-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 126 December, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTE:
"Every State, even the most republican and the most democratic State--even
the would-be people's State conceived by Marx--is in essence only a machine
governing the masses from above, through an intelligent and therefore
privileged minority, allegedly knowing the genuine interests of the people
better than the people themselves."
--Michael Bakunin, 'Statism And Anarchy'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to assist RadTimes--> (See ** at end.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents:
---------------
--Force of law
--Corporations Get Bigger and Bigger
--Sweeping powers for spy agencies
--Denmark's hippies hit their golden years
--Police arrest more people for marijuana than murder, rape, and robbery
combined
--Human-pig embryos: what next?
Linked stories:
*Is the Fetus a Person?
*FBI to Create $100 Million Cyber Crime Report Center
*Global warming may devastate Pacific nations
*More wild weather to come, warn meteorologists
*Infiltrating A Spy Conference
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin stories:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Force of law
<http://www.theage.com.au/news/20001027/A9553-2000Oct26.html>
by MARK FORBES
2000-10-27
'Move! Move! Move!" shout police, stomping forward on each
word, sharply prodding large black batons towards
demonstrators with every step.
Events accelerate into confused scuffles, demonstrators
cling together, screaming "police violence" towards watching
media, as baton blows rain down. Young or old, demonstrators
are grabbed and dragged, fodder for newspapers and TV
stations around the world. Debate over ratbag protesters and
police tactics begins instantaneously.
It seems only yesterday that the S11 protests disrupted the
World Economic Forum at Crown Casino, prompting a tough
response from police. But the events just described occurred
years earlier, under a different government, when the
Richmond Secondary College was blockaded to protest against
its closure by Jeff Kennett.
This week, the last chapter in the Richmond saga was closed,
with police agreeing to a settlement of almost $300,000 for
30 protesters who had lodged writs alleging excessive police
force.
Now the WEF protest is to be played out in court, with the
same lawyers who represented the Richmond 30 drawing up
writs for at least 50 people injured outside Crown Casino.
The parallels between the incidents raise issues of how
democracy is policed in Victoria. And the WEF action is set
to reignite debate over unresolved questions about the
Richmond action, questions police had hoped the
confidential settlement would bury.
Just what legal right do police have to use force against
demonstrators, and how far can demonstrators go to disrupt
the lawful behavior of others? Should police be legally
responsible for the force they use, and who can be trusted
to investigate allegations against the police?
The curly questions are not just for police to answer. At
Richmond, the Kennett government was determined to crash
through the protest, raising the issue of separation of
power from its law-enforcement arm. The Bracks
Government, with closer ties to community groups but
desperate to appear "business-friendly" and tough on crime,
is certain to find its dealings with police over the WEF
under the legal microscope.
Police minutes released under freedom of information reveal
that those organising the Richmond baton charge knew that
"at a high political level there was a desire to have the
matter resolved quickly".
The day of the charge, Monday December13, 1993, had been
nominated by ministers as the last day renovations could
begin if they were to reopen a new school in January, as
they wished to do.
Inside the besieged WEF meeting on Monday, September11, this
year, Premier Bracks was himself surrounded by angry
businessmen, demanding action against protesters who had
blockaded many delegates wanting to enter the building.
Privately, government insiders concede that the pressured
atmosphere may have clouded the Premier's political
judgment, leading to his description of demonstrators'
behavior as fascist. The government was desperate for the
forum to proceed on the Tuesday, with organisers threatening
to cancel.
Neil O'Loughlin, deputy commissioner in charge of operations
at the forum, has denied that pressure from the government
or WEF organisers influenced the tougher police tactics.
"I had meetings (on Monday night) with people from the forum
and some government officials and we discussed
administrative matters," O'Loughlin told The Age. "But never
at any time did they have anything to say in
relation to how we should do things operationally."
On the Monday, more than 10,000 protesters had blocked most
WEF delegates from entering in the face of a low-level
police response. In a loss of face for authorities,
demonstrators had gleefully surrounded Western Australian
Premier Richard Court's car as one of their number jumped on
its roof.
