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Around the Bend
Articles and investigative reports from The-Edge. With special sections on: Fluorides, Airports, Space, Technology and Terrorism.
 We can no longer rely on Conventional Wisdom. That is the stagnant pool. We have to go to the springs, for some new dreams and new ideas... I have nothing against experts... But now and then their insight is impaired. That's why God created ordinary people. - Dave Brower - Around the Bend
The Hoax of Eco-Friendly Nuclear Energy
By Prof. Karl Grossman
Nuclear advocates in government and the nuclear industry are engaged in a massive, heavily financed drive to revive atomic power in the United States-with most of the mainstream media either not questioning or actually assisting in the promotion. (3/13/08)
- Around the Bend:
Hillary & Barack: Who Is Greener?
By Tom Hayden
Is Barack the one we have been waiting for? Or is it the other way around? I
endorse the movement that Barack Obama has inspired and will support his
candidacy in the inevitable storms ahead.
The Obama Craze: Count Me Out
Matt Gonzalez
Barack Obama a candidate who says he's going to usher in change. But his record
is one of accommodation and concession to the very political powers that we
need to reign in and oppose if we are to make truly lasting advances. (3/13/08)
- Around the Bend
The Greening of Valentine's Day
By Gar Smith / The Edge
More that 175 million roses will be shipped thousands of miles to feed the Valentine's Day market in the US alone. Many will arrive sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. There are better alternatives (for chocolate, too!). (2/12/08)
- Around the Bend
Turkey's Environment: Battered but Looking Better
By Gar Smith / The Edge (12/22/07)
- Around the Bend:
Ballots on the Bosphorus: The Turkish Elections
By Gar Smith / The-Edge (12/22/07)
- Around the Bend:
A Tourist's Impressions of Turkey
By Gar Smith / The-Edge (12/22/07)
- Around the Bend
Sharkwater
An Interview with Filmmaker Rob Stewart (Part 1)
Photographer/filmmaker Rob Stewart will never forget his first encounter with a shark. He was eight years old and free-diving in the Cayman Islands when he rounded a reef and found himself starring directly at the ocean's top predator. Steward was transfixed. Not by fear, but by awe. (11/20/07)
- Around the Bend:
Sharkwater
An Interview with Filmmaker Rob Stewart (Part 2)
(11/20/07)
- Around the Bend:
Aw, Shucks. Three City Kids and an Acre of Corn
An Interview with the filmmakers of King Corn
Recently, The-Edge interviewed filmmaker Aaron Woolf and Curt Ellis who (along with childhood friend Ian Cheney) are the fellows behind the spunky new high-carb documentary, "King Corn." It took 18 minutes and a rented tractor to plant 31,000 corn seeds but following the trail of their 10,000-pound harvest took the boys through 30 states and Mexico -- and changed their lives. (11/20/07)
- Around the Bend:
Energizing the Debate:
People as Fuel; Food as Fuel
By Gar Smith / The-Edge
The 20,000 delegates to the 2007 Gas and Oil Expo (GO-EXPO), Canada's premiere oil conference, were looking for some bold new solutions. And, at a widely publicized keynote speech at Stampede Park in Calgary, two officials from Exxon Mobil and the National Petroleum Council (NPC) presented 300 top oil honchos and their dates with a doozy. (11/20/07)
- Around the Bend
Command Override: Part One
Why Did a Nuclear-Armed B-52 Take off from North Dakota and Head for Iran?
William Thomas / willthomasonline.net (9/19/07)
- Around the Bend:
Command Override: Part Two
Did Chinese Military Hackers Take Over A Nuclear-Armed B-52?
William Thomas / willthomasonline.net (9/19/07)
- Around the Bend
The American People's Peace Delegation to Iran
Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Intervention in Iran
Five Americans traveled 1,750 miles in Iran from July 20 to 30. They brought back valuable impressions of a country that, in many ways, seems more civilized that George Bushs America. (9/9/07)
- Around the Bend:
The 2007 Rubber Dodo Award
The Center for Biological Diversity
Dirk Kempthorne is acknowledged as the Interior Secretary Who Has Protected
Fewer Species than Any other in History.
Hurricane George
By Greg Palast / Greg Palast.com
How the White House knowingly let New Orleans drown -- and why.
