Britannia Radio

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk

1. WikiLeaks' 10 Greatest Stories (To Date)

WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website, is preparing to release 400,000 files on the Iraq war in a publication that promises to eclipse the release in the summer of 70,000 classified US military files on the Afghanistan conflict. Here are 10 previous high-profile leaks. From the Iraq Apache helicopter attack, Guantanamo Bay operating procedures, Climate Research Unit emails, the Australian internet blacklist, British National Party (fascist) membership to the 9/11 pager data et al, at WikiLeaks they help you safely get the truth out.
Tom Chivers, Daily Telegraph

2. WikiLeaks Edition: How Propaganda Is Disseminated

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
This is how the U.S. government and American media jointly disseminate propaganda: in the immediate wake of some newsworthy War on Terror event, U.S. Government officials (usually anonymous) make wild and reckless -- though unverifiable -- claims. The U.S. media mindlessly trumpets them around the world without question or challenge. Those claims become consecrated as widely accepted fact. And then weeks, months or years later, those claims get quietly exposed as being utter falsehoods, by which point it does not matter, because the goal is already well-achieved: the falsehoods are ingrained as accepted truth. The effort to smear WikiLeaks is a by-product not only of anger over past disclosures, but fear of future ones as well. Whatever else is true about this latest release (and future leaks by WikiLeaks as well), substantially greater caution is obviously warranted when assessing and repeating Pentagon accusations about the damage caused by these new d ocuments and the supposed recklessness of WikiLeaks in releasing them. But that is unlikely to happen. If our established media is governed by any overarching principle, it's this: when the U.S. military speaks, its pronouncements -- especially in the beginning -- are to be respected, believed and repeated without question or challenge no matter how many times that deference proves to be unwarranted.
Glen Greenwald, Salon
Related Links:
* WikiLeaks And Hacktivist Culture
Peter Ludlow, The Nation

3. Double-Life Science Media Centre Director Fiona Fox Made Fake Call For Disgraced Politician

Double-life SMC Director Fiona Fox makes fake call in
support of ex-MP Jim Devine, facing a criminal trial
(Caption & Pic Courtesy Of One Click)
Fiona Fox, the Director of Britain's pro-GM Science Media Centre, is in the news. It's as a result of the disgraced former Labour politician Jim Devine being ordered to pay his former office manager 35,000 pounds in damages after she won an employment tribunal claim against him. Devine is already facing a criminal trial over allegations he fiddled his expenses as an MP. A key part of Devine's former office manager's case centred around a hoax call. The telephone call was made to the office manager by a friend of Devine posing as a journalist looking into MPs' expenses. Eventually the office manager realised the call had been a hoax. But this was only after she came across an e-mail to Devine marked urgent from Fiona Fox, Director of the Science Media Centre. The e-mail was mostly about the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill but at the end was a PS referring to the hoax call Fox had made to Devine's office manager. Fox's involvement in the Devine hoax has not gone unnoticed in science communication circles. Fiona Fox is the director of the Science Media Centre (SMC). Despite having no previous background in science or science communication, Fox has been afforded, since her appointment in December 2001, the status of expert... Within a matter of months of Fox becoming director, the SMC was embroiled in controversy over its activities. It was accused of operating as 'a sort of Mandelsonian rapid rebuttal unit' and of employing 'some of the clumsiest spin techniques of New Labour'. There have also been controversies about both the SMC's funding and Fox's background. Fox leads a double life that connects the SMC's director to the inner circles of a political network that compares environmentalists to Nazis and eulogises GM crops and cloning. More disturbingly it is a network whose members have a long history of infiltrating media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network that has targeted certain media organisations and sought to discredit them or their journalists.
Information Release, GM Watch
Related Links:
* Employment tribunal hears of bizarre hoax phone call
Ian Sample, The Guardian