>From early Tuesday it was clear that the rules of engagement
had changed. Police ranks had swelled. Demonstrators like
software engineer Julian Kelsey, buoyed by Monday's
barricade, had arrived early to block the casino's
Queensbridge Street entrance. Just before 7am, Kelsey says
in his legal statement, police buses arrived.
"The police behind us moved aside to reveal police with
batons and visored helmets running towards us," he said.
"They reached down and knocked us about the head. I saw
fists beaten down into faces, my own hair was grabbed and I
was punched in the face."
The scuffles lasted nearly 15minutes, leaving Kelsey with
cracked ribs and a broken wrist, allegedly from baton blows.
Breaking the blockade, police brought delegates in by bus,
but violence flared again at 7.30pm when they needed to get
out.
Radiographer Julie Bain had also noticed the tell-tale
swelling of police numbers in Queensbridge Street. "The riot
police leapt up on to the barricade and over on to the
protesters on my left, beating down with
batons," she said. "The only thing I was able to do was put
my head down in response to baton blows to my head. I was
shoved down and backwards. The police shouted 'Move, move,
move'. But it was impossible to respond."
Bain was not one of the 20 protesters and media
representatives treated in hospital that night, but the next
day an X-ray revealed a crushed fracture of the fingertip
incurred, according to her statement, trying to protect her
head from baton blows.
Marcus Clayton, the lawyer compiling at least 50 claims from
the WEF protest, says injuries included a fractured sternum,
a crushed vertebra, broken arms and cracked ribs, along with
stitches for head wounds.
Police maintain that the force used on the Tuesday was
reasonable and provoked by the aggressive actions of
demonstrators. Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie defended the
tactics the next day and said "disgusting" protesters had
spat on police and assaulted members of the public. "It is
regrettable that Victoria Police had to use measures to
achieve this outcome, but those measures were dictated by
the protesters and I have no regrets about any of the
decisions," Comrie said.
At Richmond, police also claimed that their use of force was
reasonable. Subsequently, an ombudsman's inquiry criticised
police, stating that less forceful methods were available to
them.
"The standard of reasonable force was exceeded," the inquiry
found. "I believe that the force with which picketers were
prodded by batons was excessive."
The inquiry recommended further action against police, and
eight officers were charged with disciplinary offences by
Neil O'Loughlin, citing carelessness in the discharge of
duties. Six years later, just weeks before the WEF protests,
O'Loughlin quietly dropped the charges he had laid.
After the news leaked out, he said he acted because of the
time that had elapsed since the incidents. "Justice delayed
is justice denied," he said.
Ombudsman Barry Perry said he was concerned about the
dropping of the charges and would investigate the decision.
Now Perry has announced an inquiry into the WEF protest,
citing concern over the Tuesday night baton charge. He said
he would examine the "operational decisions" behind police
actions and investigate numerous allegations of excessive
force.
As part of their case against police, lawyers will argue
that the force used was unreasonable and unprovoked. More
significantly, they will claim that police have no legal
right to use force to disperse protesters.
"The force used here was clearly excessive," Clayton says.
"Just look at the numbers taken to hospital. With a third of
the entire police force present, it's difficult to argue
that the only thing they can do to get delegates in and out
of a conference is to beat people up."
Although police have the power to use force to prevent a
breach of the peace and allow people to go about their
lawful business, the power applies only to making an arrest,
Clayton says.
Dr Jude McCulloch, a lecturer in police studies at Deakin
University and critic of "paramilitary-style" policing,
agrees. "The law says police can use reasonable force to
arrest those committing summary offences, such as
obstructing, but it doesn't say you can use force to prevent
people committing offences. There is no clear power to
disperse protesters using batons."
The growing use of civil litigation is an effective way of
making police more accountable, McCulloch says.
With more claims, and significantly more severe injuries at
the WEF than at Richmond, potential payouts are large,
Clayton says. He has signalled that high "punitive damages",
designed to persuade police to change tactics, are likely to
be sought.
Clayton points to Comrie's statements after the Ombudsman's
inquiry into Richmond, when he says: "I think we've got to
equip ourselves better to deal with an unexpected violent
confrontation. Certainly where you have a static
demonstration which is taking place over a long period of
time, baton charges will never occur again as long as I have
got anything to say about it."
The Victoria Police operation procedures manual outlines
crowd-control tactics. It states: "The success of any
operation will be primarily judged by the extent to which
the use of force is avoided or minimised."
According to Clayton, these goals were abandoned at Richmond
and again, seven years later, at the WEF. He says the
government and police should "pause for thought" after the
Richmond settlement.
"Many Australians have fought for the right to demonstrate,
peacefully," he says. "These cases raise the whole question
of people's democratic right to protest around issues they
regard as important."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporations Get Bigger and Bigger
by Jim Lobe
Published on Monday, December 4, 2000 by Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON - Corporate power keeps growing and growing. That's the message
of a new report released here Monday by the left-wing Institute for Policy
Studies, one year after anti-corporate demonstrators and self-described
''anarchists'' stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations in
Seattle.
The report, the latest in a series of annual studies on corporate size
produced by the Institute, notes that, of the world's 100 largest economic
entities, 51 are corporations and only 49 were countries measured by
annual corporate sales and annual gross domestic product (GDP).
Moreover, the world's 200 largest corporations have combined sales greater
than the combined GDP of all countries but the world's 10 largest
economies and 18 times greater than the combined annual income of the
roughly 25 percent of the world's population living on less than one
dollar per day.
Nor does it appear that all of these economic activity necessarily provide
proportional benefits to these companies' workers. The profits of the 200
largest companies - 82 of which are US based - grew 362.4 percent over the
16 years between 1983 and 1999, according to the Institute, while the
number of people they employed grew by only 14.4 percent.
And while their sales amounted to the equivalent of about 27.5 percent of
global GDP in 1999, the number of people employed by them directly
amounted to only 14.4 percent of the global workforce, according to the
report.
Its publication comes at a time of growing popular concern here about
corporate power, illustrated most recently by a special feature appearing
in the Sep. 11 edition of the influential Business Week magazine. The
article, entitled 'Too Much Corporate Power?', found that, despite the
longest period of economic expansion in US history, the US public was
increasingly uneasy about corporate influence on their lives and communities.
While almost half of respondents in a major poll sponsored by the weekly
magazine and conducted by the Louis Harris polling organisation, agreed
with the notion that what is good for business is good for most of the
citizenry, two-thirds of those polled thought that large profits were more
important to big companies than developing safe and reliable, quality
products for consumers.
It also found that the so-called ''New Economy'' of hi-tech and
information companies - which have recently suffered serious setbacks in
the stock market - are leaving workers and their families ''feeling
overworked and stressed out''.
And about three out of four respondents agreed that big companies have too
much influence over ''government policy, politicians, and policy- makers
in Washington''.
''It's no longer a youth or hippie thing,'' the article stated. ''Today,
those angry at business come from all parts of US society.''
That sense helps explain the decision by Vice President Al Gore to run a
quasi-populist campaign - in which he strongly assailed tobacco, oil,
health insurance, and pharmaceutical companies - in the presidential
elections, a decision which caught many by surprise given his own history
of friendliness both to corporations and their political campaign
contributions.
For this year's campaign, according to the Institute, the 82 US companies
on the Top 200 list made direct contributions to candidates through
political action committees totalling more than 30 million dollars, not
counting many times more that amount made in so-called ''soft-money''
donations to parties or interest groups directly involved in the campaign.
Overall, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, corporations
outspent labour unions 15 to one during this year's campaign.
''The growing private power has enormous economic consequences,'' the
report states. ''However, the greatest impact may be political, as
corporations transform economic clout into political power. As a result,
democracy is undermined. This threat deserves to be one of the major
issues on the political agenda.''
At the same time that they wield enormous political power in Washington,
companies have been successful in resisting government or public- interest
efforts to make their foreign operations more transparent, according to
the Institute. Among information that US firms which do business abroad
are not required to make public are data about the number of workers they
employ in each country, the amount of toxic gases their plants emit into
the atmosphere; the location of their plants or contractors; and their
wage rates.
Their influence is also illustrated by the extent to which they avoid
paying taxes both here and abroad. One study by the Institute of Taxation
and Economic Policy found that 44 of the 82 biggest US companies failed to
pay the full standard 35-percent corporate tax rate during the period
1996-98, while seven - Texaco, Chevron, PepsiCo, Enron, Worldcom,
McKesson, and General Motors - of them actually received rebates that
exceeded the amount of taxes they paid during that time.
The liberal use of tax havens abroad has also reduced US corporate tax
liability for overseas operations far below the rates at which their
foreign profits have grown, according to the report.
The 82 US firms among the world's top 200, as determined by Fortune
Magazine, represent a substantial increase over 1995, when only 59 of the
top 2000 were US-based. At that time, Japan was a close second with 58,
but, with the continuing effects of its long recession, Japanese firms now
account for only 41 of the 200 largest.
The world's six largest companies as defined by 1999 sales are General
Motors, Wal-Mart, Exxon, Mobil, Ford Motor, and the German company Daimler
Chrysler in that order. As economic entities, they rate, 23, 25, 26, 27
and 28, respectively, behind the GDPs of the major western industrialised
powers, China, Brazil, Mexico, India, South Korea, Russia, and Argentina.
The world's biggest private employer in 1999 was Wal-Mart, whose global
workforce has skyrocketed from 62,000 in 1983 to 1,140,000 last year. The
report notes that while the retail chain, which has been expanding
aggressively in Latin America, has undoubtedly created new-job
opportunities for tens of thousands of workers, it remains ''notorious''
for its anti-union efforts and heavy reliance on part-time employees to
whom it is not required to pay health or other benefits.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sweeping powers for spy agencies
<http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,460236a10,FF.html>
Sunday, 29 OCTOBER 2000
Police and government spy agencies are pushing for major new surveillance
powers - including the ability to intercept e-mails.
In a move the Council for Civil Liberties labels a "major and disturbing
intrusion" new surveillance laws are being planned which will allow police
and intelligence agencies to hack covertly into home computers and
intercept email and other electronic communication.
Researcher and author Nicky Hager, says the proposed legislation strongly
resembles the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act passed amid
huge controversy three months ago.
But he says unlike the British experience, the New Zealand legislation is
being slipped through in stages, as extensions of present laws. The first
is to be tabled in parliament in about 10 days.
The laws were devised under the National government and can be traced back
to a push by the FBI in the United States for standardised spy systems to
intercept mobile phones and emails.
The changes are now being promoted by Associate Justice Minister Paul
Swain, and would also impose "requirements" on Internet service providers
and phone companies to co-operate with intelligence agencies and police
and install systems to assist spying on their customers.
Hager, whose 1996 book on the global Echelon surveillance network prompted
a year-long investigation by the European parliament, said the public had
a right to demand proof that the new intrusive powers were so crucial that
individuals had to give up privacy and freedoms.
He said the way the changes were being introduced, piecemeal and in
secret, was "a model of bad government".
The first legislation expands the interception powers of the police and
the Government Communications Security Bureau to cover all forms of
electronic communications (including email, faxes and text messaging) and,
for the Security Intelligence Service as well, to cover hacking into
computer systems to view and copy people's files.
This would be achieved by amending the Crimes Act to make it illegal to
intercept emails or hack into computers - and then exempting all the
intelligence and law enforcement agencies from the new law.
The legislation will also increase the status of the GCSB, moving its
existing powers into the Crimes Act.
The other half of the plan is changes to the Telecommunications Act,
requiring telephone companies to make systems "interceptable".
Hager says New Zealand officials secretly agreed to implement the
surveillance changes after attending a meeting at the FBI headquarters in
Quantico, south of Washington DC, in 1993.
Swain says the driving force of the law changes is the wish to protect
privacy because there is no legislation to say "wandering into someone's
internal communications system is illegal".
The exemptions for the government agencies came later, he said.
