Heads Up to More dirty bushit! This time in Chile.

[lonestarnot]

Do you care about our earth? Judge for yourself if you want to take action. In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers. Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it. Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment , and they provide the second largest source of income for the area.
Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold , silver and other minerals.
To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.

The project is called PASCUA LAMA.

The company is called Barrick Gold.

The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is NONE OTHER THAN

GEORGE BUSH SENIOR.

The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year,
2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a
temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process. Every last gramme of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.

The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice. The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here. We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the following way. Please copy this text, paste it into a new email, adding your signature and send it to everyone in your address book.

Please will the 100th person to receive and sign the petition send it to [e-mail] to be forwarded to the Chilean government. No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier. We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the
SanFelix Valleyand El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of
Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole
population of the region.

[lonestarnot]

1. KICK

[Mnemosyne]

2. Do you have a link lonestarnot? Thanks. n/t

[lonestarnot]

4. I've emailed for a copy of the petition. Waiting for a response.

Here are a few sigs
1) Katharine Proudfoot, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
2) Laura Cole, London, UK
3) David Platt, London, UK
4) Diane Platt, Manchester, UK
5) Tanya Corker, Manchester, UK
6) Nicola Hargreaves, UK
7) Nicholas Jones, UK
8) Johann Don-Daniel, Germany
9) Ashley Berger, Germany
10) Sarah Downie, Leeds, UK
11) Belle Paterson, Leeds, UK
12) Claire Jenkins, Leeds, UK
13) Carlos Ch?vez, Leeds, UK
14) Anita Howard, Leeds, UK
15) Tertia Montgomery, London, UK
16) Karen Boyle, Leeds, UK
17) Andrea Hamblett, Leeds, UK
18) Samantha Hemingway, Gibraltar
19) Debbie Neiman, Brighton, Uk
20) Bob Poplett Brisbane Australia
21) Michael Berry, Brisbane Australia
22) Christie Cole, Dublin, Ireland
23) Melinda Rekdahl, Brisbane, Australia
24) Sarah Forder, Brisbane, Australia
25) Carolyn Forder, Brisbane, Australia
26) Todd Owen, Nelson, New Zealand
27) Dominic Szeker, Dunedin, New Zealand
28) Aleeza Stettner, Auckland, New Zealand
29) Elanor, Te Rapuora, Aotearoa
30) Julie, Te Rapuora, Aotearoa
31) Tristan Lockerbie, Aotearoa , New Zealand
32) Jonathon Acorn,Auckland,New Zealand
33) Christine Small, Ruby Bay, Nelson, New Zealand
34) Mark Fielding, Nelson, New Zealand
35) Paul Galloway, Nelson New Zealand
36) David Orsbourn,Nelson, New Zealand
37) Don McLeod, Nelson, New Zealand
38) Bev Creed, Nelson, New Zealand
39) Murray Creed, Nelson, New Zealand
40) John Black, Nelson, New Zealand
41) Linda Todd, Wellington , New Zealand
42) Alejandra Inostroza, Australia
43) Michelle De Sant'Anna, Australia
44) Lynton & Jeanette Wade, Melbourne, Australia
45) Kathryn Bunn
46) Robyn Dalby singapore
47) Melanie Webster, Perth, Australia
48) Carlyn Villani, Melbourne, Australia
49) Jacinta Ivory, Melbourne, Australia
50) Aparna Guha. Canada
51) Ashok Sharma, UK
52) Ashish Sharma, UK
53) Eileen Cameron, Mex
54) Jo Peace, Auckland, New Zealand
55) Jo Hoare, Wellington, New Zealand
56) Kelly Hare, Wellington, New Zealand
57) Scott Carver, Perth, Australia
58) Fiona Maley, Perth Australia
59) Mike Rathbone, Phoenix, USA

[Mnemosyne]

52. The world is watching. n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. According to Snopes, this is true

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/pascualama.asp

Article from Corporate Watch
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12447

[lonestarnot]

10. Thanks OmmmSweetOmmmm!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Your welcome lonestarnot. I received the petition earlier on this week

from a dear customer and didn't get around to do the research this morning.

[lonestarnot]

24. I replied to Jude by accident. I'm going to go back to the website to see

if there is a link to the petition and post it if there is one.

[Mnemosyne]

53. Poppy and Baker strike again.

What a surprise, not!

Thanks OSO!

[lonestarnot]

13. Website HERE.

See the following website: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75978.

[Mnemosyne]

54. Thanks! n/t

[create.peace]

101. Some links: in spanish/translated-&THE Petition please copy and circulate

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.noapascualama.org/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dnoapascualama%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D


They accuse Barrick Gold to break Chilean laws when continuing with the project Pascua Lama
The existence of a prejudicial measurement precautoria would prevent its viability. A letter given to the Chilean parliamentarians is included in addition.


Two people die in protests against Barrick in Peru
Farmers of the communities near the Pierina mine faced the police after the refusal of the company to increase the wages.


Celebration of the Day the Earth International 2006
Photos of the Long walk “I Defend the Earth” of the 22 of April

Court accepts action against Barrick Gold for bad sanitary conditions in Zaldívar mine. The workers are exposed to chemical, insumos agents and lubricant polluting agents and/or toxins, because they are not able to neutralize the dangerous substances.


Barrick Gold completed 100% acquisition of Placer Domes
It bought the company for about US$10.4 million. The transaction will allow Barrick to be placed at the top of the world-wide gold producers, with near 8.4 million annual ounces.

http://www.noapascualama.org

..................

here is the petition - from hipmama site


Date: 5/14/2006 10:51:13 PM
Subject: Water or Gold?

Dear friends who care about our earth. Judge for yourself
if you want to take action. In the Valle de San Felix,
the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers.
Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it.
Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they
provide the second largest source of income for the area.
Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and
other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to
destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of
the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain,
one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip. The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.
(Barrick Gold is mining at Lake Cowal-NSW Australia at the moment!)

The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior. The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution.
If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of
especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2
rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption
because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction
process.

Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and
not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only
be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.
The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have
been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the
Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice. The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here.

We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the
following way. Please copy this text, paste it into a new email
adding your signature and send it to everyone in your address book.
Please, will the 100th person to receive and sign the petition, send it
to "mailto:[e-mail]" [e-mail]
to be forwarded to the Chilean Government.

NO to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier. We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the
Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of
the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the
agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the
Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region.
Signature, City, Country
1) Katharine Proudfoot, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
2) Laura Cole, London, UK
3) David Platt, London, UK
4) Diane Platt, Manchester, UK
5) Tanya Corker, Manchester, UK
6) Nicola Hargreaves, UK
7) Nicholas Jones, UK
8) Johann Don-Daniel, Germany
9) Ashley Berger, Germany
10) Sarah Downie, Leeds, UK
11) Paula Delahunty, Bingley, UK
12) John O'Driscoll, Bingley, Uk
13) Jordan-Lee Delahunty, Bingley, UK
14) Claire Mulvey, Bradford, UK
15) Marie Malcolm Bradford, UK
16) Ann Clowes, Halifax UK
17) Jayne McGee, Brighouse UK
18) Jason Barratt Oldham UK
19) Lindsay Torrance, Rochdale UK
20) Maggie Ford, Rochdale, U.K.
21) Barry Cook, Todmorden, U.K.
22) Shelley Burgoyne, Todmorden, U.K.
23) Lisa Stuart, Potes, Spain.
24) Michael Stuart, Potes, Spain.
25) Renee Engl, Byron Bay, Australia
26) Adrian Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
27) Riana Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
28) Oriel Paterson, Brunswick Heads, Australia
29) Alicia Paterson, Brisbane, Australia
30) Lyneve Robinson, Sydney, Australia
31) Jennifer Moalem, Sydney, Australia
32) Alexandra Pope, Sydney Australia
33) Shushann Movsessian, Sydney Australia
34) Amanda Frost
35) Tarshito , Montecollum,NSW Australia
36) Eltara
37) Michael Webb, The Channon,NSW Australia
38) Sarah LaRock, New Orleans, USA
39) Annie LaRock, New Orleans, USA
40) Patti Mollica Hagan, Nyack, NY USA
50) Naomi Camilleri, New City, NY, USA
51) Maria Torffield, New York, NY, USA
52) Tania Kravath, New York, NY, USA
53) Alicia Benoist, New York, NY USA
54) Debralee Nelson, New York, NY USA
55) Amy Rossman, New Jersey USA
56) Mary E. Johnston, New Jersey, US
57) Michelle Skaff, Sonoma, Ca
58) Patricia Hayes, Sebastopol, CA USA
59) Rebecca Munroe, Santa Rosa, CA, USA
60) Mary Maki-Rich, Sebastopol, CA, USA
61) Hettie Rich-Falk, Phoenix, AZ, USA
62) Hannah Johns, Moline, KS, USA



[e-mail]

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. Barrick Gold. One of Bush Sr's partners is Adnan Khasshoggi. Remember him?

A felon from the Iran-Contra affair. Bush Sr. pardoned him.

[lonestarnot]

5. Holy shit! No did not know this!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. Greg Palast has written a great deal about Barrick. They are also

supposedly up to their necks in horrible practices in Africa.

Barrick sued Palast for libel in the UK (where Palast had worked for the BBC) and Barrick won. Remember though that the libel laws in the UK don't have the tough standards that we have here.

[lonestarnot]

11. Who is applying the brakes from here? Anyone?

[shance]

45. What tough libel laws do we have here?

I have understood that England has much tougher legislation than we do.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

50. Interesting article. If you do a search you will similar articles.

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/61063

[cliss]

32. Adnan Khashoggi? The arms merchant?

This creep has been underground for a while, I see. Suddenly he's surfacing. Naturally, with Bush Senior.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

37. If you do a search, you'll see he's not that underground. If

my recall is working, he has his hands dipping in lots of things.

Excellent article by Sy Hersh

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/030317fa_fact

[lumpy]

62. Unferking believable.

Greed will destroy our planet. Where are you God, come out come out wherever you are and do some smiting.

[Spazito]

6. Barrick Gold is the epitome of the most disgusting multinational

corporation, imo. More on Pascua Lama:

Barrick Gold Strikes Opposition in South America

“Barrick! Listen! Chile will not surrender!, No to Pascua Lama!,” roared a crowd of protestors as they paraded through the streets of Santiago, Chile. The crowd was addressing Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold, in response to the company's proposed bi-national “Pascua Lama” open-pit mine on the border of Chile and Argentina.

In what has so far been the climax of a campaign that is quickly gaining momentum, the protestors gathered on June 4th in both Santiago, Chile's capital city, and in the northern city of Vallenar, near the Pascua Lama site. Each protest drew an estimated 2,000 people in a lively atmosphere of carnival and traditional dance and ritual. The groups condemned Barrick Gold’s plans as greedy, heavy-handed, and called the proposed mine an environmental and social nightmare, shouting, “We are not a North American colony!”

Barrick Gold, a powerful multinational already notorious for its dealings in North America, Australia and Africa, plans to extract an estimated 500,000 kilograms of gold (along with silver, copper and mercury) from the site over a 20 year period. Before doing so, however, the company will relocate significant parts of the Toro 1, Toro 2 and Esperanza, three giant Andean glaciers. Barrick hopes to transfer the three glaciers to an area with similar surface characteristics and elevation by merging the three into the larger Guanaco glacier.

The anticipated environmental impact, coupled with the removal of a major source of water for surrounding communities, has local Chileans up in arms. But Barrick Gold appears un-phased by the opposition. After all, Pascua Lama is one of the largest foreign investments in Chile in recent years, totaling US$1.5 billion.

more

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12447

More on Barrick Gold:

Some of the loot for the Republican effort in the 1997-2000 election cycles came from an outfit called Barrick Corporation. The sum, while over $100,000, is comparatively small change for the GOP, yet it seemed quite a gesture for a corporation based in Canada. Technically, the funds came from those associated with the Canadian’s U.S. unit, Barrick Gold Strike.

They could well afford it. In the final days of the Bush (Senior) administration, the Interior Department made an extraordinary but little noticed change in procedures under the 1872 Mining Law, the gold rush-era act that permitted those whiskered small-time prospectors with their tin pans and mules to stake claims on their tiny plots. The department initiated an expedited procedure for mining companies that allowed Barrick to swiftly lay claim to the largest gold find in America. In the terminology of the law, Barrick could “perfect its patent” on the estimated $10 billion in ore—for which Barrick paid the U.S. Treasury a little under $ 10,000. Eureka!


Barrick, of course, had to put up cash for the initial property rights and the cost of digging out the booty (and the cost of donations, in smaller amounts, to support Nevada’s Democratic senator, Harry Reid). Still, the shift in rules paid off big time: According to experts at the Mineral Policy Center of Washington, DC, Barrick saved—and the U.S. taxpayer lost—a cool billion or so.


Upon taking office, Bill Clinton’s new interior secretary, Bruce Babbitt, called Barrick’s claim the “biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy.” Nevertheless, because the company followed the fast-track process laid out for them under Bush, this corporate Goldfinger had Babbitt by the legal nuggets. Clinton had no choice but to give them the gold mine while the public got the shaft.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=207&row=4

[lonestarnot]

8. This must be stopped! These freaks think they can get away with any

damn thing they please due to the immense dough involved. Manipulating the environment in this manner without any consideration to the devasting affects is deplorable and a should be a capital crime! and p.s. thanks for the information!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. It isn't just Barrick. Bechtel is buying up water rights in South America.

[lonestarnot]

14. So it's even worse!

[Mnemosyne]

55. And good old Rev. Moon is buying too.

Land over or near a huge aquifer in Paraguay.

South America is the next frontier in the "War on Terror". Most likely to profit Moon and BFEE.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/8997-Moonies_accused_of_involvement_in_drugs.html
snip>

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, spiritual leader of the Unification Church, self-proclaimed Messiah, multimillionaire and a generous contributor to the US Republican Party, has been showing a strong interest over the last five years in little-known Paraguay at the centre of the South American continent.

Since 1999, Rev Moon has built his personal empire which begins on the marshy banks of the River Paraguay and stretches beyond the hazy, level horizon through 600,000 hectares of arid land - equivalent to more than two Luxembourgs - punctuated by solitary clusters of withered trees and sad bushes which struggle desperately for air.

The scorching sun beats relentlessly on one of Latin America's most desolate zones. It is here in the northern province of Chaco, directly above the GuaranI aquifer, the largest resource of fresh drinking water in the world, where Moon's associates claim he wishes to build an ecological paradise.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

64. And he who controls the water.....

And the complicit press has been silent on this criminal too.

[Mnemosyne]

70. Moon has seemed to lay low for awhile now, since

his coronation as *'s Messiah. That little incident went completely under the radar, or was ignored. There was more importance in that coronation than we know. I would bet on it.

I actually had hope that the press would get totally pissed about the spying on them and rebel hardcore. It seems a lost hope almost. Of course the threats from the Torturer General might have scared them again. Chickenshits.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

76. Moonie's coronation was covered in the Washington Post and they even

mentioned that Sen. Warner got permission to use the Dirksen Bldg. Then the whole subject sunk into the great media black hole. You would think that it would have headline news for quite a while. I guess they don't want the disgusting secret that we have members of our govt that are Moonies.

Just think how brilliant Moon was to groom these cult worshippers to run for and then to win seats in our Congress.

So then under the radar goes the relationship between Moon and No. Korea, including his selling nuclear subs to them amongst I am sure many more nefarious things.

It is bone chilling.

[Spazito]

16. They not only think, to this point in time they HAVE gotten away

with everything they have done! I have been looking for the NAFTA Chapter 11 claim filed by Barrick against California due to California, under Gray Davis I believe, passing some environmental legislation that affected Barrick. Due to NAFTA's Chapter 11, Barrick was claiming millions in compensation from California because of the new environmental laws. I don't know what the resolution of that claim was and am now having difficulty in finding out anything at all on it.

Edited to correct grammatical error and to add this little nugget:

The former Chilean ambassador to Canada is now working for Barrick but I am sure he has Chili's best interest at heart. :sarcasm:

Adding this info on Chapter 11 claims:

NAFTA’s Chapter 11: Environmental Claims
By Stephen L. Kass and Jean M. McCarroll

We have previously called attention to the growing use of private arbitration by Canadian, U.S. and Mexican investors to assert damage claims against their host governments under NAFTA’s Chapter 11, which requires the NAFTA parties (1) to afford such investors “national treatment,” (2) to comply with international law (including “fair and equitable treatment”) in dealing with their investments and (3) to refrain from acting in a manner that either expropriates their property or is “tantamount to an expropriation” without compensation. (See Stephen L. Kass, “NAFTA’s Chapter 11: Regulatory Takings Revisited,” NYLJ, Sept. 11, 2000; and Stephen L. Kass and Jean M. McCarroll, “The Metalclad Decision under NAFTA’s Chapter 11,” NYLJ, Oct. 27, 2000). In the nearly two years since those articles were written, Chapter 11 arbitration claims have proliferated under NAFTA, as U.S., Canadian and Mexican lawyers have discovered the power of closed private proceedings to threaten the U.S., Canada and Mexico with large damage awards based on allegedly discriminatory, illegal or confiscatory state action in regulating the environment in a way that injures a client’s business or property.

More than two dozen Chapter 11 claims have now been filed against the NAFTA parties, leading environmental organizations and public officials in all three countries to urge immediate action to either amend or reinterpret NAFTA or, at the very least, to reform the procedures under which such arbitrations take place. In the U.S., environmental organizations have made such reforms a condition to support of any further “fast track” authority for the President to negotiate the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) or, indeed, any other bilateral investment agreement, and the Senate has approved legislation incorporating many of these demands.

This column reviews NAFTA Chapter 11 claims to date, summarizes relevant provisions of the federal legislation pending in late June and offers a number of suggestions for reconciling the legitimate aims of the Chapter 11 arbitration process with the environmental and other public interests so often at stake in such disputes.

“Taking” Claims

As noted in our prior articles, reliable current information about the number, status or results of Chapter 11 proceedings is notoriously difficult to obtain. Of the 25 Chapter 11 claims filed to date, only four appear to have resulted in decisions on the merits. The first two decisions, Azinian v. Mexico (November 1, 1999) and Pope & Talbot v. Canada (June 26, 2000, interim award), involved investor claims under NAFTA section 1110(1), which provides that no NAFTA Party may “directly or indirectly nationalize or expropriate an investment of an investor of another Party . . . or take a measure tantamount to nationalization or expropriation” without compensating the investor, even when the action is taken on a non-discriminatory basis for a public purpose in accordance with applicable legal requirements. The Azinian decision rejected U.S. investors’ claims that the cancellation by the Mexican city of Naucalpan de Juarez of a concession for waste water collection was “tantamount” to a taking, finding that the investors had misrepresented relevant facts to the arbitration tribunal and that, even if proven, its claims did not amount to expropriation under section 1110(1).

more

http://www.clm.com/pubs/pub-1101817_1.html

[lonestarnot]

18. Isn't that strange... hmmmf!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

20. Don't int'l treaties have precedent over our US laws?

[lonestarnot]

21. Nothing appears to have authority over bushitler regime.

[Spazito]

22. Yes, precisely why NAFTA's Chapter 11 is used so often to

subvert state/provincial environmental and other legislation in protection of the corporation. NAFTA is an international treaty and Chapter 11 is a travesty, imo, not to say NAFTA itself isn't appalling over all.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. The simple fact is that the vast majority of the citizens had no

idea that they have given over their sovereign rights, and if they would have been properly informed, there is no way that NAFTA ever would have passed. But most people were fast asleep while their right's were being signed away and many are still fast asleep.

[lonestarnot]

43. I was screamin a lung out over it and no one would listen.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

51. And I am guilty of being asleep then. I vaguely knew something about it

but I was so embroiled with the drama of my own life that I didn't pay attention.

[Spazito]

65. I have to count myself in as one of those who, while not quite

asleep, did not see how bad NAFTA really was. I was against it because Mulroney and Reagan/Bush were for it, primarily, because if they were for it I knew it was not good news.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

66. As I mentioned in another post, I am guilty of being asleep then.

I had so much drama going on in my own life and unfortunately didn't wake up again fully until 9/11.

[lonestarnot]

68. It's ok Ommm, I forgive you.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

75. Thank you lonestarnot.

I appreciate that and you for your vigilence.

:hug:

[WinkyDink]

33. Yes. The World Trade Organization. We've already paid fines

because of it.
Environmental laws are re-defined as "free-trade barriers".

[Judi Lynn]

17. It really figures, doesn't it? The more publicity this gets, the better.

People need to know what kind of creature this elder _Bush is. He's surely no humanitarian. He's about the LAST person who should have ever been President of the U.S., outside his evil son.

I want to sign the petition, as well.

Thank you for informing us. This is hideous. These people are monsters.

Can you imagine doing this for GOLD? Well, we know they murdered vast multitudes in Latin America for gold during the Spanish seizure of the New World, and miners did godawful things to Native Americans for gold in the American West. No one had the ability to do this kind of damage until now. That's progress for you. :sarcasm:

What a damned shame.

[lonestarnot]

19. Just checked for a copy of the petition. Will post a copy when I get it.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Thanks. Hope the effort will help, somehow. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

25. Kick. For more attention and discussion

[Fridays Child]

27. Here are some more links to information about this issue...

From a May 24, 2006 thread, posted by Jigarotta:

Recent:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12447
http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,,1766535,00.html?gusrc=rss
http://jnblog.typepad.com/provocations/2006/05/heres_an_exampl.html

Background:
http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/conspiracy/reststory/bronfmangold.html
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=207&row=4

And, from the above-referenced thread, here's a post that highlights how Cynthia McKinney pissed off Barrick:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1272249&mesg_id=1273619

[lonestarnot]

44. Thanks for the links fridays child!

[Hoping4Change]

28. EMAIL & SNAILMAIL Address of Chile's President & Interior Minister

For email and snail mail addres for Chile's President go to:


http://www.presidencyofchile.cl/view/viewRegistraUsuario.asp?optxMail=2&Seccion=Recibe%20Noticias





Minister of the Interior contact info:


palacio del la moneda S/N
santiago - santiago
(56) - (2) - 6904000
chile
(56-2) 6904000
Internet Call (price x minute US$0.03)
(56-2) 6992165
(56-2) 6717054

http://www.interior.gov.cl

[lonestarnot]

98. Please keep the cards letters and emails flowing here people.

You might also contact Earth First and what's that other one National Resource Defense Council and urge their involvement. Time is running out!