4. Experts Admit Swine Flu Vaccine Linked To Killer Nerve Disease

Health chiefs have for the first time acknowledged that the swine flu jab may be linked to an increased risk of developing a deadly nerve condition. Experts are examining a pos sible association between the controversial jab and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, according to a report from official watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Previously, the Government has always stressed there is no evidence to link the paralysing condition to the H1N1 vaccine. After The Mail on Sunday revealed in August 2009 that doctors were being asked to monitor cases of GBS during the swine flu pandemic, a letter from the Health Protection Agency’s chief executive Justin McCracken stated: ‘There is no evidence to suggest an increased risk of GBS from the vaccines being developed to fight the current pandemic.’ Now the MHRA’s newly published report suggests the Government’s position has changed. It is not known prec isely what causes GBS but the condition attacks the lining of the nerves, leaving them unable to transmit signals to muscles effectively. It can cause partial paralysis and mostly affects the hands and feet – but it can be fatal.
Jo MacFarlane, Daily Mail

5. Be Wary Of Rolling Up Sleeves For Flu Vaccine Cocktail

I read the Journal story about the new flu cocktail that includes the seasonal and the H1N1 vaccines. This is the one that had inconclusive clinical trials (as reported) but was foisted on the public for timing reasons -- apparently Health Canada was ill-prepared for the H1N1 flu and brought the vaccination to the public without completing its trials. When the lineups ended, so did the rush to the clinics and now the provincial government and the federal government have huge supplies of last year's vaccine. So to get rid of it, they're mixing it in with the seasonal vaccinations. Yes this is the vaccine that has inconclusive clinical trials that they're dumping on to the public simply to get rid of it. The public should be very wary of this and ask a lot of questions before they roll up their sleeves.
Nick Palliser, St. Albert, Edmonton Journal

6. Doctors Catch Whooping Cough - Vaccine Not Working

Two more Women's and Children's Hospital doctors have been confirmed with whooping cough in Adelaide. The hospital says the doctors have contracted the infection despite keeping their vaccinations up to date. Dr Brian Wheatley, from the hospital, concedes vaccination is not always effective.
ABC News

7. Drugs Cause The Very Problems They Are Supposed To Prevent

In the past month, the Food and Drug Administration has concluded that in some cases two types of drugs that were supposed to be preventing serious medical problems were, in fact, causing them. One is bisphosphonates, which is widely used to prevent the fractures, especially of the hip and spine that are common in people with osteoporosis. The other is Avandia, which is widely prescribed for diabetics, whose disease puts them at risk for heart attacks and heart failure. “The basic underlying theme is that we don’t have good long-term safety indices for common chronic diseases that we are treating with major drugs,” said Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, director of the Maine Center for Osteoporosis Research. Dr. Jason Karlawish, a University of Pennsylvania ethicist who studies the ways new treatments are developed and disseminated, favors the development of a national electronic drug database that would reveal drug use and complicat ions. In the meantime, Dr. Karlawish said, he could not help marvelling at the paradox of drugs causing what they were supposed to prevent.“This is priceless,” he said.
Gina Kolata, The New York Times

8. Pharma Purposefully Misleads The Public Over Drugs Trials

While drugs should undergo various tests before receiving approval in Europe, pharmaceuticals often mislead consumers and authorities by not publishing the results. According to an article published in the British Medical Journal, pharmaceuticals only publish the positive points of the trial. The publication bias overestimates the benefits of many medications. While reboxetine is used in various European countries, the US drug regulators have rejected the drug, raising doubts over the effectiveness of the drug. In this regard, a German team revealed that various publications have failed to report all the positive and negative effects of reboxetine, an antidepressant drug claimed to be completely effective by Pfizer. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was also criticized for failing to inform the consumers about possible suicidal behaviors linked with its antidepressant, Seroxat. The company also defended itself against allegations on hiding negative information on its diabetes drug, Avandia. "Our findings underline the urgent need for mandatory publication of trial data," authors concluded, stressing that that pharmaceutical companies must publish all data pertaining to a new drug not just their positive findings.
PRESS TV

