July 18, 2001
Miscellaneous Subjects 97: 1. Latest developments in Israel: Israeli Army Reinforces Armored Units in West Bank & Israeli troops mass in West Bank + 2. "Sharon Plan" for Mideast War Exposed by EIR + 3. Light needed on Israeli Generals plan to "smash Palestinians" by military invasion + 4. Nevada Test Site Contaminated, Experts Say + 5. Digital Angel is no longer pursuing implant technology for humans + 6. Comment on China + 7. Whales Found To Have 'Died From Brain Tissue Explosion' & PATTERN OF STRANDINGS LINKED TO SONAR ACTIVITY
Hello everyone
There is a very disquieting development in Israel upon which we should all focus our attention - with some added urgency! - during our meditations this week. Although it may all be part of a plan to further pressure the Palestinians into taking more agressive measures to try to prevent suicide bombing and other such attacks against Israel, it could also lead to another tragic Middle East war...
As usual, many more issues to consider in this compilation.
Pass it on!
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
To be added on the Earth Rainbow Network emailing list, simply ask it from globalvisionary@cybernaute.com
P.S. The next compilation will focus on the G8 Summit in Genoa this weekend
News of interest:
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010717/ts/india_pakistan_summit_dc.html
India to Pursue Peace Despite Kashmir Deadlock -- India said on Tuesday that it hoped to ``pick up the threads'' from a failed summit with Pakistan after peace hopes rode a rollercoaster before slamming into a dead end over the decades-old Kashmir dispute.
From: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,522763,00.html
Fears for Kashmir as summit ends in anger
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010717/pl/bush_foreign_dc_2.html
Bush Stands Firm on Missile Defense And Kyoto (Tuesday July 17)
LONDON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Tuesday he would not back down over his plans for a national missile defense system or his opposition to the Kyoto global warming pact. CLIP
SEE ALSO: "If energy sources are clean, Bush team isn't interested" at
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/today/opinion_b3353e96f0bf01600015.html
AND "Bush persists in pushing a flawed energy plan -- The issue: The no-show energy crisis weakens the drive behind the administration's program, but the president presses on anyway." at
http://starbulletin.com/2001/07/17/editorial/editorials.html
1.
Latest developments in Israel:
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010717/wl/mideast_attack_dc_9.html
Israeli Army Reinforces Armored Units in West Bank
(Tuesday July 17)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli military officials said the army had begun to send infantry and armored reinforcements to the West Bank overnight on Wednesday after an escalation in 10 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. An aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said the deployment meant Israel wanted to attack the Palestinian Authority.
The move came after a day of tit-for-tat violence in which Israeli helicopter gunships killed four activists of the militant Hamas group and Palestinians launched their first West Bank mortar bomb attacks since violence erupted in September.
Israeli Channel One television reported that the infantry and armored units would deploy on the borders of Palestinian-ruled areas in case a deterioration in the situation forced Israel to recapture the territories. Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Arafat, said the deployment proved Israel wanted to attack the Palestinian Authority and was pushing the sides toward further violence. CLIP
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1444000/1444419.stm
Israeli troops mass in West Bank (Wednesday, 18 July, 2001)
CLIP
The BBC's Frank Gardner in Jerusalem says that the mobilisation may be just a threat or bluff, but that it could also be a prelude to an invasion of the West Bank - which would essentially be a declaration of war. Whether there was intent to use the troops or not, he added, the mobilisation was "the most serious move in many days, if not weeks". CLIP
2.
From: "Boudewijn Wegerif" <bw@jak.se>
Subject: Fw: "Sharon Plan" for Mideast War Exposed by EIR!
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001
From: "Schillerinstitutet" <si@nysol.se>
Schiller Institute Box 11918, S-161 11 Stockholm tel +46 8 98 30 10
From: htthttp://www.larouchepub.com/pr/2001/010712_sharon_hamas.html
"Sharon Plan" for Mideast War Exposed
July 11 (EIRNS)--Highly placed U.S.-based sources have provided this news service with details of Ariel Sharon's plans for a new Mideast war, in the works within days of his taking office as Israel's Prime Minister earlier this year.
According to the sources, shortly after he was elected, Sharon met with a small group of trusted political and military allies, and spelled out, in confidential memos, a war plan targetting the Palestinian Authority, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and other Arab neighbors.
Two factors were identified by the sources as key to the "Sharon Plan:"
1. Sharon's ability to use Hamas as a tool for destabilizing Jordan, ultimately overthrowing King Abdullah II and establishing Jordan as a "Palestinian homeland" under Hamas control. To this end, Sharon, who was instrumental in the launching of the Hamas movement earlier in his career, has dispatched his son as a personal back-channel emissary to the Islamist group. Key Hamas personnel have already been infiltrated into Jordan, in preparation for Sharon's provocation of a new general Mideast war--in the days or weeks ahead, the sources said.
In many ways, the Sharon-backed Hamas targetting of Jordan is a replay of the early 1970s "Black September" destabilization which involved Abu Nidal, long suspected of being an asset of British and Israeli intelligence.
In the 1970s, Hamas was built up by Israeli occupying forces as a "countergang" to the PLO of Yasser Arafat. Hamas leaders were granted licenses by Israeli authorities to set up food kitchens, clinics, schools and daycare centers, to create a governing structure alternative to Arafat's Fatah.
2. Sharon's ability to manipulate the Bush Administration into giving de facto support to the war drive. Sharon has been operating on the assumption that President Bush can be manipulated into supporting Israeli war provocations because Bush et al. seek to justify a serious defense buildup, which would require a perceived war danger, to win Congressional support.
Indeed, last week, testifying before Congress, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that a war crisis would give the Administration leeway to crank up defense spending, from the current 3% of GDP, to 8-10%.
Sharon also assessed that Colin Powell and others in senior positions, who might not favor a war provocation, would be outmaneuvered by Israel and by wealthy and well-connected U.S.A. Israeli Lobby assets.
Hit Teams Dispatched
According to the sources, Sharon has dispatched at least two Israeli hit teams to Europe, targetting Arabs aligned with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas teams are also reportedly activated--with clandestine Israeli backing--to target American assets in Europe and the Middle East.
Sharon's so-called "moderation" after the June 1 Tel Aviv disco bombing was, say the sources, geared to win support from rightwing and center-left Israelis for a later war drive.
Further, the sources say, Sharon is conducting a vicious psychological operation in Israel, to secure popular support for a war by staging nearly non-stop terror scares. A prominent Israeli businessman confirmed to this news service that almost nightly, Israeli police enter restaurants, hotels, shops, etc., ordering patrons to evacuate due to "bomb threats." The businessman, a former Mossad official, checked with Israeli authorities and confirmed that the bomb scares are in almost all cases hoaxes, perpetrated by Sharon to traumatize the public into accepting as justified any anti-Arab military actions.
Sharon has, according to the U.S. sources, gotten the blessings of high-level factions in Britain for a conventional war in the Mideast, which would offer London an opportunity to extend its sphere of influence in the Persian Gulf. Sharon will soon seek a meeting with Russian President Putin, in an effort to win some degree of Moscow support for the war moves.
LaRouche Factor
One U.S. source reported that Sharon's ability to deploy Jewish Underground terrorists in a provocation against the Temple Mount Islamic holy sites was undermined by last December's release of the Executive Intelligence Review special report, "Who Is Sparking a Religious War in The Middle East?" which exposed Sharon's hand, and the British monarchy's, in the plan to blow up the Mideast.
Now, the sources add, Sharon is preparing to use a new terrorist attack against Israeli civilians--an attack likely to come from Hamas-linked terrorists under de facto Sharon control--to justify a general war.
The sources noted that high-level Israeli military and intelligence officials share Lyndon LaRouche's assessment that Israel cannot win a protracted irregular war. For a majority of Israeli military professionals, this means Israel must accept a meaningful peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
For Sharon and his rabid allies, it means that Israel must provoke a general war, under cover of which Israel could occupy the territories currently under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and either eliminate or exile the PA leadership from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The sources warned that Sharon would use any pretext to justify a military strike against Iraq, probably in a ground invasion of Jordan that would also topple King Abdullah II. Israel has already attacked radar installations in Syrian territory, in hopes of forcing Damascus into war.
By launching such a regional war "in reaction" to a terrorist attack, particularly in the context of simultaneous terrorist actions against American targets, Sharon would hope to assure that Israel would win the solid support of the U.S. and Western Europe.
Ultimately, the sources concluded, Sharon would move to "transfer" large portions of the Arab population of Israel--along with a majority of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians--to the east bank of the Jordan River, under a Sharon-sponsored Hamas regime, thus achieving the "final solution" to the "Palestinian problem."
3.