Ireland's Shame: A Superhighway across the Hill of Tara
By T.S. Kerrigan / American Reporter Correspondent
Save the Hill of Tara and the Skryne Valley
The Global Arts Collective (9/9/07)
- Around the Bend
Reform the Farm Bill and Re-farm America
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
Then There Was the Garden
By Ralph Nader (7/25/07)
- Around the Bend:
"EXXON Reps" Propose Burning Humanity for Fuel as Oil Industry Applauds
By The Yes Men (7/25/07)
- Hoots and Hollers:
Ban Fluoride! Health, Scientific, Environmental and Legal Professionals Call for an End to Water Fluoridation
(7/25/07)
- Around the Bend
Construction Begins at the Brower Center
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
It Takes a Village to Raise a Building
Comments at the Oxford Plaza & David Brower Center Groundbreaking
By Stephen Barton, Ph.D. AICP / Berkeley Housing Director (6/13/07)
- Around the Bend:
Ireland and Iraq:
Two Films, Two Struggles, One Message
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org (6/13/07)
- Around the Bend:
There Is No Such Thing as a Good Occupation
By Gar Smith / The-Edge
The-Edge chats with Award-winning Actress Connie Neilsen (6/13/07)
- Around the Bend:
Going Au Natural to Save the Oaks:
UC Berkeley's Free Tree Movement
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
The University of California stirred up a hornets' nest of eco-activism when officials announced plans to bulldoze a Berkeley oak grove to make room for an athletic training facility. The media really sat up and took notice when people began disrobing in the grove for one of Jack Gescheidt's memorable TreeSpirit photos. (5/8/07)
- Around the Bend:
Training the Trainers:
An Afternoon with the Pesticide Action Network
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
Halfway between an abandoned missile base and the remains of massive gun emplacements dug into the Headland's hills, more than 20 activists from Minnesota to Manila gathered to learn how to use a revolutionary grassroots air-sampling tool as a defense against chemical poisons. (5/8/07)
- Around the Bend:
SunCones: The Sun Shines on a Stirling Concept
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
How a 191-year-old engine design promises to become the newest ally of the solar power revolution. (4/4/07)
- Around the Bend:
The Peace Symbol's Golden Year
by Arnie Passman / Special to the-Edge
Good Friday, April 6, 2007, marks the 49th anniversary of the Peace Symbol one of the most universally recognized symbols in human history. In honor of its Jubilee Year, here is the story of the ubiquitous symbols birth and global proliferation. (4/4/07)
- Around the Bend:
What Petroleum Dependency Means to Aquatic Ecosystems
by Annie Birdsong
Thirty-three years after a large oil spill off the coast of Massachusetts, researchers recently returned to a marsh contaminated by the spill and found that fuel oil is still there -- two to 11 inches beneath the surface. (3/9/07)
- Around the Bend:
An Evening with Ralph Nader
by Gar Smith / The-Edge
The-Edge catches up with consumer activist and occasional presidential aspirant Ralph Nader during a recent book-tour stop at the Dominican University in San Rafael, California -- and gets to ask 'The Question.' (3/9/07)
- Around the Bend:
The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez
by Gar Smith/ The-Edge.org
The first Marine (and first Latino) to die in the Iraq invasion was not even a US citizen. The true story of the gifted, homeless boy who dreamed of becoming an architect. (1/30/07)
- Around the Bend:
'Greening' a Nuclear Weapons Plant
by Marylia Kelley / Tri-Valley CARES
Can a team of citizen activists turn America's leading Nuclear Weapons Lab into a Green Lab for Renewable Energy?
Convert the Military-Industrial Complex!
by Bruce Gagnon / Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (1/30/07)
- Around the Bend:
Green Company Challenges Rejection of Bid to Manage Weapons Labs
by Christina Aanestad / KPFA News/ Independent Media Center
Peace groups file protest over snub of plan to transform weapons lab; charges decision was "factually incorrect, unsubstantiated, biased and prejudicial." (1/30/07)
Around the Bend:
Something New in Holiday Presents --
"The Gift of Zero Carbon"
by Gar Smith
With US carbon emissions soaring higher than Santa's reindeer, the EPA tells us which US companies have been naughty or nice. We name names and provide a tip on a seasonal stocking-stuffer for those Green elves in your life. (1/2/07)
- Around the Bend:
Green Fuel's Dirty Secret
by Sasha Lilley / Special to CorpWatch
If Archer Daniels Midland gets its way, "green" power will be partially generated by coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy. When burned, it emits carcinogenic pollutants and high levels of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming. (1/2/07)
- Around the Bend:
America's Thanksgiving:
Rejoicing in Genocide -- Part I
by Glen Ford / The Black Agenda Report
Thanksgiving as presently celebrated is an affront to civilization. The first and only shared feast in 1621 was not called a 'Thanksgiving.' The first official 'Thanksgiving' was an all-Pilgrim affair held in 1637, and it was held to celebrate the massacre of several hundred native Pequots. (12/16/06)
- Around the Bend:
America's Thanksgiving:
The Pilgrims and the Slave Trade -- Part II
by Glen Ford / The Black Agenda Report
The colonists' practice of enslaving Indians for labor or sale to the West Indies preceded the appearance of the first chained Africans. The Thanksgiving fable attempts to glorify the indefensible -- an era that represents this nation's lowest common moral denominators. The Pilgrim myth remains central to white American identity. (12/16/06)
- Around the Bend:
The 2006 Election Was Rigged
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
Just because the Democrats won the midterm election doesn't mean the election was fair, open or democratic. A close look at the results suggests the Republicans stole at least 4.5 million potential opposition votes. (11/27/06)
- Around the Bend:
Evidence Suggests Millions of Stolen Votes
Rob Kall / Op-Ed News.com
'Forcing' the Exit Polls
The Election Defense Alliance
How to Safeguard the 2008 Election
Gar Smith / The-Edge (11/27/06)
- Around the Bend:
Fool Me Twice: Will Bush's 'October Surprise' Be an Attack on Iran?
by Gar Smith / The-Edge.org
George W. Bush has made "no plans" for dealing with a likely loss of the House and, possibly the Senate, in the mid-term elections. Could his confidence have something to do with the naval strike force set to arrive near Iran on October 21? (10/18/06)
- Around the Bend:
Rewriting History: The Iraq War Was a Racket
by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
Excerpted from The Best War Ever
During the initial buildup to war, the main arguments were:
1. We know that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. 2. Saddam Hussein is allied with Al Qaeda. 3. The people will welcome American troops as liberators, so the war will be a "cakewalk" and the post-invasion occupation will be brief.
