentally own the majority of Swedish newspapers, TV networks and cinemas, expressed her 'shock and disapproval' on a website. Her speedy acceptance of the Tel Aviv diktat misfired. The Swedish government disavowed her interference with the freedom of Swedish press; the editors of Aftonbladet insisted on their right to say what they find fit and called for an international inquiry.

Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, was discomfited by Israel's intention to cancel his scheduled visit and had already written in a blog that "such articles can cause anti-Semitism, and instigation is against the Swedish law". However, he did not cry uncle in the way Netanyahu and Lieberman had demanded, while indomitable Aftonbladet Culture Editor Åsa Linderborg, the true hero of the drama, had sent two of her correspondents to the area of crime. They confirmed Boströms findings. Unprepared for such steadfastness, the rage and hysterics in Tel Aviv rather subsided, facing united front of Swedish public opinion.

It is easier to express 'outrage about the old canard' than to answer the questions posed by Bostrom. The facts are disturbing, and the accusations are not new. There were too many reports of such goings on, beside the cases mentioned by the Aftonbladet. Knesset Members Ahmed Tibi and Hashem Mahmid accused the Abu Kabir institute of forensic medicine of expropriating the inner parts of Palestinian corpses. They said that Palestinian doctors have complained about receiving the bodies of their dead emptied of their innards. Israeli newspapers reported that in 2007 three Palestinian teenagers were killed near Khan Younes in Gaza Strip and their bodies were returned to their parents all cut and brutalised six days later. Israel often does not even return the dead bodies of Palestinians to their families but has them buried in a secret cemetery. This causes even more suspicions.

Worse, it fits into a larger pattern.

All over the world, Israel and Israelis are involved in trafficking human flesh, this modern form of cannibalism. Beside the case of the New Jersey ring mentioned in the Boström's article, there are plenty others.

• Turkey: An Israeli professor Zaki Shapira was arrested in Turkey for allegedly cutting into live Turks for spare parts, reported the notoriously anti-Semitic paper Jerusalem Post.


• South Africa: Another anti-Semitic paper, the New York Times, reported on an Israeli trafficking ring active from South Africa to Brazil.


• Brazil: An Israeli officer, Gedalya Tauber, was arrested in Brazil for inducing the poor to part with their body parts. He spilled the beans about activity of his fellow countrymen.


• The Ukraine: The Jerusalem Post reported the arrest of "an Israeli illegal organ-smuggling ring" that flew their donors and recipients to the Ukraine.

In many cases, Israelis were the doctors, traffickers, smugglers and recipients of the body parts, as the Jewish state is the only country in the world where the state pays for, and best doctors are legally engaged in, the transplanting of illegally obtained organs, reported Ha'aretz. The next step was the evolution of international networks for this sort of traffic. Jews are well positioned to get involved in this sordid business: there are many Jewish doctors, there are many ties between Jewish communities in different countries, and there are few moral inhibitions.

This lack of moral inhibitions allowed a leading Chabad rabbi, Yitzhak Ginzburgh, to give his religious permission to a Jew to take a liver from a goy even without his consent. He said that "a Jew is entitled to extract the liver from a goy if he needs it, for the life of a Jew is more valuable than the life of a goy, likewise the life of a goy is more valuable than the life of an animal."

Modern Israelis have forgotten their faith, but have retained this lack of inhibition. An Israeli business newspaper, The Marker, has published an opinion piece by an Israeli lawyer justifying the trade in body organs, for "organs are just commodity, and so they can be bought and sold like any commodity in an open market".

The distance between kidneys bought and snatched is not that big: if organs are "just a commodity", surely it is permissible to take them from Palestinians, just as it is 'permitted' to take from Palestinians centuries-old olive trees while building the Wall.

Indignation is easy, but it is not so easy to prove that the Israelis, who do not hesitate to break arms and legs and pour napalm on schoolchildren, do draw a line about getting some profit from Palestinian innards. Aftonbladet's demand for an international enquiry is reasonable: if the Israelis have done nothing wrong (beyond murdering hundreds of young men), they have nothing to fear from an international investigation. Yet Israel refused UN enquiry commissions permission to visit Jenin after the 2002 massacre and Gaza after the 2009 massacre.

For Israel, the most upsetting part of this affair was the breach made in the wall. I do not mean the monstrous Sharon's Wall protecting the biggest Jewish ghetto in the Middle East, but the wall of media control which protects it overseas. Jews buy media all over the world not for fun, and not for profit, but for the influence it has over minds. This is the case in Sweden, where members of its tiny Jewish community own newspapers, magazines, publishing houses and even Swedish Hollywood - Svensk Filmindustri AB. This media actively promotes the neo-liberal policies of privatisation, commodification, immigrant influx, dismantling the welfare state - in short, policies that are good for wealthy Jews.

Israeli representatives work hard to keep reporting from the Middle East under their control. A few years ago, the leading radical left magazine Ordfront published a thoughtful piece Israeli Regime Directs Swedish Media by Johannes Wahlström, telling of Israeli meddling with the Swedish press, of Israeli officials going to newspaper editors and to correspondents. In that article Donald Boström tells of the dreadful story he wanted to tell, but he couldn't get through the wall of pro-Israeli censorship in the Swedish media.

Israel is not the only country suspected of such nefarious activities. Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for Balkan crimes, wrote in her 2008 book The Hunt: Me and War Criminals that under the aegis of the Kosovo Liberation Army, this ally of NATO and the US, hundreds of young Serb prisoners were allegedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania where their organs were removed. Some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. Carla del Ponte had seen the house where such surgeries were done and had met with the people involved, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad.

However, Carla del Ponte's accusation against Albanians did not cause such a stir, and nobody condemned her as "anti-Albanian", nor would she care if somebody had, for it is perfectly all right to be anti-anybody as long as not anti-Jewish. The Jews have a potent weapon in their "anti-Semitism" label. Or do they?

Could it be that the useful-for-Israel fear of anti-Semitism does not work like a charm anymore? This is possible. The Cairo speech of Obama apparently has had no direct consequences; Obama tried to apply pressure to Israel in order to freeze the settlements, but in vain. Did he fail? It is too early to judge, as Zhou Enlai was wont to say. Such changes rarely occur by the wave of a magic wand ... they take time. Recent publications on the Jewish criminal gang in New Jersey, attacks on Goldman Sachs, medals for Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu, an award to Felicia Langer, the collapse of the pro-Jewish socialist party and the appearance of an anti-zionist party in France, the Boström article in Aftonbladet - all are small and separate incidents, but together they imply that the change is coming. Swedes, French, Germans and even New Jerseyans are no longer afraid of Washington coming at them like sixteen tons in defence of Zionists, as would have been the case in the days of George W. Bush. Obama even refused to appoint a new anti-anti-semitic commissar.

This thought frightens the Tel Aviv government more than anything. If today they let the Swedes get away with it, tomorrow there will be somebody else, and then the fear of the Jews will be assigned to the category of unmanly unrealistic fears, like fear of mice.

Second Ending

More importantly, Israeli outrage is a proof that - despite approval for it by radical Cabbalists and neoliberals - transplantation of human organs is an immoral dreadful thing, too close to cannibalism, and we all know that. Yes, it is awful if Israeli soldiers tear kidneys out of Palestinians and kill them afterwards. But it is equally awful, if a kind doctor removes a kidney out of a Detroit mechanic whose house was repossessed by a gentle banker, or out of a Ukrainian worker who was sacked by a polite oligarch, or out of an Indian farmer who has to pay his debt to Monsanto. Every poor man on the planet is a Palestinian - though the means of his dispossession may vary. This kind of thing should be stopped. The human body is sacred. These operations are too expensive and can't be justified. Mankind should overcome its fear of death. We live and we die. There is no reason to waste thousands of dollars prolonging a life by expensive operations if this money can be used for feeding the starving. More about this later...

Chemical Weapons Used on Palestinian School Children

Israeli brutality in broad daylight: A chemical weapon attack on Palestinian school children

SOTT Editors
SOTT.net
Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:26 UTC

© Reuters

Lying through their teeth: M825A1 155mm
projectiles, painted light green to designate
a munition containing white phosphorus,
stand fused and ready with an IDF artillery
unit firing into Gaza.

These photos, taken a few months ago, record in detail an Israeli attack on a Palestinian school, an attack using white phosphorus:

White phosphorous is a colorless to yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military is highly energetic (active) and ignites once it is exposed to oxygen. White phosphorus is a pyrophoric material (it is spontaneously flammable). When exposed to air, it spontaneously ignites and rapidly oxidizes to phosphorus pentoxide. Such heat is produced by this reaction that the element bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. This chemical reaction continues until either all the material is consumed or the element is deprived of oxygen. White phosphorus results in painful and deep chemical burn injuries. Rapid dermal penetration occurs once particles are embedded under the skin. Incandescent particles of white phosphorous may produce extensive burns. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen. Weapons containing white phosphorous are particularly nasty because it continues to burn until it disappears, often burning right down to the bone.

The White Phosphorus flame produces a hot, dense, white smoke composed of particles of phosphorus pentoxide, which are converted by moist air into phosphoric acid. This acid, depending on concentration and duration of exposure, may produce a variety of topically irritative injuries. Exposure to heavy smoke concentrations for extended periods (particularly if near the source of emission) may cause illness or even death. Its fumes can cause severe eye irritation including blepharospasm, photophobia, and lacrimation. Irritation of the eyes and irritation of the mucous membranes are the most commonly seen injuries.

The use of this lethal substance is supposedly 'permmissable' under the "laws of war", ostensibly to destroy the enemy's equipment or to limit his vision. But when whole populations are designated as 'enemy', as the Israeli regime does the population of Gaza, the results are horrifying.

At the time the Israeli regime denied using this lethal substance during its bombardment of besieged Gaza. Roundly condemned by international obersvers, it now admits 'Willie Pete' was used, but says it did not fire munitions laden with the chemical weapons "inside populated areas."

These photos tell the true story.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency school in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, Palestine

© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

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© Unknown

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Comment: "We could hear their bodies burning"

"The smoke was spreading so fast; we couldn't see through it. We couldn't see, but we could hear." From the windows of the burning home the cries of her children and cousins filled the streets. "The cries were not just from my home, but from the neighbors' house too."

Israelis Rain 'Phosphorous Bombs' Over Gaza

"I've been on the border for the last few days watching the Israeli artillery firing white phosphorus shells into refugee camps."

"While the international community might be horrified by the use of phosphorous, this is overlooking the issue that hundreds of half-tonne bombs are being dropped on Gaza on civilian targets on a daily basis."

Cellcom: Fantasy and Truth

Palestinians answer back to racist ad with truth

BBC News
Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:28 UTC

Pro-Palestinian protesters have made their own version of a controversial Israeli mobile phone advert.

The Cellcom ad, widely criticised for bad taste, shows troops enjoying a game of football with unseen Palestinians on the other side of a high concrete wall.

At protests against Israel's West Bank barrier, activists filmed themselves kicking a ball to Israeli troops.

The video footage shows their gesture being met with tear gas canisters and their ball left trapped in barbed wire.

The Cellcom advert, which first aired earlier in July, opens with a football landing on the bonnet of an Israeli military vehicle patrolling along the West Bank separation barrier.

After initial apprehension, one of the soldiers kicks the ball back over the high wall and seconds later it comes flying over once again.

Seeing the opportunity for an impromptu kick-about, the troops call in reinforcements, more jeeps arrive and everyone enjoys themselves with an upbeat tune playing in the background.

"After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun," says the voiceover.

The advert was derided by critics for trivialising the fraught issue of the separation barrier and portraying the Palestinians as an invisible other.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, a leader of the weekly protest in the frontline village of , said their video - which uses the same sound track as Cellcom - was to show "we are here, we are suffering, this wall killed our life".

"We threw the football to the soldiers, but they sent tear gas and stinking water back at us."

Israeli Arab politicians have already called for the Cellcom advert to be removed from their airwaves.

"The barrier separates families and prevents children from reaching schools and clinics," Ahmed Tibi told Reuters news agency.

"Yet the advertisement presents the barrier as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv."

Cellcom has said its "core value is communication between people" regardless of "religion, race or gender".

The advertisement illustrates the possibility of "mutual entertainment" for people of diverse opinions, it said.

Deadly fire

Bilin protesters - who include local Palestinians, Israeli activists and internationals - say they are non-violent. The Israeli military says the protests are "unauthorised", that stones and Molotov cocktails are often thrown and Israeli security infrastructure damaged.

Israeli forces frequently disperse protesters with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and a foul-smelling liquid spray.

Six protesters have died from Israeli fire in Bilin and nearby Naalin in recent years, with two killed in recent months.

Israel began building the West Bank barrier - part wall, part metal fence - in 2002. It said it was to stop suicide bombers, but Palestinians see the structure as a land grab.

The barrier's route has been widely criticised internationally for looping into Palestinian areas around Israeli settlements, rather than following the Green Line, which marks the boundary that separates Israel from the West Bank.

International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the barrier is illegal where it cuts into the West Bank and called for it to be pulled down.

A spokeswoman for Cellcom said it was just a coincidence that the advert was aired the same week as the fifth anniversary of the advisory verdict.