Who is Peter Galbraith?

If one accepts verbatim the New York Times latest tirade, one would believe that Galbraith is the money hungry political operative painted in Wednesday’s Times and berated further in yesterday’s Times’ update.

My research and my telephone conversation yesterday with former Ambassador Peter Galbraith paint an entirely different picture.  Galbraith began publicly advocating for the Kurds more than 20-years ago when, according to the website Kurdistan, the other Iraq:

Galbraith helped expose Saddam Hussein’s murderous “al-anfal” campaign against the Iraqi Kurds. He documented Iraqi chemical weapons attacks on Kurdish villagers and the depopulation of rural Kurdistan in reports published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His work on the Kurdish issue led the US Senate to pass comprehensive sanctions on Iraq in 1988.

Since full disclosure on Galbraith’s part has been called into question, I want to be clear about my interactions with Galbraith.  I first met the former Ambassador in December 2008 when he was contemplating a run for Governor of Vermont.  

I don’t know Galbraith in a personal sort of way, but the Galbraith I have met several times has always been reachable, open to dialogue, and willing to disclose.  So who is this alleged new villain?

Galbraith claims that this new onslaught of negativity has to do with his recent revelations regarding election fraud in Afghanistan, and nothing to do with facts of his relationship to Kurdish oil which he disclosed five years ago, in his 2006 book, and to the UN before he was appointed as a special envoy.  Is he right?  All my research, interviews and discussions show that Galbraith was only targeted for his known financial connections after he spoke out against the election in Afghanistan.  Moreover, all the slander and innuendo, sadly began in Norway.  I say “sadly” because Galbraith’s wife is Norwegian anthropologist Tone Bringa.  While the family predominately lives in Townsend, Vermont, Norway has always been a frequent destination.  

The first criticism of Galbraith, regarding his role with the Kurds in Iraq and Galbraith’s alleged financial dealings came from Norwegian journalists who have played a significant role in vilifying Galbraith, in what I believe is a full-court press to obliterate his record.  The Norwegian journalists are claiming that their recently uncovered dirt has nothing to do with the battle between Norwegian UN envoy UN Kai Eide and Galbraith’s blistering critique of the Afghanistan election.

Most people seem to have conveniently forgotten that Galbraith did not begin condemning the election.  He was asked to leave Afghanistan, and he did leave without any negative comments.  It is only after he was condemned for his work and criticism by some within the UN, that he made it all public.

What’s at stake here?  The same thing that has always been at stake:  money and lots of it.  And it’s not Galbraith who has the money or the power.  Will Galbraith get any money from his almost 25-years of trying to fight for Kurdish rights? Maybe and maybe not…  Contracts are not set in stone and business markets in volatile war-torn countries collapse every day.  The truth of the matter is that following his work for the US government and following the framing of the Kurdish constitution, Galbraith formed a company and participated, as a private citizen, in bringing business to Kurdistan.

One of Galbraith’s more than 20-year crusade has been creating some sort of financial independence and viable economic future for the Kurds, a formerly nomadic culture without any industrial infrastructure of their own.

more…

Story after story regarding Galbraith’s alleged fraudulent business investments are flooding newspapers and the blogosphere around the world.  Every single story comes from two intertwined Norwegian sources thereby essentially making it a single source story that has been repeated verbatim in newspaper after newspaper and blog after blog.  Each news story and each blog entry has been drawn from one original source.

I just received a press release regarding Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan and his possible run in 2010 for Lt. Governor.

At this point in my life, my focus will be on my work as State’s Attorney and most importantly on my family as my wife and I welcome our first child in the near future.  

See the entire press release after the fold.

As a disclaimer, I must admit that I worked hard for TJ in his run for Chittenden County State’s Attorney in 2006.  As a member of the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Task Force, which is a coalition of restorative justice, domestic violence and mental health professionals, I have witnessed first hand Donovan’s willingness to listen and work hard for creative solutions for all stakeholders as we face tough economic times and dwindling resources.

As economies falter, domestic violence and both petty crime and hard crime increase.  Chittenden County has seen some of these changes.  While pandering to voters and claiming to be hard on crime, the Douglas Administration has drastically cut resources for victims of crime, domestic violence, and the state’s attorneys needed to prosecute these crimes.  Donovan is working with all stakeholders to find creative solutions to meeting an increased workload with totally inadequate resources.

In making this choice at a time when there is an open seat, I believe that Donovan shows he is committed first to his family and upcoming role as a new father and second to making sure that the hard work of justice moves forward in Chittenden County and throughout Vermont.

I believe that Donovan is a politician slated for higher office.  Personally, I find it impressive that he is focused on his family and the work still undone as State’s Attorney rather than simply the glory of statewide politics.

