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(3) Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
By blaming the victims, the international community and dominant media have ignored the "unregulated (IUU) fleets from around the world that have been poaching and dumping toxic waste in Somali waters since the fall of the Somali government eighteen years ago." Foreign interests have been using hundreds of vessels to loot "the country's food supply," according to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), stealing "an estimated $450 million in seafood from Somali waters annually" and ruining the livelihoods of Somali fishermen.
Instead of rectifying the problem, the UN passed "aggressive resolutions that entitle and encourage transgressors to wage war on Somali pirates." NATO, the EU, and other countries issued similar orders. Starving Somalis are responding as they have every right to do, yet are called criminals for defending their own waters and protecting their rights.
(4) Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
Progress Energy's North Carolina Shearon Harris nuclear plant "contains the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country." If the cooling system malfunctions, "the resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable and could trigger a nuclear meltdown." According to Helen Caldicott and other experts, the likelihood of one happening somewhere is virtually certain - the result of human error, faulty maintenance, a terrorist attack, or for some other reason. If a major city is located downwind, forced evacuation would follow and residents prevented ever from returning because of irremediable toxic radiation.
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Shearon Harris has a history of unresolved safety issues and numerous emergency shutdowns. Problems there "continue with chilling regularity." Yet the NRC ignores the potential risks. As a result, the plant is "a nuclear time bomb," and millions in the region are at risk.
(5) Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
Unlike in America, European countries "are moving toward a....model of insisting on environmental and consumer safety" that requires assessing thousands of chemicals for their potential toxic effects. New regulations will mandate that companies seeking market access eliminate toxic substances and produce safer electronics, automobiles, toys and cosmetics.
Without compliance henceforth, the products of hundreds of US companies may be excluded from European markets, and according to Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power, "only five percent of all chemicals in the US have undergone even minimal testing." Further, new EPA requirements consider the "costs to industry" in assessing an "unreasonable threat to public health" as a reason to side with industry and keep regulations minimal to nil.
The divergence between US and European regulation has made America "the dumping ground for toxic toys, electronics and cosmetics. We produce and consume the toxic materials, from which other countries around the world are protected."
(6) Lobbyists Buy Congress
In 2008, The Center for Responsive Politics reported that "special interests paid Washington lobbyists $3.2 billion in 2008," higher than any year on record and 13.7% more than 2007. It amounts to $17.4 million for each day Congress was in session, or $32,523 per legislator day.
Health interests spent the most for the third consecutive year, $478.5 million, followed by the FIRE sector (finance, insurance and real estate) at $453.5 million. It's a small investment yielding big returns for these and other industries, competing at the public trough for as much as they can get. The payoff is in the billions, and for Wall Street pledged trillions as well as interest free money from the banker-owned Federal Reserve.
(7) Obama's Military Appointments Have Corrupted Pasts
After promising not to politicize intelligence and to keep lobbyists out of top government posts, Obama appointed many "former lobbyists or former board members of companies directly doing business with the Pentagon" and retained Robert Gates as Defense Secretary despite his history at CIA of having cooked the books for political reasons.
According to Agency insiders who knew him, he "corrupted the intelligence product" to suit the White House and further his own self-interest. He facilitated Iran-Contra and helped boost military spending by exaggerating the Soviet threat. He frustrated independent counsel Lawrence Walsh enough to write that despite Gates' touted memory, he "denied recollection of facts thirty-three times," and when GHW Bush nominated him for CIA Director, a virtual insurrection among CIA analysts erupted over his penchant for having politicized intelligence.
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