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This week on Uprising:

* US Economy Nosedives
* Empire Notes on the Iraq War: Five Years Later
* New Report on Iraq’s Shocking Humanitarian Crisis
* Despite Mounting Evidence to the Contrary, Bush Maintains Success in Iraq
* Nanotech Materials Found in Groceries

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US Economy Nosedives

GUEST: Eileen Applebaum, labor economist at Rutgers University

More news of the weakening U.S. economy surfaced earlier this week as reports indicated slumping factory production and rising unemployment claims. According to new data, factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. economy has continued to shrink for the fourth consecutive month. This has been the worst downturn since the start of the Iraq war five years ago. Moreover, recent government figures point to the highest rate of jobless benefit claims since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This latest news has led some economic research institutes to proclaim that the U.S. is firmly in a recession. The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows that three-quarters of Americans are in agreement with that assessment. Respondents were overwhelmingly pessimistic about the future of the economy with nearly eighty-percent worried about a looming depression. But, those poll opinions were compiled even prior to the Bear Stearns collapse last week and the subsequent Federal Reserve Board-sponsored takeover of the company by JP Morgan Chase. News from Wall Street’s rocky week resulted in a fall in stock prices in the Asian market coupled with a further weakening of the U.S. dollar.

Empire Notes on the Iraq War: Five Years Later

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about the Iraq War: 5 Years Later.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

A New Reports on Iraq’s Shocking Humanitarian Crisis

GUESTS: Hicham Hassan spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Iraq

As the invasion and occupation of Iraq enters its sixth year, the humanitarian situation remains disastrous. This week the International Committee of the Red Cross released a report about human rights in Iraq on the fifth anniversary of the war. According to the ICRC, the current Iraqi crisis is one of the most critical in the world, and that the Iraqi health care system in particular lacks sufficient medical supplies and qualified personnel to administer necessary services. As a result, countless lives have been lost. The ICRC report also notes that since the occupation, Iraqis have greatly suffered from a lack of access to clean water and sanitation. Sewage systems, affected by an infrequent electricity supply, have lead to contamination and cholera outbreaks.

Download the ICRC report here: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/
htmlall/iraq-report-170308?opendocument

Despite Mounting Evidence to the Contrary, Bush Maintains Success in Iraq

GUEST: Phyllis Bennis, Middle East analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus, a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies, author of the forthcoming book, “Ending the Iraq War: A Primer”

Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, President Bush this week defended US policy saying it had made the US and the world a safer place. He also acknowledged the high cost and length of the war while asserting that the strategy behind the so-called surge was working. Meanwhile the man who hopes to be Bush’s Republican successor to the White House, John McCain, marked his trip to Iraq with a statement echoing Bush’s rationale for the war. The top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus will appear before Congress in early April to present his recommendations on how to continue the war. In Iraq this week, a national conference designed to bring together warring factions, was largely boycotted, particularly by the Sunni bloc. I spoke with Phyllis Bennis, Middle East analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus, a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies, the day after Bush’s speech. Phyllis Bennis has a forthcoming book in April called “Ending the Iraq War: A Primer.”

Nanotech Materials Found in Groceries

GUEST: Ian Illuminato, Health and Environment Campaigner with Friends of the Earth, co-author of the report, “Out of the Laboratory and on to our Plates”

A new report by Friends of the Earth has found that so-called nanomaterials are being used in popular food products and food packaging, without any warning to the public or new testing by the Food and Drug Administration. Materials made using nano-technology can include more potent food colorings, flavorings and nutritional additives, antibacterial ingredients for food packaging, and more potent agrochemicals and fertilizers. Preliminary studies have shown that nano-materials are much more chemically reactive than larger particles and can potentially wreak havoc when ingested. Neither the US Food and Drug Administration, nor the Environmental Protection Agency have recognized nanomaterials to be new chemicals or have required any new oversight of them. The report by Friends of the Earth, called “Out of the Laboratory and On To Our Plates,” asserts that this technology can potentially cause organ damage and a decreased immune system response. FOE found nanomaterials in Miller Light beer, Cadbury chocolate packaging, and ToddlerHealth, a nutritional drink powder for infants sold at Whole Foods and other health food stores.

Learn more about nano-technology in your food here: http://action.foe.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=3965

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.” — attributed to Ronald Reagan