if there is anyone left at Seti@Home interested in anything more than rubbing salt in old wounds, beating their chest etc..... anyone interested in the 'bigger picture" , this thread offers the opportunity to post info and current events not covered by mainstream media, as well as the results of studies - environmental, psychological, whatever. please feel free to share anything of interest u come across.

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers

By A Global Exchange Report . Posted December 12, 2005.


On issues like war crimes, torture, toxic dumping and stifling freedom of speech, corporations like Coca Cola, Chevron and Philip Morris are way out ahead of the rest. !


Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human rights abuses of modern times, but it is increasingly difficult to hold them to account. Economic globalization and the rise of transnational corporate power have created a favorable climate for corporate human rights abusers, which are governed principally by the codes of supply and demand and show genuine loyalty only to their stockholders.

Several of the companies below are being sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that allows citizens of any nationality to sue in US federal courts for violations of international rights or treaties. When corporations act like criminals, we have the right and the power to stop them, holding leaders and multinational corporations alike to the accords they have signed. Around the world--in Venezuela, Argentina, India, and right here in the United States--citizens are stepping up to create democracy and hold corporations accountable to international law.

Caterpillar

For years, the Caterpillar Company has provided Israel with the bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes. Despite worldwide condemnation, Caterpillar has refused to end its corporate participation house demolition by cutting off sales of specially modified D9 and D10 bulldozers to the Israeli military.

In a letter to Caterpillar CEO James Owens, The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights said: "allowing the delivery of your ... bulldozers to the Israeli army ... in the certain knowledge that they are being used for such action, might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights..."

Peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed by a Caterpillar D-9, military bulldozer in 2003. She was run over while attempting to block the destruction a family's home in Gaza. Her family filed suit against Caterpillar in March 2005 charging that Caterpillar knowingly sold machines used to violate human rights. Since Corrie's death at least three more Palestinians have been killed in their homes by Israeli bulldozer demolitions.

Chevron

The petrochemical company Chevron is guilty of some of the worst environmental and human rights abuses in the world. From 1964 to 1992, Texaco (which transferred operations to Chevron after being bought out in 2001) unleashed a toxic "Rainforest Chernobyl" in Ecuador by leaving over 600 unlined oil pits in pristine northern Amazon rainforest and dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic production water into rivers used for bathing water. Llocal communities have suffered severe health effects, including cancer, skin lesions, birth defects, and spontaneous abortions.

Chevron is also responsible for the violent repression of peaceful opposition to oil extraction. In Nigeria, Chevron has hired private military personnel to open fire on peaceful protestors who oppose oil extraction in the Niger Delta.

Additionally Chevron is responsible for widespread health problems in Richmond, California, where one of Chevron's largest refineries is located. Processing 350,000 barrels of oil a day, the Richmond refinery produces oil flares and toxic waste in the Richmond area. As a result, local residents suffer from high rates of lupus, skin rashes, rheumatic fever, liver problems, kidney problems, tumors, cancer, asthma, and eye problems.

The Unocal Corporation, which recently became a subsidiary of Chevron, is an oil and gas company based in California with operations around the world. In December 2004, the company settled a lawsuit filed by 15 Burmese villagers, in which the villagers alleged Unocal's complicity in a range of human rights violations in Burma, including rape, summary execution, torture, forced labor and forced migration.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely recognized corporate symbol on the planet. The company also leads in the abuse of workers' rights, assassinations, water privatization, and worker discrimination. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia were killed after protesting the company's labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who are hired to intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.

In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the country's water resources. In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water, which they bottled and sold under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater was severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the local population.

Coca-Cola is also one of the most discriminatory employers in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and promotions.

Dow Chemical

Dow Chemical has been destroying lives and poisoning the planet for decades. The company is best known for the ravages and health disaster for millions of Vietnamese and U.S. Veterans caused by its lethal Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange. Dow also developed and perfected Napalm, a brutal chemical weapon that burned many innocents to death in Vietnam and other wars. In 1988, Dow provided pesticides to Saddam Hussein despite warnings that they could be used to produce chemical weapons.

In 2001, Dow inherited the toxic legacy of the worst peacetime chemical disaster in history when it acquired Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and its outstanding liabilities in Bhopal, India. On Dec. 3, 1984, a chemical leak from a UCC pesticide plant in Bhopal gassed thousands of people to death and left more than 150,000 disabled or dying. Dow still refuses to address its liabilities in Bhopal.

