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#MarchAgainstMonsanto: The Grassroots Uprising

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Sat, 25 May 2013 06:20:00 PDT

from The Corbett Report and GRTV.ca: Monsanto is a company feared and reviled by the public in equal measure. But whatever cases Monsanto has lost in the court of public opinion it has made up for in the courts of justice thanks to its revolving door with the upper reaches of Washington. Now, a new movement is seeking to galvanize grassroots resistance to the corporation, and derail its agenda. Find out more in this week's Backgrounder from Global Research TV.

New World Next Week: Episode154 - Portland Defeats Fluoride, London Murder, Robot Surgery

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Sat, 25 May 2013 01:05:14 PDT

NewWorldNextWeek.com: Episode154 -
Portland Defeats Fluoride, London Murder, Robot Surgery
Welcome back to New World Next Week - the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:

Story #1: Portland Voters Reject Water Fluoridation
Visits From the Tooth Fairy: Minority Groups Backing Portland’s Pro-Fluoride Measure Received $143,000 In Payments From Campaign
Did State Employees Help Pro-Fluoride Advocates On State Time?
Tami Canal on #MarchAgainstMonsanto

Story #2: British Soldier Literally Butchered On London Street
Syrian Rebel 'Cuts Out Soldier's Heart And Eats It' In Horrific Propaganda Video

Story #3: Jury Deliberations To Begin In First Case of 26 Malpractice Suits Involving Robot Surgery
Predator Drone Court-Martialed For Afghani Civilian Deaths
Obama Adminstration Formally Admits Killing Four Americans In Drone Strikes
Who Is Accountable When Drones Kill?

Visit NewWorldNextWeek.com to get previous episodes in various formats to download, burn and share. And as always, stay up-to-date by subscribing to the feeds from Corbett Report here and Media Monarchy here. Thank you.

Previous: Episode153 - Scandal Week, Angelina Eugenics, Mini-Bilderberg

Stonehenge: A Burial Ground for Stone Age Elites?

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:05:00 PDT

from guardian.co.uk: Centuries before the first massive sarsen stone was hauled into place at Stonehenge, the world's most famous prehistoric monument may have begun life as a giant burial ground, according to a theory disclosed on Saturday.

More than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge, have been excavated and studied for the first time by a team led by archaeologist Professor Mike Parker Pearson, who has been working at the site and on nearby monuments for decades. He now believes the earliest burials long predate the monument in its current form. The first bluestones, the smaller standing stones, were brought from Wales and placed as grave markers around 3,000BC, and it remained a giant circular graveyard for at least 200 years, with sporadic burials after that, he claims.

Archaeologists have argued for centuries about what Stonehenge really meant to the people who gave hundreds of thousands of hours to constructing circles of bluestones shipped from Wales, and sarsens the size of double-decker buses dragged across Salisbury plain. Druids and New Age followers still claim the site as their sacred place. Others have judged it a temple, an observatory, a solar calendar, a site for fairs or ritual feasting or – one of the most recent theories – a centre for healing, a sort of Stone Age Lourdes. The latest theory is based on the first analysis of more than 50,000 fragments of cremated human remains from one of the Aubrey holes, a ring of pits from the earliest phase of the monument, which some have believed held wooden posts. Crushed chalk in the bottom of the pit was also revealed, suggesting it once supported the weight of one of the bluestones. Dating the bones has pushed back the date of earliest stone circle at the site from 2500BC to 3000BC.

Mike Pitts, an archaeologist, blogger and editor of the British Archaeology journal, who has excavated some of the cremated human remains from Stonehenge, says the new theory proves the need for more research and excavation at the site.

"I have now come to believe that there are hundreds, maybe many times that, of burials at Stonehenge, and that some predate the earliest phase of the monument," Pitts said. "The whole history of the monument is inseparably linked to death and burial – but I believe that there are hundreds more burials to be found across the site, which will tell us more of the story."

Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:34:00 PDT

from UNESCO: The ancient ksour are medieval towns with an outstanding example of the type of architectural ensembles illustrating seven centuries of human history. They contain an original and decorative stone architecture, and present a typical model of habitat of Saharan ksour, particularly well integrated to the environment. Their urban fabric is dense and closely-packed; with narrow and twisting lanes running between the blank outer walls of courtyard houses.

These four ancient towns are the only surviving places in Mauritania to have been inhabited since the Middle Ages. They were built originally to serve the caravan routes that began in the 11th century CE to cross the Sahara form north to south and from east to west. Sited on the outskirts of a fertile valley or oasis, their Original function was to provide religious instruction, and so they developed around mosques, accompanied by houses for the teachers and students. warehouses were built to safeguard their goods by traders, who needed accommodation for themselves, whilst inns were provided for those passing through on business. From these elements grew the characteristic form of settlement known as the ksar (plural ksoun, with a stone architecture and an urban form suited to extreme climatic conditions.

Check out the UNESCO web-link above for a beautiful photo gallery of these towns.

According to tradition, Ouadane was founded by three holy men in 1141-42 on the ruins of earlier settlements dating back to the 8th century CE, which had been destroyed or abandoned in savage local wars. It was to become the most important commercial centre of the west Saharan region. A bitter struggle between two clans in 1450 led to the destruction of the first mosque. The town centre moved a short way to the east and flourished again within its fortifications. It was very prosperous between the 14th and 18th centuries owing to its commercially strategic location. An attempt by Portuguese to set up a trading post failed in the 16th century, but Moroccan incursions in the same century had more effect, and Ouadane declined as Chinguetti prospered. Following the arrival of French troops in 1909 the town developed an extra-mural settlement towards the east.

#TPP: The Biggest Threat to the Internet You've Probably Never Heard Of

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:15:39 PDT

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is being negotiated in secret between more than 12 countries around the Pacific region. Find out why it's the biggest threat to the Internet you've probably never heard of.

from Electronic Frontier Foundation
Directed and animated by Santiago Rocha.

Top 10 reasons to join the March Against Monsanto on Saturday, May 25

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:15:00 PDT

from NaturalNews.com: The global March Against Monsanto happens tomorrow! Nearly three hundred cities will host what's sure to be hundreds of thousands of protesters and activists around the globe who are taking a stand against Monsanto and GMOs.

YOU can join in the activities, too! Check this site to see if there's a march planned near you:
http://occupy-monsanto.com/march-against-monsanto-may-25-2013/

And learn more about the event at this FB page: www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonstanto

Here are the top 10 reasons to attend the March Against Monsanto!

#1) There will be tons of press coverage, so your voice will be heard

#2) Send a powerful message to Monsanto that their corporate evil will not be tolerated by the people of the world

#3) Learn more about GMOs and why they're so dangerous for life on our planet

#4) Listen to great speakers who share a message of inspiration and solidarity

#5) Meet and interact with like-minded people

#6) Send a global message to food retailers that they should drop GMOs

#7) Get some outdoor exercise while joining a noble cause

#8) Raise your spiritual karma score by standing up for universal justice

#9) Show off your cool protest sign!

#10) Be part of a truly grassroots, non-hierarchical, non-centralized global protest

Learn more @ www.march-against-monsanto.com

Rite of Exorcism

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:00:00 PDT

HowStuffWorks explains "How Exorcism Works." A brief amd informative article provides nice overview of rite:

"In January 1999, the Vatican issued a revised exorcism rite to be used by Catholic priests. The directions for conducting an exorcism comprise a single section in the Roman Ritual (Rituale Romanum), one of the books describing the official rites of the Roman Catholic Church. Prior to 1999, the official exorcism rite dated back to 1614. To perform the rite, the exorcist dresses in his surplice and purple stole. The ritual of exorcism is mostly a series of prayers, statements and appeals. These prayers are loosely broken down into the 'imploring formula,' in which the priest asks God to free the subject from the devil ('God, whose nature is ever merciful and forgiving, accept our prayer that this servant of yours, bound by the fetters of sin, may be pardoned by your loving kindness'), and the 'imperative formula,' in which the priest demands in the name of God that the devil leave the subject's body ('Depart, then, impious one, depart, accursed one, depart with all your deceits, for God has willed that man should be His temple')."

"In addition to these recitations, the priest takes certain actions at particular times during the rite: He sprinkles holy water on everyone in the room, lays his hands on the subject, makes the sign of the cross both on himself and on the subject and touches the subject with a Catholic relic (usually an object associated with a saint)."

HowStuffWorks article also cites influence of Malachi Martin and his book "Hostage to the Devill." Martin considered following stages typical of an exorcism: "1) Pretense - The demon is hiding its true identity, 2) Breakpoint - The demon reveals itself, 3) Clash - The exorcist and the demon fight for the soul of the possessed and 4)Expulsion - If the exorcist wins the battle, the demon leaves the body of the possessed."

