USAF C-17 transport from Vandenburg Air Force Base, in California, has left for Japan loaded with 17 tons of boric acid.
The boric acid is from the stock pile at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California. It’s to be used on the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
People living in parts of Fukushima Prefecture have been told not to drink tap water. Japanese officials say the radiation levels in the water are now higher that government safety limits.
The confusion comes from Japanese officials also saying that there is no immediate health risk from drinking the water.
Already, oil trading in Europe has seen oil prices jump $2.00 per barrel since Friday.
It is due to the attacks on Libya.
In a CNNMoney survey 16 out 23 leading economists say rising oil prices are the number one threat to any economic recovery.
Interestingly The Federal Reserve showed little concern over rising oil/fuel prices during its March 15 meeting.
Belgium (even though Belgium has been without an operating government for months now), Canada, Denmark, France, Italy (the main user of Libyan oil), Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, and Norway have announced their direct military action against Libya (in the form of actual attacks, or providing military support).
Arab League member Qatar said they will take part in military action. That is now in question since the Arab League now says they were basically tricked into supporting the UNSCR 1973 against Libya.
“the African Union rejects the idea of foreign military intervention in Libya, regardless of its form.” -Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania
At the current African Union summit, being held in Mauritania, union members are demanding an end to all military actions in Libya. The African Union is upset that a member of the African Union is being attacked. That’s right, Libya is an African country, despite western media continually referring to Libya as the Middle East.
The African Union boycotted the emergency meeting in Paris, France.
War isn’t free, and there is no true return on the ‘investment’ into war mongering. So how are those countries attacking Libya going to fund their operation? I have a suspicion, but in the case of the United States it’s not oil.
Notice that the lead countries in this act of war are; United States, United Kingdom and France. All of them are in big financial/economic trouble. They are all implementing austerity measures to address lack of funding for their governments. That includes cutting many social programs for their citizens.
The push to attack Libya came fast, especially when compared to how much effort Bush Jr put into pushing for attacking Iraq. Back then it was thought he rushed the process, but compare that to Obama’s push to attack Libya. One U.S. congressman said Obama did not consult with Congress, at least Bush Jr did.
This is all suspicious. Especially when it is clear the Libyan protesters are not peaceful, and that in other Arab countries truly peaceful protesters have been killed, yet there is no call by Obama to take out those governments.
Most people around the world believe the attack on Iraq was about oil. It was, but not for U.S. oil companies. British Petroleum was awarded the biggest oil contracts in Iraq (by the way BP has been quietly taking over oil operations within the United States). In fact most oil contracts in Iraq did not go to U.S. oil companies.
Why would the U.S. take part in oil grabs if its oil companies are not benefiting? This is proof that the United States has become the bully puppet of the British Commonwealth (aka British Empire).
Notice that the price of oil shoots up when something like this happens. Our governments are controlled by the corporations. The corporations make big profits when prices go up. The corporations now use the governments to create situations that cause prices to go up. Of course the corporations are not 100% reliant on oil sources in North Africa and the Middle East. In fact BP has been busy taking over oil production in the U.S., and has just made deals with the Russians. But the price of oil still goes up during war, regardless of where the oil comes from. So they can shut down oil supply in one area, through war for example, driving up the price, and they will still make hugh profits off their other sources of oil. Does anybody notice that despite oil companies saying their operating costs keep going up, they continue to report record profits?
So military action may be for the benefit of the oil corporations, but that doesn’t explain how the governments are going to fund the operations. We the people are going to pay for it. Through increased taxes, new taxes and cuts to the benefits you’re supposed to be getting in return for your tax payments. Anybody remember the official reason for the American colonists revolution against the British Empire? Taxes placed on the American colonists to pay for wars fought by the British Empire, and, lack of representation for the American colonists in the British government. That’s what created the United States.
Here we area again, paying for wars that benefit the British Empire, and with this latest war our Congress wasn’t even consulted! Taxation without representation! Wake up people!
People in the United Kingdom are taking to the streets to protest their government’s involvement in the attacks on Libya.
The Stop the War Coalition says the end result will not be the freedom of Libyans, but control by the western world. They also want to know why their country (U.K. aka Britain) is attacking Libya, supposedly to protect citizens, and has done nothing to stop other countries from attacking peaceful protesters.
In Boston, U.S., Members of Act Now to End War and End Racism were protesting, saying that oil was the only reason that The United States wants to attack Libya.
In Washington DC, more than 100 anti-war protesters, including the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers about Vietnam, were arrested outside the White House.
Protests are taking place on the west coast of the U.S. as well. Some protesters are targeting military recruiters.
U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel , D-NY, said he was angry that Congress was not consulted before the military strikes. He said he was undecided on whether the military action against Libya was justified.
Not only have the agriculture industry, in north east Honshu, been hit by a natural disaster, they are suffering from the nuclear disaster as well.
Many farm fields were wiped out by the tsunami. Because sea walls are destroyed, and land has actually sunk, the coastal areas could be under water for a time, especially during high tide. Now dairy and produce products are turning out to be contaminated with radiation.
Even though the Japanese government says they have stopped any shipments of such food, and that the levels are not harmful, shoppers have made it clear they won’t buy the stuff: “It’s a little hard to say this, but I won’t buy vegetables from Fukushima and that area,” said shopper Yukihiro Sato, at a Tokyo supermarket.
It’s also affecting Japan’s fishing industry, so far the winds have been blowing the radiation particles out over the Pacific Ocean.
In the immediate term Japanese food producers are benefiting as shoppers turn to their products, out of fear. But, it will eventual stress the Japanese food industry. Japan will have to increase imports of food from other countries.
This will add to what the United Nations said, earlier this year, is a growing food “supply” problem. The supply problems is due to a combination of climate change and social unrest. Some countries are experiencing long droughts, reducing crop production. Other countries are experiencing flooding which destroys farm land. Many countries in Asia experience both climactic conditions. On top of that, social unrest, in Africa, Middle East (aka West Asia) and even Mexico (drug war) are causing the same end result, reduced crop production as well as interruption in supply.
Supply is the main concern of the UN because there are countries that have excess food but for many reasons, including the way the commodities markets work, the food is not being equally distributed around the world.
The food supply problem will have a bad result for consumers all over the world, prices will continue to go up.
Japanese Self Defense Forces Combat Nuclear Biological Chemical monitoring teams have been monitoring radiation levels to help protect workers fighting the nuclear disaster.
The military NBC units have been using lead suits, that weigh 48 pounds, and special armored cars that are equipped with NBC monitoring gear. They are trying to make sure workers are rotated in and out of the plant for short time periods because of high radiation levels.
Most developed countries have NBC units in their military. Mainly because they also have WMDs, and have planned for their use on the battlefield. Military NBC units can be used in a secondary role in case of something like what is happening in Japan. I hope budget cutting here in the U.S. hasn’t affected our military NBC units.
Workers evacuated from Fukushima Daiichi immediately after the 9.0 quake/tsunami, say the reactors were already in trouble.
One worker said Reactor 1 suffered a hydrogen explosion the day after the tsunami. He saw white smoke coming from reactor 1 while the tsunami swept by. He also said because reactors were undergoing maintenance they were more susceptible to damage by the tsunami.