November 10, 2009                

THOMAS J. DONOVAN WILL NOT SEEK DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan announced today that he will not be a candidate for the Office of Lieutenant Governor.  Donovan, 35, of South Burlington, said “As I have traveled across our state over the past few months I have been humbled by the many Vermonters that have enthusiastically encouraged me to run for Lieutenant Governor.  However, after much thought, I have concluded that it is not the right time for me to run.  I care deeply about the future of Vermont and remain committed to serving the public.  At this point in my life, my focus will be on my work as State’s Attorney and most importantly on my family as my wife and I welcome our first child in the near future.”    

Donovan was first elected as Chittenden County State’s Attorney in 2006.

FairPoint has Reached an Agreement with its Bank Lenders that will Restructure its Costs and Balance Sheet

As a leading provider of a full range of communications services, FairPoint Communications provides local and long distance voice, data service, Internet, television and broadband services. FairPoint operates 32 local exchange companies in 18 states with 1.7 million access lines. Like many companies, FairPoint has been impacted by the recent turmoil in the financial markets. As we have shared with many of our stakeholders, we have been working with our bank lenders to reduce our debt. We are pleased to announce FairPoint has succeeded in reaching a pre-arranged deal with our bank lenders that will reduce our debt in excess of $1.7 billion. We have entered Chapter 11 to implement this deal and restructure our costs and balance sheet. This is good news and we are confident that FairPoint will emerge as a much healthier and more viable company structured for future growth and profitability.  

To read the FairPoint’s entire announcement, click http://www.fprestructuring.com/.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Communication Workers of America (CWA) announced Friday that FairPoint was on the brink of bankruptcy.  

As the unions have consistently maintained, FairPoint’s problems were caused primarily by its crushing debt and an organizational chaos that adversely affected revenues and operations.  Despite waging an all out campaign to oppose the sale, thousands of former Verizon workers have spent the last year-and-a-half working to make their new company succeed.

According to the Maine Public Broadcasting Network:  

South Carolina-based FairPoint has been struggling since its $2.3 billion acquisition last year of Verizon Communications’ landlines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Thousands of customers in all three states have lodged complaints about billing and service problems, and regulators in Vermont are considering pulling FairPoint’s license to operate in that state.

FairPoint says the Chapter 11 filing, which must still be approved by a court, will reduce its annual interest costs from $200 million to $65 million. The company says it’s current debt is now $2.7 billion, and the agreement will reduce it to $1 billion.

The CWA and IBEW, which represented 2,800 workers employed by Verizon in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, submitted lengthy legal briefs to State Regulators in opposition to the FairPoint sale.

Based on what we know at this point in time, the proposed sale of Verizon’s properties in these states to FairPoint poses significant risks not only to our jobs and livelihoods but also to the economic health of our communities, both in terms of the quality of telephone services and the availability of truly high speed internet.

One of the key issues of the CWA and IBEW argument was that of a legal loophole called a Reverse Morris Trust, which CWA and IBEW claimed was being “used by Verizon to abandon its

customers and avoid taxes.”

The “Reverse Morris Trust” is a tax-avoidance technique that, thanks to Wall

Street’s financial wizards, is increasingly deployed by corporations seeking to sell off

unwanted assets without paying taxes on their gains.  It is a remnant of the once-

booming “disguised sale” transaction structure that many thought Congress had

largely eliminated in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

Under a Reverse Morris Trust, a parent corporation can spin-off a subsidiary into an

unrelated company, tax free, if the shareholders of the parent end up controlling

more than 50% of the voting rights and economic value of the resulting merged

company.  As graphically described below, the basic elements of this process are:  

Corporation D spins off subsidiary Corporation C, which then merges into

Corporation A (an unrelated company); to qualify for tax-free treatment, Corporation

D’s shareholders (and thus Corporation C’s as well) must own a controlling interest

in the post-transaction Corporation A.

Typically, the parent loads up its “Spinco” with as much debt as it can support, while

causing this subsidiary to “dividend-out” or otherwise pay the proceeds of the new debt to

the parent or one of its affiliates immediately prior to the spin-off and merger.

It’s your money and your health.

Last year I testified in Burlington to a panel of government officials, civic leaders, and doctors regarding my experience back in the early 1990’s without health care.  It was a challenging and difficult time for me and my family, and luckily we and our children were in good health and came through that hardship relatively unscathed.  

All around me, friends are losing jobs and health care, and those friends who do have healthcare are finding their coverage lessened as their costs rise astronomically.  

According to the Grassroots orgainization Billionaires for Wealthcare,45,000 people die every year because they can’t get access to the health care they need.  What kind of cruel third-world country have we become where corporate profits are more important than the health and welfare of our citizens.  

This video brings home the point that

AHIP is the powerful insurance lobby that spends 5 million dollars a week trying to kill health care reform. Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network looking to stop them – with song.

• AHIP and other insurance and HMO interests spend nearly $5 million per week undermining real health care reform, including a public option.

• AHIP has resorted to out-right lying and scare tactics to block health care reform. They sent letters that lie to seniors about what health care reform means for Medicare, and they issued a report on the costs of health care reform legislation that is so misleading even the reports embarrassed authors distanced themselves from the way AHIP used their work.

Every year as innocent hard working people die in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet,

AHIP continues to stand in the way of health care reform that would provide coverage to millions of Americans because the industry is more concerned with protecting profits than saving lives.

http://www.billionairesforweal… – check them out and join with them in cleverly bringing the point home in a non-violent way.

It’s your money and your health.  

Today’s Washington Post announced that Galbraith “Is Fired in Clash Over Addressing Afghan Vote Fraud”.

When Peter Galbraith was considering a run for Governor in Vermont in 2008, many critics wondered if he would have any name recognition with Vermonters and if he would be able to articulate and stand up for issues critical to all Vermonters.  At the time Galbraith seemed so – well – academic.  In 2008, GMD had a post entitled “Galbraith leads Pollina in WCAX poll”. http://greenmountaindaily.com/…

Galbraith gave up a possible run for Governor in order to accept the position of Ambassador to Afghanistan and use his diplomatic skills to help stabilize Afghanistan’s political frontier.  A resident of Townshend, Galbraith, is a former ambassador to Croatia.  In 1995 Galbraith was instrumental in creating the 1995 Erdut agreement, which the war between Serbia and Croatia.  

Most recently, according to the Washington Post,

Galbraith had pushed the U.N. special representative in Kabul, former Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, to forcefully address the claims of fraud, and the disagreement culminated in Galbraith’s abrupt departure from Afghanistan this month.

“I think there was massive fraud in the elections — no doubt about that,” said Galbraith, who is now in the United States. “It undermines the credibility of the election process. I took seriously the mandate to support free, fair and transparent elections.”

Galbraith is showing himself not to be a pushover to hidden agendas and determined to fight for open government with “free, fair and transparent elections”.  Wish he would have been monitoring the US 2000 presidential election.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office issued a statement Wednesday saying he had decided to end Galbraith’s appointment as Eide’s deputy to serve the “best interest of the mission.”

In an interview, Galbraith said his dismissal sent a bad signal about the United Nations’ commitment to fair elections.

Galbraith ongoing dispute with former Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, the U.N.’s special representative in Kabul had been rocking diplomatic circles for weeks and allegedly causing U.N. staff members to take sides.

According to the Post and citing a reliable source who spoke upon the condition of anonymity,

“Peter was championing the values that the U.N. stands for here, and almost all of us supported him.

Last month, my son, Eric Gundersen, (developmetseed.org) spent several days in Afghanistan working with the computer infrastructure created to count votes.  Voter fraud or not, in my opinion, the country is a mess.  Several suicide bombings took place while Eric was in Kabul, and even in the center of Kabul, everyone wore bullet proof vests, helmets and rode with armed guards if they went outside in public, just traveling to the airport for example.  How does one even contemplate fair elections in a decisive country filled with armed camps?

Finally according to the Post,

Karzai and his major challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, have called for the election review process to be carried out fully and have said they would respect the results.

Abdullah, who has accused Karzai’s government of orchestrating “massive state fraud” in the election, said Wednesday that it would be “unfortunate” if Galbraith’s removal was due to his push for a “vigorous look” at the allegations of electoral fraud.

Galbraith’s political future is anyone’s guess, but he has stood up for what I consider to be traditional Vermont values in showing that honesty, integrity, openness, and government transparency matter more than political muscle, ego, and vested financial interests.  Sounds like Obama should consider giving him an appointment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The whole story at the Washington Post may be found here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

FITNESS FOR DUTY – SUPERVISOR TESTED POSITIVE FOR ALCOHOL was today’s posting on the NRC Website for current event notifications.

A non-licensed employee supervisor had a confirmed positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test. The employee’s unescorted access to the plant has been revoked. Contact the Headquarters Operations Officer for additional details.

What is a non-licensed employee supervisor?  Well, that means he was not one of the plant operators, but is a supervisor of another group, like engineering, maintenance, purchasing, or even health physics meaning dose measurement.

Not only is Vermont Yankee on a hiring freeze on orders from parent company Entergy, but the VT Legislature’s appointed oversight panel (VYOP) noted that staffing problems were endemic throughout the organization.  In some departments 80% of the employees had been at VY less than three years, which according to VYOP is an indication of high turnover and inexperience.  

Last spring, VY informed the Legislature that it would meet the VYOP recommendations, yet with an Entergy hiring freeze at a plant that already had staff shortages, how will that be possible?  Now on top of failing cooling towers, equipment degradation and dose miscalculations we have supervisors arriving to work drunk.

NRC report and link below the fold.

Current Event Notification Report for September 1, 2009

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Operations Center

Event Reports For

08/31/2009 – 09/01/2009

FITNESS FOR DUTY – SUPERVISOR TESTED POSITIVE FOR ALCOHOL

A non-licensed employee supervisor had a confirmed positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test. The employee’s unescorted access to the plant has been revoked. Contact the Headquarters Operations Officer for additional details.