Did Pope Perform Exorcism in St Petersburg Square?

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:04:00 PDT

You Tube summary supplies scoop: "The Internet is buzzing with speculation that the Pope has carried out his first exorcism after a video emerged of him in St Peter's Square." A Vatican spokesman denies an exor- cism took place. "Rite of Exorcism" post below details ritual. The Pope's encounter seems too brief to fulfill the rite? What do you think?

As Chinese Leader’s Visit Nears, U.S. Is Urged to Allow Counterattacks on Hackers

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:16:48 PDT

from apperspective.net: With President Obama preparing for a first meeting with China’s new president, a commission led by two former senior officials in his administration will recommend a series of steps that could significantly raise the cost to China of the theft of American industrial secrets. If milder measures failed, the commission said, the United States should consider giving companies the right to retaliate against cyberattackers with counterstrikes of their own.

The recommendations are from the private Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, which is led by two figures who parted company with the White House on strained terms: Dennis C. Blair, Mr. Obama’s first director of national intelligence, and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former ambassador to China who left his post to run, unsuccessfully, for the Republican nomination for president.

“China is two-thirds of the intellectual property theft problem, and we are at a point where it is robbing us of innovation to bolster their own industry, at a cost of millions of jobs,” Mr. Huntsman said, with a bluntness that would have been forbidden when he served in Beijing. “We need some realistic policy options that create a real cost for this activity because the Chinese leadership is sensitive to those costs.”

The commission’s report will be published Wednesday, two days before Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, travels to Beijing to prepare for the meeting between Mr. Obama and Xi Jinping, China’s new president. That two-day meeting, scheduled to start in California on June 7, has been highly choreographed on both sides. Mr. Donilon was preceded to Beijing by Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey. All have prepared to line up new initiatives, consultations and military-to-military exchanges intended to show a maturing relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

But the recent disclosures about Chinese cyberattacks and the theft of industrial secrets, an operation managed partly from a Chinese People’s Liberation Army unit outside Shanghai, may affect the ability of Mr. Xi and Mr. Obama to forge anything the two men could claim to be a partnership. The new effort is similar to what Mr. Obama tried with Hu Jintao, Mr. Xi’s predecessor, which despite a promising start during the 2009 financial crisis quickly went sour. For the last three years, relations between the two countries have been dominated by disputes with China over its territorial claims and arguments over how to pressure North Korea and Iran.

Mr. Donilon, who has taken on the management of relations with China as a personal project, has begun to address the cyberattacks and intellectual property theft in public speeches, and he has made the argument that they must move to the center of the Sino-American relationship. He has steered clear of specific steps the United States was willing to take in response, and he has been more delicate about the subject than the Pentagon, which recently issued a blistering report that for the first time named the People’s Liberation Army as the source of much of the espionage against American companies and government facilities. In a sign of the diplomatic delicacy of the accusations, the White House would not say if it had reviewed the report; the Pentagon said it had been fully vetted.

The new report does propose specific remedies. One is to mandate that foreign companies that want to be listed on stock exchanges in the United States first pass a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission about whether they use stolen intellectual property. “They all want their shares to be traded here, so this would impose a real cost,” Mr. Blair said. Similarly, whether companies protect intellectual property would be considered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which judges whether an investment in the United States could pose a security risk. Currently it looks only at national security implications of investments; this would add a new criterion.

**CONTINUE READING**

Massive Submerged Structure Stumps Israeli Archaeologists

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:21:00 PDT

from foxnews.com: The massive circular structure appears to be an archaeologist's dream: a recently discovered antiquity that could reveal secrets of ancient life in the Middle East and is just waiting to be excavated. It's thousands of years old -- a conical, manmade behemoth weighing hundreds of tons, practically begging to be explored. The problem is -- it's at the bottom of the biblical Sea of Galilee. For now, at least, Israeli researchers are left stranded on dry land, wondering what finds lurk below. The monumental structure, made of boulders and stones with a diameter of 230 feet, emerged from a routine sonar scan in 2003. Now archaeologists are trying to raise money to allow them access to the submerged stones.