[Hoping4Change]

29. EMAIL ADDRESS of Chile's Parliament and Senate

The Chilean Parliament and Senate:

[e-mail]

[e-mail]



:kick:

[shadowknows69]

30. This is Gaia's final test of mankind

If we as a species are stupid enough to destroy life giving elements for ones that will fuel human greed then we deserve our Mother's wrath as she shakes off the virus known as man and hands it to the insects.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

38. You just gave me the chills....................... eom

[shadowknows69]

40. I frighten myself frequently as well

we truly are a silly, suicidal species. it's a wonder we lasted this long.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

47. One of my biggest gripes is that you would think with all the

years we've resided on this planet, with all the lessons we as a species should have learned, we would have become more evolved by now. Silly me.......Arrogance is our biggest downfall.

[Mnemosyne]

57. Eons passed and things were fine.

Now in about a hundred years time we have caused almost irreversible destruction to Gaia.

I am amazed we have lasted this long too shadowknows.

[shadowknows69]

71. The damage to Earth isn't irreversible

but the damage to us will be. To paraphrase George Carlin: "I hate these people who keep saying we have to save the earth. the earth isn't going anywhere. we are!"

[Mnemosyne]

74. Great point! I sometimes forget how

insignificant we are in the long run. Gaia will just shake us off like a virus and go on.

[WinkyDink]

31. The insatiable quest for gold.

Makes David Icke and Zacariah Sitchin look like seers.

[dailykoff]

35. You'd think it was freaking 1492. (n/t)

[shance]

49. It's not the gold. It's the need to dominate others.

It's the need to have all the candy so no one else has any.

[Hoping4Change]

34. Barrick says approvel immeninent: FAX Chile's President

Dra. Michelle Bachelet
Presidente de la Republica de Chile
Palaciao de la Moneda
Santiago

FAX [phone]


Article from Globe and Mail Investor 24/05/06 quoting Barrick

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/ROC.20060524.2006-05-24T215726Z_01_N24331056_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MINERALS-CHILE-BARRICK-COL/GIStory

"SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Canadian miner Barrick Gold said on Wednesday the remaining details of its $1.5 billion Pascua Lama gold project were on track for final approval by the Chilean government despite environmental and community opposition.

At a world mining conference in Santiago, Igor Gonzales, president of Barrick Gold South America, said the problems the Pascua Lama project is confronting are no different from those of its other projects."




Copy of letter sent by the coordinator of a Canadian-Chilean group very actively opposing the project:


http://www.web.net/~emi/michelle_bachelet.pdf


Gerardo Aiquel, Coordinator
Grupo Chileno-Canadiense de Trubajo-
Campana Opossicion al Proyecto Pascua Lama

[e-mail]

[Peace Patriot]

36. Deals like this are why 50,000 of us protested in Seattle 1999 against

the World Trade Organization, the secrecy-ridden global corporate group where the fate of our countries' natural resources and labor are determined. We actually lost our sovereignty to global corporate predators before Diebold and ES&S destroyed our right to vote (the mechanism by which we exercise our sovereignty). Our right to determine our fate was given over to this and other unaccountable trade/finance groups whose closed meetings and secret deals we have no access to. I suspect that the Seattle 1999 protests and the coming of Diebold and ES&S election theft machines are related. Global corporations saw that they might not be able to control the American people through 24/7 propaganda on our hijacked public airwaves, and by turning our elected representatives into millionaires and giving them a taste of life above the rest of us (the filthy pigsty of campaign money and lavish lobbying). If 50,000 ordinary people--Steelworkers, postal workers, teachers, small farmers, religious, human rights and environment groups and others can organize the perfect protest (yup) and shut down the city of Seattle so that no one can attend the secret meetings of the WTO, what might we not do? (Of course this massive and hugely successful PEACEFUL protest was slandered from one end of the corporate news media to the other, after the POLICE rioted.)

That was under Clinton. Next we got the Bush junta, 9/11, and corporate-controlled electronic 'voting,' run on "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, in a wholly NON-TRANSPARENT election system, engineered, during the 2002-2004 period, by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, and Christopher Dodd (Bilderberg). If the American people are going to get pissy, shut down their right to vote!

Seattle 1999 was the "shot heard round the world." It was followed, at subsequent WTO meetings, culminating in Cancun several years ago, with a full scale third world country revolt, led by Brazil and twenty other tromped on countries. Democracy was flowering in these countries, while we were losing it here. Quietly, over about a decade, local civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center had achieved TRANSPARENT elections all over South America, and majority (leftist) rule began erupting everywhere south of the border: in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela and Bolivia--virtually the entire continent--with hopeful signs in Peru, Nicaragua and Mexico, and even Columbia.