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001
From: LESLEY WHITING <lesleywhiting@yahoo.com>
Subject: Light needed on Israeli Generals plan to "smash Palestinians" by military invasion
Dear Jean,
I received this article and similar articles also appeared in some newspapers today, which I found very disturbing. I wrote to Michael Lightweaver to get an opinion as to whether is should be considered an emergency alert, or what the best line of action might be? We both believe that Sharon is certainly capable of such an action, and after the killing of a Jewish settler today, tensions are extremely high again and there is fierce fighting. However Micheal also pointed out, that is could be "disinformation" purposefully leaked out as a warning to the Palestinians. Since I have received many of your global meditation alerts in the past,with excellent and informed commentaries, I thought (and Micheal also suggested) I might forward it to you to for your evaluation of the matter. Micheal concern is also that if anything is sent out, how it can be done in such a way as to avoid polarising the family of Light, some of whom apparently have strong pro-Israeli leanings. I guess it would have to be made clear that the meditation is for the well-being of ALL and healing of the conflict (which should of course already be well-understood). Do you have any thoughts or insights or further information on this? What do you think might be the best course of action? Would be grateful for any Light you might be able to shed. The article in question appears below in an in-line text.
Wholeheartedly
Lesley
MY REPLY WAS:
Thank you for your suggestion concerning this dangerous plan. I was already aware of it through a similar article (see above) sent yesterday by my good friend Boudewijn - albeit in this version the projected scheme is even worst. I'm just about to leave for the weekend so I will not be able to take action on this right away but I will definitely prepare the next Meditation Focus with your suggestion and Michael's recommendation in mind. No matter the real intent of this leaked information (I doubt it is only by mere chance this info is out), the Israeli/Arab conflict deserves more than ever our committed global healing attention as has been the case for the last several months when it has been a permanently recommended on-going Meditation Focus.
I will also circulate your letter and article as well as the one sent by Boudewijn in my next Earth Rainbow Network compilation so you/we may hopefully get more inputs and suggestions on this topic from people on this worldwide list. CLIP
--- Rezeq Faraj <rezeqfaraj@videotron.ca> wrote:
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001
ISRAELIS GENERALS' PLAN TO "SMASH" PALESTINIANS
LONDON, July 12 (AFP) - Israeli generals have updated plans for an all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army, according to a report published Thursday in London.
Foreign Report, published by the influential Jane's information group, says it has seen what it claims to be an executive summary of a proposal presented to the Israeli government Sunday.
The assault would be launched at the government's discretion after the next big suicide bomb attack in Israel that causes widespread deaths and injuries, citing the bloodshed as justification.
According to Foreign Report, the generals envisage a military operation of up to one month.
Estimated Israeli casualties would be measured in the hundreds. Palestinian losses would be in their thousands.
By the end of the operation, the generals believe Arafat would either have left or been forced to leave the West Bank and Gaza Strip. His closest allies would be either dead or also out of the area.
The Palestinian armed forces, estimated at some 40,000, would be disarmed, and either dead or held in detention camps.
The blueprint, with the title "The destruction of the Palestinian Authority and disarmament of all armed forces," was presented by Israeli chief of staff Brigadier-General Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Report said.
A suicide bomb attack would provide the necessary motive for Israeli troops as well as enabling Israeli ambassadors and other officials to tell concerned countries that military action was a justified response.
The journal's sources said the Israeli army's current high command, perhaps reflecting the views of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wants the military to be given a more assertive role.
The planned operation would certainly do that.
It would begin with heavy air raids by F-16 and F-15 warplanes against all the main Palestinian Authority installations in Gaza and Ramallah.
It might be preceded by a heavy artillery barrage to soften up targets. Israel would then deploy around 30,000 paratroopers, infantry and armoured brigades, the equivalent of an army.
The Palestinians may not put up much resistance, the proposals say, but if they do, around 300 Israeli soldiers might be killed.
As for international reaction, that would be too little, too late.
The generals say some kind of peace force would probably be sent to protect the Palestinians, but by the time it got there it would be faced with a "fait accompli."
Moreover, Israel's neighbours would be unlikely to retaliate with any great effect, the planners believe.
Quoting forecasts by the military intelligence service, the generals doubt Egypt, Jordan or Syria would want to go to war on behalf of the Palestinians.
Egypt might send troops into Sinai, in response to which Israel would call up its reserves.
Iraq may try to mobilise its forces, but they would be destroyed by Israeli warplanes before they could even reach the Jordanian border.
4.
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001
From: Mark Graffis <mgraffis@vitelcom.net>
Subject: Nevada Test Site Contaminated, Experts Say
Thursday, June 14, 2001
Nuclear weapons tests polluted groundwater
Widespread contamination from 35 years of underground nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site poses a more imminent threat to state water supplies than radioactive waste planned for burial in Yucca Mountain, scientists studying the problem said Wednesday.
"The releases from nuclear tests in an uncontained environment, this is a problem that exists today," said state Environmental Protection Division federal facilities chief Paul Liebendorfer.
"This is real. We have to worry about it. It's in the groundwater," he said during a break in a meeting of a peer-review panel. The panel is to evaluate a strategy by federal scientists for predicting how far the test site's contamination will spread in 1,000 years.
In the meeting, Liebendorfer described the test site's problem as "probably the most contaminated groundwater conditions that exist anywhere, at least in the U.S."
In 1994, scientists estimated that 300 million curies, units of radioactivity, remained in the subsurface environment at the test site from 908 nuclear devices that were detonated between 1957 and 1992. Of that amount, roughly 130 million curies were in groundwater layers, mostly as tritium, an isotope that will decay to insignificant levels after 1,000 years.
Yucca Mountain, the ridge where the Energy Department wants to entomb 77,000 tons of radioactive waste -- primarily spent fuel from commercial power reactors -- sits on the test site's southwestern boundary, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
If a repository is built and the waste is put in a maze of tunnels with engineered barriers, the mountain will contain 120 million curies after 1,000 years, but the bulk of the materials will persist longer than those released from nuclear tests.
Earle Dixon, a hydrogeologist who is the technical adviser to the Nevada Test Site Community Advisory Board, said that because the radioactive remnants from weapons tests are not contained, the contamination problem is more imminent than what would be expected from nuclear waste stored in Yucca Mountain after 1,000 years, if the repository's design works.
"I think it poses possibly a more near-term risk to Nevada communities than Yucca Mountain," Dixon said.
"We released these (curies) into the environment years ago with no engineered barriers. We should be addressing the Nevada Test Site's problem first or simultaneously with Yucca Mountain," he said after the panel's morning session.
At the end of the meeting, Dennis Weber, a member of a 1999 panel that found flaws with computer models for forecasting where contamination would migrate at the test site, offered a solution.
"You need to characterize at least one of the plumes. You'll know a heck of a lot more than you know right now," said Weber, a physicist at Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Weber suggested the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the test site, invest in drilling monitoring wells near the test site's northwestern boundary in the direction that groundwater moves from Pahute Mesa. That is where the largest bombs were detonated closest to water-supply wells off the test site.
The half-dozen monitoring wells would be placed according to where computer models show contamination most likely would escape from the test site.
To be effective, he said, the models must be continually refined. Exploratory wells would have to be drilled for at least one contamination plume from a detonation cavity. The wells would allow the study of the plume's width and depth, direction, radioactive materials and their amounts, and the transportation of the materials.
As the models were refined based on the new data, monitoring wells could be placed to serve as an early-warning system.
"If you have an early-warning system, then you have time to do remediation," he said.
Kathleen Peterson, who leads the Community Advisory Board's Environmental Management Committee, said such a warning system is essential for communities near the test site.
"One of the things that is paramount and compelling is that we get enough data in the right areas to support our models," she said.
Copyright (c) Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2001
5.
From: "Judith Iam" <judeiam@cwnet.com>
Subject: Digital Angel is no longer pursuing implant technology for humans
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001
Digital AngelÆ is no longer pursuing implant technology for humans, a spokesman for the company said yesterday.
Dr. Lawrence Webber of Digital Angel Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions, told WorldNetDaily the company has "no plan at this time for implant technology." Rather, the company's patented sensor technology is being used in externally worn devices only, such as watches and pagers.
The company had been developing implants for humans that would monitor a wearer's location, pulse, blood-oxygen level and other vital bodily functions, but has instead put the tiny sensors in externally wearable devices. The company's earlier projections of Digital AngelÆ also described it as an identifier for e-commerce by sending a signal from the person wearing the device to either his computer or the e-merchant with whom he is doing business to verify his identity.
Webber's comments were prompted by WND's Thursday story that implied Digital AngelÆ implants were about to be tested on humans. The story also claimed such testing was to begin yesterday. In fact, the company will begin testing its first generation of products - watches for children and adults and a pager - on selected volunteers beginning July 15. The devices contain sensors that perform monitoring tasks of the original prototype, including alerting subscribers to medical emergencies.
