Expert paints dire picture of decontamination zone, slams government for foot-dragging

Fukushima fallout said 30 times Hiroshima's

By JUN HONGO / Staff writer

Video footage of Tatsuhiko Kodama's impassioned speech before a Diet committee in July went viral online recently, showing the medical expert's shocking revelation that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant spewed some 30 times more radioactive materials than the fallout from the Hiroshima atomic bombing.

Kodama, a professor of systems biology and medicine at the University of Tokyo, used clear-cut terms to get his message across. His ruthless criticism of the government's slow response has been viewed at least 1 million times.

"It means a significantly large amount of radioactive material was released compared with the atomic bomb," he told the Diet committee.

"What has the Diet been doing as 70,000 people are forced to evacuate and wander outside of their homes?"

Despite a hard-nosed image, the expert on radiology and cancer briefly showed a softer side while speaking to The Japan Times about his two grandchildren and their summer in the Tokyo heat.

"A lot of people ask me this, but Tokyo is safe from radiation now," Kodama, who heads the university's Radioisotope Center and the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, said Aug. 12.

"My two grandchildren swim outside in the pool, and there is no concern with the safety of food at this point."

But his expression became grave when discussing the 20-km no-go zone in Fukushima, explaining that decontamination of such areas will take not years but decades.

There are places he wouldn't let his grandchildren spend time outdoors freely, even in areas outside of the restricted zone.

"Cesium has been detected from urine and breast milk from those residing in Fukushima Prefecture, and the cause for that is still not specified," he warned.

Kodama said he can't give an estimate of how many people will suffer from cancer symptoms due to exposure to radiation, or how long it will take for signs to surface.

There simply isn't enough epidemiological statistics to do that, he said.

But the government and scientists shouldn't be wasting time playing guessing games, he stressed.

"My theory is this — instead of trying to decide what is safe and what isn't at this point, we should focus on properly measuring the level of contamination in each area and on how to cleanse them."

According to Kodama, the Radioisotope Center estimates that radioactive materials released from Fukushima No. 1 amount to about 29.6 times of that released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The group also found out that radiation from Fukushima will only decrease by one-tenth per year, which is about 100 times slower than radiation from the bomb.

The most difficult problem for the scientists trying to cope with the situation is that the Fukushima crisis is unprecedented.

"There are a lot of unknown (factors) regarding how this level of radiation will affect children and pregnant women," Kodama said, pointing out that the 1986 Chernobyl accident suggests the government should be on alert for any signs of bladder and thyroid cancer.

But apart from the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident, not many statistics are available to predict what may transpire, he said.

Still, that doesn't justify the government's slow response to Fukushima, he added.

For starters, the Diet has been extremely inept in updating laws on controlling radiation contamination.

While the Radiation Damage Prevention Law was created for handling small amounts of highly radioactive materials, specifically to handle accidents on site at nuclear plants, the Tohoku region is experiencing radioactive contamination in a radius beyond 200 km.

The situation calls for a completely different approach, yet the Diet has failed to update the prevention law.

That alone has been a major hindrance for scientists trying to diminish the damage in Fukushima, including Kodama, who pays visits to the prefecture every weekend to conduct decontamination efforts with his peers.

Another sign of a lax government can be seen in how local governments appear to be short of equipment to measure radiation contamination in food and other produce.

Considering that contamination will be a major problem for the next couple of decades, the central government shouldn't hesitate to invest in and develop, even mass-produce, equipment that can allow checks for radiation.

Some companies have told Kodama it would only take three months to develop a system for efficient radiation measurement.

Kodama advised the government to take two different approaches in decontaminating Fukushima.

The first step should focus on creating a rough map of the wider area and the level of contamination, possibly using remote-control helicopters and Japan's advanced GPS system.

For emergency decontamination procedures, each community should have a call-in center that conducts quick cleanups once a request is made from residents.

Kodama said the government has spent approximately ¥800 billion to decontaminate land after a mass cadmium poisoning broke out in Toyama Prefecture in 1912.

Contamination from radiation in the current crisis has spread to about 1,000 times that area, and the final cleanup cost is expected to be astronomical.

But both time and money should not be considered an issue, because it is the responsibility of this generation not to pass on the contaminated land to the next, Kodama said.

"I am aware that there are many opinions regarding nuclear power. However, I believe all of us can agree that Fukushima and the surrounding area needs to be decontaminated as soon as possible," he said.

Hugo Chavez Says Castro and Jesus Cured Him of Cancer

By Ray Downs / Christian Post Contributor

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has credited Fidel Castro and Jesus for helping him win his battle against cancer, during a televised prayer service on state television Sunday.

“The first doctor is named Jesus of Nazareth, the highest of healers, the second is Fidel, and the third is the medical team," Chavez said during the broadcast.

Crediting Jesus and Castro for helping him fight cancer is seen by his political opponents as more than just a show of admiration for Christianity and Communism.

Opposition leaders have repeatedly demanded to know more about Castro’s illness, including what type of cancer and the names of his doctors, arguing that the health of the nation’s leader is of national concern, the Wall Street Journal reports.

However, Chavez has refused to release any detailed information about his cancer battle other than that he has gone to Cuba for chemotherapy, had a baseball-sized tumor removed from his pelvic region, and that Castro personally delivered the test results which said he had cancer.

During the prayer service, Chavez combined more biblical images with socialist propaganda through a story about a young girl he met named Genesis, who had terminal cancer.

At an event, Genesis handed Chavez a Venezuelan flag. Holding the flag in front of TV cameras, Chavez said, “Here is the heart of Genesis, in this flag.”

Chavez who plans on running for another six-year term in 2012, has often combined religion with socialism in his speeches. Shortly after being re-elected in 2006, Chavez said, “The Kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of love, of peace; the kingdom of justice, of solidarity, brotherhood, the kingdom of socialism. This is the kingdom of the future of Venezuela.”

Since then, the use of Christian imagery and public prayer services has been a growing theme in Chavez’s speeches, which analysts say is used to exploit a mostly Christian voting population.

Gold poised for a major correction. GET OUT NOW !

Written by Sam Chee Kong, Malaysia Chronicle

As we learn from Japan, owners of physical Gold in all forms are aggressively liquidating. From "Tokyo struggles to keep pace with gold rush" by L. Whipp from Financial Times, 20 August,

"Japanese families are rushing to sell gold jewelry, sake cups and even teeth to cash in on surging gold prices. The stampede to sell gold is so intense that shops buying the precious metal are struggling to cope and are even having to turn some disappointed customers away."

"In the past week, Goldplaza, which buys and melts down gold for resale, has been handling about Y100m($1.32m) of gold every day - about 15 times its daily average in July. The craze began in earnest on August 11 . . ." [Emphasis added.]

From strong hands to weak hands

As we have mentioned before, gold just went parabolic. Its price is going through the roof and NOW it is the RISKIEST TIME to hold Gold. Anything that goes up Parabolic will end in crashes and this time there will be pain in the streets.

When markets are approaching the end of a run, there is always transfer of ownership from smart money (investors) to speculators or rather strong hands to weak hands. This is the time, the masses are loading up on gold, while the smart money starts liquidating.

Gold is EXTREMELY overbought in almost all technical indicators like RSI, MACD, Stochastic, Moving Averages, Money Flow and many more.

On the Elliot wave, gold is now trading on the final phase of the 5th wave which began 2 years ago with prices way above the 200 day MA. So the odds of it going any higher is extremely slim AT THE MOMENT.

Buy back later

It seems like Gold is now the main topic of discussion be it in parties, wet markets, radio stations, mainstream media and even banks are capitalizing on this craze by offering gold plated banknotes and Ching Dynasty gold coins.

Volume on the options on gold futures is extremely high on the CME. Record open interest for options on gold futures in the CME hit a high of 126 million ounces. This shows that there is indeed a massive speculative bid on the gold futures. When Volume surge towards the end of a run, it means the masses are getting in late and almost at the top of the trend.

My suggestion is GET OUT NOW! You can always buy back lower when the dust settles !

Iran and Saudi Arabia helped Al-Qaeda carry out 9/11 attacks, claims new book

By Ted Thornhill

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, two authors who’ve analysed thousands of documents relating to the attack conclude that both Iran and Saudi Arabia helped Al-Qaeda carry it out.

In the aftermath, both countries publicly stated that they’d fight terrorism and expressed their condolences, but The Eleventh Day, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, produces a compelling argument that they were actually complicit in the attacks.

The book also questions whether George W Bush deliberately withheld evidence linking foreign countries with the attack on the Twin Towers.

The official U.S investigation into the attacks – the 9/11 Commission – found no evidence that Iran was involved, but Summers and Swan beg to differ.

They point to a court document called the Havlish memorandum, which was produced during a civil action brought against Iran by Fiona Havlish, the widow of an insurance consultant who worked in the World Trade Center and was killed when the planes struck.

In seeking compensation from the state it drew on the testimony of several experts, including a French investigative magistrate, former CIA agents, an Israeli intelligence analyst and former 9/11 Commission staff members.

It also includes evidence from three Iranian defectors.

The memorandum states that Hizbollah, the paramilitary group supported by Iran, knew 9/11 was going to take place.

It asserts that one of its key members, Iman Mughniyah, met with Osama Bin Laden and his No2, Ayman Al Zawahiri as long ago as 1993 and also travelled with members of the 9/11 hijackers on flights to and from Iran in 2000.

It’s claimed he also went to Beirut with hijacker Ahmed Al Ghamdi and ‘visited Saudi Arabia to coordinate activities there’ and that two of the terrorists, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, were put up in the Iranian embassy during a visit to Malaysia.

The document also states that Al-Qaeda operatives have received airline hijacking training in Iran.

Evidence linking Saudi Arabia to 9/11 is even stronger, according to the authors.

To begin with, they point out, 95 per cent of Saudi professionals polled about 9/11 stated that they agreed with Bin Laden’s cause.

Bin Laden, who was born into a wealthy Saudi family, was publicly denounced by the government and had his citizenship removed, but Summers and Swan quote a former French intelligence officer, Alain Chouet, who says that this was ‘a subterfuge aimed at the gullible, designed to cover a continuing clandestine relationship’.

They go on to claim, sourcing a U.S official, that two Saudi princes paid bin Laden ‘protection money’ - in return for Al-Qaeda not carrying out operations in Saudi Arabia, the authorities would turn a blind eye to his operations elsewhere.

FBI counter-terrorism chief John O’Neill, speaking before 9/11, summed it up. He’s quoted in the book as saying that ‘all the answers, all the clues that would enable us to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organisation’ were in Saudi Arabia.

The authors unearthed more evidence in the form of a shady Saudi operative called Omar al-Bayoumi, who was alleged to have met two of the hijackers in Los Angeles.

There’s also the fact, they say, that 13 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and that U.S investigators working on the 9/11 inquiry complained of Saudi officials continually blocking requests for information.

And why, they ask, was a Saudi religious official staying at the same Marriott hotel as two of the hijackers the night before 9/11?

The authors also place a huge question mark over George W Bush’s actions after 9/11. They say that 28 pages of the report of Congress’s Joint Inquiry into 9/11 were withheld from the public ‘on the personal orders of George W Bush’.

An explanation for this, they say, came from the inquiry’s staff director, Eleanor Hill.

She said: ‘It had to do with sources of foreign support for the hijackers.’

This information, they point out, is still being withheld.

Scared Mexicans try under-the-skin tracking devices

By Nick Miroff,

QUERETARO, Mexico — Of all the strange circumstances surrounding the violent abduction last year of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, the Mexican power broker and former presidential candidate known here as “Boss Diego,” perhaps nothing was weirder than the mysterious tracking chip that the kidnappers allegedly cut from his body.

Lurid Mexican media accounts reported that an armed gang invaded Fernandez’s home, sliced open his arm with a pair of scissors and extracted a satellite-enabled tracking device, leaving the chip and a streak of blood behind.

Fernandez was freed seven months later with little explanation, but the gruesome details of his crude surgery have not dissuaded thousands of worried Mexicans from seeking out similar satellite and radio-frequency tracking products — including scientifically dubious chip implants — as abductions in the country soar.

According to a recent Mexican congressional report, kidnappings have jumped 317 percent in the past five years. More alarming, perhaps, is the finding that police officers or soldiers were involved in more than one-fifth of the crimes, contributing to widespread perceptions that authorities can’t be trusted to solve the crimes or recover missing loved ones.

Under-the-skin devices such as the one allegedly carved out of Boss Diego are selling here for thousands of dollars on the promise that they can help rescuers track down kidnapping victims. Xega, the Mexican company that sells the chips and performs the implants, says its sales have increased 40 percent in the past two years.

“Unfortunately, it’s been good for business but bad for the country,” said Xega executive Diego Kuri, referring to the kidnappings. “Thirty percent of our clients arrive after someone in their family has already experienced a kidnapping,” added Kuri, interviewed at the company’s heavily fortified offices, opposite a tire shop in this industrial city 120 miles north of Mexico’s capital.

Xega calls it the VIP package. For $2,000 upfront and annual fees of $2,000, the company provides clients with a subdermal radio-frequency identification chip (RFID), essentially a small antenna in a tiny glass tube. The chip, inserted into the fatty tissue of the arm between the shoulder and elbow, is less than half an inch long and about as wide as a strand of boiled spaghetti.

The chip relays a signal to an external Global Positioning System unit the size of a cellphone, Kuri said, but if the owner is stripped of the GPS device in the event of an abduction, Xega can still track down its clients by sending radio signals to the implant. The company says it has helped rescue 178 clients in the past decade.

Skepticism abounds

In recent years, all manner of Mexican media reports have featured the chips, with some estimating that as many as 10,000 people are walking around with the implants. Even former attorney general Rafael Macedo told reporters in 2004 that he had a chip embedded “so that I can be located at any moment wherever I am.”

That’s pure science fiction — a sham — say RIFD researchers and engineers in the United States. Any device that could communicate with satellites or even the local cellular network would need a battery and sizable antenna, like a cellphone, they say.