FW: Project Censored - 1999's Most Censored Stories

["Mercado, Don" <don.mercado@lmco.com>]

In my inbox today...

> For those of you who are interested in the media, what they choose to
> report
> and not report...
> 
> ---------------
> 
> Project Censored <censored@SONOMA.EDU>
>         http://www.projectcensored.org
> 
> For twenty-four years, Project Censored has been compiling a list
> of the top 25 undercovered news stories in the United States. 1999 was an
> international year for the United States and for Project Censored. The
> most
> under-covered "censored" news stories for 1999 have a strong international
> flavor, with an emphasis on untold stories of Kosovo (6, 10, 12, 20, 22),
> foreign policy (5, 17, 21, 23), and international corporate power abuse
> (1,
> 13). Emerging this year are a number of stories on the mainstream media
> itself (7, 14, 16). With the advancement of spin techniques, mainstream
> media now tends to place emphasis on particular perspectives of news
> stories to enhance their entertainment value. In some cases, today's media
> may also be deliberately spinning stories for their own
> political/commercial purposes. Many of our old favorites are present as
> well, including stories on the environment (9, 11), race issues (9, 16),
> labor (4), US military (8, 21, 25), and health concerns (2, 3, 15, 19).
> 
> Project Censored students and staff screened several thousand
> stories from 1999, and selected some 500 to be evaluated by faculty and
> community experts. The top ranked 200 stories were then researched for
> national mainstream coverage by the Media Censorship class in the Fall. A
> final collective vote of all students, staff and faculty occurred in early
> November, and finally, the top 25 stories were ranked by our national
> judges.
> 
> This year we have a short 200-300 word synopsis on each of the 30
> runners-up. As the media consolidates, we are finding a significant
> increase in news stories that are left uncovered by the corporate press.
> These runners-up deserve notice as well as the top 25. In many cases only
> a
> few votes separated the two groups.
> 
> While selection of these stories each year is a subjective,
> judgmental process. We have grown to trust this collective process as the
> best possible means of fairly selecting these important news stories. This
> we believe gives us an annual summary list of the most important
> under-covered news stories in the United States. We hope you agree.
> 
<snip>

> #11 America's Largest Nuclear Test Exposed Thousands
>      Sources: Terrain, Fall 1999; In These Times, August 8, 1999
> 
> Thirty years ago, Amchitka, Alaska was the site of three large underground
> nuclear tests, including the most powerful nuclear explosion ever
> detonated
> by  the United States. Despite claims by the Atomic Energy Commission
> (AEC)
> and the Pentagon that the test sites would safely contain the radiation
> released by the blasts for thousands of years, independent research by
> Greenpeace and newly  released documents from the Department of Energy
> (DOE) show that the Amchitka  tests began to leak almost immediately. The
> blast ruptured the crust of the earth, sucking a creek into a brand new
> aquifer, a radioactive one. Highly radioactive elements and gasses poured
> out of the collapsed test shafts, leached into the groundwater, and worked
> their way into ponds, creeks, and the Bering Sea
> 
> For more information contact authors: Alexander Cockburn, Tel:
> 800-840-3683  Email: alexandercockburn@asis.com;  Jeffrey St. Clair, Tel:
> 800-840-3683,  Email: sitka@home.com
> 
<snip>

> #13 U.S. Agency Seeks to Export Weapons Grade Plutonium to Russian
> Organization linked to Organized Crime
>      Sources: In These Times, Oct. 17, 1999; Counterpunch, Vol. 6, No.
> 16, September 16-30, 1999
> 
> The Washington-based Non-Proliferation Trust (NPT) proposes that the US
> sell  nuclear waste to Russia. NPT's plan would make Russia the world's
> dumping ground for nuclear waste including weapons-grade plutonium. NPT's
> partner in this endeavor is MinAtom, Russia's ministry of atomic energy.
> NPT is headed up by Daniel Murphy (former deputy director of the CIA),
> Bruce Demars (former head of the Navy's nuclear  program), and William
> Webster (former director of the CIA and FBI). Although NPT is set up as a
> non-profit organization, its principals stand to make huge profits off
> consulting and sub-contracting.
> 
> On the list of potential sub-contractors is Halter Marine in
> Gulfport Mississippi, a company to which U.S. Senator Trent Lott has close
> links. Yevgeny Adamov, the head of MinAtom, estimates that the operation
> could produce $150 billion in revenue, making it the most lucrative
> operation in Russia. MinAtom is also alleged to have links to corrupt
> government officials and the Russian Mob.
> 
> For more information contact authors: Alexander Cockburn, Tel:
> 800-840-3683  Email: alexandercockburn@asis.com;  Jeffrey St. Clair, Tel:
> 800-840-3683,  Email: sitka@home.com
> 
> 
<snip>

> #24 U.S, Nuclear Weapons Controlled by Unstable Personnel
>      Source: Mother Jones, November, 1998
> 
> Mentally unstable individuals may be in control of U.S. nuclear devices. A
> screening process called the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP), set in
> place after a near-disaster in 1959, is supposed to guarantee that only
> competent, stable, and dependable individuals have access to America's
> nuclear arsenal.
> 
> PRP is a two step process consisting of an initial screening and
> post-approval monitoring. Screening includes a cursory medical evaluation,
> review of the candidate's personnel file, and a background check of
> professional, educational, and personal histories. However, no routine
> psychological testing is done, and an expelled PRP Marine claimed that
> heavy drinking and depression are overlooked. In certain cases,
> individuals
> still had their PRP clearance while in prison for a felony conviction.
> 
> In several cases, PRP-certified people have gone on to commit
> murder or suicide, assault, rape, and other serious crimes, exposing
> unstable mental conditions in their past and present.
> 
> For more information contact author: Ken Silverstein, Tel: (202)
> 462-3130, Email: ksilverstein@erols.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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