Digital AngelÆ technology requires a monitoring system and an end-user. Subscribers to the monitoring system can include medical groups and hospitals hoping to keep an eye on patients, and parents who can use the system to locate their kids. End users are those people wearing the sensor - from people to animals to inanimate objects. The various applications of the tracking and monitoring system are virtually endless, according to Applied Digital Solutions, which believes the device will tap into a $70 billion dollar market in North America alone.
Testing of the watches and pager will be conducted using individual participants selected from all pre-registered subscribers expressing interest in the technology. Testing participants will be chosen by June 30 and will be notified of their selection by July 6. The testing is expected to extend for a period of 90 days.
"While this is just the first production run, we have incorporated many of the suggestions of those who have pre-registered, resulting in the delivery of Digital Angels that are very close to final design specifications," said Mercedes Walton, president and chief operations officer of Applied Digital Solutions.
Critics of the monitoring technology fear the development of Digital AngelÆ as an implant for humans, claiming the device could be a fulfillment of biblical prophecy regarding the "mark of the beast." Others believe the device could lead to the erosion of personal liberty, particularly if government chooses to adopt the technology for various uses, such as the monitoring of military personnel and civilian identification.
Digital AngelÆ will be available to the general public in October.
6.
From: "Steve Horn" <steveh@asiyork.com>
Subject: Comment on China
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001
Jean
Just a note of some (I think) interest.
A friend and co-worker recently returned from a trip to China - a nation which he found "charming and safe" compared to other countries he and his wife had visited. He noticed the lack of police and the fact that most were unarmed.
What he failed to notice or mention was that he was "shown" china by a government tour guide! He never saw the political oppression, the poverty, the rural starvation or the harsh prison conditions - he thought that the governments relocation and "retraining and indoctrination" of 1.2 million people for the construction of a hyrdo-electric damm was "of the best intention and looked upon as a matter of national pride" - well fine - but what about those farmers and their families "relocated" to city high-rise appartments that are now fodder for forced labor?
It seems that China is putting their "best foot West" when tourists visit the nation - that foreigners are shown only what the government wants them to see and told only what the government decides that they will hear. This presents a false facade hiding the people imprisoned or killed for counter-government opinions, the secret police listening in on conversations ..... the reality of living in China as a 'regular person' who cannot afford to live in the affluent parts of town.
Perhaps in the wake of "eco-tourisim" we need a new label - like "opresso-tourisim" or "terror-tourisim" for situations like this -
My friend is not a stupid person - but the glowing account of China's "modernization" and the wonderful "infrastructure" and new airports, clean facilities and lack of crime seem to have blinded him to the slave labor behind the modern conveniences and the oppression of ideas that provide this
save haven for tourists.
He spoke glowingly about how the "1 party system works" according to "the locals I spoke to" - well - what were they supposed to say? That their wages were pathetic and their quality of life low? Gee- say that and you're arrested and sent to jail or a labor camp for an indefinite period of time - where you will be taught "correct thinking" ..... much like the soviet Gulag of years past ......
How does one awaken folks to let them know they've seen a "disney" version of a nation - which does not reflect the reality of living there?
Peace
Steve
7.
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001
Subject: LFAS
From: Matthew and Lotus <matthew@planetaryawakening.com>
Aloha Jean,
Here is more information on the LFAS sonar project the Navy has been doing around the world.
Whales Found To Have 'Died From Brain Tissue Explosion'
Posted By: PuzzlePieces
Date 7-2-01
Is there any doubt about who the REAL 'criminals' are? While the Air Force poisons our skies, the NAVY IS DESTROYING THE OCEAN LIFE! This is the HAARP technology, but it goes way beyond even that anymore... Found on the Elfrad Forum today (this isn't pretty...): "Tests on these whales proved that they had died from brain cavity, ear, and other tissue explosion."
CLIP
PATTERN OF STRANDINGS LINKED TO SONAR ACTIVITY:
* The Bahamas - On March 14, 2000 mass dolphin and whale strandings coincided with US low frequency active sonobuoy testing. Tests on these whales proved that they had died from brain cavity, ear, and other tissue explosion.
* Europe - In February, 2000, 100s of dolphins began washing up on European shores.
* The Atlantic Coastline - On January 21, 2000, Katie Couric asked on "The Today Show why hundreds of dolphins are beaching along the Atlantic coastline (especially off of Florida). Although brain and other tissue lesions have been found in these cetaceans, one of the symptoms predicted by the Marine Mammal Commission in 1997 for LFAS exposure, ears are not being checked. In view of the far-reaching effect of sonar exposure predicted by independent researchers, some suspect apparent NATO sonar in the general area may be the cause.
* Florida - On January 3, 2000, Associated Press reported that scientists were trying to determine why dolphins have been washing up dead on northwest Florida shores over the last month. Although a previously severe outbreak of red tide did not kill dolphins, it appears that only red tide and other toxins are being examined as a possible cause, rather than also include an examination of their ear canals to prove or disprove the important variable of possible sonar exposure.
* The Virgin Islands - In early October scientists in the water heard sonar sounds, followed by multiple cetacean strandings in the area. Government-funded ear canal testing expert Dr. Darlene Ketten from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, was summoned by many groups to run ear canal tests, but results have not yet been revealed. If they are, citizens must determine if anyone other than government-funded scientists were present in order to neutralize any conflicts of interest.
* The Canary Islands - A total of 21 whale strandings in 1985, 1988, and 1989 were linked to visible US Navy maneuvers. These were the only times that whales were reported to strand in the Canary Islands. (Nature, 1991) Award-winning French biologist Dr. Michael Andre, free from our government's influence, learned from necropsies while studying the decline in sperm whales in this area that two of the whales (who were involved in the increasing whale collisions with boats in the area) were deaf as suspected.
* The Atlantic Coast - In 1987, dolphins exposed to 235 decibels of sonar stranded and were found to suffer from tissue and lung explosion. (This information was allegedly found by Dr. Joe Geraci and buried in reports on file.) Since this revelation, there has been a great deal of resistance to obtaining autopsies that check for these types of problems, also predicted by the Marine Mammal Commission in 1997 (possibly based on Dr. Geraci,s findings) to be a consequence of LFAS.
* The Haro Strait, San Juan Islands - In the Summer of 1996, 195 decibels were sent into this key waterway used by orcas, porpoises, seals, and other mammals, followed by an increase in strandings of these mammals. ABC News recently reported that the previously thriving orca population from this area is now in enough trouble to be considered eligible for the Endangered Species list.
* The Mediterranean Sea near Greece - In 1996, twelve Cuvier beaked whales documented to be exposed to NATO sonar at 150-160 decibels were found stranded. At the same time about 200 stranded dolphins were suspected of suffering from tissue explosion. (Nature, 1996) LFAS levels to be used by the U.S. are reported to be 180 decibels in areas near shore and could go considerably higher, once deployment is underway and this program is classified.
* The Hawaiian Islands - In 1998, three whale calves and one dolphin calf were found dead or abandoned during and immediately following sonar testing, even though in 15 years of research this phenomenon had never been observed. One of these was a distressed whale calf who breached 230 times and pectoral slapped 658 times in front of Dr. Marsha Green,s research team in a four-hour period before the sun set on his distress. In addition, a pod of dolphins was observed by naturalists familiar with normal dolphin behavior huddling unusually close to the shore near the surface and vocalizing excessively while the sound was on.
* California - Since the open testing in California began in 1997, sonar exposed whales immediately began to strand in increased numbers. In addition, there was a report of uncharacteristically aggressive behavior which is known to be a symptom of LFAS exposure. More recently, The Malibu Times reported in January, 1999, that more than 150 gray whales were found dead due to starvation along their migratory route where testing took place in 1998. Starvation can be a result of deafness, but ears were not checked in these cetaceans, even though the cause of death has remained a mystery.
* Australia - Rumor has it that the Australian government has questioned a connection between observed US Navy and NATO maneuvering and strandings off their shores.
* Unknown - In view of indications that brain and body tissue explodes and body cavities (bladders, lungs, and ear canals) rupture when exposed to sonar blasts, it is plausible to assume that most affected marine mammals will sink to the ocean floor, rather than make their way to a beach in order for us to view their plight. And who knows what the effect this risky technology has on the thousands of other, smaller forms of marine life, less able to withstand such a powerful force.
___
- For more information like this, be sure to receive the Stop LFAS Worldwide Interactive Newsletter at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stoplfas
Send this information to Congress & have your friends send it to Congress!
Find this information at the following URL:
http://members.theglobe.com/stoplfas/worldwide.html
Cheryl A. Magill
Insist that people be told the truth about LFAS and other high intensity sonars.
For additional updates go to this URL:
http://listen.to/lfas (viewpoints)
Stop LFAS Worldwide Network 1556 Halford Ave., Box 322 Santa Clara, CA 95051 (408) 516-9716