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New Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: Cockburn on the Roadmap: It's a Big Hoax in a Long Line of Hoaxes; St. Clair on The Rat in the Grain: Daniel Amstutz and the Looting of the Farms of Iraq; All About David Horowitz: the Dazed and Confused Dirigible of the Right; Handicapping the Democrats: Will It be Graham vs. Dean?; Kucinich Wows Madison: But Seems to Have Forgotten the Horrors of Clintontime; Blumenthal v. Hitchens: Inside the Conspiracy; Merle Haggard Stays the Course: Country Legend Defends Dixie Chicks, Bashes Bush. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Coming Soon! From Common Courage Press Recent Stories June 9, 2003 Alex Coolman Male Rape in US Prisons Elaine Cassel Ashcroft is Coming! Lee Sustar Is Iran Next? Agustin Velloso Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many Poor Gila Svirsky Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others Dr. Gerry Lower Human Worth in Bush's America Michael S. Ladah A True Liberation Ishmael Reed Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder Steve Perry How to Beat Bush, part 1   June 7 / 8, 2003 Alexander Cockburn The Terrible Truth Jeffrey St. Clair Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species Joanne Mariner Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers Steven Sherman A Different Theory of Everything Ron Jacobs Sports, Politics and the 60s M. Shahid Alam Pauperizing the Periphery Amelia Peltz If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost Shelton Hull Another Powell, Another Capitulation Binoy Kampmark Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea Ben Tripp A Fish Story Sen. Robert Byrd Where is the Outrage? Robin Philpot Congo Distortions Julie Hilden Murder and the Matrix Laura Flanders An Interview with Isabel Allende David Lindorff The Last Byline Adam Engel Talk Dirty Scary Monsters Poets' Basement Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod   June 6, 2003 Elaine Cassel Ashcroft the Insatiable David Krieger The Big Lie Ramzy Baroud Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers Anthony Gancarski Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege" Sam Hamod His Own Little Country Sean Carter Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay? David Lindorff Cracks in the Consensus Stew Albert Ari's Great Set Steve Perry Greens and Moore in 04? No   June 5, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina Imraan Siddiqi Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth Michael Leon Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done Robert Jensen Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy Ann Harrison Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over Paul Dean How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush Gary Leupp When Spooks Speak Out Website of the Day Evidence in Black and White?   June 4, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Federal Judge Blinks; Rosenthal Walks Lisa Walsh Thomas The Isaiah Crowd: The Threat of Neo-Christianity Jason Leopold Manufacturing the Iraq War John Chuckman Blackmail as Policy Mazin Qumsiyeh Summit: Peace or Pretense? Issam Nashashibi Sharon's Sword of Damocles Steve Perry Wolfowitz of Arabia: the VF interview transcript   June 3, 2003 Chris Floyd Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and the Slaughter in Aceh Jason Leopold Wolfowitz Tells All Elaine Cassel We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!" Tom Crumpacker The Politics of US Cuba Policy William S. Lind Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq Sam Hamod The Final Brick in the Wall Uri Avnery The Altalena Affair Hammond Guthrie Stepping into Some Deep DARPA Steve Perry The WashTimes' al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive" June 2, 2003 Arundhati Roy Day of the Jackals Norman Madarasz Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato, Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom Alain Frachon and Daniel Vernet The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter Anthony Gancarski Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now Standard Schaefer Wasted at the Pentagon Jason Leopold Rocky's Advice to the Dems Guthrie & Albert HUAC 58 Years Letter Steve Perry The Politics of Terror Alerts   May 31, 2003 Alexander Cockburn A Whiner Called Horowitz Gary Leupp The Frauds of War Dave Lindorff Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment Tom Stephens Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied? Sasan Fayazmanesh Who Is Next? Joanne Mariner Trivializing Terrorism Wayne Madsen Ayatollah Ashcroft's Busy Week Larry Magnuson Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard? Elaine Cassel Wake Up, America! Gila Svirsky Waiting for the Lament to End Susan Davis Kitchen Dreams Chris Clarke Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite Chris Floyd Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God Adam Engel Gravity's End Zone Poets' Basement Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert   May 30, 2003 Ben Tripp Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda Neve Gordon The Bad Fence Todd Steiner Endangered Ocean Robert Freeman Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity Sean Carter Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions Daniel Bacher How Bush's War Violated International Laws Tariq Ali Re-Colonizing Iraq Steve Perry Bush Wars Web Log   May 29, 2003 CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Jason Leopold Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime Ron Jacobs Popular Uprising, Inc. Michelle Ciaccorra Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do Yves Engler The Economics of Health Care in America: Pay More to Die Sooner Kimberly Blaker Vouchers for Jesus Harry Browne Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at the Top of the IRA Stew Albert Cops of the World Steve Perry Greens 04: In or Out?       Hot Stories CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