Council for Civil Liberties chair Tony Ellis says the proposed
surveillance laws are a major civil liberties concern.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Denmark's hippies hit their golden years
October 26, 2000
by Charles P. Wallace in Christiana
(TIME.com Europe) -- The sign on the gate says it all:
You are now leaving the European Union. You're not of
course, but life in the Free Town of Christiania, as the
neighbourhood in the leafy outskirts of Copenhagen likes
to call itself, seems like time travel to the 1970s -- a
simpler time of hippies, drugs and rock 'n' roll.
Christiania was a military compound and barracks
abandoned by the Danish army at the start of the
turbulent 70s. Soon after the army moved out, squatters
moved in and began converting the army's vacant buildings
into homes and shops.
For 20 years, Copenhagen authorities tried to shut it
down, but eventually gave up and signed a peace agreement
allowing this rather 1970s vision of a commune to remain
as long as it paid its taxes and water and light bills.
"People say we are trying to stop time and hold on to
flower power," says Camilla Roslind, 29, who has lived in
Christiania for a decade and works in the commune's
library.
Apart from the hippie atmosphere, Christiania's claim to
fame is its renowned Pusher Street, where marijuana and
hashish from all over the world are sold. Prices for
Moroccan or Thai are posted on shops like the prices for
chicken and hamburger in more conventional cities and the
product is stacked openly like candies in a sweet shop.
Most visitors retire to picnic tables in a big circus
tent, which houses a local bar, to smoke their goods
before they leave.
Judging by the openness, the police these days seem to
leave the drug trade unmolested. In the past they have
staged massive raids, cordoning off entire blocks and
making mass arrests. For a while, they even carted away
the fixtures of bars that didn't pay the proper taxes on
alcohol. Now the only vestige of those days are the
frequent signs banning photographs on Pusher Street. They
may preach individual freedom, but drug dealers don't
think much of seeing their photos in the newspaper.
Apart from the drug trade, the 38-hectare commune seems
to be thriving. The population now is more than 1,000,
including about 650 adults and 350 children. Although the
police aren't invited in, the residents ban sales of hard
drugs, theft and other misdemeanors with the threat of
expulsion from the community.
So relaxed is the pace that they still don't want to have
street signs or house numbers because they believe that
such measures tend to depersonalise people. "If someone
wants you to visit, they will explain how to find them,"
says Roslind. The commune even boasts its own postman,
who picks up mail from a collective address.
As in any good commune, the community "owns" the
buildings and 12 neighbourhood committees meet regularly
to discuss such things as who to allow in. Tenants pay a
$112 a month flat charge for rent for each person, plus
water and electricity.
Every resident has the right to convene a common meeting
of all residents to discuss a problem. Decisions are not
taken by a vote but by unanimous consensus, which must
make for some long discussions. "We have a collective
business," says Rajesh, a baker from Nepal who has lived
in Christiania for 12 years. "We have no bosses and it's
a nice way to work."
At the general store, Johanes Kj�mpenes explains that
because they deal in used house fixtures that are cheaper
than those available in other parts of Copenhagen, the
store is only open to residents of the commune. While
they collect the 25 per cent value-added tax just as
other shops do, the proceeds are turned over to the
commune rather than the Danish state to help fund such
things as kindergartens and a health clinic.
Christiania seems to be a favourite with artisans and
craftsmen, including a shop that makes special hand-made
tricycles that feature a cargo compartment to carry
goods. That's because cars and trucks are not allowed in
Christiania. Perhaps because they are handmade, the bikes
cost $850 each. Another shop offers the work of a group
of women welders who make such goods as candelabra as
Christmas gifts.
Although ambulance drivers used to refuse to enter
Christiania because of the high number of drug addicts
that once lived there, they feel less threatened now that
hard drug users are banned. Two nurses offer first aid
treatment at the local health clinic, provided, of
course, that the remedies are natural. "We use
alternative medicine as much as we can," says a nurse who
gave her name as Anonymous. The nurses say they don't
offer unsolicited advice on smoking pot, but will help
people who seek assistance in quitting.
Like any community that appeals to people who came of age
in the 1970s, Christiania is having to deal with a novel
problem: Old age. "It's an entirely new situation for us
-- we have to take care of the elderly," says Roslind.
While time seems to have stopped in Christiania, even
hippies grow old.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police arrest more people for marijuana than murder, rape, and robbery combined
NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
E-Mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For release: October 31, 2000
WASHINGTON, DC -- Police arrested more people last year on
marijuana charges than for all violent crimes combined, according to
new FBI figures -- a policy that endangers public safety by diverting
police resources, Libertarians charge.
"The War on Marijuana Smokers is good news for brutal street
thugs, but it's bad news for ordinary Americans," said Harry Browne,
the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. "Why? Because police
are kept busy arresting non-violent pot smokers -- while our families,
friends, and neighbors fall prey to murderers, rapists, and robbers."
According to the new FBI Uniform Crime Report, police arrested
more people for non-violent marijuana offenses in 1999 than for murder,
rape, robbery, and aggravated assault -- combined.
In all, 704,812 Americans were arrested last year on marijuana-
related charges, while only 635,990 people were arrested for the crimes
of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
"That means that in 704,812 instances last year, police spent
their time and your money arresting and booking marijuana smokers
instead of apprehending violent criminals," said Browne.
"So the next time you hear about a vicious murder in your
community, ask yourself: Could the police have prevented this crime if
they hadn't devoted uncounted millions of dollars and man-hours
arresting those 704,812 people on marijuana charges over the past
year?"
Of those arrested for marijuana offenses, 88% were charged with
mere possession, noted Browne, and approximately 60,000 Americans are
languishing in prison today on marijuana charges, according to the
Marijuana Policy Project.
"Make no mistake: People do get sent to jail in America for
simple marijuana possession," he said. "This is more proof that the War
on Drugs has created a revolving door prison system. In goes the pot
smoker; out comes the psychopathic killer, the kidnapper, or the child
molester released on early parole."
Federal figures also show that a total of 4,175,357 people have
been arrested on marijuana charges during the Clinton-Gore
administration, even though President Clinton admitted he smoked
marijuana "but didn't inhale" and Vice President Gore admits he smoked
marijuana in his twenties.
"Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore, would you be better men today if you
had been thrown in jail for your youthful indiscretions?" asked Browne.
"If not, how can you possibly justify throwing your fellow Americans in
jail today for the same youthful indiscretions?"
Interestingly, the number of marijuana arrests is rising at the
same time public support for the Drug War is falling, said Browne.
"FBI statistics show that 22,000 more people were arrested on
marijuana charges in 1999 than in 1998," he said. "Yet marijuana-
related initiatives are approved nearly every time they're put to a
popular vote, and California's Proposition 36 -- which would eliminate
prison terms for all non-violent drug offenses -- appears headed to
victory as well.
"So while ordinary Americans see the futility of our current
drug policies, politicians remain addicted to the War on Drugs and
determined to arrest non-violent pot-smokers. That's why people who are
victimized by murderers, rapists, and robbers are actually victimized
twice: Once by street thugs, and once by the politicians who force
police to waste their time arresting harmless pot-smokers as real
criminals go free."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human-pig embryos: what next?
<http://www.newsweekly.com.au>
Confirmation that biologists working for a private company in Australia,
Stem Cell Sciences, have experimented with inserting human genetic material
into the ova of pigs to produce animal-human hybrid embryos, will shock
Australians into demanding, at the least, a moratorium on further
experimentation of this type. Such experimentation is the ultimate in
utilitarianism.
Where laws regulating biotechnology exist in Australia, for example, in
relation to In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), they envisage reproduction using
human sex cells. The latest research bypasses these laws by combining human
and pig cells to create a hybrid.
The company involved in this research claimed that it might enable the
production of human stem cells from the human-pig hybrid embryos.
Human stem cells are of great interest to medical science, because they have
the capacity to develop into the range of cells found in different parts of
the human body, for example, in muscle, bone and nerve.
Using stem cells, it is argued, could assist treatment for diabetes, spinal
cord injury, and certain neuro-degenerative disorders such as Parkinson's
disease and the muscular dystrophies.