The Affair of the Poisons

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:32:00 PDT

from telegraph.co.uk: The Affair of the Poisons began in 1676 with the trial of an enthusiastic poisoner, the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her brother had died after eating a pie of cocks' crests and kidneys in a rich cream sauce. A postmortem revealed disintegrating intestines. It soon became clear that, whenever she ran out of money, the Marquise simply poisoned another family member.

Her sentence was surprisingly lenient for the time: she was tortured, beheaded, and her ashes were scattered to the winds. The trial of the Marquise uncovered an underworld of fortune-tellers, alchemists and magicians dispensing a bizarre array of poisons: noxious bouquets, powdered diamonds, desiccated infant remains, mercury and arsenic. A special court called the Chambre Ardente was set up and began to collect dubious confessions. The quacks and swindlers who were interrogated under torture knew that shocking allegations might save them from the scaffold. They incriminated several high-ranking people, hinting at satanic orgies and plots against the king. Even the king's mistress was accused of poisoning a rival and lending her body to the Devil.

An obsession with poisoning took hold of the court of Louis XIV – a world of vicious sycophants and aristocrats who were bored enough to believe anything. In an age when unexplained deaths were common, poison was a plausible, catch-all explanation. Similarly, the idea that children were being sacrificed to the Devil seemed to match a horrible, everyday reality. Little bodies were often found in ditches and doorways. Unwanted babies were sometimes sent to "nurses" who performed what can most kindly be described as postnatal abortions.

For more, here is a link to the book being discussed by the reviewer, by Anne Somerset, entitled "The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV" and another article here.

Study Finds Frogs And Other Amphibians Declining Around US At Alarming Rate

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:00 PDT

from foxnews.com: A new study has determined for the first time just how quickly frogs and other amphibians are disappearing around the United States, and the news is not good. The U.S. Geological Study says populations of frogs, salamanders and toads have been vanishing from occupied sites at a rate of 3.7 percent a year. That puts them on a path to disappearing from half the occupied sites nationwide in 20 years. USGS ecologist Michael Adams says the alarming news is that even species thought to be doing OK are declining, though at a slower rate. It has been known that amphibians are in trouble around the world from a killer fungus, habitat loss and a changing climate, but this is the first time that decline has been measured.

CDC Still 'Investigating' Alabama Mystery Illness As Cases Climb

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:24:00 PDT

from myfoxal.com: The number of mystery illness cases affecting Alabama is growing. Wednesday, Alabama Department of Public Health spokeswoman Dr. Mary McIntyre confirmed the number rose to ten overnight from a previous report of seven. Two people have died. "Since we sent out the alert to providers last night, we have had three additional patients/cases," Dr. McIntyre told WSFA 12 News. "These patients all have the same symptoms of cough, shortness of breath and "something" on their chest x-rays," she explained.

Pagan Roots of Christianity from Mithraism

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:18:00 PDT

Jesusneverexited.com describes Mithraism: "Eclipsed as it was in later centuries by the faith of Christ, Mithraism – or rather, its Romanised form Sol Invictus - was the first ‘universal religion’ of the Greco-Roman world. Mithraism waged – and lost – a three-hundred year battle with the upstart religion of Christ, into which much of its ritual, and many of its practi- tioners, were subsumed. Fatally, Mithraism had excluded women entirely, causing well-heeled Roman matrons with a pious frame of mind to explore first Judaism, and then Christianity. Also, unlike Christianity, Mithraism made no special overtures towards the uneducated, downtrodden and marginal elements of society. Rather like an early day freemasonry, Mithraism was a religion chosen by the accomplished and the socially ambitious. No wonder Christianity saw Mithraism as an implacable foe and sought to eradicate every trace – the Mysteries of Mithras was disturbingly similar to the cult of Christ." The similarities between Christianity and Mithraism are undeniable, and appears, another example of how Christianity borrowed ideas from other belief systems. It's an insightful half hour video into early Christianity!

1972 Rothschild Surrealist Ball, Captured in Pictures

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:51:00 PDT

from vigilantcitizen.com: Before It’s News found an interesting article on a Rothschild Party written by attendee Baron Alexis de Redé. These elite figures truly enjoy walking around with serious faces wearing creepy costumes. You think Gaga is “original”? Nope, she’s making trendy what her masters have been doing for centuries.

"… On 12 December 1972, Marie-Hélène gave her Surrealist Ball at Ferriéres. This time the guests were asked to come in black tie and long dresses with Surrealist heads. The invitation was printed with reversed writing on a blue and cloudy sky, inspired by a painting by Magritte. To decipher the card, it had to be held to a mirror."

Try listening to this song while looking at the pictures on VigilantCitizen.

A Crash Course on Bechtel & Its Various Connections

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:36:00 PDT

from source:

In an InfoWars presentation, Professor Griff of the inimitable Public Enemy listed the top corporations he believed were pulling Barack Obama’s strings and determined the outcome of his election, often funding both sides of the system to gain an economic sleeperhold. In the video, Griff doesn’t mention one that I think deserves more attention which is called the Bechtel Corporation. Haven’t heard of it? Let's check out the facts:

Bechtel has long had close ties to the American government. From 1974 to 1982, George Schultz, former U.S. Secretary of Treasury and future Secretary of State, was president and director. The late former U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was general counsel for Bechtel in the late 1970s. Bechtel's ranks also housed a former Secretary of Energy, a Bush Jr. Export Council member, and a former vice president of Bechtel was also a member of the U.S. Defense Policy Board. The Clinton Administration also appointed senior Bechtel managers to senior positions in government. Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush awarded the FIRST Iraq reconstruction contract to Bechtel through USAID, on April 20, 2003. This contract was worth an estimated $680 million. It is alleged that some of the construction projects managed by Bechtel were either poorly implemented, failing within months of their installation, or designed in such a way that Iraqi engineers did not have the knowledge or components to fix Bechtel's proprietary technology.

On May 5, 2003, The New Yorker ran an article revealing that the bin Laden family had passively invested several million dollars in The Fremont Group, a private equity fund owned by the Bechtel family. Bechtel responded with an unconvincing post on its official website. Notice how short it is.

from source: "But, even after Secretary of State Colin Powell put his credibility on the line, in a damning, dot-connecting speech before the United Nations last February, questions persisted about the solidity of the alleged links between Saddam and Osama.

Now there is a new and demonstrable connection, but it is not the kind that the Bush Administration had in mind. In fact, it is more likely to fuel the speculations of conspiracy theorists than it is to put their fears to rest. It turns out that a money trail runs—albeit rather circuitously—from the lucrative business of rebuilding Iraq to the fortune behind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco. Bechtel is also the global construction and engineering company to which the U.S. government recently awarded the first major multimillion-dollar contract to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraq."

Last but not least, a Bohemian Grove connection. Thanks to Luke Rudowski of WeAreChange, this gem was revealed by 9/11 Commission Chair and former governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean, when Kean’s tongue slipped a little too much and he divulged a curious piece of information in this video. He admits that he stayed in a cabin with George Shultz and Colin Powell. Hmmm…

So, ladies and gentlemen, in conversations about corrupt super-corporations who comprise the military industrial complex such as Monsanto, Halliburton and Goldman Sachs, please mention Bechtel more often.

UK health officials threw away £74m of bird flu ‘wonder-drug’

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:07:00 PDT

from RT.com: UK’s Department of Health threw away £74m worth of Tamiflu, the antiviral drug, before its expiry date, due to unsafe storage procedures. In total the country has spent £600 million since 2006 on drugs to fight a flu pandemic that has not materialized.

The figures, revealed by the National Audit Office (NAO), demonstrate a "shocking example of incompetence", according to Public Accounts committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge.

Prompted by several public panics over possible avian flu pandemics in the mid-2000s, the UK government decided to create a national stockpile of Tamiflu (produced by Swiss company Roche) and Relenza (made by London-based GSK) – two relatively new and supposedly revolutionary drugs that neutralized the flu virus.

Between 2006 and 2013 40 million units of Tamiflu alone were purchased. A quarter of those had to be written off.

During the pandemic of swine flu (which turned out to be less deadly than the common variant) in 2009 and 2010 the Department of Health panic-bought up huge emergency supplies as governments competed with each other to secure the dwindling supply.

It did not possess the logistical and storage capacities, and distributed about 6.5 million units to the NHS. When the demand failed to appear, these had to be written off, as no one could guarantee that they had been preserved in appropriate conditions.

“There is simply no excuse for this waste,” Hodge told parliament.

More importantly, there are growing questions about the efficacy of the thirty million of the units that were used.

"Although Tamiflu speeds up recovery times, experts do not agree over its ability to reduce complications and hospitalizations,” said Hodge.