June 11, 2003 A Global Plague of GM Crops Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to Eat! By NNIMO BASSEY and LAWRENCE BOHLEN President Bush thinks all nations, especially those in Africa, should warmly embrace "bio-crops" produced by the United States. He says that their refusal to accept genetically engineered crops is not scientific, but rather a fear of economic loss if the European Union continues to reject genetically engineered foods. Economic loss is a real concern, but a closer look at the reasons given by other nations reveals widely held, scientifically based concerns about potential health impacts as well. People around the world find it odd that U.S. government officials are saying engineered foods are safe, when U.S. scientific bodies like the National Academy of Sciences and a scientific advisory panel serving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are calling for more safety testing. The panel wrote that the bacterial toxin placed in most forms of engineered corn may be a human allergen. Meanwhile, dozens of severe allergic reactions to corn products in the United States were reported in 2000, but according to EPA advisors, not adequately investigated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also failed to conduct its own safety tests of engineered foods. The agency merely asks biotech companies to voluntarily submit data from their own studies, a form of corporate self-policing that is not universally accepted. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the transparency of data provided by industry is woefully inadequate. Until the FDA requires independent safety testing, people all over the world will remain justifiably concerned about engineered foods. They will also be skeptical as long as the biotech crop producers are Monsanto, Dupont and others that have polluted the planet with the most toxic chemicals ever generated -- DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange, to name a few. Once released, even in small quantities, widespread contamination by engineered crops can occur, as documented in both the United States and Mexico. In 2000, StarLink corn, an engineered variety not approved for human consumption due to the potential to cause life-threatening allergic reactions, contaminated America's food supply. Just 0.5 percent of the U.S. cornfields were planted with StarLink, yet an estimated 10 percent of the entire harvest was contaminated. Real life, not imagined, concerns about remnants of StarLink arose from a finding in June 2002 by a citizens' group in Bolivia. The group discovered food aid sent by the U.S. Agency for International Development contaminated with StarLink engineered corn. More recently, Japanese importers reported that the corn had contaminated an American grain shipment. This undesirable engineered crop persists despite a ban of its planting in Fall 2000, and a declaration by the EPA in July 2001 that no level of StarLink could be determined safe for human consumption. The appearance of genetically engineered corn in remote regions of Mexico, which has banned its cultivation to avoid polluting the origin of corn, also shows how easily engineered traits can move and multiply. The source is thought by some scientists to be American imports for animal feed or food processing inadvertently planted or spilled during transport. The Bush administration argues that any health or environmental concerns held by people in hungry nations are overshadowed by a shortage of non-engineered corn to feed those who seek it. On the contrary, there are millions of bushels of non-engineered corn on commercial markets today in the United States and abroad. For the past two and a half years, major taco and tortilla producers in the United States successfully substituted large quantities of conventional white and yellow corn for the engineered corn they had been using before StarLink contamination occurred. Additionally, South Africa, Japan, Holland, Norway and the European Commission were among numerous donors providing huge amounts of conventional corn over the last year to Zambia and other southern African nations in need of food aid. Given the alternatives available to address famine and the very legitimate concerns about potential health and environmental impacts, a decision to reject genetically engineered food should be respected. After all, according to numerous public opinion polls and a recent United States Department of Agriculture survey of consumer attitudes, if given the option, the majority of Americans would choose conventional food over genetically engineered food as well. NNIMMO BASSEY is the Executive Director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria (also known as Environmental Rights Action). Nnimmo established the organization in response to human rights abuses in Nigeria that have stemmed from the unbridled pursuit of natural resources by both government and transnational corporations (TNCs). Over the 9-year history of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Nnimmo has suffered arrests and harassments aimed at silencing him and preventing him from associating with other advocacy groups. At one point his international passport was seized by the secret police effectively keeping him from travelling outside his country. Nnimmo also works as an architect in Nigeria and has published three books of poetry. LAWRENCE BOHLEN leads Friends of the Earth's Health and Environment Programs that work to protect people against pesticides, genetic contamination and other pollution. Weekend Edition Features Alexander Cockburn The Terrible Truth Jeffrey St. Clair Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species Joanne Mariner Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers Steven Sherman A Different Theory of Everything Ron Jacobs Sports, Politics and the 60s M. Shahid Alam Pauperizing the Periphery Amelia Peltz If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost Shelton Hull Another Powell, Another Capitulation Binoy Kampmark Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea Ben Tripp A Fish Story Sen. Robert Byrd Where is the Outrage? Robin Philpot Congo Distortions Julie Hilden Murder and the Matrix Laura Flanders An Interview with Isabel Allende David Lindorff The Last Byline Adam Engel Talk Dirty Scary Monsters Poets' Basement Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /