Tag Archives: Monsanto
U.S.: Genetically Modified Wheat Found in Montana
Unregulated genetically modified wheat has popped up in a second location in the United States, this time in state of Montana, the Agriculture Department said Friday.
No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming, and the discovery of unapproved varieties can pose a potential threat to U.S. trade with countries that have concerns about genetically modified foods.
USDA said Friday that the incident is on a smaller scale than a similar finding in the state of Oregon last year that prompted several Asian countries to temporarily ban U.S. wheat imports.
The herbicide-resistant wheat was found on one to three acres in Montana, while the genetically engineered plants found in Oregon were spread over more than 100 acres. And the plants were found at a university research center in Huntley, Montana, where genetically modified wheat was legally tested by seed giant Monsanto 11 years ago. The plants in Oregon were found in a field that had never conducted such tests, prompting questions about how they got there.
The department said it is investigating the discovery of the Montana wheat, which is a different variety than the genetically modified wheat found in Oregon. USDA said the wheat would be safe to eat, but none of it entered the market.
In a final report also released Friday, USDA said it believes the genetically modified wheat in Oregon was an isolated incident and that there is no evidence of that wheat in commerce. The report says the government still doesn’t know how the modified seeds got into the fields.
The discovery of the genetically modified wheat in Oregon in 2013 prompted Japan and South Korea to temporarily suspend some wheat orders, and the European Union called for more rigorous testing of U.S. shipments.
Monsanto Co. suggested last year that some of the company’s detractors may have intentionally planted the seeds. Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, said in June 2013 that sabotage is the most likely scenario, partly because the modified wheat was not distributed evenly throughout the field and was found in patches.
“It’s fair to say there are folks who don’t like biotechnology and would use this to create problems,” he said then.
Bernadette Juarez, who oversees investigative and enforcement efforts for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the department wasn’t able to prove any such scenarios.
“Ultimately, we weren’t able to make a determination of how it happened,” she said.
In a statement Friday, a Monsanto spokeswoman did not repeat Fraley’s 2013 speculation about sabotage but said the report provides closure. Monsanto also said it is fully cooperating with the investigation into the Montana wheat.
Montana State University’s Southern Agricultural Research Center, where the modified wheat was found, also said it has been cooperating with USDA’s investigation.
Most of the corn and soybeans grown in the United States are already genetically modified to resist certain herbicides or to have other traits. But the country’s wheat crop is not, as some wheat farmers have shown reluctance to use genetically engineered seeds since their product is usually consumed directly by people. Much of the corn and soybean crop is used as feed for animals.
Some in the wheat industry have also been concerned that genetically modified wheat, if ever approved, would contaminate conventional wheat, causing problems with exports. Opponents of modified crops used the Oregon wheat as an example of that threat. “Genetic contamination is a serious threat to farmers across the country,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for Center for Food Safety.
There has been little evidence to show that foods grown from engineered seeds are less safe than their conventional counterparts, but several states have considered laws that would require them to be labeled so consumers know what they are eating. Vermont became the first state to enact such a law this year, though it is being challenged in court.
US Department of Defence (USAMRIID) & Tulane University Released This Bioengineered Airborne Ebola/Lassa Hybrid in Sierra Leone
The primary Ebola strain being spread right now (as their are 2) was bioengineered by the US Department of Defense (via USAMRIID) & Tulane University with the knowledge/help from pharma/biotech giants such as Monsanto, Alnylam, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer and a much smaller pharma company based out of Canada called Tekmira. A known Ebola strain from Central-Africa was used as the base, and was bioengeneered to become a new hybrid respiratory illness (a combination of Ebola Virus & Lassa Hemorrhagic Fever, weaponized via Tulane University & USAMRIID at Fort Detrick) making it become a genetic variant of the original strain. This bioengineered hybrid allowed for airborne human-to-human transmission, an extended incubation period (to increase spread/threat), and a slightly toned down virility (to have the ideal initial wanted mortality rate (~40%)).
Ebola (EBOV) – Human-to-human transmission occurs via direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person (including embalming of an infected dead person) or by contact with contaminated medical equipment, particularly needles and syringes.
[link to www.msdsonline.com]
Lassa (LASV) – Inhalation of tiny particles of infective material (aerosol) is believed to be the most significant means of exposure.
[link to www.cdc.gov]
Ebola/Lassa (EBOV/LASV) – Human-to-human transmission occurs via direct contact with blood or bodily fluids AND/ORInhalation of tiny particles of infective material (aerosol) from an infected person (including embalming of an infected dead person) or by contact with contaminated medical equipment, particularly needles and syringes.
Ebola Virus was chosen as the base virus for the hybrid due to its high mortality rate and other ideal bio-warfare properties.
Filoviruses like Ebola have been of interest to the Pentagon since the late 1970s, mainly because Ebola and its fellow viruses have high mortality rates — in the current outbreak, roughly 60 percent to 72 percent of those who have contracted the disease have died — and its stable nature in aerosol make it attractive as a potential biological weapon.
[link to www.navytimes.com]
The Sierra Leone Ebola hybrid strain (EBOV/LASV, ~40% mortality rate) is shown to have a lower mortality rate then the Guinea Ebola strain (ZEBOV, ~75% mortality rate), but is shown to instead be MUCH more human-to-human transmittable, due to it being an airborne hybrid. Basically there are 2 strains going on at the same time (75% Mortality – Ebola-Zaire) & (40% Mortality, Ebola/Lassa, airborne)).
Volume 20, Number 7—July 2014: Undiagnosed Acute Viral Febrile Illnesses, Sierra Leone
PRNT results indicated that the infecting virus was most closely related to EBOV, except for 1 SUDV-reactive patient sample. This finding was unexpected because our assumption was that any ebolavirus would more likely be TAFV, the only species described in West Africa. Although the serum samples were able to neutralize EBOV only at a low level (1:40 dilution), it is possible that the virus is an EBOV genetic variant.
[link to wwwnc.cdc.gov]
July 31, 2014 Stats
Guinea = 339/460 = ~73% mortality rate = ~5-9 day incubation = Ebola-Zaires (natural Ebola-Zaire)
Sierra Leone = 233/533 = ~43% mortality rate = ~9-21 day incubation = Ebola/Lassa (bioengineered hybrid, airborne)
[link to www.ibtimes.com]
Because of these tweaks, the current strain of Ebola we should be worried about is actually a “respiratory virus” unlike any other Ebola strains that were previously known (as it is a bioengineered/weaponized hybrid). Because the US knows this airborne strain is a respiratory virus (the one that will develop into the actual Pandemic), they needed to make some last minute adjustments to their emergency pandemic protocols, which were just refined on July 31, 2014 by Barack Obama to suite the needed definition in preparation for a WHO Pandemic Level 6 Declaration (down the line).
April 4, 2003 – Executive Order — Revised List of Quarantinable Communicable Diseases
(b) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is a disease associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, is transmitted from person to person predominantly by the aerosolized or droplet route, and, if spread in the population, would have severe public health consequences.
[link to www.gpo.gov]
VS (just revised by Obama)…
July 31, 2014 – Executive Order — Revised List of Quarantinable Communicable Diseases
“(b) Severe acute respiratory syndromes, which are diseases that are associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, are capable of being transmitted from person to person, and that either are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic, or, upon infection, are highly likely to cause mortality or serious morbidity if not properly controlled. This subsection does not apply to influenza.”
[link to www.whitehouse.gov]
This bioengineered “respiratory” variation of the Ebola virus (EBOV/LASV) was then released via the Kenema Government Hospital Lassa Diagnostic Laboratory (Soros / Gates Foundation) in Sierra Leone by USAMRIID/Tulane University earlier this year, which used unwitting Lassa Fever Program subjects as hosts (which were made immune-carriers to the new hybrid virus they then unknowingly spread) as part of a Tulane University “Ebola testing” project being held in 3 regions of Africa (Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, and Liberia).
Manual of Security Sensitive Microbes and Toxins
Security sensitive microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites) and toxins, which are often referred to as the select agents and toxins, have the capacity to cause serious illness and death in humans, animals, and plants. Throughout history, these microbes and toxins have been exploited in one form or another as biowarfare and bioterror agents that create fear and panic well beyond any actual physical damages they might cause.
[link to books.google.ca]
Tulane University Biosafety Plan
Select Agents (SA) – Biological agents that may be used for the purposes related to bioterrorism and which are thus regulated by the Select Agent Program (42 CFR Part 72).
[link to tulane.edu (secure)]
Lassa Fever Program
Tulane University has a long-standing partnership with the Lassa Fever Program at the KGH. When it was established in 2004, Tulane was contracted as the principle implementing partner of the Mano River Unione Lassa Fever Network program (MRU-LFN), a diverse group of organizations working together to develop national and regional prevention and control strategies for Lassa Fever, as well as focusing on building the capacity of the laboratory at the hospital. Since then, the work conducted by Tulane and its partners at KGH has grown to include new lines of research and public health surveillance.
[link to vhfc.org]
Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone
July 23 – Tulane University to stop Ebola testing during the current Ebola outbreak.
[link to www.facebook.com (secure)]
Bill Gates & George Soros Funding The Bioweapons Lab At The Focus of Ebola Outbreak
[link to www.youtube.com]
Which brings us to Tekmira, which is heavily funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (via the United States Department of Defence)…
Tekmira doses first subject in human clinical trial of TKM-Ebola
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation has dosed the first subject in a Phase 1 human clinical trial of TKM-Ebola, an anti-Ebola viral therapeutic that is being developed under a US$140 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
[link to biotechnologyfocus.ca]
With Monsanto invested heavily as well (just a small sample of Monsanto funding)…
Tekmira Receives $1.5 Million Milestone Payment
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (TKMR) (TKM.TO), a leading developer of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics, announced today that it has received a $1.5 million milestone payment from Monsanto following completion of specified program developments.
[link to finance.yahoo.com]
And Tekmira has partnerships with some of the biggest players in the pharmaceutical industry…
In addition to its pipeline of products, Tekmira has collaborative or partnership agreements with leading companies in the RNAi field, including Alnylam, Pfizer, Takeda, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck.
[link to www.ic.gc.ca]
And Tekmira (the little guy being backed by the big guys (aka a front)) is currently the leading pharmaceutical company being pushed as the best chance for the Ebola cure, as they already start hyping that this strain will get out of control…
Ebola outbreak may already be uncontrollable; Monsanto invests in Ebola treatment drug company as pandemic spreads
Monsanto and Dept. of Defense help fund pharma company that could earn billions from Ebola treatment
[link to www.naturalnews.com]
Because of this they are going to be holding more clinical human TKM-Ebola trials very shortly in an attempt to rush an Ebola cure…
Experimental Ebola vaccine will be tested on people NEXT MONTH as U.S. pushes clinical trial of possible life-saving drug
The U.S government will begin testing an experimental ebola vaccine on humans as early as next month, it has been reported.
The drug, which is currently being developed, has seen positive results in clinical trials when used to treat primates.
It has prompted the U.S. government to move towards testing the possible life-saving vaccine on people for the first time, USA Today said.
The National Institutes of Health’s infectious disease unit has been working with the Food and Drug Administration to put the vaccine through trials as quickly as possible, according to the report.
[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]
I love how it says the U.S Government will BEGIN human trails… when the first DoD funded TKM-Ebola trails using the same company already happened months ago…
Jan 12, 2014 – The TKM-Ebola Phase I clinical trial is a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study involving single ascending doses and multiple ascending doses of TKM-Ebola. The study will assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of administering TKM-Ebola to healthy adult subjects. Four subjects will be enrolled per cohort. There are four planned cohorts for a total of 16 subjects in the single dose arm, and three planned cohorts for a total of 12 subjects in the multiple dose arm of the trial. Each cohort will enroll three subjects who receive TKM-Ebola, and one who will receive placebo.
[link to investor.tekmirapharm.com]
Anyways, go figure they want to do more human TKM-Ebola trials, even though human tests were put on hold last month due to safety concerns…
While human tests of the company’s treatment, TKM-Ebola, were put on hold last month due to safety concerns, investors scrambled to buy its stock, sending shares up 1.5 percent to $13 in midday Nasdaq trading, and up more than 50 percent over the past fortnight.