These arguments have now shifted to the following:
1. We were wrong about our intelligence assessments, but so was everyone else. 2. We can't leave now, or the terrorists will win. 3. If we leave now, all the lives and money we've spent will have been wasted. (10/18/06)
- Around the Bend:
George, Katie and the Terror Plot that Wasn't
By Gar Smith
When George W. Bush appeared with Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News, he mentioned a plot "to crash airlines into the West Coast or somewhere in America." No one -- even the Department of Homeland Security in Washington -- seemed to know what Bush was talking about. The-Edge has identified the "plot" -- and its four years old. (9/22/06)
- Around the Bend:
'The Nexus of Politics and Terror'
Political commentator Keith Olbermann has kept a list of US "terror alerts" and he has found a disturbing pattern of "political coincidence." A transcript of the MSNBC video (9/22/06)
- Around the Bend:
Bolivia's Revolution -- Nine Months On
Jim Schultz reports from Cochabomba that President Evo Morales' revolutionary government is starting to face the problems of governance but retains the popular support of the majority of the country's citizens. If Morales succeeds in "nationalizing" the profits of Bolivia's oil resources, it could transform the lives of the poor. (9/22/06)
- Around the Bend:
Ecocide in Lebanon
Gar Smith / The-Edge
On July 13 and 15, Israeli jets fired precision-guided missiles at Lebanon's El Jiyye powerplant, spilling 15,000 tons of fuel oil into the Mediterranean. It has been called the worst environmental disaster in Lebanon's history.
An Act of 'Unprovoked Terrorism'?
What if the official story of Hezbollah's "kidnapping" of two Israeli soldiers is wrong? Scores of press reports 9 and statements from top officials in both Lebanon and Israel 9 refer to the abductions as having occurred inside Lebanese territory. (9/3/06)
- Around the Bend:
The Gel-Bombs of August
A Real Threat or a PR Stunt?
Gar Smith / Environmentalists Against War
Since the threat of liquid explosives has been knownsince an airline bombing in 1994 and since the British suspects had been under surveillance for nearly a year, why did the Bush administration fail to ban potentially deadly liquid carry-ons until AFTER the alleged plotters were arrested? (9/3/06)
- Around the Bend:
War in Lebanon: Made in the USA?
Gar Smith / The-Edge
According to UC Santa Cruz History Professor Edmund Burke III, "by 2005, the proposal [to attack Lebanon] was ready and a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations of Israeli plans to US diplomats, journalists, and think tanks.... The US government was fully briefed on the operation" long before the "kidnapping" incident that was used as the pretext for attack.
A Letter from 18 Writers
Including Three Nobel Prize Recipients (9/3/06)
- Around the Bend:
'Fighting for Freedom' - America's Abiding Myth
Gar Smith / The-Edge
According to US Navy's Naval Historical Center records, the US has sent soldiers to intervene in foreign countries more than 240 times in its 230-year history. As of 2006, there were 192 member states in the United Nations. Over the past two centuries, the US has attacked, invaded, policed, overthrown or occupied 62 of them. (7/27/06)
- Around the Bend:
War: Good for Business, Bad for Lebanon
Michel Chossudovsky / GlobalResearch
The aerial attacks on Lebanon have contributed to fuelling the US military industrial complex in what essentially constitutes a "profit-driven war." The 5,000-pound GBU 28 bunker buster bombs that the Pentagon is rushing to Israel can, in a single strike, kill hundreds of people.
Bad Bombs and Worse Bombs: The Use of Illegal Weapons
Wayne Madsen Report (WMR)
In Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq, US forces have used white phosphorous on civilians, leaving grotesque corpses as a psychological warfare reminder to the civilian population to surrender or evacuate an area. (7/27/06)
- Around the Bend:
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Gar Smith interviews Chris Paine, the director of the Sundance Festival Award-winning film on the birth and death of the electric car.
