Okinawa: Testing Ground for US Biological Weapons

Kyodo News exposes over a dozen US military experiments on island in early 1960s

Sarah Lazare Common Dreams January 14, 2014

Protesters hold a sign at a mass anti-U.S. base rally in Ginowan, Okinawa on November 8, 2009. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)The U.S. military used Okinawa, Japan as a testing ground for biological weapons during the early 1960s while the prefecture was under U.S. rule, Kyodo News revealed Sunday.

In over a dozen tests conducted between 1961 and 1962, rice paddies were showered with rice blast fungus to evaluate its threat to rice crops, according to U.S. military documents reported by Kyodo News.

The fungus, described by scientists as a ‘threat to global food security,’ causes lesions to form on plants and is estimated to ruin enough rice crops to feed 60 million people each year.

Kyodo News reports that similar experiments were conducted in Taiwan, in addition to previously disclosed chemical and biological tests in the United States.

‘The United States is believed to have had China and Southeast Asia in mind in developing such crop-harming agents,’ the report states.

For decades, Okinawa residents have resisted the U.S. military on the island, with continuous protests against the presence of U.S. service members, industrial pollution, sexual assaults, and the overall danger of neighboring a military installation.

A majority of Japan's U.S. military bases, and half of the 50,000 U.S. troops in the country, are located in Okinawa.

Read more http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/01/14-4

Fr Chris McPhee msc, Australian Missionary of the Sacred Heart, based in Rome serving on the General Council.

‘I need to say something about our Australian Government and Refugees... and of how much shame I feel being an Australian overseas.

January 19 and 26, 2014 mark two very important days for all of us. The first is World Day of Migrants and Refugees and the 26th is Australia day... Which I believe is the beginning of Refugees and migrants into Australia.

Today our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott is a Catholic, and one who publicly declares himself Catholic... as well as a number of others on our Australian Parliamentary front bench... and in a different arena are often heard speaking about the right to life.

As Catholics we must affirm the fundamental human right of persons to migrate for the sake of life. In the public arena we must give voice to those unable to make their cry of distress and oppression heard.

Today, our Gospel stories keep reminding me... by tending to the wounds of refugees and showing hospitality to migrants, we put into practice Jesus' commandment: to see him in those who need us, ‘for I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’[Mt25.35]

Messages are coming from many different sources - but they are loud and clear... To quote my own Bishop, the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis: ‘Dear friends, let us not forget the flesh of Christ which is in the flesh of refugees: their flesh is the flesh of Christ.’ [address, 24 May 2013]

My fellow Australian Catholics we are called: to nourish the faith and hope of migrants and refugees... to be open, welcoming, just and loving; ‘for I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’[Mt25.35]. This is our calling!

You know as I said earlier, we often talk about life issues - this is about the protection of life! And what we are doing on the high seas is a disgrace.

This Australia Day ... with open arms then, let us welcome our sisters and brothers who leave their homeland for our country, forced by political instability, violence and persecution... and together we journey toward the Kingdom - the reign of God.’

Fr Chris McPhee msc, Australian Missionary of the Sacred Heart, based in Rome serving on the General Council.



‘Spirituality is not just about religion, or church attendance, or fidelity to one or other legal requirement. Spirituality is understood to be an innate wisdom of the human heart that enlivens a zest for life, a search for meaning and purpose, a love for all that is good and beautiful, a passion to create a better world, a sensitivity to the life-energy (God, if you wish) that permeates the entire cosmos.’

Diarmuid O'Murchu msc Our World in Transition: Making Sense of a Changing World

Bangaladeshi textile factory operator to face charges over fatal fire - Ben Doherty In Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sarah Whyte Sun-Herald January 5, 2014

Grieving families: Shafali Rahman, whose son Nayeem died in the fire. Photo: Ben Doherty

The Bangladeshi textile factory making material for Kmart, Target, Big W, and Just Jeans clothes, in which a massive fire in October killed seven workers, was reportedly warned by government inspectors a week before the blaze that the building was "dangerous to human life".

But despite an order to fix the biggest problems, the factory continued to operate without modification.

Australian companies using material sourced from Aswad Composite Mills in Gazipur say they did not know of the warning issued before the fire, and were not auditing the factory.

Aswad's owners deny there were any faults with the factory, saying criminal charges being laid by the government are "false and fabricated". They also claim the warning letter, a copy of which has been obtained by Fairfax Media, is part of a government cover-up.

On October 8, a fire broke out at Aswad when the chimney of a drying machine caught fire. The blaze spread across the factory's upper floor, fuelled by metres of fabric and drums of dye chemicals.

The seven workers who died were trapped upstairs.

Order forms from a host of Western fashion retailers were found in the charred wreckage. Australian companies Target, Big W, Kmart, and Just Jeans used material created in the factory.

On October 2, one week before the fatal blaze, the factory was issued with a formal notification by the Bangladeshi government that the building was unsafe for work.

The report, signed by government inspector Shahidul Islam, raised nine violations with the company, saying that the building was "dangerous to human life and security", and that the "fire extinguishers and other fire safety equipment were not maintained in an appropriate manner".

The inspector also found that the factory had been enlarged without approval; there was no record of regular maintenance of motors, electric switches and wiring; and the building was not properly ventilated.

"This is a legal notice to the factory after special inspection,'' the letter read. ''You are required to address these violations within seven days and report this to the authority. The authority is otherwise obliged to take legal action against the factory without prior notification.''

The Bangladeshi government says it will file criminal charges against the factory owners.

Aswad Composite Mills is owned by Palmal Group, one of Bangladesh's largest garment manufacturers, with 27 factories and more than 25,000 employees. It had exports of $US260 million ($290 million) last year. Managing director Nafis Sikder, told The Sun-Herald the allegations against the factory were "false and fabricated" and politically motivated.

He said the inspection, conducted on September 25, found the factory met all safety requirements. He said the government's letter, dated October 2, was not received by the factory until after the fire.

"This was a false letter. It was a cover-up by the labour department to show they were doing their job. After [previous accidents at] Tazreen and Rana Plaza there was a lot of pressure on the government to take action. This letter was to show higher-ups they were doing that. But it is contradictory to the report we have, which is 100 per cent positive."

Mr Sikder said the Aswad fire was the first for Palmal in 30 years in the industry. "This was a tragic incident at our company, and we have the greatest sympathy for all of the families affected. We are standing by the families of our victims … and we are being as transparent as possible."

The government is standing by its report. ''Our factory inspector found that the number of exhaust fans and the cooling system of the machine room was not sufficient and the walkway in the factory was very narrow,'' labour secretary Mikail Shiper said. ''We are going to file a case against the factory owners as they did not comply with the safety guidelines.''

The families of those killed have been paid 700,000 taka ($10,100) in compensation, from both Palmal and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Big W, owned by Woolworths, said it did not know of the formal warning issued to Aswad, but claimed it audited all factories from where it sourced its products.

"Big W had no direct relationship with Aswad Composite Mills," a spokeswoman said. "They were a supplier to a supplier, and we were not aware of this document from the Bangladeshi government."

Target also said it had no "direct contractual relationship" with the factory. "The factory had not supplied material for Target clothing since February," a spokesman said. "Target Australia is always looking to improve worker safety and conditions in its Bangladesh sourcing factories. Our decision to sign the Bangladesh Accord and our commitment to publish details of our factory partners are evidence of that commitment."

Kmart also no longer sources material or garments from the group of factories, according to its recently published list of its suppliers in Bangladesh.

"Kmart has recently released a strengthened ethical sourcing code with the focus on helping our suppliers and their factories improve the safety, security and conditions for people who work in factories we source goods from," a Kmart spokeswoman said. Kmart also offered compensation to victims and their families of the Aswad fire.

Just Jeans did not return phone calls from The Sun-Herald.

The Aswad fire was one of a string of disasters in Bangladesh's massive but poorly regulated garment industry. Five fires and building collapses killed more than 1200 workers in the 12 months between November 2012 and last October.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/bangaladeshi-textile-factory-operator-to-face-charges-over-fatal-fire-20140104-30arm.html#ixzz2pX8dCdF7

Afghan Street Children Beg for Change

Published on Monday, December 30, 2013 by Common Dreams by Kathy Kelly

Kabul, Afghanistan is “home” to hundreds of thousands of children who have no home. Many of them live in squalid refugee camps with families that have been displaced by violence and war. Bereft of any income in a city already burdened by high rates of unemployment, families struggle to survive without adequate shelter, clothing, food or fuel. Winter is especially hard for refugee families. Survival sometimes means sending their children to work on the streets, as vendors, where they often become vulnerable to well organized gangs that lure them into drug and other criminal rings.The author with Safar, an Afghan “street child.” (Photo: VCNV.org)

Last year, the Afghan Peace Volunteers (APV), a group of young Afghans who host me and other internationals when we visit their home in Kabul, began a program to help street children enrol in schools. They befriend small groups of children, get to know the children’s families and circumstances, and then reach agreements with the families that if the children are allowed to attend school and reduce their working hours on the streets, the APVs will compensate the families, supplying them with oil and rice. Next, the APVs buy warm clothes for each child and invite them to attend regular classes at the APV home to learn the alphabet and math.

Yesterday, Abdulhai and Hakim met a young boy, Safar, age 13, who was working as a boot polisher on a street near the APV home. Abdulhai asked to shake Safar’s hand, but the child refused. Understandably, Safar may have feared Abdulhai. But when Abdulhai and Hakim told Safar there were foreigners at the APV office who were keen to help, he followed them into our yard.

Sitting next to me, indoors, Safar continued shaking from the cold. We noticed that he had an angry red welt across his right cheek. Safar said that the previous day he had tried to warm his hands over an outdoor bar-b-que grill, and the cook hit him across the face with a red hot skewer to shoo him away. Safar clutched a half- filled small plastic Coca-Cola bottle in his hands. Asked why he was drinking cold soda on such a cold day, he said that he had a headache.

He was wearing a hoodie, light pants, and plastic slippers. He had no socks or gloves-- hardly adequate attire for working outside in the bitter cold all day. On a “good” day, Safar can earn 150 Afghanis, a sum that amounts to $3.00 and could purchase enough bread for a family of seven and perhaps have some left over to purchase clothes.

Abdulhai and Hakim asked Safar to come back the next day with some of his friends. One hour later, he arrived with five friends, two Pashto boys and three Tajiks, ranging in age from 13 to 5. The children promised to return the next day with more youngsters.

And so this morning seven street children filed into the APV home. None of them wore socks and all were shivering. Their eyes were gleaming as they nodded their heads, assuring us that they want to join APV’s street kids program.

Here in Kabul, a city relatively better off than most places in Afghanistan, we have electricity every other day. When the pipes freeze and there’s no electricity, we have no water. Imagine the hardships endured by people living with far less. Even in the United States, thousands of children’s basic needs aren’t met. The New York Times recently reported that there are 22,000 homeless children living in New York City.

Thinking of how the U.S. has used its resources here in Afghanistan, where more than a trillion has been spent on maintaining war and occupation, I feel deep shame. In 2014, the U.S. will spend 2.1 million dollars for every U.S. soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Convoys travel constantly between US military bases, transporting large amounts of fuel, food and clean water—luxury items to people living in refugee camps along their routes—often paying transportation tolls to corrupt officials, some of whom are known to head up criminal gangs.

While the U.S. lacks funds to guarantee basic human rights for hundreds of thousands of U.S. children, and while U.S. wars displace and destroy families in Afghanistan, the U.S. consistently meets the needs of weapon makers and war profiteers.

Even so, the inspiring activities of my young Afghan friends fuel a persistent hope. Heavy coverlets, called duvets, are bulging out of several storage rooms in the APV home. Talented young women have coordinated “the duvet project,” now in its second year, involving 60 women who produce a total of 600 duvets every two weeks for distribution to impoverished families. The seamstresses are paid for each duvet they make. In a society where women have few if any economic opportunities, this money can help women put food on the table and shoes on their children’s feet. The women equally represent three of the main ethnic divisions here in Kabul, --Hazara, Pashto, and Tajik -- an example that people can work together toward common goals. The young people work hard to develop similarly equal distribution amongst the neediest of families. Today they delivered 200 duvets to a school for blind children. Later in the day they will hike up the mountainside to visit widows who have no income.

This afternoon, 2 dozen young girls will be compensated for embroidering 144 blue scarves that proclaim “Borderfree” in Dari and English. The blue scarves, which are now being distributed in various parts of the world, symbolize the reality that there’s one blue sky above us. Activists in numerous peace and justice campaigns have been wearing the blue scarves.

Here in Kabul, our young friends gathered together on the evening of the winter solstice for music and celebration. At one point, they sat quietly, their faces illuminated by candle light, as each person in the circle said what they hoped would change, in the coming year, to help bring the world closer to peace. The visions danced – I hope children will be fed… I hope we won’t buy or sell weapons… I hope for forgiveness.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The collective yearning and longing of children who deserve a better world may yet affect hearts and minds all over the world, prompting people to ask why do we make wars? Why should people who already have so much amass weapons that protect their ability to gain more?