[link to news.yahoo.com]
But that bad new isn’t hurting Tekmira’s stock prices at all, which are still skyrocketing as this event unfolds, even with safety issues…
Tekmira shares skyrocket as Ebola outbreak intensifies in Africa
Shares of Canada’s Tekmira Pharmaceutical Corp TKMR.O TKM.TO, which has ambitions of producing the first treatment for the deadly Ebola virus, have skyrocketed as the worst-ever outbreak of the virus intensified in West Africa.
[link to news.yahoo.com]
Because the TMK-Ebola vaccine by Tekmira (which has safety concerns even when not tampered with), due to the current “emergency” situation, will highly-likely get its approval extremely fast-tracked anyways.
‘Fast-track the Ebola drug’: U.S. under pressure to give potentially life-saving medication the green light as experts warn of global pandemic
Campaigners are calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States to fast-track their authorisation of the TKM-Ebola drug.
[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]
[link to www.change.org]
Anyways for anyone looking at the bigger picture, it appears like they are going to attempt to do what they failed to do in 2009 (due to a Baxter AG fuckup in Europe prior to Phase 2 virus release, which forced them to call that aspect off)… This time however, they expect to be able to declare the long-awaited WHO Pandemic Level 6, allowing for international & national emergency powers to kick in, such as, The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan for the Health Sector, the National Emergency Act, National Security Presidential Directive 51 and so on…
The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act: planning for and response to bioterrorism and naturally occurring infectious diseases
The Model Act is structured to reflect 5 basic public health functions to be facilitated by law: (1) preparedness, comprehensive planning for a public health emergency; (2) surveillance, measures to detect and track public health emergencies; (3) management of property, ensuring adequate availability of vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and hospitals, as well as providing power to abate hazards to the public’s health; (4) protection of persons, powers to compel vaccination, testing, treatment, isolation, and quarantine when clearly necessary; and (5) communication, providing clear and authoritative information to the public.
USA: [link to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan for the Health Sector
Ensure that appropriate legal authorities are in place to allow for the implementation of major elements of a proposed distribution plan. (For example, will P/T laws allow for non-licensed volunteers to administer influenza vaccine? Do P/T laws allow for “mandatory” vaccination of certain groups if vaccination of such groups is viewed by the P/T public health officials as essential to public service?)
Canada: [link to www.phac-aspc.gc.ca]
50 U.S. Code Chapter 34 – NATIONAL EMERGENCIES
SUBCHAPTER I—TERMINATING EXISTING DECLARED EMERGENCIES
SUBCHAPTER II—DECLARATIONS OF FUTURE NATIONAL EMERGENCIES
SUBCHAPTER III—EXERCISE OF EMERGENCY POWERS AND AUTHORITIES
SUBCHAPTER IV—ACCOUNTABILITY AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS OF PRESIDENT
SUBCHAPTER V—APPLICATION TO POWERS AND AUTHORITIES OF OTHER PROVISIONS OF LAW AND ACTIONS TAKEN THEREUNDER=
[link to www.law.cornell.edu]
National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD #51: National Continuity Policy
This directive establishes a comprehensive national policy on the continuity of Federal Government structures and operations and a single National Continuity Coordinator responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of Federal continuity policies. This policy establishes “National Essential Functions,” prescribes continuity requirements for all executive departments and agencies, and provides guidance for State, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and private sector organizations in order to ensure a comprehensive and integrated national continuity program that will enhance the credibility of our national security posture and enable a more rapid and effective response to and recovery from a national emergency.
[link to fas.org]
Basically when a WHO Pandemic Level 4 Emergency is declared, preparations for countermeasures would be started, which if escalated to a Pandemic Level 6 emergency, would then trigger implementation of mandatory (by law) mass vaccinations of the populous of even not effected areas/countries in what is deemed as “Pandemic Management” (aka the long awaited “phase 2” that Baxter AG fucked up in 2009).
WHO Pandemic Levels
Level 4 = Prepare (preparation)
A reassortant virus is causing community-level outbreaks, meaning there are sustained disease outbreaks in a community. This marks a “significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic.” However, a pandemic isn’t necessarily a forgone conclusion.
Level 5 = Mobilize (initiation)
There is human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. Most countries aren’t affected at this stage, but declaration of Phase 5 is a “strong signal that a pandemic is imminent.” There is little time remaining to finish the organization, communication and implementation of the planned mitigation measures.
Level 6 = Sustain (vaccination)
In addition to the countries affected in Phase 5, there are community-level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region. A global pandemic is occurring.
Just hope people see this event for what it is… and understand what is to come.
The jist of the plan in 2009 was this…
2009 Swine Flu Pandemic
Phase 1 (cover)
1. Release a fairly harmless human-to-human transmittable swine flu strain (H1N1) near the Mexico border.
2. Infect a small number of subjects in China with a non human-to-human transmittable strain of bird flu (H5N1).
3. Overlap both during a natural influenza season (H3N2).
4. Push the need for mass vaccinations by overly hyping the virility of the H1N1 strain being circulated (cause).
Phase 2 (real pandemic)
5. As part of the vaccination program, infect various groups of subjects with a the real Pandemic, a bioengineered hybrid of all 3 (H1N1/H5N1/H3N2), which was to be included in a small percentage of the initial Baxter AG Swine-Flu Vaccine (this is the stage they got caught at just prior to launching and had to call it off, and recall the vaccines in question just prior to being used).
The end result if everything went as planned would of been an airborne human-to-human transmittable hybrid virus (H1N1/H5N1/H3N2), with a ~10-14 day incubation period, and a ~40% mortality rate.
Note: They required the 3 “natural strains (H1N1, H5N1, H3N2) to be active before releasing the weaponized hybrid (H1N1/H5N1/H3N2) so that the bioengineered hybrid once released could be written of as being “naturally created”.
Because of this they had to regroup and tweak/simplify the framework slightly, so that the plan no longer relied on the mass vaccination stage in order to initiate the Phase 2 release… Which brings us to today…
2014 Ebola Epidemic/Pandemic
Phase 1 (cover)
1. Release a standard Ebola-Zaire strain in Guinea.
2. Do it near an area that currently has Lassa active (Nigeria) so that a few weeks later the 2 viruses will overlap in at least 1 area.
Note: Again this is done so that when they release the weaponized hybrid of the 2 (EBOV/LASV) they can say it is “natural created”.
Phase 2 (real pandemic)
3. Release the real Pandemic using a hybrid Ebola/Lassa (EBOV/LASV), to several unwitting subjects inside the Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone.
The end result is an airborne human-to-human transmittable hybrid virus (EBOV/LASV), with a ~9-21 day incubation period, and a ~40% mortality rate.
—
More Context…
—
Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus (February 27, 2009)
The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.
People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.
Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences.
While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.
That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.
Thread: Anyone Remember Baxter International? If We Learned Anything From The Swine Flu Dry-Run It Should Be DON’T TAKE THE VACCINE!
Criminal Charges Concerning Bioterrorism Acts and Mass Murder
I am presenting evidence of acts of bioterrorism that are in violation of criminal law of the United States by a group operating within the United States under foreign direction, specifically under the direction of international bankers who control, among other financial institutions, the Federal Reserve, as well as international government organisations, specifically the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and NATO.
…
Evidence is presented that the complex of pharmaceutical companies of Baxter, Novartis and Sanofi Aventis are part of aforeign-based duel purpose bioweapons programme financed by the international criminal syndicate and designed to implement mass murder to reduce the world’s population by as much as 5.5 billion, in the next ten years, to spread terror, to justify forcing people to give up their rights and mass quarantine in FEMA camps.
Thread: Criminal Charges Concerning Bioterrorism Acts and Mass Murder – Jane Burgermeister Dossier – 154 Pages
National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth For U.S. Security and Overseas Interests
Section I – A U.S. Global Population Strategy 74-84
Section II – Action to Create Conditions for Fertility Decline: Population and a Development Assistance Strategy 85-105
A. General Strategy and Resource for A.I.D. Assistance 85-91
B. Functional Assistance Programs to Create Conditions for Fertility Decline 92-102
C. Food for Peace Program and Population 103-105
Section III -International Organizations and other Multilateral Population Programs 106-107
A. UN Organization and Specialized Agencies
B. Encouraging Private Organizations
Thread: Kissinger’s 1974 National Security Study Memorandum 200 (Declassified 1989) – Official US/UN Eugenics Programs
United Nations Agenda 21
The stated goal of Agenda 21 is “achieving sustainable development in the 21st century,” thus the numeral 21 in the document’s title. It strives to help governments meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations.”
– [link to sustainabledevelopment.un.org]
Georgia Guidestones
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
A Link Between Monsanto, Blackwater & Bill Gates?
There’s an unlikely story circulating on various underground news sites claiming that the controversial biotech company Monsanto has acquired infamous mercenary outfit Blackwater (now trading as Xe Services). The report apparently first appeared in La Jornada, one of Mexico City’s leading daily newspapers, described by Noam Chomsky as “the one independent newspaper in the whole hemisphere.” Pravda has translated the original Spanish text written by Silvia Ribeiro into English. From my reading of the Jeremy Scahill article that seems to form the basis of the report, the most you can deduce is that Monsanto hired the creeps at Blackwater to do dirty work for them, but the rumor keeps circulating, so could there be a grain of truth somewhere in this story?:
A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation (Blackwater’s Black Ops, 9/15/2010) revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (now called Xe Services) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto. Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State “security services,” that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.
Many military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training – for other governments, banks and multinational corporations. According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center. These officers and directors share Blackwater.
One of them, Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and other dirty activities of the biotech giant.
Contacted by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment, but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of “public disclosure” of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a “totally separate entity from Blackwater.”
However, Scahill has copies of emails from Cofer Black after the meeting with Wilson for Monsanto, where he explains to other former CIA agents, using their Blackwater e-mails, that the discussion with Wilson was that Total Intelligence had become “Monsanto’s intelligence arm,” spying on activists and other actions, including “our people to legally integrate these groups.” Total Intelligence Monsanto paid $ 127,000 in 2008 and $ 105,000 in 2009.
No wonder that a company engaged in the “science of death” as Monsanto, which has been dedicated from the outset to produce toxic poisons spilling from Agent Orange to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides, hormones and genetically modified seeds, is associated with another company of thugs.
Almost simultaneously with the publication of this article in The Nation, the Via Campesina reported the purchase of 500,000 shares of Monsanto, for more than $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which with this action completed the outing of the mask of “philanthropy.” Another association that is not surprising.
It is a marriage between the two most brutal monopolies in the history of industrialism: Bill Gates controls more than 90 percent of the market share of proprietary computing and Monsanto about 90 percent of the global transgenic seed market and most global commercial seed. There does not exist in any other industrial sector monopolies so vast, whose very existence is a negation of the vaunted principle of “market competition” of capitalism. Both Gates and Monsanto are very aggressive in defending their ill-gotten monopolies.
Although Bill Gates might try to say that the Foundation is not linked to his business, all it proves is the opposite: most of their donations end up favoring the commercial investments of the tycoon, not really “donating” anything, but instead of paying taxes to the state coffers, he invests his profits in where it is favorable to him economically, including propaganda from their supposed good intentions. On the contrary, their “donations” finance projects as destructive as geoengineering or replacement of natural community medicines for high-tech patented medicines in the poorest areas of the world. What a coincidence, former Secretary of Health Julio Frenk and Ernesto Zedillo are advisers of the Foundation.
Like Monsanto, Gates is also engaged in trying to destroy rural farming worldwide, mainly through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa” (AGRA). It works as a Trojan horse to deprive poor African farmers of their traditional seeds, replacing them with the seeds of their companies first, finally by genetically modified (GM). To this end, the Foundation hired Robert Horsch in 2006, the director of Monsanto. Now Gates, airing major profits, went straight to the source.
Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism.
* The author is a researcher at ETC Group
– See more at: http://disinfo.com/2011/01/a-link-between-monsanto-blackwater-bill-gates/#sthash.KaFkpBoP.dpuf
Sri Lanka, Brazil, Chile, South Africa Move Against Monsanto
Like the cigarette companies, Monsanto continues to defend Roundup (Glyphosate) as safe to use, but accumulating scientific evidence shows it could be among the most dangerous products on earth.
The world’s top selling herbicide is now implicated in a series of epidemics of fatal chronic kidney disease that’s affecting poor farming regions across the world, according to research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
In Sri Lanka, 15% of the population is affected – 400,000 patients and 20,000 deaths. Therefore, the president ordered that glyphosate be banned a couple of weeks ago.
“An investigation carried out by medical specialists and scientists reveals that kidney disease is mainly caused by Glysophate. President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the immediate removal of Glyphosate from the local market soon after he heard of the contents of the report,” S.M. Chandrasena, Deputy Minister of Economic Development told reporters. He said the 25,000 people currently fighting the disease would be assisted with funds for medical expenses and clean drinking water.
The paper, Glyphosate, Hard Water and Nephrotoxic Metals: Are They the Culprits Behind the Epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in Sri Lanka?, suggests that a combination of glyphosate in areas where there are heavy metals in the drinking water can lead to the disease.
“Glyphosate acts as a carrier or a vector of these heavy metals to the kidney,” explains Dr. Channa Jayasumana, the study’s principal author.
Metals like arsenic and cadmium can be present naturally in the soil or added by spreading fertilizer. Heavy metals, glyphosate and other herbicides have been found in urine samples of kidney patients, according to health officials there.
This mysterious form of kidney disease has been killing tens of thousands of agricultural workers in Central America, Sri Lanka and India. Although it is completely treatable in wealthier countries, more people have died from it in El Salvador and Nicaragua than from diabetes, AIDS and leukemia combined over the last five years, reports Center for Public Integrity.
El Salvador also passed legislation to ban dozens of agrochemicals including glyphosate last year, but it has yet to be signed into law.
Watch these 5-minute documentaries, Mystery in the Fields and Cycle of Death for more information on this.
Brazil, Chile Move Against Monsanto
Action against glyphosate is also underway in Brazil, where the Federal Public Prosecutor is calling on the Justice Department to ban it. Other GMO herbicides are also targets: 2,4-D and active ingredients methyl parathion, lactofem, phorate, carbofuran, abamectin, tiram and paraquat, according to GMWatch.
Legal actions have been filed to compel Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) to reevaluate the toxicity of those active ingredients. The prosecutor wants the products banned until a final conclusion is reached.
The previous week, Brazil’s Federal Appeals Court unanimously ruled to cancel cultivation of Bayer’s Liberty Link GM Maize.
In Chile, locals are cheering derailment of the “Monsanto Law,” which would have allowed multinational agribusiness corporations to patent the majority of heritage seeds – which local farmers would then have to buy from them. The new center-left Chilean government withdrew the bill.
“We reject this law because it is a threat to family farms and to biodiversity,” says Lucía Sepúlveda of the Alliance for a Better Quality of Life/Pesticide Action Network of Chile. There have been massive protests against the proposed law.
Small farmers are already struggling against big agribusiness there, which exports products to the US and elsewhere. They expect the corporate lobby to reintroduce the bill.
The same is true in Colombia, where last year farmers held a strike in protest of their own Monsanto Law, which was inserted into a free trade pact with the US. Seed patenting bills are also anathema in Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico.
South Africa Pulls Deceptive Monsanto Ad
Meanwhile in South Africa, Monsanto has been ordered to pull a radio ad that touts GMO crops without substantiation.
The ad said genetically engineered crops “enable more food to be produced sustainably while using fewer resources; provide a healthier environment by using less pesticides; decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase crop yields substantially.”
Independent, credible data is required by South African law, and since Monsanto did not provide it, the ad was pulled.
“We are elated with this decision,” says Mariam Mayet, executive director of the African Centre for Biosafety, which filed the complaint. ”It appears Monsanto does not have much regard for South African law as it is hell bent on disseminating false information to the South African public.”
Alex Infohub 