Roche had persistently refused to release data on more than a fraction of (successful) clinical trials of Tamiflu (generic name oseltamivir), which has been on the market since 2002, until leading independent medical research independent research group Cochrane Collaboration started encouraging governments to sue the Swiss company. Roche finally relented, and promised to hand its research data to Cochrane last month.

The Department of Health promised to “consider the recommendations of the NAO” report, but stood by its anti-flu policies.

"The UK is recognized by the World Health Organization as being one of the best prepared in the world for a potential flu pandemic,” said a statement.

The war against the organic mafia

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:26:00 PDT

from presseurop.eu: Fraud in the organic farming sector has become a thriving international industry made up of a complex network of companies that bears all the marks of traditional organised crime.

Earlier, in the supposedly good old days, lone farmers or traders in the organic business stooped to cheating at their worst. Here, they sprayed a little pesticide on the field; there, they mixed in a handful of conventional low-cost eggs with the pricey organic eggs. Since neither the volume nor weight changed, hardly anyone twigged.

But organic fraudsters in Italy have long passed that stage. There, bands of professionals working with a whole network of companies in different countries have recently been slapping ‘organic’ labels on vast amounts of conventional products.

In April, it was announced that the public prosecutor's office in the Adriatic town of Pesaro is investigating 23 suspected members of a counterfeiting ring. Although all are from Italy, they work in Moldova, Malta and various places around western Europe and beyond. The suspects even include members of the Moldovan branch of an organic inspection agency from Italy, which should actually be on the trail of the fraudsters.

According to investigators, all of the suspects have been involved in issuing fake organic certificates for conventional foodstuffs from Moldova and Ukraine. To disguise the trail of the goods, they exploited a network of at least ten companies across different countries. The public prosecutor has already seized 1,500 tons of maize and 30 tonnes of soya in the large-scale operation tagged the Green War.

In previous cases, conventional goods were brought into the EU and relabelled there. “Now, however, the product is stamped ‘organic’ in Moldova for example, certified right on site, then exported and brought to the market,” Pesaro prosecutor Silvia Cecchi told TAZ. This ploy was meant to make it even tougher for the authorities to uncover the scam.

Large quantities, international flows of goods, a complex network of companies, corrupt supervisory bodies and notorious professionals – that’s what’s behind the term “organised crime”, as defined by the joint working group of the German judicial and police authorities in 1990. Paolo Carne Molla, President of Federbio, the umbrella organisation for organic producers, processors and distributors in Italy, also speaks candidly of “organised crime” within the organisation.

They have been able to carry on, says Carne Molla, because supervisors have failed time and time again to do their jobs. The Anti-Fraud Inspectorate in the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, for example, was headed until a few months ago by a man who is now under investigation for corruption in a different matter. That has already given rise to deep doubts about whether a resolute investigator was staffing the top desk in the supervisory authority.

So far, no suspicions have settled on the Italian ministry itself. In Moldova and Malta, things are different. Federbio chief Carne Molla finds it peculiar indeed that the imports into the EU, and hence the customs clearance and control of goods, went through Malta, where there is hardly any organic business. The investigation has been going ahead without any collaboration with the authorities there – or in Moldova, either. “We don’t know who we can trust to talk to, and we fear civil servants are involved there too.”

‘Campaign to Stop Killer Robots’ calling for ban on ‘fully autonomous weapons’

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:10:43 PDT

from rawstory.com: The idea of autonomous killer robots may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but human rights groups are already preparing for what appears to be the future of weaponry. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of international groups, is preparing for a global summit in Geneva Switzerland on Wednesday, May 29 that will review a U.N. report on these types of weapons that was released earlier this week. The Campaign hopes to convince nations to sign on to an international ban on autonomous weapons.

Raw Story spoke with Mary Wareham of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, who is the coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. The Campaign also includes representatives of Association for Aid and Relief Japan, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, the International Committee for Robot Arms Control and others. Wareham began by explaining that there is a difference between these autonomous weapons and armed drones.

“We’re calling the weapons we’re talking about ‘fully autonomous,’” she said. “The U.N. report calls them ‘lethal autonomous robotics.’

“Fully autonomous weapons have complete autonomy in terms of who they target and how they engage force,” she said. “And by autonomy, I mean no human operation, intervention or involvement. With armed drones, there is still what they call ‘the man in the loop.’ Unlike autonomous weapons, drones are still controlled by a human.”