Dow Chemical's impact is felt globally from its Midland, Michigan headquarters to New Plymouth, New Zealand. In Midland, Dow has been producing chlorinated chemicals and burning and burying its waste including chemicals that make up Agent Orange. In New Plymouth, 500,000 gallons of Agent Orange were produced and thousands of tons of dioxin-laced waste was dumped in agricultural fields.

DynCorp

Private security contractors have become the fastest-growing sector of the global economy during the last decade--a $100-billion-a-year, nearly unregulated industry. DynCorp, one of the providers of these mercenary services, demonstrates the industry's power and potential to abuse human rights. While guarding Afghan statesmen and African oil fields, training Iraqi police forces, eradicating Colombian coca plants, and protecting business interests in hurricane-devastated New Orleans, these hired guns bolster the security of governments and organizations at the expense of many people's human rights.

DynCorp's fumigation of coca crops along the Colombian-Ecuadorian border led Ecuadorian peasants to sue DynCorp in 2001. Plaintiffs argued that DynCorp knew--or should have known--that the herbicides were highly toxic.

In 2001, a mechanic with DynCorp blew the whistle on DynCorp employees in Bosnia for rape and trading girls as young as 12 into sex slavery. According to a lawsuit filed by the mechanic, "employees and supervisors were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, [and] forged passports." DynCorp fired the whistleblower and transferred the employees accused of sex trading out of the country, eventually firing some. None were prosecuted.

Ford Motor Company

Among automakers, Ford Motor Company is the worst. Every year since 1999, the US Environmental Protection Agency has ranked Ford cars, trucks and SUVs as having the worst overall fuel economy of any American automaker. Ford's current car and truck fleet has a lower average fuel efficiency than the original Ford Model-T.

Ford is also in last place when it comes to vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. According to a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ford has "the absolute worst heat-trapping gas emissions performance of all the Big Six automakers."

Despite the company's recent greenwashing PR campaign, its record has actually worsened. According to Ford's own sustainability report, between 2003 and 2004, the company's US fleet-wide fuel economy decreased and its CO2 emissions went up. Ford has also lobbied against lawmakers' efforts to increase fuel economy standards at the national level and is also involved in a lawsuit against California's fuel economy standards.

KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root): A Subsidiary of Halliburton Corporation

KBR is a private company that provides military support services. Notorious for its questionable bookkeeping, dishonest billing practices with US taxpayer dollars and no-bid contracts, KBR has violated human rights on the U.S. dollar.

KBR's dubious accounting in Iraq came to light in December 2003 when Pentagon auditors questioned possible overcharges for imported gasoline. In June 2005, a previously secret Pentagon audit criticized $1.4 billion in "questioned" and "unsupported" expenditures. In 2002 the company paid $2 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit that accused KBR of inflating contract prices at Fort Ord, California.

Many third-country national (TCN) laborers have been hired by KBR to "rebuild" Iraq. Generally hailing from impoverished Asian countries, they have unexpectedly become part of the largest civilian workforce ever hired in support of a U.S. war. Once abroad, the workers find themselves with few protections and uncertain legal status. TCNs often sleep in crowded trailers and wait outside in scorching heat for food rations. Many lack adequate medical care and put in hard labor seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day.

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is the world's largest military contractor. Providing satellites, planes, missiles and other lethal high-tech items to the Pentagon keeps the profits rolling in. Since 2000, the year Bush was elected, the company's stock value has tripled.

As the Center for Corporate Policy (www.corporatepolicy.org) notes, it is no coincidence that Lockheed VP Bruce Jackson--who helped draft the Republican foreign policy platform in 2000--is a key player at the Project for a New American Century, the intellectual incubator of the Iraq war.

Lockheed Martin is not the only defense contractor that goes behind the scenes to influence public policy, but it is one of the worst. Stephen J. Hadley, who now has Condoleeza Rice's old job as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, was formerly a partner in a DC law firm representing Lockheed Martin. He is only one of the beneficiaries of the so-called revolving door between the military industries and the "civilian" national security apparatus. These war profiteers have a profound and illegitimate influence on our country's international policy decisions.

Monsanto

Monsanto is, by far, the largest producer of genetically engineered seeds in the world, dominating 70% to 100% of the market for crops such as soy, cotton, wheat and corn.

Monsanto is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as Roundup. Roundup is sold to small farmers as a pesticide, yet harms crops in the long run as the toxins accumulate in the soil. Plants eventually become infertile, forcing farmers to purchase genetically modified Roundup Ready Seed, a seed that resists the herbicide. This creates a cycle of dependency on Monsanto for both the weed killer and the only seed that can resist it. Both products are patented, and sold at inflated prices. Exposure to the pesticide Roundup Ultra is documented to cause cancers, skin disorders, spontaneous abortions, premature births, and damage to the gastrointestinal and nervous systems.

According to the India Committee of the Netherlands and the International Labor Rights Fund, Monsanto also employs child labor. In India, an estimated 12,375 children work in cottonseed production for farmers paid by Indian and multinational seed companies, including Monsanto.

Nestle USA

The problem of illegal and forced child labor is rampant in the chocolate industry, because more than 40% of the world's cocoa supply comes from the Ivory Coast, a country that the US State Department estimates had approximately 109,000 child laborers working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms. In 2001, Save the Children Canada reported that 15,000 children between 9 and 12 years old, many from impoverished Mali, had been tricked or sold into slavery on West African cocoa farms, many for just $30 each.

Nestle, the third largest buyer of cocoa from the Ivory Coast, is well aware of the tragically unjust labor practices taking place on the farms with which it continues to do business. Nestle and other chocolate manufacturers agreed to end the use of abusive and forced child labor on cocoa farms by July 1, 2005, but they failed to do so.

Nestle is also notorious for its aggressive marketing of infant formula in poor countries in the 1980s. Because of this practice, Nestle is still one of the most boycotted corporations in the world, and its infant formula is still controversial. In Italy in 2005, police seized more than two million liters of Nestle infant formula that was contaminated with the chemical isopropylthioxanthone (ITX).

Additionally, violations of labor rights are reported from Nestle factories in numerous countries. In Colombia, Nestle replaced the entire factory staff with lower-wage workers and did not renew the collective employment contract.

Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International (a.k.a. The Altria Group Inc.)

Among tobacco companies, Philip Morris is notorious. Now called Altria, it is the world's largest and most profitable cigarette corporation and maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Basic and many other brands of cigarettes.

Documents uncovered in a lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry by the state of Minnesota showed that Philip Morris and other leading tobacco corporations knew very well of the dangers of tobacco products and the addictiveness of nicotine. To this day, Philip Morris deceives consumers about the harm of its products by offering light, mild and low-tar cigarettes that give consumers the illusion these brands are "healthier" than traditional cigarettes.

Although the company says it doesn't want kids to smoke, it spends millions of dollars every day marketing and promoting cigarettes to youth. Overseas, it has even hired underage "Marlboro girls" to distribute free cigarettes to other children and sponsored concerts where cigarettes were handed out to minors.

As anti-tobacco campaigns and government regulations are slowing tobacco use in Western countries, Philip Morris has aggressively moved into developing country markets, where smoking and smoking-related deaths are on the rise. Preliminary numbers released by the World Health Organization predict global deaths due to smoking-related illnesses will nearly double by 2020, with more than three-quarters of those deaths in the developing world.

Pfizer

Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world; it is also one of the worst abusers of the human right of universal access to HIV/AIDS medicine.

In addition to Viagra, Zoloft, Zithromax and Norvasc, Pfizer produces the HIV/AIDS-related drugs Rescriptor, Viracept and Diflucan (fluconazole). Like other drug companies, they sell these drugs at prices poor people cannot afford and aggressively fight efforts to make it easier for generic drugs to enter the market.

Pfizer also values shareholder profits over safety standards. In Europe in 2005, it withdrew from scientific studies of a new class of AIDS drugs called CCR5 inhibitors, choosing instead to rush its own untested CCR5 inhibitor onto the European market without full information about the drug's side effects.

Suez-Lyonnaise Des Eaux (SLDE)

The privatization of water has had a disastrous impact on the human right to clean water, and the French company Suez is the worst perpetrator of this abuse. The company's billions of dollars in profit come at the expense of poor people living in countries where thousands lack access to potable water, and, because of private water contracts, are also facing skyrocketing water prices.

Suez goes by many names around the world--Ondeo, SITA and others--to mask its worldwide net of controversial activities. In Manila, Philippines, after seven years of water privatization under a Suez company (Maynilad Water) contract, studies showed that water rates increased in some neighborhoods by 400 to 700 percent. These studies also showed that the negligence of the company resulted in cholera and gastroenteritis outbreaks that killed six people and severely sickened 725 in Manila's Tondo district.

In Bolivia, a Suez company (Aguas de Illimani) left 200,000 people without access to water and caused a revolt when it tried to charge between $335 and $445 to connect a private home to the water supply. Countless people were unable to afford this charge in a country whose yearly per capita GDP is $915.

Unfortunately, the IMF and World Bank are playing a key role in pushing water privatization all over the world. Many countries have been required to open up their water supply to private companies as a condition for receiving IMF loans, and the World Bank has approved millions of dollars in loans for the privatization of water systems.

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is the biggest corporation in the world. It owns 5,100 stores worldwide and employs 1.3 million workers in the United States and 400,000 abroad, as well as millions more in the factories of its suppliers.

Many people have heard of the way that Wal-Mart steamrolls its way into every possible town, destroying local supermarkets and countless small businesses. We have also heard about Wal-Mart's long track record of worker abuse, from forced overtime to sex discrimination to illegal child labor to relentless union busting. Wal-Mart also notoriously fails to provide health insurance to over half of its employees, who are then left to rely on themselves or taxpayers, who provide for a portion of their healthcare needs through government Medicaid.

Less well known is the fact that Wal-Mart maintains its low price level by allowing substandard labor conditions at the overseas factories producing most of its goods. The company continually demands lower prices from its suppliers, who, in turn, make more outrageous and abusive demands on their workers in order to meet Wal-Mart's requirements.

In September 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of Wal-Mart supplier sweatshop workers in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Swaziland. The workers were denied minimum wages, forced to work overtime without compensation, and were denied legally mandated health care. Other worker rights violations that have been found in foreign factories that produce goods for Wal-Mart include locked bathrooms, starvation wages, pregnancy tests, denial of access to health care, and workers being fired and blacklisted if they try to defend their rights.

Visit Global Exchange to read the full report of the Most Wanted Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2005, and find out how to connect with groups that are doing something about corporate abuses.

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

Monsanto also sues North American farmers when the genetically modified seed is found growing in their field... It is easily blown around from neighboring fields but the Monsanto group has hired ex- police and security people to snoop through farmers fields without permission and then sue if they find any!

Monsanto also sues North American farmers when the genetically modified seed is found growing in their field... It is easily blown around from neighboring fields but the Monsanto group has hired ex- police and security people to snoop through farmers fields without permission and then sue if they find any!

do these cases actually hold up in court? do u know if monsato actually won such a case?

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

do these cases actually hold up in court? do u know if monsato actually won such a case?

I have no clue if the case did or didn't. BUT, it doesn't really matter, simply by raising the suit it will cost thousands for the farmer being sued. It's the same tactic used by the militant gun control lobby. It's also used by "Earth first" groups to stop development. I hate the tactic, who ever uses it.

side note: Is there a single surprise on this list? No. Are there worse offenders, why yes there are. Most major companies have 3rd world operations, and appling industrial country's standards makes all of them look bad. Child labor is a great example. We have the privilage of looking down on it, we have the privilage of believing there is something special and innocent about childhood. In many of the countries that have child labor "problems", those 12hrs working a dangerous machine in a sweatshop, is likely the safest those kids are all friggin day. Sadly it's a symptom of our standard of living, and it will continue until we are willing to pay more for less.

---

Still looking for something profound or inspirational to place here.

Monsanto also sues North American farmers when the genetically modified seed is found growing in their field... It is easily blown around from neighboring fields but the Monsanto group has hired ex- police and security people to snoop through farmers fields without permission and then sue if they find any!

do these cases actually hold up in court? do u know if monsato actually won such a case?

Just click the link:
Monsanto vs. Farmers

Monsanto also sues North American farmers when the genetically modified seed is found growing in their field... It is easily blown around from neighboring fields but the Monsanto group has hired ex- police and security people to snoop through farmers fields without permission and then sue if they find any!

do these cases actually hold up in court? do u know if monsato actually won such a case?

Just click the link:
Monsanto vs. Farmers

Thanks for that link.
Strangely, I'm not surprised at all by this.....

Monsanto also sues North American farmers when the genetically modified seed is found growing in their field... It is easily blown around from neighboring fields but the Monsanto group has hired ex- police and security people to snoop through farmers fields without permission and then sue if they find any!

Not that I'm trying to defend Monsanto, but they may sue, but they wouldn't win. It sounds more like they are simply trying to intimidate with some of these suits, because they don't have a leg to stand on. (yes, I read the link supplied below, but it says the outcomes of lawsuits are largely confidential)

If you are growing a crop from non-GMO (genetically modified) seed but your neighbor is using GMO and some seed from his crop get in yours due to wind, cross-pollination, or whatever, that is absolutely no fault of yours. This would be classified as an act of nature. If Monsanto can so easily track their 'product', it would be easy to tell by the proportion of GMO to non-GMO plants growing in your field if you had actually planted them or not. Why on earth would a farmer plant a handful (at most in this situation) of GMO seed with his non-GMO crop? It would also be easy to tell from the actual location of the GMO plants growing. They would obviously be near the property line. There would likely be costs associated with getting a third party to verify the amount of 'contamination', and you would be burdened with the cost to prove this unless you choose to countersue for the money, but it would be easily winnable. The biggest problem I see with this scenario comes from the fact that if you are advertising your crop as non-GMO (as seems to be the craze these days) and you have some GMO product mixed in, then you are misrepresenting the product and you have problems.

