And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: Erin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Alert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: US WAR BILL DESTROYS YUGOSLAV AND DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENTS US WAR BILL DESTROYS YUGOSLAV AND DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENTS Local communities in Yugoslavia as well as the United States will suffer from major oil spills and the dumping of toxic waste from mining operations, as a result of a US$15 billion war bill approved by the US Congress last week. The bill, which was approved on May 13, 1999, provided almost twice as much as the US$6 billion that President Bill Clinton asked for bombing Serbia in return for abuses against ethnic Albanians in the country. Members of Congress strongly supported the President's request and added in an extra US$2.5 billion for operations and maintenance of equipment as well as US$1.8 billion for a military pay raise plus additional funds to replace depleted bombs, purchase other weapons and recruit. Slade Gorton, a US Republican Senator from Washington state threw his support behind Clinton's bombing campaign in exchange for approval to permit the Crown Jewel gold mine on indigenous lands of the Colville peoples in his state: "I do believe that this war was started frivolously and pursued incompetently. But I do believe we've got to pay for it," he said. Gorton's quid pro quo advances the plan of the operators of the proposed mine, Battle Mountain Gold, to remove the top of Buckhorn Mountain situated close to the Canadian border. In developing an open-pit they propose to use of 30 million pounds (13,636 tons) of cyanide to obtain the precious metal. The federal government announced in March that the mining proposal could not go forward as planned because it violates a little known provision of the 1872 Mining Law. The law limits the amount of public land that can be used for dumping waste. "The proposed mine would have illegally dumped toxic mine waste on 490 acres (about 200 hectares) of publicly-owned land,'' said Dave Kliegman of the Okonogan Highlands Alliance, a local community organization. In addition to this so-called "Mining Rider", the newly approved war bill will delay both new cleanup rules for mining companies here in the US as well as the payment of higher royalties by oil and gas companies for drilling on US public lands. And to rub salt into the wounds, the war package will be paid from cuts in Social Security savings. <<END EXCERPT Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