One of the important issues in Bolivia--that catapulted Evo Morales into the presidency (the first indigenous Indian president of the country)--was the revolt of the poor against Bechtel Corporation, which had privatized the water in one Bolivian city and then jacked up the prices to the poor, even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater! The Bolivians revolted and threw Bechtel out of their country.

This is the mood in South America, so I don't know if this gold rape will succeed. These countries are talking about rejecting--and some are already moving to reject--the entire NAFTA/WTO/WORLD BANK/IMF paradigm. A project like this is exactly why--loss of sovereignty over their resources, and consequent environmental destruction and grievous exploitation.

[lonestarnot]

39. Let us strive for 500 million of us protesting!

[Elwood P Dowd]

41. Excellent post PP.

I am happy to notice there are many less NAFTA/GATT/WTO/GATS/CAFTA/FTAA supporters on DU than when I first started lurking about 4 years ago.

[lonestarnot]

42. NAFTA/GATT/WTO/GATS/CAFTA/FTAA all suck! and you left out

the World Bank!

[Elwood P Dowd]

46. Sorry about that

I probably should mention MAFTA - Mars American Free Trade Agreement. Bushit wants to visit Mars and start negotiations. They have little green people who work for one penny a month. They will do work Mexicans and Chinese won't do.

[lonestarnot]

56. bbbbbbbbbwwwwa

:rofl:

[Elwood P Dowd]

60. Don't laugh

Bushit says there is a huge market up there for America's top export products - used toilet paper, polluted water, nuclear waste, and others. Bushit should know. He has a business degree from Harvard. As he once said, "I knows all about small business growth. I was one."

[lonestarnot]

67. Apparently the only thing he learned at Harvard was how to lie, cheat,

steal and destroy earth!

[dogday]

48. K&R

[butterfly77]

58. DO THEY EVER GET ENOUGH!

[create.peace]

102. earth first,we'll nine the other planets later is their motto B-) nt

[The Straight Story]

59. Kick for a great thread with a lot of info! (nt)

[roody]

61. k

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

63. Kick

[Cleita]

69. There's loads of gold, silver, copper, uranium in the North

of Chile in a place that doesn't have much to be destroyed because it's ONE OF THE DRIEST DESERTS IN THE WORLD!! so there's very little that is organic to destroy and the water that flows from the Andes becomes salinized because of the nitrate.

Not only that in the Chuquicamata mine pit which mines copper, the tailings and dumps alone are full of minerals like gold and silver that the former American Company threw away because they were only interested in the copper and what uranium they came across.

What is wrong with people? This is like the ANWAR oil drilling. There is no need for this even for profit when there is plenty around in other places that aren't so ecologically delicate.

:banghead:

[lonestarnot]

77. This is the search and destroy society you know. Mix in a big bushitler

and you know you have disaster waiting to happen.

[druidity33]

72. is the NRDC working on this? n/t

[lonestarnot]

78. NRDC? What's dat?

[druidity33]

80. the best...

and most effective legal non-profit entity in support of the environment that i have run across. It stands for the Natural Resources Defense Council. RFK Jr is a prominent lawyer with them and they work tirelessly for the cause... they get the same kind of respect from me as EFF does.

here's their main page:

http://www.nrdc.org/

I get their their biogem e-mail alerts and sign a petition every month or so and every week or two they give updates on current litigation and battles yet to be fought. Worth checking them out and seeing if they have heard of this yet (though i suspect they are probably already at the forefront of people pushing to kill this deal).

Peace and Goodwill to you...

[lonestarnot]

86. Excellent, signing up!

Peace to you druidity 33!

[lonestarnot]

90. DONE!

[lonestarnot]

91. Signed up Earth First and notified both groups!

[lonestarnot]

104. Just got a response back from NRDC. Want to see what they said?

[druidity33]

81. after checking...

their site by searching for Chile, i see they have nothing newer than 2005... so it doesn't appear they are aware of this situation. You might also check the Earth First! website... they often have on the ground reports from people in country. Also would make a good anecdote for Gore's recent 'campagning'... i.e., "we not only have to worry about melting ice caps and glaciers, we have to worry about oil compainies and mining companies BREAKING THEM UP AND MAKING THEM TOXIC!" So by all means, e-mail his staff.

Good luck...

[lonestarnot]

87. Thanks will visit both earth first and Natl Resource Defense Council and

post a link to this DU thread. :hug:

[druidity33]

95. excellent!

and you're right... Karl Rove is a traitor.