The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

FITNESS FOR DUTY – SUPERVISOR TESTED POSITIVE FOR ALCOHOL

A non-licensed employee supervisor had a confirmed positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test. The employee’s unescorted access to the plant has been revoked. Contact the Headquarters Operations Officer for additional details.

The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

NRC Event Report (here)

Today’s US News & World Report’s 2010 America’s Best Colleges ranked Champlain College #1 in its Best Colleges: Up-and-coming Baccalaureate Colleges (North) category.  Founded in 1878, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont has a 2,737 member student body. US News

According to the Mission Statement featured in US News, “Champlain reacts quickly to changes in the business world to offer up-to-date academic programs–the latest include Broadcasting, Electronic Game & Interactive Development, Multimedia and Graphic Design, Digital Film, Mass Communication.”  

In addition to the aforementioned multimedia programs, Champlain also offers digital forensics, criminal justice and both both a BS and MS in mediation and conflict management, which sounds timely for today’s political climate, in addition to a MBA and a Master of Science in Law (MSL). Champlain College Mediation Program

Last spring the Vermont Workers’ Center – Jobs With Justice began the campaign Healthcare Is A Human Right.  For the past year they have conducted more than 1,400 interview surveys with Vermonters all across the state.  They’ve held hearings in Brattleboro, Burlington, St. Albans, Lyndonville, Barre, Rutland, and Bennington.

Everywhere they have gone the story has been the same.  People want want and need universal healthcare.

These are challenging times.  We have a new president, a declining economy full of upheaval, and Vermont State Government is facing cuts on every level.  According to the Vermont Workers Center (VWC), it is time to change the paradigm

and save Vermonters tens of millions of dollars by establishing a universal single-payer healthcare system which eliminates the waste and profit of the current insurance financing system.  These are critical times, full of new possibilities and great challenges.

I agree.  It is a time “full of new possibilities”, but only if we have the vision and energy to create change.

Come be part of that change tomorrow, Friday, May 1st for the first major statewide Healthcare Is A Human Right Rally at the Statehouse in Montpelier at 12 noon.

President Obama is talking about a single-payer universal healthcare system, and already the pundits are trying to create scare tactics telling us that we will face healthcare rationing.  Healthcare Blogger Maggie Maher said,

We’ve barely started to discuss the specifics of health insurance reform and already confront a debate among the deaf.  Consider the concerns of the Washington Times, which opines:

“Nationalized health care puts bureaucrats – not doctors – in charge of deciding who needs what medical treatment. Rationing is inevitable under these schemes. That’s one reason Mr. Obama’s universal health care plans must be stopped.”

More below the fold…

I am not a member of the VWC, and I am lucky enough to currently have health insurance, but there have been times when my family and I did not have the health insurance we needed.  I testified at the Burlington Healthcare Hearing and you may read portions of that testimony below.

This past Sunday, I was at an afternoon event and met an insurance businessman, whose whole 40-year career revolved around health insurance.  He said that establishing a single-payer universal healthcare program would save this country billions if not trillions of dollars and give everyone access to better care than they have now.  I was stunned, as I had imagined he would wholeheartedly support the insurance point of view.

I have spoken with numerous friends and colleagues in my age group who want to change jobs, take an early retirement, or begin a new business, but cannot afford to because they would not have access to affordable health care.  Especially during this time of economic crisis and layoffs, it is so important for Vermonters to be able to retire or start new businesses thus opening up existing job positions for those waiting to move into the career marketplace.

Come speak in support of Healthcare Is A Human Right to our Legislators tomorrow at noon at the Statehouse.  Your support is needed.

From my testimony:

“Healthcare is a Human Right”

“Mayor (Bob) Kiss, Rabbi (Joshua) Chasan, Dr. (Ann) Goering, Rev. (Sarah) Flynn, and the other panelists (Jennifer Henry, Rebecca Haslam, Roddy Cleary, Al Robinson, Mohamed Abdi, Hal Colston, Denise Foote), thank you for donating your time to work on behalf of all Vermonters.  Each one of you holds a position in which you see the need for universal healthcare on a daily basis.

…I live in Burlington.  I am lucky that currently I have healthcare, but that has not always been the case…in 1990, we lost our health insurance.  Initially we had COBRA, which, as most of you probably know, enables an individual to extend their original policy for 18 months.  The cost is prohibitive.  Back in 1990, when our family of four faced grave financial circumstances…we shelled out more than $800 each month to keep our family insured.  For a time it was a viable solution, but ultimately, we could not afford to pay that sum every month and canceled our medical insurance.  While my husband was beginning to do some consulting work, my income as a newspaper report was barely enough to support one person, let alone a family of four.  We were lucky in that for the next 12 months we were able to buy a major medical policy for $160 each quarter in case anyone in the family needed hospitalization, and with young children such a policy is critical.  Finally, the newspaper I worked for offered health insurance, and we were covered once again, but the cost was so high, I was left with even less take-home pay from my meager salary.  Our doctors helped us out by treating our children for free or by dramatically reducing their fee.  It was a very challenging time.  