I hope we will join Afghanistan’s children in begging for change.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.


Kathy Kelly, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and is presently a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers in Kabul. Kathy Kelly's email is kathy@vcnv.org

Little Hala And The Herods Of Israel

On Christmas Eve, while Christians knelt in churches to honour the birth of the eternal light of the Child of Bethlehem - the Child of peace, Israeli Herods struck Gaza and the life-light of little Hala haemorrhaged into eternal death.

Hala Ahmed Abu Sbaikha, all of 3 years old, was, like all toddlers, both vivacious and shy, playful, affectionate with bright curious eyes and with a so soft cheek to rest a bedtime kiss.


Why did the Herods of Israel attack Gaza?
There are three possible answers - one false, one truly appalling, one heinous.

Ostensibly, reports in western pro-Israel media, that devoted one sentence to Hala’s death, garbled on and on with the usual Herod hasbara (propaganda); the attack was Israel’s divine right to excessively inflict collective punishment for the shooting, by a Gaza sniper, of an Israeli civilian labourer, Salah Shukri Abu Latyef, 22, working on the border fence. Salah was airlifted to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No mention, of course, that four days previously, Odeh Jihad Hamad in Beit Hanoun, 29, was a kilometre away from the border collecting scrap metal when Israeli soldiers fatally shot him in the head. Israeli forces did not allow ambulances to attend to Odeh for an hour and a half after the shooting.

Or that since November 2012, when Israel’s Pillar of Cloud assault (weapons testing operation) that killed 171 Palestinians had ended in an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, Israel has committed over 300 ceasefire violations encompassing aerial attacks, military incursions, the levelling of agricultural land, gunship attacks on fishermen, harassing, targeting and wounding farmers, unlawful kidnappings, and the killing of ten Gazan civilians.

Definitely suppressed was the fact that for seven years, the people of Gaza have been held captive by the illegal Israeli siege and in the last two months Israel’s blockade of fuel has caused a disastrous humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of critical supplies and electricity for health services. In freezing temperatures blasted by a winter storm of unprecedented proportions, vulnerable Gazan families and their children have had no electricity, heat or light, and when the waste water pumping system collapsed pouring sewerage into the streets, shockingly, Israel opened two dams close-by causing the flooding, devastation and misery to soar.

So why did the Herods of Israel truly attack Gaza?

They attack because they can. They attack because, for 65 years, have been granted impunity by democratic western nations. They attack to test their weaponry on Gazan families to sell to said western democratic nations. They attack because they don’t want peace. They attack because they want Palestinians to leave Eretz Israel ( the whole of Historic Palestine). They attack to to drive Palestinians from their ancestral lands into the sea.

On the first Sunday after Christmas, Catholics and Copts commemorate the Feast of the Holy Family recalling Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus’ flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s ordering of the Massacre of the Innocents; the infanticide of male babies and toddlers in the Bethlehem region.

But Hala’s family had no escape. For seven years, Israel and the US-supported Egyptian military government have sealed Gaza’s borders so that it’s 1.7 million refugee population, half of whom are children, has no recourse to refuge from Herod’s war crimes.

Herod the Great i.e. Herod the Deranged was a vassal of the Roman Empire. Today there is political twist. The US empire (and its client states, UK, EU, Australia) is Israel’s vassal. The US pays an annual tribute of 3 billion dollars even though Israel publicly insults and leads US presidents by the nose on a merry dance to the tune of incompetency played by Herod’s fool, the UN.

The UN has the the legal duty and responsibility to protect all children. On the website of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, it informs us that “the Security Council recognised early on the need for robust action including sanctions against individuals persistently committing violations against children in armed conflict. These sanctions include arms embargoes, asset freezes, and travel bans.

The readiness of the Security Council to impose sanctions against violators of the rights of children in armed conflict has developed over time. In Security Council resolution 1539 (2004), the Council expressed for the first time its intention to consider imposing targeted and graduated measures against parties to conflict violating the rights of children. This commitment was reaffirmed in resolutions 1612 (2005), 1882 (2009), and 1998 (2011).”

Israel’s Herods have slaughtered 1,400 children since 2000. Has the UN or any state robustly imposed sanctions on Israel’s child-killers? NO.

Let’s look more closely at why Zionist Herods attack Gaza?

Impunity aside, ultimately, they attack because they are depraved untermenschen, not just the military but every Zionist who supports Israel’s illegal occupation, warmongering and apartheid policies. They attack because a three year old Palestinian child’s life, its delightful vitality, its laughter, its wonder, its tears, its fun and its fears means nothing to these inhuman thugs and nothing to the UN and nothing to the leaders and citizens of western democratic nations who look away from Israel’s war crimes and daily crimes against humanity.

On Christmas Eve, the songs of Christmas angels were muted by explosions when Herods’ tanks and warplanes “forcefully” bombed Gaza for two hours hitting Hala’s home in Al-Maghazi refugee camp,massacring her innocence and injuring her mother Buthaina, and brothers Mohammed 6 and Bilal, 4.

Little Hala should be alive now. It was her sacred right.

- Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle. Vacy was coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and UNTAET from 1999-2001.

Committee proposing Nobel for Kiribati President Tong for climate advocacy

Media Release
Sydney, AUSTRALIA, Thursday, 19th December 2013

Nobel campaign announced for global action on climate change.


“We take pleasure today to announce the formation of a Committee to promote the candidacy of Kiribati's President, His Excellency Anote Tong, for the Nobel Peace Prize,” said today Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund Rice Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Mr Glendenning is part of this committee formed of prominent individuals from the international community to honour this Pacific leader and to promote his climate message.

“In this part of the year when the world celebrates international human rights day, it is fitting to announce this Nobel nomination campaign - which calls us to consider the human rights of the people most at risk from climate change,” Mr Glendenning said. “For the peoples of nations like Kiribati, climate change threatens the very existence of their culture.”

“In promoting President Tong in this manner, the Committee’s aim is to call the international community to listen to the peoples of the Pacific in their pleas for urgent and major global action on climate change, Mr Glendenning said. “They understand, more than most, the dangers that climate change poses to infrastructure, health and security, and to the very future of their nations.”

“As the leader of Kiribati - one of the most vulnerable Pacific island nations - President Tong has long been calling for the world to take positive action to deal collectively and cooperatively with the threat and impact of climate change.”

“Since President Tong’s initial election to the presidency in 2003 he has helped to carry the voice of Small Island Developing States into the global debate on climate change action. He is a key advocate on the threat of long-term climate change to the national security of low-lying atoll nations like Kiribati” said Mr Glendenning who has witnessed the changes in Kiribati in recent years.

“Among international leaders President Tong has been and continues to be one of the most compelling voices in bringing to the world’s attention the fact that climate change is the ultimate challenge to human security. President Tong is a quiet man whose calm and rational voice resonates forcefully when he makes plain that climate justice is central to the quest for peace and global security in the 21st Century.

“President Tong’s eloquent perseverance, often in the face of great disappointment, is a clarion call to the world to act decisively to curb the impact of climate change on vulnerable peoples. His powerful and courageous leadership makes his candidacy both timely and significant – and worthy of the consideration of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.”

Committee membership includes:-

Ms Pelenise Alofa, Executive Director, Kiribati Climate Action Network, Kiribati;
Most Rev Sir Brian Barnes, former Catholic Archbishop, Port Moresby Papua-New Guinea;
Dr Tom Brown, former Anglican Bishop, Wellington, New Zealand;
Hon. Dr Meredith Burgmann, President, Australian Council for International Development; former parliamentarian, NSW, Australia;
Sister Clare Condon sgs, 2013 Australian Human Rights Medallist: Congregational Leader, Sisters of the Good Samaritan, Australia;
Prof. Patrick Dodson, former Chairperson, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Australia;
Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister, Australia;
Mr Phil Glendenning, Director, Edmund Rice Centre, Australia;
Dr Carmen Lawrence, former Premier, Western Australia, Australia;
Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, former Vice-President, Fiji;
Rt Rev. Archbishop David Moxon, Director, Anglican Centre, Rome, Italy;
Dr Richard O'Brien, former Ambassador to Poland, Australia, Egypt and Singapore for the Republic of Ireland;
Reverend Francois Pihaatae, General Secretary, Pacific Conference of Churches, Fiji;
Dame Meg Taylor, Compliance Advisor Ombudsman & Vice President, World Bank Group, USA;
Sr Sharon Zayac, O.P., Executive Director, Jubilee Farm, Illinois, USA

Reflection on what Christmas means?