How GM Destroyed the Greenest Car I Ever Owned
Former EV1 owner Darell Dickey remembers the dark day when GE showed up to confiscate his zero-emission electric vehicle. (6/25/06)
- Around the Bend:
Julia Butterfly Goes Out on a Limb to Save LA Farm
Redwood Mary / Womens Global Green Action
World Environment Day & The Earth Summit
Gar Smith (6/2/06)
- Around the Bend:
The Kingdom of Happiness:
Bhutan's Altruistic Economics
By Gar Smith / The-Edge
The kingdom of Bhutan has become the first country in the world to measure its wellbeing by Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product. Never before had a modern state attempted to integrate altruism and Buddhist spiritual precepts into an economic system. (5/3/06)
- Around the Bend:
"Sir! No Sir!" A Film Directed by David Zeiger
Reviewed by Gar Smith / The-Edge
David Zeiger's extraordinary new documentary reveals the astounding breadth and depth of the anti-war revolution that raged inside the US military during the increasingly unpopular Vietnam debacle. Soldiers got stoned, wrote petitions, published anti-war newspapers, ran pirate radio stations in the war-zone, refused orders, went AWOL and even attacked their officers. (4/4/06)
- Around the Bend:
Who Are the Real Eco-Terrorists? by Gar Smith / The-Edge
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are busy busting animal rights activists and calling them "eco-terrorists." The Bush administration continues to equate vandalism with terrorism. Using this new definition of "terrorism," The-Edge identifies some leading US corporations that are guilty of repeatedly vandalizing "Nature's property." (2/25/06)
- Around the Bend:
Save the Tigers By Gar Smith
A century ago, as many as 100,000 tigers roamed the Earth. Today fewer than 5,000 remain in the wild. There are now more tigers in captivity (in zoos, circuses and private collections) than in the wild and these tigers could vanish forever within a single human life-span. (1/19/06)
- Around the Bend:
Bill Becker: Urban Wind Visionary
Marla Donato
Bill Becker's dream world is filled with whirling wind machines that resemble DNA models. They have no blades, just a large twisting spiral in a rounded column of tubular steel struts. In Becker's vision, every building and bridge will be outfitted with wind-gizmos and solar panels, providing free off-the-grid energy right in the heart of the cities. (12/19/05)
- Around the Bend:
The Bill Comes Due:
Registering Dissent on Your Dollars
By Gar Smith
The newest lines in the free speech battle are being drawn 9 on dollar bills. Take a closer look at the money in your wallet or purse: You may be holding some "Bush Bills." (11/28/05)
- Around the Bend:
Civil Preparedness and the Sacrifice of the "Stay-Behinds"
By Gar Smith
A little-known federal evacuation study from the Cold War reveals a top-level plan to abandon the poor to die in threatened cities. (10/27/05)
- Around the Bend:
Turn all Waste into Treasure
By Annie Birdsong
Taking a clue from China, more Americans are finding how easy it is to recycle human waste saving water and building soil by turning "night soil" into "humanue." (10/27/05) - Around the Bend:
The 9/11 Commission Report:
A 571-Page Lie -- Part 1
Dr. David Ray Griffin
Theologian, professor and author Dr. David Ray Griffin identifies 115 lies and omissions contained in the official 9/11 Commission report. Dr. Griffin is the author of the recently published book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. (9/18/05)
- Around the Bend:
Around the Bend
The 9/11 Commission Report:
A 571-Page Lie -- Part 2 (9/18/05)
- Around the Bend:
Oil Has Peaked and
The World Is Heading for a Crash
By Mark Hertsgaard
(8/19/05)
- Around the Bend:
People's Health Assembly
Demands Right to Health for All
By Lim Li Ching / The Oakland Institute
(8/19/05) - Around the Bend: Petrocollapse!
Energy Analyst Jan Lundberg warns that the decline of cheap oil will threaten access to clean water and food. (7/22/05)
- Around the Bend: The World Tribunal on Iraq
For more than two years, in 15 world capitals, an international coalition of authors, scientists, activists, and reporters has gathered to compile information on the human and environmental impacts of the war in Iraq. The WTI concluded that US leaders and corporations are guilty of war crimes. Have you heard about the work of the WTI in the US media? (7/22/05)
- Around the Bend: The World's 'Peak Oil' Crisisl: Part 1
By Congressmember Roscoe Bartlett
Roscoe Bartlett is a Republican from Maryland and a true environmental hero. He was the first member of Congress to buy a Toyoto Prius and he lives in a solar-powered home. More importantly, he was the first member of Congress to break the silence about the looming problem of "Peak Oil" -- the predicted availability of cheap oil. (7/5/05) - Around the Bend: The World's 'Peak Oil' Crisisl: Part 2
By Congressmember Roscoe Bartlett
In the second part of his statement from the floor of the US Congress, Bartlett discusses the Green Revolution, the Jevons Paradox, and calls for a "Manhattan Project" for renewable energy technologies. (7/5/05) - Around the Bend:
Green Cities and the End of the Age of Oil
By Richard Register (5/26/05) - Around the Bend: The Tsunami and the Brandt Report: Part 1
Mohammed Mesbahi and Dr Angela Paine
Share the World's Resources (4/3/05) - Around the Bend: The Tsunami and the Brandt Report: Part 2
Mohammed Mesbahi and Dr Angela Paine
Share the World's Resources (4/3/05) - Around the Bend: Taking the Toxic Tour: Part 1
Edge Editor Gar Smith joins pollution-fighter Denny Larson for an eye-opening (and eye-watering) expedition through the neighborhoods of industrial Richmond where minority residents are forced to live side-by-side with Superfund sites and fuming smokestacks. (1/28/05) - Around the Bend: Taking the Toxic Tour: Part 2
Edge Editor Gar Smith and refinery watchdog Denny Larson inspect notorious toxic sites and use a revolutionary plastic bucket to sample the air downwind of ChevronTexaco's notorious oil refinery. Despite a "political fix" that runs from Richmond to Sacramento, Richmond residents have started to win important victories that could eventually turn their city into a "beacon of environmental justice." (1/28/05) - Around the Bend: Unabomber I: What Me, an Eco-terrorist? By Gar Smith / The-Edge (11/28/04)
- Around the Bend: Unabomber II: Britain Calling By Gar Smith / The-Edge. (11/28/04)
- Around the Bend:
The Theft of Democracy's Commons By Thom Hartman / CommonDreams.org
Democracy Fails: Corporations Win By Peter Phillips / Project Censored (11/16/04) - Around the Bend:
Kerry Won: Here Are the Facts By Greg Palast.