Ultimately we both turned to teaching, and taught for six years in Connecticut before moving to Vermont in 2001, so that Arnie could teach at Burlington High, and I could return to school at Burlington College to become a paralegal.  Our teaching jobs provided medical insurance for us and for our children until they both finished college and began their own careers.

Our son is a web designer in Washington, DC.  The first three years he was building his business from scratch, he went without medical insurance.  It scared us, especially during the early years, when he worked as a bike messenger and bar tender, so that he could pay his bills while developing his business.  No, he is not in Vermont, but his story is pertinent because his small two-person shop has grown to 12 employees, all with medical insurance if they wish it.  And, while he does have basic insurance, it is extremely costly for him, his employees, and his business.  Each policy has such a huge deductible that thus far no one has recouped any of their costs.  Financially, it is a huge drain on his little company.  

Vermont needs more jobs and the opportunity to grow its economy.  Everywhere I turn, I meet people who wish they could change jobs, start their own business, work for a non-profit, work part-time so they could do more volunteer work… their dreams are inspiring.  Yet, most of them stay exactly where they are working, because they cannot afford to change jobs and lose their medical insurance.  Imagine if everyone had health care, all the little companies like my son’s that would provide good jobs and bring businesses and economic growth to Vermont.  

Vermont’s children are lucky that Dr. Dinosaur assures every child of medical insurance, but what happens when those children turn 18-years-old?  I know several of my husband’s former BHS students, who are working or working and attending college part-time, and not one of them has health insurance or receives healthcare because they cannot afford to see a doctor.  Most of them do not even have money for a car, and are at further risk for injury by biking in truly inclement weather.

Our 26-year-old daughter is a paramedic in Charleston, SC, and now that she is with Charleston County EMS, she has complete medical insurance, but that was not true for her first paramedic position in Northern California.  As a fully licensed paramedic, facing all types of illness from exposure to patients and the danger of traveling at a high rate of speed in an ambulance, she was uninsured.  She no longer fell under our insurance coverage, and had a six-month waiting period to qualify for insurance from the ambulance corps.  So here she was doing a critical life saving job, being paid about $9 an hour, and had no medical insurance, and had to pay back school loans as well.  

What are we doing to our young people who need a livable wage, access to healthcare, and access to further education?  

Before moving to her first paramedic job in California, our daughter was employed as an EMT in Fletcher Allen’s Emergency Department, where, time and time again, she took care of people who came to the emergency department because they had nowhere else to go.  Sometimes it was because they just needed basic care and had no money for a doctor.  Other times, they had struggled to maintain their health, and finally had a cut, bruise, break, or illness, that had gotten much worse and now required serious medical intervention because they had no healthcare provider to care for them when their illness was in its early stages.  The cost of such emergency healthcare is staggering, and it must be paid by the rest of the Vermonters who have medical insurance, it comes in the form of higher hospital costs and insurance rates.

My friend Marilyn is in her 70’s.  She has worked her whole life, and her husband has worked his whole life.  Now, they both live on social security and Medicare.  Even though he was employed as a Burlington firefighter for some time, throughout most of his life he worked in the construction trades, and thus has no pension.  Since, Marilyn’s husband is currently in remission from prostate cancer, they must carry supplemental health insurance at a cost of $160 per month.  As costs continue to escalate around them, they are hard put to pay almost $2,000 per year for supplemental care.  At 70-years-old, Marilyn has no choice but to occasionally clean houses in order to make ends meet.

In June, my husband…retired from teaching at BHS.  He will be 60 in January, so we are not eligible to collect social security or Medicare, and as a self-employed paralegal, I relied upon my husband’s BHS medical plan.  We got scared this summer when we began trying to unravel what insurance and medical care we would be able to have for the next 3 years.  

The cost of healthcare, even Catamount, is very high.  Finally, another retired teacher informed us that we were eligible for healthcare through his retirement account, and that is what we are doing.  It means that further down the road, we will have less retirement, but since each one of us has had prior health issues, we believe we had no other option.  My husband had viral pericarditis, an inflammation around the heart, which morphed into post-viral neuropathy, which means at times that he has great pain in his legs.  We are lucky.  We have healthcare, great doctors and care givers, and medical insurance.  

Many, many Vermonters are not so lucky.  I believe that healthcare is a right.  I am asking you on this panel to help get that message to our State Legislature and to our Governor.  Our taxes are paying for a terrible war and a banking and financial debacle of extreme proportion.  It is time that we focused on all Vermonters and provided them with the healthcare each American deserves.  It is our right to receive such care, and I believe it is our moral obligation to provide such care to all Vermonters and all Americans.”

I know many Vermonters who are now without any health insurance and have no possibility of regaining it in the future.  I believe it is time to stop enriching corporate giants or exiting CEO’s, and to use that money make Healthcare A Human Right.

See yesterday’s “White House Declares “Public Health Emergency” (Updated)” for background on the Swine Flu migration: http://greenmountaindaily.com/…

Now, according to breaking Chicago Tribune news,

Deerfield-based medical product giant Baxter International Inc. is working with the World Health Organization on a potential vaccine to curb the spread of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico, the company confirmed today.

Ironically, and according to the Toronto Sun back in February, Baxter “inadvertently released” samples of related viruses in shipments to four European countries along with samples of possible vaccines.  The company released live H5N1 avian flu viruses from its research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria, the Toronto Sun noted.

The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

Now Baxter, which has a growing vaccine business, has allegedly been called in to help control and stop the spread of the alleged H1N1 virus in Mexico.  How ironic that the very multinational corporation that lost control of several related viruses only 2 months ago is called in as the savior to help bring the swine flu H5N1 virus under control.  How do we know that they also have not lost control of other viruses in the past, or that other subsidiary labs have not lost control of this H1N1 virus?

According to tonight’s the Tribune breaking news:  Baxter has

worked with foreign countries in the past to develop vaccines for the H5N1 virus commonly known as bird flu. Baxter has a cell-based technology that allows the company to more rapidly produce vaccines in the event of a pandemic than a decades-old method that uses eggs to process vaccines and can take weeks or even months longer.

“Upon learning about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico yesterday, Baxter requested a virus sample from WHO to do laboratory testing for potentially developing an experimental vaccine,” company spokesman Christopher Bona told the Tribune this afternoon. “Baxter has research and development and manufacturing pandemic planning expertise to rapidly develop candidate vaccines against potentially emerging influenza viruses.”

I find it ironic that the corporation developing vaccines against this virus lost control of the related viruses only 2 months ago when it inadvertently shipped the live virus out to at least 4 laboratories working to create a vaccine against this virus.

Now Baxter International has stepped forward as the Corporation most likely to fix it all with its magical vaccine process.  Seems all too cozy to me.  Either, Baxter International will be the savior of the world from the terrible swine flu pandemic, thus doing a great job for its stockholders, the stock market, and the pharmaceutical industry in general, or Baxter will help to cover up the corporate errors that first caused this swine flu.  That could be the “inadvertent” release of the viruses it was creating and studying, or it could be the Mexican based pig farm in close proximity to a small Mexican town.



What’s your take?

The rapidly spreading swine flu, which fist appeared early last week in Mexico, caused the White House to declare a “Public Health Emergency” this afternoon.

—————–

UPDATE What caused this man-made disease?

For the record, I am not implying any type of conspiracy theory.  However, I am pointing a finger at lax security protocols and/or corporate greed.  

From what I have read during the past 2 days coupled with what I’ve researched over several years and now with updated swine flu reports, I believe that this virus is most likely the result of human activity.  It could be caused by scientists studying viruses in attempts to produce vaccines or from unsanitary factory farms, which decimate the environment and communities surrounding them.  These factories have entire lakes filled with pig feces and are leaching into the surrounding water table, are the cause of this “created” virus.

Unsanitary factory farms contaminate ground water.  Unsanitary conditions and a lack of clean water create a breeding ground and facilitate the spread of infectious disease.  Just two weeks ago for example in Mexico City,

about five million people, or a quarter of the population of Mexico City’s urban sprawl, woke up with dry taps

, according to Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/world…

The drought was caused by the biggest stoppage in the city’s main reservoir system in recent years to ration its depleting supplies.

More after the jump.

Vermont Natural Resources Council is currently showing the film Blue Gold – World Water Wars for its Second Annual Terry Ehrich Film Series.  The Vermont premier of the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars (based on the internationally acclaimed book by water activist Maude Barlow)is running April 26th – June 18th.  I saw it last night, and it speaks to the issue of water contamination and privatization of our precious water resources.  See it!  Go to http://www.vnrc.org/article/vi… to see a clip and schedule.

Whichever scenario turns out to be the true:  factory farms contaminating ground water or lax protocols at independent labs, it is unlikely we will know the truth for months or even years, if at all.  The responsible corporations or the government protection of biological laboratories will fight to obfuscate all inquiries in an effort to protect the involved corporations and/or governments from liability.

http://tinyurl.com/c4dcmc

According to Guardian, UK’s article, “The swine flu crisis lays bare the meat industry’s monstrous power”

The Mexico swine flu outbreak should alert us to a highly globalised industry with global political clout.  The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the faecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already travelling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

Other documents support that there has been a significant increase in the number of viral labs throughout the world.  I am unable to locate a story I read last year, that just in the US alone, the number of small pharmacological labs studying various viruses and trying to develop vaccines has increased in number 20 times.  These labs were granted permits by the Bush Administration, however, no specific standards are in place for regulating the labs or delineating the protocols necessary to make sure that no viruses under research escape.  I searched my computer and bookmarks and unfortunately cannot locate either that particular link or that story.

But although I am unable to find that particular story, the following stories from the NY Times substantiate what I am saying.  I believe we must change the world health paradigm by cleaning up our environment, using clean, natural and organic farming techniques, having plenty of clean drinking water available for all people and minimizing the production of man-made viruses as well as the alleged magic bullet of vaccines or emergency drugs our pharmaceutical companies are creating to fight them.  