She said that while some people might find the campaign’s focus far-fetched or outlandish, this is the direction weaponry in which weaponry is moving, toward greater and greater autonomy.

“Our objective is to see what comes next,” she said. She cautioned against believing that autonomous weapons would be humanoid, cyborg “Terminators” like in the film series.

“We’re not talking about Terminators, here,” she said, “or cyborgs, or whatever you want to call sophisticated killer robots that people think of from science fiction. We’re saying that autonomous weapons will come in all different shapes and sizes. And even the most rudimentary device may be lethal.”

Human Rights Watch issued a 50-page report in November entitled “Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots,” in which the organization discussed issues of international humanitarian law, of accountability and other threats to civilians posed by autonomous weapons.

It also listed current weapons systems in use in the world that are what HRW sees as precursors to autonomous weapons systems, including armed drones, but also much larger aircraft like the X-47B, a pilotless stealth fighter that launched from an aircraft carrier this week. Other weapons include stationary weapons systems like the Samsung SGR-1 robot, which currently uses infrared vision to patrol the border between North and South Korea, directing machine-gun fire at warm, moving targets.

Currently, she said, the Korean device has to “signal back to base” and receive human permission to fire on targets. She does not expect that step to remain in place forever.

“There’s debate as to when fully autonomous weapons will show up,” Wareham said. “Some people say within 20 or 30 years, which we put in the report. Others say sooner.”

Also in November, the Pentagon issued a directive regarding autonomous weapons pledging that the U.S. military will keep humans in the loop with regards to decisions of targeting and the use of force. The upside of that, said Wareham, is that no other country is even considering a policy on autonomous weapons, even though all of the “usual suspects” (China, Russia and the U.S.) are exploring the technology.

The downside of the U.S. policy brief is that the treaty on autonomous weapons has to be renewed and is only in effect for the next 10 years at most.

When asked how current U.S. use of armed drones augurs for the future of autonomous weapons, Wareham said, “At Human Rights Watch, we’ve been working on armed drones for several years since they first started to deploy them. Our principle concern is with the use of armed drones, the rules regarding that, the compliance with international humanitarian law, the lack of transparency, the targeted killing policy, the role of the CIA and the Department of Defense, but all of those things relate to how drones are used” and will also have an impact on remote weapons when humans are removed from the process.

“We’ve got multiple concerns about drones,” she said, “but we’re also keeping an eye on the future and where this technology is heading.”

“We have to start asking the questions now. We have to start discussing it,” she said, “and start putting some rules and regulations in place around how we handle autonomy in warfare.”

In Geneva next Wednesday, the delegation from Human Rights Watch intends to ask for an international treaty on autonomous weapons, “but those discussions haven’t even started yet,” she said. “We’re at the very beginning here.”

According to the U.N. report, “lethal autonomous robotics raise far-reaching concerns about the protection of life during war and peace. This includes the question of the extent to which they can be programmed to comply with the requirements of international humanitarian law and the standards protecting life under international human rights law. Beyond this, their deployment may be unacceptable because no adequate system of legal accountability can be devised, and because robots should not have the power of life and death over human beings.”

NASA taps 3-D printer firm for ‘Star Trek’-style food replicator

mediamonarchy@gmail.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:56:29 PDT

from rawstory.com: U.S. space agency NASA has tapped 3-D printer firm Systems & Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) to create the first-ever “Star Trek”-style food replicator using 3-D printing technology.

According to Quartz, NASA gave the company a six month, $125,000 grant contract to focus on developing 3-D printers that use cartridges full of carbohydrates, protein powders and oils that can be combined in layers to produce food.

The tech could dramatically cut down on food waste here on Earth while making it much easier to transport nutrients in bulk through space. Grocery stores could be gradually transformed to ultra-cheap cartridge retailers while non-nutrient edible products are phased out by market forces.

Of course, that’s all a radical, highly speculative version of the future, but it’s what SMRC mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor envisions for 3-D printed foods. He’s already successfully used a 3-D printer to spit out chocolate bars; an admittedly rudimentary accomplishment.

One day, however, more advanced printers could be used to customize nutrition for individuals, and whole meals could be downloaded over the Internet. But that’s all still fantasy until SMRC, or some other company, steps up to fill this void that most people don’t even know exists.