by Daan de Wit , translated by Ben Kearney

The initial enthusiasm for the dynamic approach of the Swine Flu by virologist Ab Osterhaus and Dutch Minister Ab Klink has given rise to criticism. Also beyond The Netherlands the question is being raised over whether the large-scale acquisition of vaccines made sense. The Council of Europe began an investigation into this question last Tuesday. Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt is the vice chairman of the commission carrying out the investigation and says in an NOS radio broadcast: 'A number of members of the Council of Europe have expressed exceptionally harsh criticism of the World Health Organization and are asking themselves out loud whether drug manufacturers had too much influence in this decision'.

'The commission appointed [...] a special investigator to look into the ties between the WHO and the drug industry. According to critical Euro-MP's, conflicts of interest are the only logical explanation for the all-out alarm', wrote Tubantia on Wednesday. Goverments have stocked up on 12 billion euros worth of anti-flu medication, the paper writes.

'False pandemic'

'The German chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council [of Europe, Social Democratic Party member and doctor], Wolfgang Wodarg, is calling the declaration of the 'false pandemic' one of the biggest medical scandals of this century', wrote De Telegraaf earlier this month in the run up to the investigation and emergency debate. 'The text of a motion for resolution, which will likely receive the support of the vast majority of the 47 countries during the next emergency debate, has that same extremely critical spirit. The resolution states among other things that millions of healthy people worldwide have been needlessly exposed to the unknown side-effects of flu vaccines that were not sufficiently tested'.

by Daan de Wit, translated by Ben Kearney

On June 11, 2009 Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the WHO, declared the Swine Flu a pandemic. That's the highest phase - phase 6. It's the first worldwide flu pandemic in 41 years. 'Swine flu will be biggest pandemic ever, warns world health chief'. She also said: 'Based on past experience, this pandemic will be with us for some months, if not years, to come'. Chan's June 11th declaration is one that comes with great consequences.

The declaration of phase six means that emergency procedures are put into motion which bypass established systems designed to safeguard the public health. The result of this is described in part six of this DeepJournal series on the Swine Flu. Conclusion: the vaccine is being tested while being administered to the public. The definition of what a pandemic is, is therefore of great import.

WHO alters definition of pandemic

In her June 11th declaration Chan said that she had come to her decision to declare a pandemic because 'on the basis of available evidence, and these expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met'. What she didn't say was that the WHO had previously adjusted the criteria for a pandemic downward. In May the headline of a small Reuters article read: 'WHO rethinks criteria for Phase 6 pandemic flu'.

by Normon Solomon

At the Santa Rosa Democratic Club meeting on 1/27/10, we watched Obama's State of the Union address, then listened to Norman Solomon and George Lakoff ... Here is Solomon's summation of some points of his speech and his work, that we are deceived as a means to get us into wars, and don't understand the real costs. If we knew the truth, we would see that the wars we are in would come to an end ASAP.

by Sherwood Ross

The Obama administration’s pact to use seven Colombian military bases accelerates “a dangerous trend in U.S. hemispheric policy,” an article in The Nation magazine warns.

The White House claims the deal merely formalizes existing military cooperation but the Pentagon’s 2009 budget request said it needed funds to improve one of the bases in order to conduct “full spectrum operations throughout South America” and to “expand expeditionary warfare capability.”

“With a hodgepodge of treaties and projects, such as the International Law Enforcement Academy and the Merida Initiative, Obama is continuing the policies of his predecessors, spending millions to integrate the region’s military, policy, intelligence and even, through Patriot Act-like legislation, judicial systems,” writes historian Greg Grandin, a New York University professor.

Although much of Latin America is in the vanguard of the “anti-corporate and anti-militarist global democracy movement,” Grandin writes, the Obama administration is “disappointing potential regional allies by continuing to promote a volatile mix of militarism and free-trade orthodoxy in a corridor running from Mexico to Colombia.” Grandin’s article in The Nation’s February 8th issue is titled, “Muscling Latin America.”

by Zahir Ebrahim

Subject Re: International Criminal Court Complaint Filed Against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice, Gonzales By Prof. Francis A. Boyle

Dear Dr. Francis Boyle:

In reference to your complaint filed with the ICC against the previous errand-boys who occupied the White House, would it be rude to notice that the higher order bits of using 911 to “goosestep the herrenvolk across international frontiers” ; the subsequent “shock and awe” visitations upon largely civilian population-centers and civilian infrastructures ; the decimation of millions of Iraqis/Afghanis ; subverting of the United States into a pre-planned police-state ; fabricating crises upon crises to propose pre-planned solutions in order to systematically usurp national sovereignty as per the diabolical modus operandi set by the Council on Foreign Relations in their own documents: “In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up, rather than from the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.” – have all been overlooked to pursue the relatively lower order crimes of “extraordinary rendition” upon a few individuals with the highly dubious statement: “I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men.” ?

And, as always, the American people are resilient, industrious folks living in Norman Rockwell’s world: …they remain busy building cars and teaching kids, starting businesses and going back to school. They're coaching Little League and helping their neighbors. …I have never been more hopeful about America's future than I am tonight. Are we living in the same country here, guy? But shsssh! At last! He’s talking the economy.

My man is gonna get down and grit with the peeps. Talk some real meat here. It all begins with our economy. Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis. Wait, back up there big fella. Why? It was not easy to do. And if there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. That kicked off my little inner, the bullshit detector, the one that speaks in translative tongue. And the translation was: However, we of both parties all asked ourselves, do we really have the ass to take on the big money? The guys who pave the campaign trail with the bucks? No way Jose!

Obama has 69 press aides to respond to media questions, increasingly from cable news which is growing in influence. Auletta cites a Pew poll last July that found 40 percent of Americans get their national and international news from cable. He writes with the collapse of mass audiences for broadcast television “networks like Fox News and MSNBC have sought niche markets, in the process shedding all but the pretense of impartiality.”