From server@prairienet.org Mon May 29 09:30:19 1995
	id JAA01852; Mon, 29 May 1995 09:29:58 +0200
	id AA10110; Mon, 29 May 95 02:24:54 CDT
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 5 Num. 03
X-Comment:  Conspiracy Nation



              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 5  Num. 03
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")


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*PROJECT CENSORED*
Top 25 Censored Stories
(From *The 1995 Project Censored Yearbook* by Carl Jensen & 
Project Censored. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995. ISSN 
1074-5998)

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#25 -- Deadly "Mad Cow Disease" Spreads to North America
   A new and ghastly disease which turns the brain spongelike and 
has been attacking dairy cows in England for years, has now 
appeared in North America. Nicknamed "Mad Cow Disease," bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has infected more than 120,000 
cattle since it was discovered in 1985.

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#24 -- Epilepsy Drug Fiasco Ignored by Press
   On August 2, 1993, FDA approved felbamate, an epilepsy drug. 
FDA claimed that felbamate reduced the frequency of epileptic 
seizures and had minimal side effects. Just a year later, Carter- 
Wallace Inc. warned doctors to quit treating patients with 
Felbatol, apparently their specific brand name for felbamate. 
"The story received only minimal coverage in terms of the human 
cost... There were no follow-ups on victims; no coverage 
whatsoever of withdrawal causing grand-mal seizures."

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#23 -- Buying and Selling Permits to Pollute
   Under federal law, a polluting company that seeks to move into 
or expand in a polluted area must first obtain emissions 
reductions, or "offsets," from existing plants in the same 
locale. In some areas, it is possible for a company to reduce its 
polluting emissions and then "bank" those credits for later sale 
to a company that needs them.

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#22 -- Over-the-Counter Diet Pills Cause Deaths
   Problems with over-the-counter diet pills and cold medications 
containing phenyl-propanolamine hydrochloride (PPA). The drug has 
a chemical structure similar to speed, and like speed, can 
trigger a sharp rise in blood pressure, sometimes resulting in 
stroke.

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#21 -- Illegal Toxic Burning at Super-Secret Air Force Facility
   The United States government has used secrecy and over- 
classification to hide the illegal burning of toxic materials at 
an Air Force facility so secret that the federal government does 
not even admit it exists.

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#20 -- Legalizing Carcinogens in Our Food
   Under current law (Delaney), if a pesticide is shown to be a 
carcinogen, the government must ban it from use in all processed 
foods. Yet, until 1992, the pesticide industry had found ways to 
circumvent this law. Then, in 1992, a federal lawsuit compelled 
the EPA to enforce Delaney. To avoid doing this, and to appease 
the chemical industry, the Clinton EPA proposed a legislative 
"reform" package that would replace the Delaney law.

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#19 -- Cesarean Sections Epidemic
   Nearly one in four pregnant women have a c-section. The c- 
section is major surgery that involves entering the abdominal 
cavity. As many as 50 percent of c-sections may be unnecessary. 
In-depth coverage of this story by the mass media might have 
increased women's awareness of the risks associated with cesarean 
surgery and of the steps they can take to avoid an unnecessary c- 
section. [CN -- But hey! We would have missed the O.J. Simpson 
trial!]

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#18 -- Nationwide Collusion between Drug Companies and Pharmacists
   Major drug companies have started to pay pharmacists to 
promote their drugs over those of their competitors. It should be 
noted that drug makers' kickbacks are not restricted to 
pharmacists; drug makers sometimes offer kickbacks to physicians 
who use their products.

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#17 -- Censoring Tomorrow's Journalists Today
   In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the First 
Amendment did not apply to student journalists ("Hazelwood School 
District vs. Kuhlmeier"). Some high school principals who want to 
control the student press seized upon *Hazelwood* as a 
justification for prior review or for restriction of subjects 
students can write about. The Student Press Law Center has 
reported an increase in requests for assistance with censorship 
problems from high school journalists since *Hazelwood*.

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#16 -- Fallibility of the AIDS Test
   The problem of faulty HIV tests was front-page headline news 
in the *London Sunday Times* in August 1993, but did not make 
major news in the U.S. The *Sunday Times* reported: "The 'AIDS 
test' is scientifically invalid and incapable of determining 
whether people are really infected with HIV, according to a new 
report by a team of Australian scientists... Doctors should think 
again about its use, say the authors."

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#15 -- DARE Program Cover-up Continues
   Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) is a failure, so said 
the 1993 *Project Censored*. The story is nominated again for 
three reasons: 1) evidence that *The Washington Post* revised an 
article, without the author's permission, on behalf of the DARE 
program; 2) evidence that the U.S. Department of Justice covered 
up the program's failure by rejecting a study it commissioned 
that concluded that the DARE program doesn't work; and 3) 
continued failure of the news media to put the issue on the 
national agenda.

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#14 -- Faulty Nuclear Fuel Rods Spell Potential Disasters
   The critical fuel rods in 108 of our nation's nuclear power 
plants are failing in increasing numbers and the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission knows about it... but is doing nothing.

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#13 -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Dirty Secret
   Secret internal industry documents obtained by *Public 
Citizen's* Critical Mass Energy Project reveal that America's 
nuclear reactors have more serious safety, training, and 
equipment problems than government regulators acknowledge.

                   [...to be continued...]

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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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    Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"        
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