[madokie]

73. How in the world did all their gold get under those glaciers, inquiring

minds want to know.

[lonestarnot]

79. Good question madokie. Big bushitler won't let a minor thing like that

stop him.

[Cleita]

83. The whole Andes Mountain chain is formed from volcanoes.

The magma that forms these mountains came from the core of the earth and is rich in ores. There is gold in all "them there hills", so they could easily leave that gold alone and mine elsewhere that is less ecologicaly frail.

I suspect the ore there is purer than in other places so this is why they are after it. It's easy extraction. I know that the industry, which is destructive of the earth by nature, looks upon ventures like this as necessary because business and the need for metals trumps all else in their narrow vision.

Cleita (ex mining brat from Chile). Why do I know? My father was a miner in Chile for an American company.

[lonestarnot]

88. Wow personal knowledge! A blessing!

[ContraBass Black]

82. Are there any news articles on this?

[Spazito]

84. Here are some....

Barrick says Pascua Lama on track
News from Reuters



SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Canadian miner Barrick Gold said on Wednesday the remaining details of its $1.5 billion Pascua Lama gold project were on track for final approval by the Chilean government despite environmental and community opposition.

At a world mining conference in Santiago, Igor Gonzales, president of Barrick Gold South America, said the problems the Pascua Lama project is confronting are no different from those of its other projects.

"The biggest challenges we are facing by far, in both South America and Africa, are social in nature," said Gonzales.

The project has faced strong criticism from environmental and community groups worried about water pollution and wary of the project's original proposal to remove glaciers in the Andes mountain range.

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/ROC.20060524.2006-05-24T215726Z_01_N24331056_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MINERALS-CHILE-BARRICK-COL/GIStory/

ENVIRONMENT-CHILE:
Gold Mining Project Threatens Andean Glaciers

SANTIAGO, Jun 25 (Tierramérica) - Increasingly vocal groups oppose a gold mining project along the Chile-Argentina border because it would mean removing three glaciers in the Andes Mountains.

Ecologists, indigenous communities, farmers, political leaders and civil society groups are mobilising in Chile, Argentina and even Europe against Pascua-Lama, a giant mining project of the Canadian transnational Barrick Gold.

The Pascua-Lama site extends to both sides of the Argentine-Chilean border, with 80 percent in the latter, and lies under the glaciers known as Toro 1, Toro 2 and Esperanza. They feed into Huasco valley, 660 km north of Santiago, supplying irrigation water for some 70,000 small farmers.

More than 2,500 people protested against the project on Jun. 4 in a festive march through the streets of Vallenar, a town 150 km west of the mining site, which is also 300 km northwest of the Argentine city of San Juan.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29223

FUTURE UNCERTAIN FOR CHILE’S PASCUA LAMA GOLD MINE
(The Santiago Times)

Presidential Candidates Voice Doubts About The Project

(Jan. 10, 2006) The future looks uncertain for the controversial Pascua Lama gold mine project in Chile’s northern Region III. Environmental advisors to the both presidential candidates now vying for office say their new, incoming government will not support the gold mine.

The US$1.5 billion project, which straddles the Chilean/Argentine border, is proposed by Canada’s Barrick Gold, one of the world’s most important gold mining companies.

In the run-off vote on Sunday, Chileans will choose between the center-left candidate, Michelle Bachelet of the governing Concertación coalition, and billionaire businessman Sebastián Piñera, the conservative leader of the National Renovation (RN) party. Both candidates have voiced strong reservations about Pascua Lama because of the environmental risks it poses.

The Pascua Lama project contemplates moving three glaciers in order to access vast reserves (17.6 million ounces) of gold and silver deposits. But environmentalists and some community leads say the project risks contaminating the water supply and livelihoods of the farming communities in the Huasco Valley, directly beneath the proposed mine site,

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=10550&topic_id=1

I am sure there are more but these show the coverage has been out there.

[NVMojo]

85. the pig mob of corporate mining ...Bush is merely their lapdog

I know. I live in a town crapped on by Barrick in North America.

[lonestarnot]

92. Nevada? and what town?

[lonestarnot]

89. Thanks Spazito!

[Hoping4Change]

93. Mining Watch is an excellent resource for news about this.

http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/104/Pascua_Lama_Urgent_Action

[lonestarnot]

103. Thanks hoping4Change!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

94. kick

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

96. Kick

[lonestarnot]

97. kick

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

99. tap

[lonestarnot]

100. Someone at Project Censored Media is working on this. Have contacted

them. Waiting for a response.