Sunday, February 01, 2004

Was it just the intelligence agencies? Posted here Sunday, February 01, 2004 at 6:37:11 PM     The problem of the intelligence failure - British and American intelligence services look set to share the blame for the spectacular failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. President George Bush is to order a full investigation of US intelligence failures in Iraq, a senior White House official said last night, while politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are preparing to argue that MI6 and the CIA supplied a false picture of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons stockpile. It is amazing how such a ploy can work. In this case it might not. ********

Food patents Posted here Sunday, February 01, 2004 at 8:13:47 AM     The whole article suggests that Monsanto doesn't want to use the patent, but the existence of it is chilling. What we need to watch is the underlying logic about the privatization of common goods, and the inexorable flow of capital/information towards ownership. Of everything. Monsanto's chapati patent raises Indian ire Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi Saturday January 31, 2004 The Guardian Monsanto, the world's largest genetically modified seed company, has been awarded patents on the wheat used for making chapati - the flat bread staple of northern India. The patents give the US multinational exclusive ownership over Nap Hal, a strain of wheat whose gene sequence makes it particularly suited to producing crisp breads. Another patent, filed in Europe, gives Monsanto rights over the use of Nap Hal wheat to make chapatis, which consist of flour, water and salt. ********