This is the foundation of support given by the US President, Bill Clinton,
into the creation of human embryos for scientific experimentation. President
Clinton claimed that the new technology had "breathtaking promise", and
added, "We cannot walk away from the potential to save lives and improve
lives."
The US National Institute of Health is now funding research using human
embryo stem cells, and Britain's Blair Government has indicated that it will
also legislate to permit cloning human embryos for "therapeutic" purposes, a
polite way of saying that such human embryos will be used and then
destroyed.
A society which condones the destruction of unborn human beings by abortion
is unlikely to draw the line at the destruction of early human embryos.
However, there is growing evidence that stem cell harvesting from human
embryos may be unnecessary. It appears that other types of stem cells occur
naturally in the human body and may be used ethically to grow new tissues
and organs. This would also overcome the problem of organ rejection, which
continues to limit the availability of organ donation.
The experimentation undertaken by Stem Cell Sciences takes this process in a
different direction. The human-animal hybrid is genetically different from
either of the original sources, so any suggestion that cells from such
hybrids would produce human stem cells is, biologically, questionable.
What we are left with is the fact that medical scientists are taking us into
areas where society has never before ventured, raising fundamental ethical
issues which have not been addressed.
A statement by the Chief Executive Officer of Stem Cell Sciences that the
embryos, which had been grown to the 32-cell stage, would not develop into a
pig-human hybrid, are disingenuous. The fact is that biologically, it is a
pig-human hybrid.
Over the past few months, Australia has witnessed a major outcry over a
recent Federal Court judgment which ruled that state infertility laws
limiting access to IVF services to married couples were inconsistent with
the Federal Sex Discrimination Act.
At the time, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, immediately foreshadowed
amending the Federal Act to entrench state laws on the issue. The
legislation has yet to go before Federal Parliament.
The scientific imperative which is driving the technology for the creation
of human-animal hybrids raises fundamental questions about what it is to be
a human person, and what differentiates mankind from animals.
The risks inherent in the scientific revolution, applied to human biology,
were discussed in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, first published in 1932.
It envisaged a future world founded on artificial birth and no family life,
a society designed by genetic engineering.
The latest proposals go beyond the nightmare world envisaged by Huxley,
although their proponents continue to put forward the argument that all this
is justified because it might open up forms of treatment of certain human
diseases.
Yet all of these possible benefits lie somewhere in the distant future,
while medical scientists push the barriers further, with even more bizarre
medical experiments, which have been subjected to no community consultation
to determine where the ethical boundaries should be drawn.
The latest experiments fall within the scope of the Senate Gene Technology
Committee inquiry, and another inquiry being conducted by a House of
Representatives Committee.
In light of the Prime Minister's decision to IVF, it would be entirely
appropriate that he sponsor a move to put a ban on human embryo
experimentation, at least until the matter can be properly considered from
both the scientific and ethical perspectives.
If nothing is done, it will effectively legalise the experimentation
currently being undertaken.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linked stories:
********************
Is the Fetus a Person?
<http://www.nejm.org/content/2000/0343/0023/1737.asp>
A Comparison of Policies across the Fifty States
********************
FBI to Create $100 Million Cyber Crime Report Center
<http://www.friendsofliberty.com/archives/00052_00.htm>
The FBI, which has been under attack for it's recent introduction of the
Carnivore System, is now going to receive funding to help create a report
center due to a recent wave of online attacks.
********************
Global warming may devastate Pacific nations
<http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8723>
********************
More wild weather to come, warn meteorologists
<http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8739>
********************
Infiltrating A Spy Conference
<http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10014>
Today, the U.S. spends an estimated $30 billion on spying. What
do all those spooks talk about at their annual conference.
********************
======================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
______________________________________________________________
To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues,
send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
______________________________________________________________
**How to assist RadTimes:
An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations.
If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. If you are not a current user, use this
link: <https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=resist%40best.com> to sign up
and contribute. The only information passed on to me via this process is
your email address and the amount you transfer.
Thanks!
______________________________________________________________
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