E-Vote Scandal: Votes Vulnerable By Tom Flocco. (11/16/04) - Around the Bend: Ritu Primlani and the Green Restaurants Movement By Gar Smith (10/29/04)
- Around the Bend: Pumping Irony: How Political Campaigns Sell the Sizzle, Not the Mistakes By John Stauber and Sheldon Ramptom (10/04/04)
- Around the Bend: Homebrew Fuel: Brewing Up a Revolution By Louisa Aronow
Welcome to the Ukiah warehouse where Kumar Polcher and "girl mark," impart the chemical craft of turning vegetable oils and corosive liquids into sweet-smelling, clean-burning biofuels. Just watch out for the glycerin precipitates, the lye, and off-chance of a toasty explosion. But don't worry: there's a sodium methoxide to their madness. (08/29/04) - Around the Bend: The Sun Rises in the West By Gar Smith / The-Edge The solar revolution is well underway in California as San Francsico prepares to become the world's largest solar-powered city. The-Edge meets David Hochschild, Adam Browning and Paul Fenn -- the people behind this pioneering effort -- and discovers why Governor Schwarzenegger's "Hydrogen Highway" may be the Fossil Fuel industry's best hope to run the state's solar transition into the ditch. (07/31/04)
- Around the Bend:
An Untapped Transit Solution: Water-fueled Cars By Gar Smith / The-Edge A Nevada inventor named Rudolf Gunnerman has demonstrated that he can cut the costs of filling a gas tank by mixing petrol with tap water. Nevada certified the "clean alternative fuel" in November 1995. Officials at the Caterpillar tractor company called Gunnerman's A-21 fuel "one of the most promising alternative fuels that's out there today." The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the fuel "tops conventional gasoline and diesel as a clean, cheap and safe fuel that can be used in almost any combustion engine." So why isn't it available? As Gunnerman explained: "How fast we'll do it will not depend alone on Cat and us. It will also depend on DOE and EPA and how fast we can push it."
Air-fueled Cars on Sale Soon? By Press Announcement from MDI SWITZERLAND (July 17, 2004) -- The recent presentation of the Air Car at the European Fuel Cell Forum in Switzerland and the sale of a number of licenses in Spain and Italy allow a glimpse of an imminent entry to market for the eagerly awaited ecological vehicle that is powered soley by compressed air.
Bejing's Luxury Electric Buses ChinaView / www.chinaview.cn BEJING (May 29, 2004) -- A new generation of electric buses powered by hydrogen batteries is promising more environment-friendly transit to the residents of China's largest city. (07/31/04) - Around the Bend: Shocking Revelation: Reports US Tortures Jailed Iraqi Children By Thomas Reutter / REPORT Magazine (Germany) A German investigative television report broadcasts chilling testimony charging that the US military has arrested more than 100 Iraqi children and has subjected them to abuse and humiliation in an attempt to force their imprisoned fathers to cooperation with military interrogators. (07/18/04)
- Around the Bend: Focus under Fire: Activist Filmmakers Report from Iraq By Gar Smith / The-Edge Bay Area filmmaker David Martinez and CorpWatch director Pratap Chatterjee recently returned from Iraq with extraordinary video footage (some of which appears in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911). They recall their adventures under fire with British activist and Edge correspondent Jo Wilding. (06/27/04)
- Around the Bend: 'Nonviolent Peace Armies' Deployed in Iraq and Sri Lanka By Gar Smith / Common Ground Magazine Bay Area peace activists recently traveled to Iraq as part of the Najaf Emergency Peace Team to stand between US tanks and Iraqi homes. Other northern Californians joined the Nonviolent Peaceforce and helped keep the peace during Sri Lanka's contentious national elections. A look at the growth of "Peace Armies" -- a promising alternative to war. (06/27/04)
- Around the Bend: Dismantling Democracy: The Republican's Radical Warplan By John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton The best-selling authors of Weapons of Mass Deception are back with a stunning new book that explains how the far-right wing of the GOP is working hard to intentionally bankrupt the economy as part of a long-term plant to transform America into a one-party state. (06/04/04)
- Around the Bend: The Death of Nick Berg: Muslim Perspective Professor Sam Hamod The editor of Third World News and former director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC deplores the beheading of an American but explains why he believes the killers may not have been Muslims. Hamod asks the question intelligence agencies routinely ask: "Who stood to gain?"
AND
Discrepancies in the Berg Timeline and Video Compiled by Gar Smith An analysis of the Berg video raising troubling questions: Why was Berg dressed in an orange US prison jumpsuit? Why do Berg's killers have white hands? Why does the killer wear a gold ring (forbidden to Muslim men)? If al-Zarqawi insisted on putting his name on the video, why did he bother to hide his face? Finally: the Abu Ghraib similarities and the chilling "White Chair" parallel. (05/23/04) - Around the Bend: Calls to Prayer amidst the Threat of War Mario Galvan / Peace Between Peoples A frontline report from the Najaf Emergency Peace Team, a civilian delegation from the Bay Area, New York and Virginia that traveled to Najaf to "nonviolently, symbolically and physically" intervene between the US military and the civilian population of the holy city. (05/17/04)
- Around the Bend: Mordechai Vanunu Released from Prison Israel's controversial nuclear whistleblower -- the former nuclear engineer who revealed Israel's secret Dimona bomb factory had built hundreds of nuclear weapons -- has been set free after 18 years in a prison -- 11 of those years in solitary confinement. But Dan Ellsberg and other notables are complaining that Vanunu is still being held hostage while his life is being put at risk. (05/17/04)
- Around the Bend: Inside Fallujah: Part 1 Days of Bullets, Bombs and Bodies British activist Jo Wilding reports from inside Fallujah during the "cease-fire" that wasn't and describes the civilians struck down by US snipers. On one harrowing night, bullets crash by Wilding's head as snipers open fire on her ambulance.. (04/26/04)
- Around the Bend: Inside Fallujah: Part 2 "The Dead We Cannot Help" In this second part of her report from inside Fallujah, British activist Jo Wilding recovers the bodies of murdered civilians, comforts traumatized children, and despairs that it is impossible to take Fallujah's heavily armed pre-teen mujahedeen "somewhere where they can be children." (04/26/04)
- Around the Bend: Chemtrails Are Now Taught in Schools by William Thomas (03/29/04)
- Around the Bend: The Chemtrail Patent Chemtrail Technology Was Patented by the US Navy in 1975 (03/29/04)
- Around the Bend: A Major University Plans to Destroy a Unique Organic Farm AND A Community of Feisty Farmers Vows to Keep Peotone Airport-Free by Gar Smith (03/29/04)
- Around the Bend: One Earth; Two Earth Days -- Prepare to Celebrate on March 19!, Why the March Equinox Is the True Earth Day by John McConnell, Founder of Earth Day March 19-20, How the First Earth Day Came About by Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day, April 22, and The Magic and Majesty of Earth's Solar Equinox (03/15/04)
- Around the Bend: Corporate Media, 'The Scream,' and the Destruction of Howard Dean by David Podvin / Make Them Accountable.com
On December 1, 2003, Howard Dean was ahead by 20 points in the polls when he declared: "We're going to break up the giant media enterprises." This pronouncement amounted to a declaration of war on the corporations that administer the flow of information in the US. It was an extraordinarily noble and dangerous thing to do and Dr. Dean paid the price. Media watcher David Podvin details the media's methodical campaign to convince the public that Dean was "unelectable." (02/27/04) - Around the Bend: Questions Mount Over New Hampshire Primary by Lynn Landes
It's been all downhill for Howard Dean since he lost the New Hampshire primary by a significant margin. But, now questions are being raised about the security of New Hampshire's voting system in the wake of a recent analysis of the election results.
AND New Hampshire Vote Analysis Reveals Bush in 'Serious Trouble' by Eric W. Green / Lightening Bolt Media
The Corporate Media has covered-up the story but results of the Republican New Hampshire primary show that George W. Bush is in "serious trouble" with Republican voters A voter analysis released by New Hampshire's Secretary of State reveals that Bush fell far short of his predicted "95 percent" landslide victory. Here's what the media didn't report: Only 19 percent of the state's registered Republicans turned out to vote for Bush and 20 percent of the GOP ballots cast went to Bush's anti-war Republican challengers. (02/27/04) - Around the Bend: Ambitions of Empire, Part 1: Extreme Makeover: The Americanization of Iraq Antonia Juhasz of the International Forum on Globalization uncovers the secret pre-war plan to occupy and colonize Iraq. The BearingPoint masterplan calls for globalization at gunpoint with point-man L. Paul Bremer inflicting a neocon list of "reforms" designed to transform Iraq into a market-economy dominated by foreign multinationals. The Bremer Orders are designed to open the country to foreign investment, 100% foreign ownership, 40-year Leases, and the privatization of state-owned Resources. (02/14/04)
- Around the Bend: Ambitions of Empire, Part 2: Understanding and Opposing the Colonization of Iraq