9. Boy Hides From UK Social Workers In The Jungle

Mother and child are often torn apart
by UK system of child protection
Of all the stories I have covered about zealous social workers seizing children from loving parents without cause, none is more bizarre than the one that looked as though it would be concluded in the High Court last Friday. After London social workers had spent thousands of pounds vainly trying to track down, in the Ugandan jungle, a four-year-old boy who had evaded their clutches, the council indicated that it wished to close the case. But in a last minute twist, the judge gave the social workers three more months to find the child – so the story hasn’t yet got a happy ending. The boy’s mother is a Ugandan Catholic who has lived in Britain for more than 20 years, has degrees in IT and finance from two London universities, and has held down good jobs. Six years ago, however, she was temporarily homeless with a young daughter. She appealed for help to the social workers of the borough where she then lived. She was told she could put her l ittle girl in foster care, but could be given no help herself. When she refused to hand over her child, a care order was made on the grounds of the mother’s “neglect”. The mother was arrested at work, in front of her shocked colleagues, by six policemen, one armed with a pistol, and held in custody so her daughter could be seized. With court approval, the social workers then gave the girl to her father, despite the fact that he had a criminal record and was HIV positive. Three years later, with a new partner, the mother had a son. Since she was on a register, the social workers where she now lived wanted to seize the child, but she left hospital a day before the papers arrived and they lost the trail. For three years the little boy lived happily with his parents, until last year the social workers of a third council caught up with her and began asking questions. Fearful that he would be seized, she took her son to Uganda to live with her family. Only six months later did the council serve papers with the court.
Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph

10. Happy Ending For Mother & Child Abused By Fife Social Services

Laughing in the autumn sunshine, a baby boy takes his first wobbly steps along a sandy beach. His delighted and attentive mother offers a safe pair of arms as his proud father captures the moment with his camera. It is a touching scene that any parent would recognise. But it is particularly precious for Kerry Robertson and her new husband Mark McDougall. Kerry, you may remember, is the slender brunette whose wedding was dramatically halted a year ago by Fife social services because they judged her too ‘stupid’ to understand the vows. Four months later, the social services struck again. As Kerry breast-fed her three-day-old son Ben, council officials who feared she lacked the intelligence to be a good mother came into the maternity ward and took the child into care. Already banned from marrying, Kerry, 18, and Mark, 26, were forced to leave the hospital without their newborn son. Today, however, we can reveal that they have been reunited with t heir little boy and are now both living with him for the first time since he was born. The authorities in Ireland, where they fled before the birth in the hope that they could keep their baby, have agreed that Ben can indeed stay with his parents.
Alison Smith Squire, Mail On Sunday

11. New Film On Codex Alimentarius Outlines Vital Role Of National Health Federation

(Los Angeles) In his latest film, international award-winning filmmaker Kevin P. Miller (The Promised Land, Generation RX) examines the possibilities of a future where international government bureaucracies like the WTO and Codex Alimentarius — working in league with multinational corporations, control the food and medicine supply worldwide. “SHADOWS OF THE FUTURE was produced to help consumers understand the threat Codex standards and ‘guidelines’ present to them,” Mr. Miller explained. "People need to know how 'Free Trade' deals with the WTO have tied us into a strange bureaucratic alliance, and how it imposes restrictions on our lives and freedoms." In this 10-minute film, Miller outlines why the Codex Alimentarius Commission, working under the auspices of the United Nations and the Food and Agricultural Organization, has become such a dangerous and bureaucratic nightmare and tha t there is an organization they can trust to fight on their behalf. “By supporting the vital work being performed by the National Health Federation at the actual Codex meetings, consumers can aid the NHF as they truly do speak to power. NHF is the only health-freedom organization at Codex that is promoting medical freedom of choice, all the while they combat the deceitful agendas that Big Food and Big Pharma are pursuing through Codex Alimentarius. And they are doing so in clear public view before the World,” Miller says.
Press Release, National Health Federation

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk