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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (24510)	6/27/2005 6:56:09 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361353

Military to Expand Prisons Across Iraq By FRANK GRIFFITHS, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Monday it plans to expand its prisons across Iraq to hold as many as 16,000 detainees, as the relentless insurgency shows no sign of letup one year after the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqi authorities. The plans were announced on a day three U.S. Army soldiers were killed — two pilots whose helicopter crashed north of Baghdad and a soldier who was shot in the capital. At least four Iraqis died in a car bomb attack in the capital. The prison population at three military complexes throughout the country — Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper — has nearly doubled from 5,435 in June 2004 to 10,002 now, said Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq. Some 400 non-Iraqis are among the inmates, according to the military. "We are past the normal capacity for both Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca. We are at surge capacity," Rudisill said. "We are not at normal capacity for Camp Cropper." The burgeoning prison population has forced the U.S. military to begin renovations on existing facilities, and work has also begun on restoring an old Iraqi military barracks near Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. The facility, to be called Fort Suse, is expected to be completed by Sept. 30 and will have room for 2,000 new detainees, Rudisill said. All renovations should be done by February and are expected to make room for 16,000 detainees in Iraq, he said. Two weeks ago, the military completed a new 400-detainee compound at Abu Ghraib, which the U.S. government sought to tear down after it became a symbol of an abuse scandal. It was kept in service after the Iraqi government objected. A new compound of the same size should be finished by the end of July at Abu Ghraib, Rudisill said. The spokesman attributed the rise in the number of prisoners to "successful ongoing military operations against the insurgency and terrorists." Those operations, however, have not stemmed the daily carnage demoralizing the country of 26 million people. With the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency targeting the Shiite majority, the wave of killings has slowly been pushing the country toward civil war. Dozens of foreign fighters have been reported killed in U.S.-led offensives in recent months, including Operation Spear at the porous Syrian border last week, but the deaths have had little effect on the resolve and ability of suicide bombers to strike at will. Al-Qaida in Iraq, headed by Jordanian-born extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks carried out by such fighters, but there are other insurgent groups — including homegrown factions. On Monday, the U.S. military raised the death toll in last week's Fallujah attack to six, announcing that three women service members were killed in the ambush on an American convoy. At least 1,740 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,334 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians. There have been positive developments in the year since the June 28, 2004 handover, the most notable being the election of the 275-member National Assembly on Jan. 30, Iraq's first free vote in a half-century. The assembly appointed the rest of the government the following month. Smaller gains have been made as well. The number of telephone and Internet subscribers has increased nearly threefold, according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution, and the number of trained Iraqi judges has doubled. However, the insurgency — estimated at about 16,000 Iraqi militants and foreign fighters — has drastically overshadowed the improvements and created havoc around the country. The situation has forced the implementation of a daily 11 p.m. curfew in Baghdad. Car bombings have become one of the most devastating methods used by the insurgency. There have been more than 484 since the handover, killing at least 2,221 people and wounding more than 5,574, according to an AP count. Unemployment remained high at 27-40 percent in May compared with 30-40 percent in June 2004. About $5 billion of U.S. money still remains from the $18.4 billion reconstruction package approved in 2003, according to the House Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee. ___ Associated Press Writer Robin Hindery contributed to this report from New York.

To: SiouxPal who wrote (24510)	6/27/2005 7:05:38 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361353

Message 21454370 Maury Wills

To: SiouxPal who wrote (24510)	6/27/2005 8:31:09 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361353

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 Bill would allow hemp farming in California Steve Lawrence, San Diego Union-Tribune SACRAMENTO, California — John Roulac wants to give California agriculture a boost and cut his transportation costs at the same time. Roulac is the founder and chief executive officer of Nutiva, an up-and-coming organic food company that is based in California but that processes and packages most of its products in Canada. The reason: Nutiva sells bars, protein powder, seeds and oil made with hemp, a cousin of marijuana. Hemp has only a trace of tetrahydrocannabinols, or THC, the drug in marijuana, but hemp can’t be legally grown in the United States without a permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration. And the DEA has only allowed an experimental plot in Hawaii, according to Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for Vote Hemp, the lobbying arm of the hemp industry. So Nutiva contracts with Canadian farmers for its hemp, processes it in Canada and imports the finished products. “We pay Exxon and Chevron a lot of money for gasoline for truckers,” said Roulac. “We’d rather pay that money to California farmers to grow a sustainable crop.” Assemblyman Mark Leno has a bill that could make that happen. The San Francisco Democrat’s measure would allow the state Department of Food and Agriculture to issue licenses to grow and process hemp. Bills similar to Leno’s have been introduced in New Hampshire and Oregon. The New Hampshire legislation has passed the House and is awaiting action by the state Senate. North Dakota approved hemp cultivation in 1999, and this year the governor signed a bill allowing the state university to try to develop improved hemp seeds in anticipation of the removal of the federal ban on hemp farming. Leno’s proposal has a “huge potential economic impact,” said Johanna Schultz, a spokeswoman for the Hemp Industries Association, which has about 300 members, including nearly 50 in California. “I foresee a whole bunch of new hemp businesses starting up just because of its availability.” Hemp can be used to make a myriad of products, including clothing, cosmetics, food, paper, rope, jewelry, luggage, sports equipment and toys. As food, hemp is high in essential fatty acids, protein, B vitamins and fiber, its supporters say. American farmers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, grew hemp for centuries, often under government mandates or with government subsidies. Copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper, Leno said. “The strange irony is that we can presently import the entire hemp plant and manufacturers can produce thousands of different products (using hemp) and then sell them,” he added. “The one component which is missing out on this is the farmer.” Roulac figures he would save more than $100,000 a year in transportation costs and could cut his prices if he could buy hemp seeds from California growers and process them into food products at a plant he wants to build in Bakersfield. Michael Bronner said Leno’s bill would eliminate the “massive lead times” he has to deal with in getting hemp oil from Canada and Europe for the soap produced by Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, an Escondido company started by his grandfather. “It would be nice if we could get it right here in San Diego County,” he said. “The price would probably be half of what we pay now.” Tom Riley, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said hemp farming could be used to hide marijuana cultivation by mixing the two plants in the field. “I hope that legislators would look very carefully at this effort and see what factors there are,” he said. But the bill’s supporters say there is little likelihood that a grower would try to mix marijuana with hemp. The two plants grow differently and cross pollination could result in less-potent strains of marijuana, they say. Marijuana growers, fearing wind-blown hemp pollen could weaken their crops, are among hemp’s biggest opponents, along with the DEA, said Roulac. “It’s strange bedfellows, isn’t it?” Also, the bill would require hemp to be tested in the fields to ensure that THC levels did not exceed prescribed limits. It also would bar anyone with a criminal conviction from getting a license to grow or process hemp. “We’re quite open to putting together regulatory schemes that meet law enforcement’s legitimate concerns,” said Alexis Baden-Mayer, director of governmental relations for Vote Hemp. Leno’s bill attempts to get around federal opposition by requiring farmers to sell hemp seeds, stalks and fibers only to California processors to avoid an interstate commerce grounds for federal intervention. “With that distinction, there’s no reason why the federal government should get involved,” he said. Leno said the Bush administration didn’t appeal an appeals court decision last year barring the DEA from banning the sale of food products containing hemp. He interpreted the lack of an appeal as “tacit agreement” by the administration that Congress exempted hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. A U.S. Justice Department spokesman, Charles Miller, wouldn’t discuss why the administration decided not to appeal. “We don’t make any remarks on why we decline to pursue a case beyond a certain point,” he said. Eidinger, the Vote Hemp spokesman, said the fight over hemp cultivation is likely to end up in the courts, if Congress doesn’t pass legislation in the meantime allowing hemp farming. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is planning to introduce a bill that would remove any federal roadblocks and allow states to decide if they want their farmers growing hemp. “I think the courts are leaning our way,” Eidinger said. “If you’re going this direction on hemp food you might as well go one step further and grow the crop.” California’s two major farm organizations, the Western Growers Association and the California Farm Bureau Federation, haven’t taken a position on the bill, although spokeswoman Ann Schmidt said the Farm Bureau’s directors had a “lively discussion” about it. The Schwarzenegger administration also hasn’t taken a stand, said Jay Van Rein, a spokesman for the Department of Food and Agriculture. Copyright © 2005, San Diego Union-Tribune. All rights reserved. globalhemp.com