The drugs used to fight viruses and bacterial diseases are not without significant side-effects and risks, and the West’s extensive reliance on germ-fighting solutions are creating drug resistant viruses and bacteria.  Let’s hope that today’s Mexican Swine Flu reality does not become the dreaded world pandemic, and let’s use this incident to begun to make the changes that doctors and scientists throughout the world have been recommending!

New York Times By JANE PERLEZ  Published: August 6, 2007

LONDON, Aug. 5 –

British health inspectors combed two veterinary laboratories in southern England on Sunday after it was discovered that the strain of foot-and-mouth disease at a farm four miles away was the same as the one used in the production of vaccine at the facilities.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08…

NY Times September 30, 2003 THE DOCTOR’S WORLD; On Guard Against SARS, Inside the Laboratory and Out

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, M.D.

In their vigil for a possible return of SARS, health officials have focused mainly on finding where the virus hides in nature.

But the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome in a 27-year-old doctoral student in Singapore has shown an equally important risk — escape of the virus from a laboratory.

The case adds to thousands of other infections accidentally acquired in a laboratory over the years.

Last week, a World Health Organization committee that investigated the case concluded that the student most likely became infected in August through contamination in a laboratory where he worked on another virus.

”Inappropriate laboratory standards and a cross-contamination of West Nile virus samples with SARS coronavirus in the laboratory led to the infection of the doctoral student,” the committee reported.

In a separate incident that occurred after the Singapore case was detected, the Chinese University of Hong Kong halted work on growing the SARS virus, officials said last week.

University workers followed the standards for the second-highest security laboratory, known as a BSL-3 facility. But some equipment they used did not meet security standards.

The findings underscore that a laboratory can be a hazardous place for workers and potentially for the public unless the staff members are disciplined and trained to prevent accidental infection.

Although the Singapore student did not transmit the virus to other people, and no infection is known to have resulted from the problem in Hong Kong, experts view these incidents as a wake-up call.

They point to gaps that exist in putting biosafety standards into practice, even in high-tech countries and prestigious universities.

For example, Yale has experienced two accidents. In 1969, a laboratory worker who helped discover the Lassa fever virus at Yale died of an accidental infection. In 1994, another Yale researcher survived infection with the Sabia virus, a cause of hemorrhagic fever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09…

Attorney Michael Carroll took seven years to research and write his expose of the US Germ Laboratory on Plum Island near New York.  Carroll convincingly alleges that “Lab 257” is the reason that both Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus have infected so many.  His book is an eye opening and disturbing read.  It also had enough of an impact that Homeland Security is building a new lab facility out in Kansas and plans to close Plum Island ASAP. (see below)

From Amazon:  

Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory (Hardcover)

by Michael C. Carroll

http://www.amazon.com/Lab-257-Disturbing-Governments-Laboratory/dp/0060011416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240866484&sr=1-1

Amazon.com Review

That the United States government engaged in dangerous biological research during World War II will come as no surprise to Americans jaded by revelations of secret medical experiments and radiation exposures. But that the accident-plagued facility where it happened–and continues to happen–is just off the coast of Long Island may alarm many readers of Michael Christopher Carroll’s Lab 257. Carroll, an attorney by trade, gamely takes on complex microbiology and shady government record-keeping in telling the story of Plum Island, home of the Animal Disease Center–no place for a casual picnic. The lab, initially set up by the Army to research ways of destroying Soviet farm animals (and to keep them from destroying ours), has often dealt with bacteria and viruses that can be passed from animals to humans. Carroll draws compelling causal links between Plum Island and the introduction of Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and duck enteritis, all non-native germs that wreaked sudden havoc in North America, and all germs that Plum Island scientists were allegedly working with…

From Publishers Weekly: This strong first effort by New York lawyer Carroll centers on a U.S. government biological research center devoted to studying such exotic and virulent diseases as African swine fever, Rift Valley fever, foot-and-mouth disease and West Nile virus. Plum Island is quietly nestled a mere two miles off of Long Island, 85 miles from New York City, and Carroll argues convincingly that the island is dangerously insecure. Based on sedulous research into declassified government files and interviews with Plum Island scientists and employees, he offers clear and convincing evidence that Plum Island is rife with the potential for a catastrophic disaster eith?r from an accident or, equally frightening, terrorist action. Carroll raises two chilling questions: Is there a connection between Lyme disease and Plum Island research? (Old Lyme, Conn., the location of the disease’s initial 1975 outbreak, is close to Plum Island.) And what about West Nile virus, which also suddenly appeared in close proximity to Plum Island?

It seems that the US Department of Homeland Security has taken Carroll’s Lab 257 to heart as they are planning a brand new high security viral lab in Kansas.  See http://www.ens-newswire.com/en… for the whole story.

Wherever it is built, the high-security facility will replace Plum Island Animal Disease Center on Plum Island, New York, the only location in the United States for research on the live virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease.