In the concluding part of her analysis, Antonia Juhasz examines the implications of the Bremer Orders aimed at Banking Privatization, Taxation and Trade Liberalization. Finally, Juhasz offers a 7-Point Program for the True Liberation of Iraq -- the first requirement: the immediate military withdrawal from Iraq. (02/14/04) - Around the Bend: "The University of Peace versus Radio for Peace International." Costa Rica's UN-supported University of Peace closed down the world-reknown Radio for Peace International after a six-month seige that involved armed guards and barbed wire. How did this come to pass? James Latham, director of RFPI, offers his perspective. Gar Smith reports. (01/31/04)
- Around the Bend: "The Republican Who Would Challenge Bush." Author and Investigative Satirist Paul Krassner interviews John Buchanan, the reporter who broke the story about the Bush family's connections with Nazi financiers during -- and after -- WW II. Buchanan ran against George W. Bush as a "truth-seeking" Republican in the New Hampshire primary. And "A Call to Action for an Important Journalistic-historical Project." John Buchanan explains how he went from reporter to screenwriter to presidential protest candidate. (01/31/04)
- Around the Bend: "Bush Prepares to Launch a Dangerous Space Policy." Bruce Gagnon, head of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, explains the hidden agenda of Bush's plan to "send a man to the Moon." Then Pentagon plans to build nuclear rockets and seize the Moon as a base for military and mining operations. AND "The Space Preservation Act of 2001." To preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind...." (01/17/04)
- Around the Bend: "Globalization and the Silver Screen." Gar Smith compiles an "Anal-retentives Guide to Blockbuster Overdose." AND "Globilization and the Militarization of Miami." Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman warn that the police repression against anti-globalization protestors in Miami is a portent of things to come. (12/17/03)
- Around the Bend: "The UN's International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict" and "If There Must Be War, There Must Be Environmental Law" (11/21/03)
- Around the Bend: "The Blue-Green Alliance Crosses the US to Oppose Free Trade Agreement of the Americas", "The-Edge vs. Free Marketeers in Clash Over Third World Development" and The-Edge celebrates its coverage of seven of the year's top 25 Best Censored Stories. (11/21/03)
- Around the Bend: Exposed: America's Ministry of Propaganda Part One: "A Strategy of Lies: Ho the White House Fed the Public a Steady Diet of Falsehoods," by Gar Smith / The-Edge. (11/7/03)
- Around the Bend: America's Ministry of Propaganda Part Two: "Transforming Language to Market the Big Lie," by Gar Smith / The-Edge (11/7/03)
- Around the Bend: America's Ministry of Propaganda Part Three: "Targeting Critics, Spreading Lies, and PSYOPS," by Gar Smith / The-Edge (11/7/03)
- Around the Bend: America's Ministry of Propaganda Part Four: "Black Programs and the Future of Propaganda," by Gar Smith / The-Edge (11/7/03)
- Around the Bend: "Enron and Arnold: What Lies Behind Schwarzenegger's 2001 Meeting with Enron's Ken Lay?" by Gar Smith. Internal emails suggest the new governor is part of a plan to drop California's $9 billion lawsuit against out-of-state energy suppliers.AND "Arnold and City National Bank: A $4 Million Crime?" by Gar Smith. A little-noticed lawsuit argues that a couple of million-dollar loans violated Proposition 34, the state's Political Reform Act. The governor-elect is ordered to tell what he knows by November 10.(10/24/03)
- Around the Bend: "The War on Terrorism Is Bogus!" by Michael Meacher MP. In a remarkable essay in The Guardian (London), Britain's former Environment Minister accuses the Bush administration of using the 9-11 attacks as a "pretext for global domination." (10/24/03)
- Around the Bend: "The Hogs of Rosebud." Winona LaDuke breathes a sigh of relief as the courts rule against building one of the world's largest hog factories on Lakota reservation land.(10/3/03)
- Around the Bend:'Vampirialism': George W. Explores the Dark New World beyond Voodoo Economics. By Gar Smith / The-Edge (9/12/03)
- Around the Bend: "The Greening of Iran," by Gar Smith. A look inside the Green Party of Iran (yes, against all odds it actually exists!) (8/1/03)
- Around the Bend: Weapons of Mass Deception by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. An Edge Exclusive. Excerpts from the forthcoming investigative blockbuster by the authors of Trust Us, We're Experts and Toxic Sludge Is Good for You take an unforgiving looks at "The uses of propaganda in Bush's war on Iraq." (8/1/03)
- Around the Bend: Awry! The Imprecision of Precision-Bombing, by Gar Smith (7/18/03)
- Around the Bend: Special Report - Bodies and Bulldozers. Human Shields in Gaza. "The Battle of Tel Zorab," by the International Solidarity Movement, "US Shield Shot in Head by Israeli Troops." Reported by Brian Avery's friends in Jenin, "Bulldozers Push the Envelope in Mas'ha Mas'ha," by Tom Wallace / ISM, and Take Action: Urge Congress to Investigate Rachel Corrie's Death. (5/8/03)
- Around the Bend: "The Death of Tom Hurndall: Another Human Shield Is Killed by Israeli Soldiers," by the International Solidarity Movement. A 21-year-old British citizen has become the third member of the ISM's human shield force to be felled by military violence in the Occupied Territories, and "A Sandbox in the Crossfire," by the International Solidarity Movement. An account of one night's vigil with a family under seige in a Palestinian refugee camp. (4/23/03)
- Around the Bend: "Tax Strike! How to Say No to War on April 15," by Gar Smith / The-Edge (4/11/03)
- Around the Bend: "I Am His Mother. The Distant Cries of Baghdad's Wounded Innocents," by Jo Wilding / Friends of the Earth UK (4/11/03)
- Around the Bend: Special Edition: Reports from Iraq. "And then the Bombs Began to Fall" by Ramzi Kysia (Iraq Peace Team), "Human Shields Sing as the Bombs Rain Down" by Tom Cahill, "The View from the Ground" by the Iraq Peace Team (Voices in the Wilderness) (4/4/03)
- Around the Bend: "Under the Thunder of Bombs," by Jim Shultz and "A letter from Baghdad," by Cathy Breen (4/4/03)
- Around the Bend: "US Bomb Damage and Civilian Casualties in Baghdad." An eyewitness account of the March 22-26 bomb damage by US members of the Iraq Peace Team. (4/4/03)
- Around the Bend: Reports on the death of a US "human shield" in Gaza. "The Murder of Rachel Corrie: An Eyewitness Report," by Tom Dale. "Israeli Forces Attack Corrie Memorial," by Cris McGreal (London Guardian). "At the Memorial for Rachel in Rafah," by Tobia Karlsson (International Solidarity Movement). "Olympia Remembers Rachel," by Phan Nguyen (Evergreen College) (3/28/03)
- Around the Bend: "Remembering Rachel: A Statement from the Parents of Rachel Corrie" and "Excepts from Rachel Corrie's February 7 Letter Home." (3/28/03)
- Around the Bend: "Endgame in Baghdad," by John Ross. The-Edge's correspondent in Iraq is ordered to leave the country. (3/21/03)
- Around the Bend:"Reports from Iraq," by Tom Cahill. American Human Shield Tom Cahill remains in Iraq with hundreds of other international volunteers who could die if the US orders the bombs to fall. (3/21/03)
- Around the Bend: "Report from Baghdad: Countdown to Cataclysm at the Daura Refinery," by John Ross and "Fear and Fury in Baghdad," by Jo Wilding / Human Shields - UK (3/14/03)
- Around the Bend: "Thirteen Myths about the Case for War in Iraq" by Rich Cowan, Paul Rosenberg and Abigail Caplovitz / AlerNet (3/14/03)
- Around the Bend: "'Environmentalists Against War' Calls for Peace" and "Ten Reasons Environmentalists Oppose an Attack on Iraq," by Environmentalists Against War (3/7/03)
- Around the Bend: "Thumbs Down on Bush's Gulf War II," by Gar Smith and "War, Water and Iraq," by Juliette Majot, International Rivers Network (3/7/03)
- Around the Bend:"Countdown to Cataclysm: Human Shields Wait for Bush to Bomb" John Ross reports from Baghdad. (2/28/03)
- Around the Bend: "No Greater Threat: The US PATRIOT Act," by C. William Michaels (2/21/03)
- Around the Bend: "In the Wake of Columbia: Nukes in Space" by Karl Grossman (2/14/03)
- Around the Bend: "Ground the Shuttle." Greg Easterbrook's Stunning Dissent (2/14/03)
- Around the Bend: "Environmentalists against the War: First-ever Eco-Auto Parade Rolls Out in San Francisco" (2/7/03)
- Around the Bend: "'Shock and Awe': Guernica Revisited," by Gar Smith. Why the Pentagon's plan to attack Iraq would constitute a "war crime." (2/7/03)
- Around the Bend: "The Case for 'Preventative Impeachment'," by Kellia Ramares (Online Journal) (1/31/03)
- Around the Bend: What's Up in the World of Green Modeling? and How Green Is Your Catwalk? (12/13/02)
- Around the Bend: Standing Firm on Shifting Sands: A Former Weapons Inspector Blows the Whistle on the US Intrigues in Iraq (11/29/02)
- Around the Bend: The Children of Iraq Are Living a Nuclear Nightmare (11/22/02)
- Around the Bend: Winona LaDuke's Campaign to Save Native Rice (11/15/02)
- Around the Bend: Operation Just Cause: How to Stage a Regime Change (10/18/02)
- Around the Bend:The Reichstag Strategy: How to Fake a Wargasm (10/18/02)
- Around the Bend:The Day the Lights Went Out in Georgia: The Courageous Life and Political Death of Cynthia McKinney (10/11/02)
- Around the Bend:Like Father Like Son: George H. W. Bush's 1991 Game-Plan to Destroy Iraq (10/4/02)
- Around the Bend:The War Crimes of George H. W. Bush: Part Two, The Charges (10/4/02)
- Around the Bend:America's Stealth War on Iraq: The US Invasion Began on August 8, 2002 (9/27/02)
- Around the Bend:September 11: Some Unanswered Questions (09/13/02)
- Around the Bend:Third World Poverty: Why Powerlines Aren't the Answer (09/06/02)
- Around the Bend:A Fuel's Paradise: Is Grid-based Electricity Really the Best Solution? (09/06/02)
- Around the Bend:"The FBI, the CIA and the Bill of Rights" by Gar Smith; "Me and the FBI" by Paul Krassner (08/30/02)
- Around the Bend:Plutonium, Tritium and Anthrax; America's Premier Weapons Lab Makes Plans for the Next Ten Years (08/16/02)
- Around the Bend:The Rewards and Risks of Hurricane Busting (07/26/02)
- Around the Bend:Did US Troops Commit War Crimes in Afghanistan? (07/19/02)
- Around the Bend:George W. Bush's Nuclear Waste Gambit: A Gift to Terrorists? (07/05/02)
- Around the Bend:The-Edge Goes on Safari in Wildest Marin County (06/06/02)
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