REMAINDERS

Tyson Meat Packers CEO headed to Canadian prison?: Canadian Parliament finds the Big 3 Canadian meat packers in contempt, for failure to turn over records connected to the parliamentary investigation into the use of funds given out to help farmers affected by the Mad Cow scare. There are allegations that the funds were almost entirely ‘diverted’ into the coffers of these 3 companies, Cargill Foods (owned by US giant Cargill Inc.), Lakeside Packers (owned by US giant Tyson Foods), and Levinoff Meats. If they don’t comply quickly, the government says the CEOs and other executives will be arrested and could face major jail sentences. The entire North American meat packing industry is widely reputed to be one of the most corrupt oligopolies in the world.

Right-Wingers in the US Government block morning-after pill: Despite recommendations to the contrary from its medical advisors and the FDA, the Bush Administrating has prohibited the manufacturers of morning-after pills over the counter in the US. The pill, called ‘Plan B’ and issued by Barr Labs, was approved by a vote of 23-4 for non-prescription use by the FDA’s advisory board, but the Bush Administration intervened, overruled the approval and strong-armed the FDA to prohibit over-the-counter sale of the pills. The advisory group immediately complained of ‘political interference’ that was not in the best interests of consumers.

Genocide continues unabated in Sudan: UN agency Human Rights Watch again warned that government genocide against non-Arab tribes in Southern and Western Sudan is accelerating, and called for humanitarian intervention. The situation, where whole villages are being razed, community members systematically raped and murdered, and over a million left homeless, with tens of thousands fleeing to neighbouring countries, is every bit as bad as the situation in Saddam’s Iraq, and as dangerous as the situation in Rwanda just before nearly a million were slaughtered in 1994.

9/11: The story of what really happened remains buried: Flemming Funch, like me, is no conspiracy theorist, but he reminds us that, in searching for the truth about whether Bush did know, or should have known and prevented, 9/11, we seem to have forgotten that the circumstances of how the attack occurred remain as implausible and unexplained as the explanation of why it wasn’t stopped. The mystery of the third collapsed building, the inexplicable collapse of both towers in their entirety, the strange movement of airline stocks in the days before 9/11, and other mysteries still cry out for explanation.