Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 1. August 2011 / Timeline August 1, 2011
Version 3.508/01/2011
Norway Withdraws Jets from Libya Ops
Agence France
OSLO - Norway on Aug. 1 withdrew as planned its final four F-16
fighter jets that have been taking part in the NATO-led mission
over Libya, the Norwegian military said.
The Norwegian planes, which landed at their bases in Bodø in
the north of Norway and in Ørland in the central west of the
country, carried out 583 missions, out of a total of 6,493 flown by
NATO since March 31, and dropped 569 bombs, military spokesman
Petter Lindqvist told AFP
08/01/2011
JPMorgan Global PMI: Global Report on Manufacturing - August 1,
2011
Growth of Global Manufacturing
Sector Moves Closer to Stagnation 
The global manufacturing sector continued to cool at the start of
H2 2011. Growth of production slowed to a near standstill, as
levels of incoming new business declined slightly for the first
time in over two years.
At 50.6 in July, the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI™ fell
to its lowest level since July 2009, the first month of the ongoing
recovery. The headline PMI has signaled a substantial easing in the
overall rate of expansion since hitting a near-record high only
five months ago.
08/01/2011
National Security Archive Update, August 1, 2011
CIA Forced to release long secret official history of Bay of
Pigs invasion
National Security Archive lawsuit yields never-before-seen volumes
of Massive Study; Agency continues to withhold Volume 5
Washington, D.C., August 1, 2011 - Pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit filed
by the National Security Archive on the 50th anniversary of the
infamous CIA-led invasion of Cuba, the CIA has released four
volumes of its Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. The
Archive today posted volume 2, "Participation in the Conduct of
Foreign Policy" which contains detailed information on the CIA's
negotiations with Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Great Britain on
support for the invasion.
"These are the last remaining secret records of U.S. aggression
against Cuba," noted Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba
Documentation Project at the Archive. "The CIA has finally seen the
wisdom of letting the public scrutinize this major debacle in the
covert history of U.S. foreign policy." Kornbluh noted that the
agency was "still refusing to release volume 5 of its official
history." Volume 5 is a rebuttal to the stinging CIA's Inspector
General's report, done in the immediate aftermath of the
paramilitary assault, which held CIA officials accountable for a
wide variety of mistakes, miscalculations and deceptions that
characterized the failed invasion. The National Security Archive
obtained the declassification of the ultra-secret Inspector
General's report in 1998.
Volume 2 provides new details on the negotiations and tensions with
other countries, including Great Britain, which the CIA needed to
provide logistical and infrastructure support for the invasion
preparations. The volume describes Kennedy Administration efforts
to sustain the cooperation of Guatemala, where the main CIA-led
exile brigade force was trained, as well as the deals made with
Anastacio Somoza to gain Nicaragua's support for the invasion.
Volume 3 of the Official History was previously declassified under
the Kennedy Assassination Record Act. The Archive will post a
detailed assessment of the declassified history, along with two
other volumes tomorrow.
08/01/2011
A Republican War on the Environment
By Don Monkerud
As the nation's attention remains riveted on the GOP attempt to
downsize government by refusing to raise the national debt limit,
the party is working through the backdoor to destroy protections
for the environment.
In a study that reveals the GOP pledge to protect business
interests at all costs, the Center for Media and Democracy recently
analyzed 800 bills supported by the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC). This secretive group consists of big businesses and
conservatives who influence state legislatures around the country
to lower wages and taxes on business, and weaken environmental
protection that could crimp profits.
Undoing efforts to address climate change is a major priority of
ALEC sponsors such as Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart,
AT&T and Peabody Energy. For example, they created a model
law-State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives-that is
being introduced by state lawmakers to curb carbon reduction
mandates and overturn cap-and-trade deals.
The GOP's efforts don't stop here. Because they believe private
property should be the basis for environmental policy, owners
become the only protection for the environment. According to the
GOP, only self-regulation and a laissez-faire market can provide
protection. Toward this end, House Republicans created a rider for
the 2012 appropriations bill (H.R. 2584), consisting of items to
weaken environmental regulations by cutting funding and rolling
back rules.
While the Senate would have to confirm the changes and President Barack Obama would have
to sign the bill, it's unlikely that such changes will pass. The
bill continues to change; nevertheless, the attempt reveals GOP
plans to roll back environmental protections agreed upon by both
parties over the past 40 years. The GOP promises more jobs and
recovery from the current depression as a reward for such
actions.
"Many of us think that overregulation from the EPA (Environmental
Protection Agency) is at the heart of our stalled economy," said
Mike Simpson, Republican from Idaho. The bill cuts up to 18 percent
of the funding from the Forest Service, the Department of the
Interior and the EPA, and was voted out of committee by House
Republicans.
The bill is loaded with a promise to business to end regulation and
leaves only the profit motive to determine the use of land, water
and wildlife.
By blocking regulations the GOP would allow:
- Automobiles to stop increasing gas mileage after 2016, and allow them to spew fine particles that cause cancer into the air.
- Pesticide manufacturers to use false and misleading information on their labels, and chemical companies and agriculture to dump pesticides into the waterways.
- Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon.
- The cement industry to pump cancer-causing dust into the air.
- Increased levels of arsenic, formaldehyde and other cancer-causing
- substances in the air, soil, drinking water, and sediment, as well as allow increased ammonia emissions from power plants.
- Oil conglomerates to ignore health-based air quality standards offshore, and make it more expensive for citizens to challenge government actions regulating oil extraction companies.
- Increased storm water discharge from commercial and residential construction sites, mountaintop removal water to run off into streams, and prohibit the EPA from forcing Florida to enforce the state's Water Quality Standards.
- Increased ash from the burning of coal, and methane from manure piles.
- Lawsuits over grazing on public lands to proceed more easily,
- livestock to move freely across government grazing land, and prevent reviews of grazing permits.
- Alaskan western red and yellow cedar to be cut and sold for shipment overseas.
- Unlisted endangered animals to be hunted and killed, and wolves to be de-listed from protection.
- Endangering of bighorn sheep by allowing more livestock to graze in their habitat.
In addition, the GOP would:
- Eliminate the regulation of livestock waste runoff or disposal.
- Allow greenhouse gas producers, such as coal plants, to continue emitting for one year, and bar lawsuits during this time.
- Prohibit funding for listing or protecting any new animal species under the Endangered Species Act.
- Block any updates to the Clean Water Act, and prevent regulation of cool water intake facilities.
- Limit public appeals of Forest Service timber harvest plans.
- Provide financial breaks for mining companies, and prevent any new hard rock mining regulations.
- Allow Texas to implement its own cap-and-trade system without Federal input.
- Prevent boat inspection safety checks on the Yukon River.
- Prevent the EPA from adopting water ballast requirements that stop the intrusion of invasive species into the Great Lakes.
- Force the EPA to ignore Clean Air Rules for power plants, and ignore the public health benefits of the Clean Air Act.
- Block the designation of Federal land to be set aside as wilderness areas.
- Require detailed records to be kept and quarterly reports on any gas or oil permits not allowed.
These efforts make it clear that Republicans ignore the role of
deregulation of financial institutions that sunk the economy and
robbed millions of Americans of their jobs and their savings.
They hope voters will forget President Bush and the Republican role
in this disaster, blame the depression on Obama, and give them the
presidency in 2012. They destroyed the economy once and they can do
it again-this time taking the environment with it.
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