The Department of Homeland Security has oversight of Plum Island, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts the research there on foreign animal diseases.

Homeland Security has determined that the existing facility on Plum Island is too small and too old to meet new research needs. The facility also is not appropriate for research on zoonotic disease at biosafety level 4, according to the department and it will be closed once the new facility is operational.

In early December, Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate released the final environmental impact statement for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. The directorate will publish a formal record of decision on January 12, 2009. Facility design is expected to begin this year, with construction to begin in 2010. Plans call for the facility to be operational by 2015.

The new facility will provide the environment suitable for study of virulent diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans such as:

   * Foot and Mouth Disease: Viral disease of domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals; acute disease characterized by fever, lameness, and vesicular lesions on the feet, tongue, mouth and teats; FMD is considered to be one of the most contagious, infectious diseases known; cost estimates of an introduction of FMD in the U.S. are more than $37 billion.

   * Classical Swine Fever: Wild and domestic swine are the only known natural reservoir; widespread throughout the world and has the potential to cause devastating epidemics, particularly in countries free of the disease; any outbreak of CSF would have serious consequences for domestic and international trade of swine and swine products; improved countermeasures are needed.

   * African Swine Fever: Infected animals have high mortality rates; effective countermeasures are not available for infected animals; no vaccines are available to prevent infection; no treatment exists for ASF and countermeasures need improvements.

   * Rift Valley Fever: Virus affects human beings and cloven-hoofed animals (sheep, goats, cattle, camels, buffalo and deer); suitable countermeasures to respond in the U.S. do not exist; risk for establishment of endemic disease; ranked as a major disease of concern with USDA, DHS, and other stakeholders.

   * Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia: Caused by an infective microorganism (Mycoplasma mycoides); primarily affects cattle including European-bred cattle and Zebu; a related form can affect goats; may survive for days in the environment; no treatment available.

   * Japanese Encephalitis Virus: Similar to St. Louis encephalitis virus; JE virus is amplified in the blood of domestic pigs and wild birds; the virus can infect humans, most domestic animals, birds, bats, snakes and frogs.

   * Nipah Virus – Biosecurity Level 4: Virus was discovered in 1999; causes disease in swine and in humans through contact with infectious animals; mode of transmission between animals and from animals to humans is uncertain (appears to require close contact with infected tissues or body fluids); caused respiratory disease and encephalitis in people in Malaysia and Singapore; no drug therapies have yet been proven to be effective in treating Nipah infection; no countermeasures exist.

• Hendra Virus – Biosecurity Level 4: Formerly called equine morbillivirus; first isolated in 1994; the natural reservoir for Hendra virus is still under investigation; human beings and equines seem to be predominately affected; caused respiratory and neurological disease in horses and humans in Australia.

Mexico eclipses Egypt on flu news tracking on with ManagingNews, as media awakes to Mexican Swine Flu map here http://is.gd/uERE

According to the White House:  “We expect to see more cases of swine flu,” Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a White House briefing. Besser, who was addressing reporters along with other Obama administration officials, said that over time, “more severe” cases of disease are likely to surface. He said that officials so far have identified 20 cases in eight states.

John Brennan, assistant to President Barack Obama for Homeland Security, said the president is monitoring the situation “very closely” and receiving regular updates and briefings.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the declaration of a public health emergency “standard operating procedure,” saying it would help the government better marshal its resources against the disease.

It is Napolitano’s statement and the word out that the DOD has Tamiflu ready to transport that really concerns me.  According to BBC, the swine flu virus is a conglomeration of several flu viruses.  Tamiflu has a slim chance of having any effect at all against such a virulent strain of co-mingled viruses.  Tamiflu was the flu drug that the US bought in bulk while Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense.  At the time, Rumsfeld neglected to inform the public or Congress that he held considerable stock in Roche Pharmaceuticals which was marketing the drug.

You figure it out.  According to sources,

The new Mexican Swine Flu has elements of DNA from the following: avian flu, human flu Type A, human flu Type B, Asian swine flu, and European swine flu.  It is strange that both human and animal viruses from other continents have suddenly produced a new flu during a non-flu season and spreads from human-to-human with a 10% fatality rating.

See official CDC swine flu updates at cdc.gov/swineflu.  The site has been viewed more than 1 Million times on Sat: http://bit.ly/kgu8l #swineflu

More below the fold…

The CDC says the symptoms are similar to regular flu and include: fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing in mild cases. More severe cases of swine flu include runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

According to Britain’s The Independent

Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.

More than 60 countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral medication – the only oral medicine believed to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease – to try to protect their people. The United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people worldwide.

Britain is about halfway through receiving an order of 14.6 million courses of the drug, which the Government hopes will avert some of the 700,000 deaths that might be expected. Tamiflu does not cure the disease, but if taken soon after symptoms appear it can reduce its severity.

The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. It is now made and sold by the giant chemical company Roche, which pays it a royalty on every tablet sold, currently about a fifth of its price.

Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding.