Censored 2014 (18 page)

Notes

^1.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Iraq War and History as Self-Flattery,”
Atlantic,
March 20, 2013,
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/the-iraq-war-and-history-as-self-flat-tery/274192/
.

^2.
Bob Woodward, “CIA Told to Do ‘Whatever Necessary' to Kill Bin Laden,”
Washington Post,
October 21, 2001,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800655.html
.

^3.
Rob Nixon,
Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011).

^4.
“Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation,”
Censored2009: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007–08,
ed. Peter Phillips and Andrew Roth with Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories, 2008), 20–25.

^5.
Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes,
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

^6.
Ibid., 61–90.

^7.
For analysis of these films, see Rob Williams, “Screening the Homeland,” ch. 8 in this volume.

^8.
Marc Pilisuk, “Occupying the Merchants of Death,” Project Censored, November 22, 2012,
http://www.projectcensored.org/topstories/articles/occupying-the-merchants-of-death/
. See also, National Nuclear Security Administration, “Budget,” no date,
http://www.nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/budget
.

^9.
Pilisuk, ibid.

^10.
For analysis of corporate news coverage of US drone policy, see Andy Lee Roth, “Framing Al-Awlaki: How Government Officials and Corporate Media Legitimized a Targeted Killing,”
Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution,
Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth with Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories, 2012), 345–373.

^11.
George Monbiot, “In the US, Mass Child Killings are Tragedies. In Pakistan, Mere Bug Splats,”
Guardian,
December 17, 2012,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/us-killings-tragedies-pakistan-bug-splats
. Monbiot quotes Michael Hastings, “The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret,”
Rolling Stone,
April 16, 2012,
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-rise-of-the-killer-drones-how-america-goes-to-war-in-secret-20120416
.

^12.
Greg Miller, “Plan for Hunting Terrorists Signals U.S. Intends to Keep Adding Names to Kill Lists,”
Washington Post,
October 23, 2012,
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-23/world/35500278_1_drone-campaign-obama-administration-matrix
.

^13.
Pilisuk, “Occupying.”

^14.
“Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon,”
Onion,
February 9, 2012,
http://www.theonion.com/articles/iran-worried-us-might-be-building-8500th-nuclear-w,27325/
.

^15.
George Orwell,
Nineteen Eighty-Four
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1949).

^16.
David Barsamian,
Targeting Iran
(San Francisco: City Lights, 2007), 20.

^17.
Gareth Porter, “Bush Blocked Iran Disarmament Deal,”
Consortium News,
June 6, 2012,
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/06/06/bush-blocked-iran-nuke-deal/
.

^18.
Nicholas D. Kristof, “Pinched and Griping in Iran,”
New York Times,
June 16, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/opinion/sunday/kristof-pinched-and-griping-in-iran.html
.

^19.
Hamid Dabashi, “War by Other Means,” Al Jazeera, June 27, 2012,
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/06/2012625113228557622.html
.

^20.
Nixon,
Slow Violence,
204–205.

^21.
For Project Censored's coverage, see, for example,
Censored
story #9, “US Troops Exposed to Depleted Uranium During Gulf War,”
Censored 1997,
ed. Peter Phillips and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1997), 47–51;
Censored
story #5, “US Weapons of Mass Destruction Linked to the Deaths of a Half-Million Children,”
Censored 1999,
ed. Peter Phillips and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999), 43–46;
Censored
story #6, “NATO Defends Private Economic Interests in the Balkans,”
Censored 2000,
ed. Peter Phillips and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2000), 40–43;
Censored
story #4, “High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians,”
Censored 2005,
ed. Peter Phillips and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004), 48–54; and
Censored
story #25, “Extension of DU to Libya,”
Censored 2012,
ed. Mickey Huff and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2011) 45, 52–53.

^22.
Nixon,
Slow Violence,
217–218.

^23.
M. Al-Sabbak et al., “Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities,”
Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology
89, no. 5 (November 2012),
http://www.springerlink.com/content/u35001451t13g645/fulltext.html
.

^24.
Sarah Morrison, “Iraq Records Huge Rise in Birth Defects,”
Independent,
October 14, 2012,
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-famalies/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html
.

^25.
Ross Caputi, “The Victims of Fallujah's Health Crisis are Stifled by Western Silence,”
Guardian,
October 25, 2012,
http://www.guardianco.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/25/fallujah-iraq-health-crisis-silence?INTCMP=SRCH
.

^26.
Dahr Jamail, “Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq with Mass Displacement & Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers,”
Democracy Now!,
March 20, 2013,
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/20/ten_years_later_us_has_left
. In the
Democracy Now!
interview, Jamail attributes the comparison of Fallujah to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Dr. Samira Alani, a pediatrician at Fallujah General Hospital, whose work he had previously covered. See, for example, Dahr Jamail, “Fallujah Babies: Under a New Kind of Siege,” Al Jazeera, January 6, 2012,
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/01/2012126394859797.html
.

^27.
Norman Solomon,
War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
(New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2005), 87ff.

^28.
Alan Greenspan,
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
(New York: Penguin, 2008), 463. On immediate controversy over Greenspan's assessment, see, for example, Bob Woodward, “Greenspan: Ouster of Hussein Crucial for Oil Security,”
Washington Post,
September 17, 2007,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601287.html?nav=rss_business
.

^29.
Steven Mufson, “A Crude Case for War?,”
Washington Post,
March 16, 2008,
http://artid.es.washingtonpost.com/2008-03-16/business/36886089_1_oil-revenues-oil-fields-cheap-oil
.

^30.
Ibid.

^31.
Antonia Juhasz, “Why the War in Iraq Was Fought for Big Oil,” CNN, April 15, 2013,
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz
.

^32.
Ibid.

^33.
Ibid.

^34.
See “Interview with Vandana Shiva,”
In Motion Magazine,
August 27, 2003,
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/vshiva4_int.html
, for the quote, “Globalization is war by other means and war is globalization by other means.”

Susan Rahman and Liliana Valdez-Madera

Censored #14

Wireless Technology a Looming Health Crisis

James F. Tracy, “Looming Health Crisis: Wireless Technology and the Toxification of America,” Global Research, July 8, 2012,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31816
.

Student Researcher:
Lyndsey Casey (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluator:
Peter Phillips (Sonoma State University)

Censored #15

Food Riots: The New Normal?

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, “Why Food Riots Are Likely to Become the New Normal,”
Guardian,
March 6, 2013,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/06/food-riots-newnormal
.

Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, “Can a Collapse of Global Civilization Be Avoided?,”
Proceedings of the Royal Society
280, no. 1754 (March 7, 2013),
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1754/20122845.full
.

Student Researcher:
Julian Kuartei (College of Marin)

Faculty Evaluator:
Andy Lee Roth (College of Marin)

Censored #18

Fracking Our Food Supply

Elizabeth Royte, “Fracking Our Food Supply,”
Nation,
December 17, 2012,
http://www.thenation.com/article/171504/fracking-our-food-supply
.

Michelle Bamberger and Robert E. Oswald, “Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health,”
New Solutions
22, no. 1 (January 2012): 51–77,
http://www.psehealthyenergy.org/Impacts_of_Gas_Drilling_on_Human_and_Animal_Health
.

Student Researchers:
Rayne Madison and Nayeli Castaneda (College of Marin)

Faculty Evaluators:
Susan Rahman and Andy Lee Roth (College of Marin)

Censored #21

Monsanto and India's “Suicide Economy”

Belen Fernandez, “Dirty White Gold,” Al Jazeera, December 8, 2012,
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/2012125759352 8550i.html
.

Jason Overdorf, “India: Gutting of India's Cotton Farmers,” Global Post, October 8, 2012,
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/america-the-gutted/india-cotton-farmers-monsanto-suicides
.

Student Researcher:
Nicole Anacker (College of Marin)

Faculty Evaluator:
Susan Rahman (College of Marin)

Censored #24

Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval?

Cassandra Anderson and Anthony Gucciardi, “Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval?” Global Research, May 4, 2012,
http://www.globalre-search.ca/widespread-gmo-contamination-did-monsanto-plant-gmos-before-usda-approval/
.

Student Researcher:
Adam Hotchkiss (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluator:
Greg Hicks (Mendocino College)

RELATED VALIDATED INDEPENDENT NEWS STORIES

Hydraulic Fracturing: United States vs. United Kingdom

“Fracking Can be Undertaken Safely if Best Practice and Regulations are in Force,” Royal Academy of Engineering, June 29, 2012,
http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=771
.

Fiona Harvey, “Gas ‘Fracking' Gets Green Light,”
Guardian,
April 16, 2012,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/17/gas-fracking-gets-green-light
.

Leigh Phillips, “UK Fracking Safe but US Operations Marred by Poor Practices,”
Nature,
June 29, 2012,
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/06/fracking-safe-in-uk-but-us-home-to-poor-practices.html
.

Student Researchers:
Brody Schoen, Hunter Leaman, and Ashley Conard (DePauw University)

Faculty Evaluators:
James Mills and Kevin Howley (DePauw University)

Can Fracking and Carbon Sequestration Coexist?

Christa Marshall, “Can Fracking and Carbon Sequestration Coexist?,”
Scientific American,
March 16, 2012,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-fracking-and-carbon-seques-tration-co-exist
.

Student Researcher:
Amanda McNulty (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluator:
Charles Thomsen (American River College)

Embracing Sustainability: Forsaking Meat and Chemical Agriculture

Colin Todhunter, “Embracing Sustainability: Forsaking Meat and Chemical Agriculture,” Global Research, September 18, 2012,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/embracing-sustainability-forsaking-meat-and-chemical-agriculture/5305093
.

Student Researcher:
Dave Lan Franco (College of Marin)

Faculty Evaluator:
Susan Rahman (College of Marin)

Global Food Insecurity: Fisheries Are Being Destroyed

“Rising Ocean Acid Levels Are ‘The Biggest Threat to Coral Reefs,'”
Guardian,
July 9, 2012,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/09/acid-threat-coral-reef
.

Suzanne Goldenberg, “Report Warns of Global Food Insecurity as Climate Change Destroys Fisheries,”
Guardian,
September 24, 2012,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/24/food-climate-change-fisheries
.

Student Researchers:
Paige Henry and Sarah Crandall (DePauw University)

Faculty Evaluators:
Vanessa Fox and Kevin Howley (DePauw University)

Global Food Crisis in the Making

Richard Anderson, “Food Price Crisis: What Crisis?” BBC News, October 15, 2012,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19715504
.

Eric Darier, “Is The World Heading Towards Another Food Crisis?” Greenpeace, November 15, 2012,
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/is-the-world-heading-towards-another-food-cri/blog/42999/
.

Student Researcher:
J. J. Sotomayor (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluator:
Rich Campbell (Sonoma State University)

Monsanto Changed Stance on GMO Labeling

Ethan A. Huff, “Monsanto Supported GMO Labeling in Europe, But Not in US,”
Natural News,
September 16, 2012,
http://www.naturalnews.com/037222_GMO_labeling_Monsanto_Eu-rope.html
.

James Corbett and Anthony Gucciardi, “GMO Foods: Science, PR, and Public Backlash,” Global Research TV, October 29, 2012,
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2012/10/gmo-foods-science-pr-and-public-backlash
.

Student Researcher:
Skye Pinney (Frostburg State University)

Faculty Evaluator:
Andy Duncan (Frostburg State University)

Pesticides May Lead to Cancer and Autism in Children

Viji Sundaram, “Pesticides Harm Kids' Health and Intelligence, Study Finds,”
New American Media,
October 10, 2012,
http://newamericamedia.org/2012/10/pesticides-harm-kids-health-and-intelligence-study-finds.php
.

Student Researcher:
Joe Raspolich (Florida Atlantic University)

Faculty Evaluator:
James Tracy (Florida Atlantic University)

INTRODUCTION

For several years now, a set of familiar topics have featured in Project Censored's “Health and the Environment” news cluster. Radiation from wireless technology, hydraulic fracturing, and genetically modified food are big stories again this year. Independent journalists continue to research and report news on these topics beyond the boundaries of the corporate media's limited coverage.

It is instructive to ask why corporate media turn a blind eye to these stories—or, when they do cover them, why they frame their coverage in ways that minimize the risks—and, in some cases, even suggest
benefits. Understanding the financial connections among corporate media and pharmaceutical companies, the gas and oil industry, and Big Agriculture helps to answer these questions. Corporate media ignore or manipulate these stories to serve the interest of those in power, often by attempting to sway public opinion in favor of those corporations and their interests.

Government, including our elected representatives, plays a role too. When the revolving door between government (including Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], the United States Department of Agriculture [USDA], and the Food and Drug Administration [FDA]) and companies like Monsanto is in full swing, it is hard to develop and enforce policies that hold corporations accountable, that prevent them from putting profits before people. For example, Hillary Clinton, Donald Rumsfeld, and Clarence Thomas all have Monsanto connections, making it unlikely that they would ever hold the company to account when it violates environmental laws; in fact, they may use their political influence to cover up such offenses.
¹

A larger theme that Project Censored regularly covers is also evident in this cluster's stories: a small number of people make decisions about what is best for the entire globe. Although we in the US espouse democracy and freedom as foundations of our society, corporate capture of regulatory processes, governmental compliance, and misleading propaganda constantly threaten those foundations. It is easy to be oblivious to these threats because corporate media—which ought to inform the public about them—is increasingly a tool used to maintain the status quo.

This is a recipe for the demise of the earth: Eventually even human life will not be sustainable if we continue on our current path.
²
But this year's Project Censored stories show that, with real changes in how we relate to the earth, we can turn things around. To do so, however, we must stop treating the earth like our garbage can.

It is our duty as an informed citizenry to speak for the planet. The citizens of Iceland did so when they affirmed the commons in their proposed constitution.
³
As Dr. Seuss wrote, “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.” The independent journalists and news organizations that Project Censored highlights in this news cluster do, too. We hope that the following reports encourage you to raise your voice on behalf of human health and the environment as our most fundamental commons.

“SMART GRIDS” AREN'T SO SMART AFTER ALL

Wireless technology has been linked to potentially dangerous radiation exposure. Phones are sold with warnings—albeit obscure ones— about not holding them too close to your head for too long, due to electromagnetic radiation's impact on the brain.
⁴
The increased use of these technologies in our environment creates cumulative exposure levels higher than we may imagine. As consumers, we ought to know what the potential risks are so we can make informed decisions. Instead, industry-sponsored studies often minimize the risks.
⁵

Censored
story #14, James F. Tracy's “Wireless Technology a Looming Health Crisis,” examined “smart grids” and their potential risks. As a multitude of hazardous wireless technologies are deployed in homes, schools, and workplaces, government officials and industry representatives continue to insist on their safety despite growing evidence to the contrary. The deployment of “smart grid” technology hastens what Tracy describes as a “looming health crisis.”
⁶

By now, many residents in the US and Canada have smart meters installed on their dwellings. Each meter is equipped with an electronic cellular transmitter that uses powerful bursts of electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) radiation to communicate with nearby meters. Together they form an interlocking network that transfers detailed information on residents' electrical usage back to the utility. Smart grid technology is being sold to the public as a way to “empower” individual energy consumers by allowing them to access information on their energy us-age. This way, consumers may eventually save money by programming “smart” (i.e., wireless-enabled) home appliances and equipment that will coordinate with the smart meter in order to run when electrical rates are lowest. However, the same technology may prepare the way for a tiered rate system for electricity consumption, set by utility companies, to which customers will have no choice but to conform.

Lack of choice for consumers in terms of from whom to buy is already prevalent. Increasingly, mergers make it harder to do business with companies that do business ethically. Opting out of smart grid technology requires the consumer to pay more per month on their bill—an option that is not possible for all consumers. For now, being informed and willing to pay a premium allows some people to opt out of this particular
technology; but as smart grid technology becomes standardized, doing so will become increasingly difficult. In a time of fewer job opportunities, the resulting loss of meter reader jobs is also noteworthy.

WHAT THE FRACK?

Hydraulic fracturing is the controversial practice of injecting water, sand, and chemicals under extreme pressure into wells, which fractures shale so that previously inaccessible natural gas can flow to the surface. In the past six decades, this method has delivered 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to American consumers, but at a high cost. Operations in the United States seem risky at best. Practices in the United Kingdom call for mandatory risk assessment across the entire life cycle of gas extraction to prevent tremors and water contamination. Companies in the UK are required to disclose chemical mixtures put into the ground, whereas companies in the US claim this information is proprietary.
⁷

Censored
story #18 story, Elizabeth Royte's “Fracking Our Food Supply,” revealed that chemicals used in the fracking process contaminate surrounding land, water, and air. As Royte reported, ranchers in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Louisiana, and New Mexico report health problems, and incidents of dead and tainted livestock, due to elevated levels of contaminants from nearby wells.
⁸