They also mention a farmer who unknowingly purchased GMO seed in an unmarked bag from a dealer and was being sued for one million dollars. Again, this is not his fault, but the dealers. Provided of course that he could prove it. They never actually state whether he won or lost. Simply that he had to file for bankruptcy. He might have had to file because of court costs.

Do you know that "bird flu" was discovered in Vietnam 9 years ago?
Do you know that barely 100 people have died in the whole world in
all that time?
Do you know that it was the Americans who alerted us to the
efficacy of the human antiviral TAMIFLU as a preventative?
Do you know that TAMIFLU barely alleviates some symptoms of the
common flu?
Do you know that its efficacy against the common flu is questioned
by a great part of the scientific community?
Do you know that against a SUPPOSED mutant virus such as H5N1,
TAMIFLU barely alleviates the illness?
Do you know that to date Avian Flu affects birds only?
Do you know who markets TAMIFLU?
ROCHE LABORATORIES.
Do you know who bought the patent for TAMIFLU from ROCHE
LABORATORIES in 1996?
GILEAD SCIENCES INC.
Do you know who was the then president of GILEAD SCIENCES INC.
and remains a major shareholder?
DONALD RUMSFELD, the present Secretary of Defence of the USA.
Do you know that the base of TAMIFLU is crushed aniseed?
Do you know who controls 90% of the world's production of this
tree?
ROCHE !!
Do you know that sales of TAMIFLU were over $254 million in 2004
and more than $1000 million in 2005?
Do you know how many more millions ROCHE can earn in the coming
months if the business of fear continues?
So the summary of the story is as follows:
Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution
for a pandemic that has not yet occurred and that has caused a
hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years.
This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu.
In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans.
Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay
him a fortune.
Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed,
the base for the antivirus.
The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then
buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche.
So we end up paying for medicine while Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush do
the business.

Monsanto also sues North American farmers when the genetically modified seed is found growing in their field... It is easily blown around from neighboring fields but the Monsanto group has hired ex- police and security people to snoop through farmers fields without permission and then sue if they find any!

Not that I'm trying to defend Monsanto, but they may sue, but they wouldn't win. It sounds more like they are simply trying to intimidate with some of these suits, because they don't have a leg to stand on. (yes, I read the link supplied below, but it says the outcomes of lawsuits are largely confidential)

If you are growing a crop from non-GMO (genetically modified) seed but your neighbor is using GMO and some seed from his crop get in yours due to wind, cross-pollination, or whatever, that is absolutely no fault of yours. This would be classified as an act of nature. If Monsanto can so easily track their 'product', it would be easy to tell by the proportion of GMO to non-GMO plants growing in your field if you had actually planted them or not. Why on earth would a farmer plant a handful (at most in this situation) of GMO seed with his non-GMO crop? It would also be easy to tell from the actual location of the GMO plants growing. They would obviously be near the property line. There would likely be costs associated with getting a third party to verify the amount of 'contamination', and you would be burdened with the cost to prove this unless you choose to countersue for the money, but it would be easily winnable. The biggest problem I see with this scenario comes from the fact that if you are advertising your crop as non-GMO (as seems to be the craze these days) and you have some GMO product mixed in, then you are misrepresenting the product and you have problems.

They also mention a farmer who unknowingly purchased GMO seed in an unmarked bag from a dealer and was being sued for one million dollars. Again, this is not his fault, but the dealers. Provided of course that he could prove it. They never actually state whether he won or lost. Simply that he had to file for bankruptcy. He might have had to file because of court costs.

I know of two farmers personally (they were neighbors) who are still tied up in court because of these frivolous lawsuits...

Although the Monsanto people may not win the case they eventually win by tying up the farmer's resources and time in ridiculous court fees and hearings.

Do you know that "bird flu" was discovered in Vietnam 9 years ago?
Do you know that barely 100 people have died in the whole world in
all that time?
Do you know that it was the Americans who alerted us to the
efficacy of the human antiviral TAMIFLU as a preventative?
Do you know that TAMIFLU barely alleviates some symptoms of the
common flu?
Do you know that its efficacy against the common flu is questioned
by a great part of the scientific community?
Do you know that against a SUPPOSED mutant virus such as H5N1,
TAMIFLU barely alleviates the illness?
Do you know that to date Avian Flu affects birds only?
Do you know who markets TAMIFLU?
ROCHE LABORATORIES.
Do you know who bought the patent for TAMIFLU from ROCHE
LABORATORIES in 1996?
GILEAD SCIENCES INC.
Do you know who was the then president of GILEAD SCIENCES INC.
and remains a major shareholder?
DONALD RUMSFELD, the present Secretary of Defence of the USA.
Do you know that the base of TAMIFLU is crushed aniseed?
Do you know who controls 90% of the world's production of this
tree?
ROCHE !!
Do you know that sales of TAMIFLU were over $254 million in 2004
and more than $1000 million in 2005?
Do you know how many more millions ROCHE can earn in the coming
months if the business of fear continues?
So the summary of the story is as follows:
Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution
for a pandemic that has not yet occurred and that has caused a
hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years.
This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu.
In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans.
Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay
him a fortune.
Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed,
the base for the antivirus.
The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then
buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche.
So we end up paying for medicine while Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush do
the business.

Also don't forget Rumsfeld and Aspartame/Nutrasweet.

Although the Monsanto people may not win the case they eventually win by tying up the farmer's resources and time in ridiculous court fees and hearings.

And Monsanto couldn't give a toss about their expenses because it all comes out of their 'big business' budgets.....

And Monsanto couldn't give a toss about their expenses because it all comes out of their 'big business' budgets.....

They already pay the staff lawyers whether they raise these suits or not. Filling is a drop in the bucket to them, honestly they should be brought up under the RICO act. The courts should immediately dismiss the cases with a summery ruling that Monsanto pay all of the farmers expenses. Their using the courts as a player in their protection skeem.

---

Still looking for something profound or inspirational to place here.

here's a story of about a court case involving one of the other companies mentioned - in this case the company was sued.

Corrie v. Caterpillar: The Struggle for Justice Continues
Emily Schaeffer and Garrett Wright, The Electronic Intifada, 16 March 2006



The killing of American activist Rachel Corrie on March 16, 2003, brought home the horrific realities of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Fearing that a U.S. war in Iraq would spur an increase in Israeli violence, Rachel, a 23-year-old Olympia, WA native, chose to spend her winter quarter at Evergreen State College with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip located along the border with Egypt. The ISM is a nonviolent movement based in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which brings human rights activists from around the world to join in solidarity with Palestinians resisting the effects of the Israeli military occupation.

In spring of 2003, many ISM activists were concentrated in the Gaza Strip in response to the launching of a widespread home demolition campaign in Rafah. Claiming that the Egyptian border city served as a conduit for interstate weapons smuggling, Israel began destroying hundreds of homes to clear a "seam zone" along the border. On March 16, 2003, convinced that the destruction of the homes of innocent people could never be justified, Rachel stood nonviolently between Dr. Samir Masri's family home and a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. Rachel wore a bright orange coat and pleaded through a megaphone for the soldiers to halt the demolition. The bulldozer did not stop, but instead drove over Rachel, crushing her body to death beneath its blade and wheels.

An Israeli criminal investigation into her death concluded that Rachel was killed by the rubble produced by the bulldozer and found no fault with the soldier operating the D9. However, eyewitnesses state that the operator indeed saw Rachel and intentionally plowed over her. Since 1967 the Israeli military has destroyed at least 10,000 Palestinian homes and left approximately 50,000 homeless. During the second Intifada, an estimated 2,370 Palestinian homes have been destroyed and several inhabitants killed in the Gaza Strip alone.

Contrary to statements made by the Israeli government, the majority of home demolitions are carried out for administrative and strategic purposes, such as seizing land for the separation wall and building more Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Last March, Rachel's parents filed civil suit against the Caterpillar corporation in a Washington federal district court, claiming that the corporation knowingly aided and abetted Israeli war crimes and human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages and an order to enjoin Caterpillar sales of bulldozers until Israel stops its practice of home demolitions.

The Corries were joined in the complaint by five Palestinian families whose relatives were killed or wounded during home demolitions in which Caterpillar bulldozers were used. Caterpillar bulldozers have been used regularly by the Israeli military since the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, modifying them for military purposes by outfitting them with armor plating and weaponry such as machine guns and grenade launchers.

With the rising number of home demolitions over the past five years, American and international activists, concerned consumers, and several churches have urged Caterpillar to cease providing the Israeli military with bulldozers for home demolitions. The corporation has consistently defended its sales decisions on the grounds that it is not liable for what Israel chooses to do with Caterpillar products. There are many reasons why Caterpillar should be held responsible for its conduct.

Similar to the concepts of accomplice and "aiding and abetting" liability in American criminal law, international law considers complicity in human rights violations a crime. For instance, the Nuremberg Principles, which came out of the World War II war crimes tribunal, provide a strong legal basis for holding corporations accountable when they enable states to commit human rights abuses. In continuing to sell its bulldozers to the Israeli military, Caterpillar is directly profiting from gross human rights violations. It also makes good business sense for corporations to hold themselves out as strong defenders of human rights.

Corporate accountability is not a new concept. Since the early 1970s, more and more attention has been paid by consumers to the environmental, labor and human rights records of businesses. In response, many multinational corporations have adopted voluntarily codes of conduct and agreed not to conduct business with human rights abusing governments such as South Africa and Northern Ireland. Similarly, Caterpillar should make a commitment to consumers to stop supplying Israel with equipment used to commit international human rights violations. Unfortunately, these codes of conduct are self-imposed and self-enforced, leaving it to private citizens to pressure corporations to protect human rights at home and abroad. Fortunately, a national campaign against Caterpillar's support of the Israeli occupation and home demolitions is gaining momentum.

At the same time, a growing number of Caterpillar's shareholders are demanding that the corporation stop selling bulldozers to the Israeli military. And although the first stage of the Caterpillar lawsuit was not successful, the Corries and the Palestinian families are currently appealing the court's decision. Because this is a relatively new legal frontier, the plaintiffs may be facing an uphill battle. However, as the public's demand for corporate accountability increases, there is hope that multinational corporations will take steps to ensure that their products do not fuel h

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

It just goes to show that big corporations will eventually do us all in...


http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/index.php

http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto

A Father Speaks Out Against the Iraq War

By Paul Rockwell, In Motion Magazine. Posted June 17, 2006.


Imagine losing your child in a war based on lies and misinformation. On Father's Day, Fernando Suarez del Solar remembers his son.

His buddies in the Marines called him the "Aztec warrior." Jesus Suarez del Solar was one of the first Americans killed during in invasion of Iraq. On March 27, 2003 Jesus stepped on an undetonated U.S. cluster bomb and bled to death in a remote desert near Diwaniya. Jesus left behind his wife and 1-year-old son, his mother, three sisters, and a father who now speaks out against the occupation of Iraq. As a representative of Military Families Speak Out, a burgeoning organization of 1,500 families who call for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Fernando Juarez tells high school and college students: Stay in school; don't be deceived by false promises from recruiters for Bush.

Fernando Suarez del Solar is a Mexican-born American citizen. With his wife and children, he immigrated from Tijuana, Mexico, to Escondido, California, where he delivered newspapers and worked at a Seven-Eleven store.

Paul Rockwell: How did your son lose his life in Iraq?

Fernando Suarez: On March 26th the army dropped cluster bombs outside a city. The next day my son's unit received orders to advance into the area. That's when he stepped on a cluster bomb.

Rockwell: Cluster bomb are anti-personnel weapons, with a failure rate of 15 to 20 percent. When they lie unexploded on the ground, like mines, they look like beer cans and are easy to step on. Did his commanders inform Jesus about cluster bomb drops in the area?

Suarez: He never received any information about the drop.

Rockwell: Was that a mistake, an exception to overall policy? Does the military put out fliers or warnings about cluster bombs in the area?

Suarez: No. What happened was, after my son was killed, the military in the area began to pay more attention. They publicized the accident.

Rockwell: I guess the Iraqi civilians, like kids playing in the fields, didn't get any warnings about left-over clusters?

Suarez: That's right.

Rockwell: How did your son get involved in the military?

Suarez: My son was in Mexico. Along the border there are military recruiters. My son told the recruiter he hoped to join the police in Tijuana. The recruiter said: "Don't join the Mexican police. It's dangerous for you in the police department in Tijuana. It's safer for you to join the Marine Corps."

In 1997 we moved from Tijuana to San Diego, where Jesus wanted to finish high school. That's where he joined the military.

Rockwell: Did the recruiters deceive Jesus?

Suarez: The military promised Jesus to provide money for school. They said Jesus would get $1,000 a month for school, but the recruiter never explained where the money comes from. When Jesus finished boot camp, he became very upset. He told me: "The recruiter said I am going to receive $1,000 every month. I only get $620."

So I talked with the recruiter. He explained, "Yes, you receive $1,000 a month, minus money for the scholarship, minus $100 for the uniform -- minus, minus, minus."

Rockwell: I understand that the military is recruiting youth from the Philippines, from Mexico, people of color in the Third World. Was your son living in Mexico when he was contacted?

Suarez: Yes. When he came to San Diego he had a green card.

Rockwell: Where do recruiters contact young people?

Suarez: On the border there are lots of recruiting offices. Last year, around October, this one recruiter crossed the border into Mexico and recruited young boys from a school in Mexico.

Rockwell: He went into a Mexican school to get sign-ups for the U.S. military?

Suarez: Yes.

Rockwell: What kind of promises did he make?

Suarez: According to what I heard, the recruiters say, "You can go to the U.S.A. and enter high school and enter a military program in high school." They say to the kids, "I can help you with the papers."

Rockwell: What do you think about recruiting kids from Mexico for U.S. wars?

Suarez: If they can use Hispanic people, Anglo-Americans don't have to be used. They want to use Hispanic boys in the war.

Rockwell: You mean they are trying to substitute Hispanic kids so that Anglo-Americans do not have to risk their lives?

Suarez: Exactly. They offer education and a formal offer of citizenship. That's not all. Here in the U.S. they recruit kids in the barrios. They contact them when they are 14, 15 years old. And they say to our kids, "It's not a problem you do not have papers. You can enter the program and we will help you with the papers and immigration. You just need to do well in school and our program."

This in my opinion is very immoral. There are a lot of high schools in the Mexican barrio where recruiters are recruiting. The recruiter has an open door. It's a big problem.

Rockwell: Do you feel betrayed by the Bush Administration?

Suarez: The Bush Administration lied about the war. They lied to my son. They lied about weapons of mass destruction. They lied about Iraq and September 11th. And they lie about other things.

Bush said, "I put in a lot of time to support families who lost members in the war." This is another lie. Mr. Bush never contacted me, never supported me, never supported my family. This is a lie.

We have a lot of contact with parents, parents who have boys in Iraq. They are very upset with this war and Mr. Bush. My feeling is Mr. Bush uses the boys for personal reasons, to get family revenge on Saddam. Bush has no idea about what is happening in Iraq. He never went to Vietnam. He has no good plan for what is to happen. He never provides humanitarian help for the civilian people. Thousands and thousands of civilians died. The children now have no help in the hospital. The ordinary Iraqi people say stop. You don't give me freedom. And it's not terrorist groups who are attacking Americans. It's the regular, ordinary civilian people.

In December 2003, Fernando Suarez traveled to Iraq. He visited the site where his son died, and he brought back thousands of letters of peace from Iraqi children. "My heart goes out to the soldiers, many of whom come from poor communities and joined the military as a way to get an education," he says. "Then they find themselves sent off to a faraway land where they are exposed to death every day, with their families suffering back home -- all for the whims and lies of President Bush. I support the troops, but I don't support the Commander-in-Chief."

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/index.php

http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

thanks for the links :-)

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

[quote]It just goes to show that big corporations will eventually do us all in...
quote]

i don't know jennifer - the link u provided on the fight against caterpillar does give some hope. the stockholders are feeling some pressure - if public pressure becomes strong enough, and the financial squeeze tight enough, change will occur. not because they suddenly 'see the light' and want to do what's right, but because it's cost effective. we as consumers have tremendous power. we just aren't organized and don't have the resources big corporations have.

---

people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

The naivete in this thread is appalling.

Did you ever consider the other side of these stories?

--Farmers can and do steal from Monsanto and U.S. law requires that if they want to keep their IP rights, they must defend them. They have no other choice than court. And yes, it is brually expensive for them as well.

--Ms. Corrie was stupid enough to play chicken with 50 tons of bulldozer and someone often loses that game. Guess what, I would have bet on the D9. But blaming Cat is just irrational. I don't blame my pencil or keyboard for spelling errors and I don't give credit to the bat for Barry Bonds' home runs. It isn't Cat's fault that some idiot lay down in in front of one.

The world is a complex place and suggesting that complex problems such as the issue between Palestinians and Israelis can be solved by suing an American heavy equipment manufacturer implies utter impotence and an unwillingness to do little more than armchair quarterbacking.

---

Cordially,
Rush

elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com
Remove the obvious...

Do you think that Caterpillar is the only manufacturer of bulldozers. There are dozens of bulldozer manufacturers out there around the world. Do you think that any of them force their customers to disclose how they are going to use their equipment. No one has complained about the Japanese bulldozers used by Robert Mugabe's government to trash thousands of poor peoples homes.

I've heard many people complain about Walmart then they go shop there including so called activists.

Get real... :)

---

Account frozen...