Eric Holder - Covington & Burling - Obama Transition Offices Protest

From: dana@phantom.com

Subject: Join us at Noon, Wednesday, Jan 14 to urge Eric Holder to do the Right Thing.

We don't have a problem with the Marc Rich pardon. Marc Rich was the victim of political grandstanding and overzealous prosecution by Rudi Giuliani. (No surprise there.)

But Eric Holder has a unique chance to clean up his checkered past on the marijuana issue with a raft of new recommendations for clemency.

In the spirit of Forgiveness--how about full presidential pardons for medical marijuana in California and other states where it's legal?

No medical marijuana patient or provider ever tortured, engaged in illegal wiretaps, or waged gratuitous wars of aggression. None of them fraudulently took a $100 million bonus as their bank went bust. Not one of them even sold a phony mortgage with the explicit purpose of cheating old folks out of their home. Instead, their crime was to heal the sick, ease the pain and nausea.

If Obama won't keep his campaign pledge to call off the war on medical marijuana, by sending a clear signal to federal law enforcement with presidential pardons now, the least we can ask is vigorous enforcement of the law against the people who got us into this mess.

We want either full medical marijuana amnesty for everyone prosecuted under Bush, or a guilty republican politician as a cellmate for every pot prisoner in America.

The day before Eric Holder's confirmation hearings begin, we intend to visit his offices at Covington and Burling and Obama Transition Team headquarters with pictures of prominent republicans pardoned or not even prosecuted, and black-bordered photos of medical marijuana martyrs. Join us at high noon at Freedom Plaza, 13th & Pennsylvania.

Dana Beal/212-677-4899 John Pylka/202-286-5586

Eric Holder Civil Rights Protest

Holder-Breuer Law Firm Long Involved In Drug Policy

Holder: Please Respect Freedom of Choice!

National Action Alert:
Your Chance to Impact the US Attorney General Confirmation!

Dear ASA Supporter,

It’s here - your first opportunity to be a real part of changing medical cannabis policy. If you ever wanted to take action that could make a difference, now’s your chance!

On January 15th, Senate Judiciary Committee will begin confirmation hearings for President-elect’s nominee for US Attorney General, Eric H. Holder. Obama pledged to end DEA raids on individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state law. The U.S. Attorney General is the cabinet official who can carry out this stance.

Now is the time to act! We need you to help make sure the first discussions with Obama’s Attorney General include questions on medical cannabis.

It just takes two short but critical phone calls to Judiciary Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (202) 224-7703, and ranking Republican Member Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) (202) 224-5225). Call both offices and say:

"Hi, my name is ___________ and I am calling about the Attorney General confirmation hearings. President-elect Obama said numerous times during his campaign that DEA raids on individuals legally qualified to use medical cannabis in their states are a waste of resources and that he would end that policy. 72 million Americans live in the 13 states with medical cannabis laws. Please ask Eric Holder if he will uphold Obama's promise and end DEA raids on legal medical cannabis patients."

Because the federal government has refused to act, states have taken the lead in protecting patients who use medical cannabis. However, for 8 years the Bush Administration, the US Department of Jusice (DOJ), and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have aggressively targeted, raided, arrested, and prosecuted individuals who comply with state medical cannabis laws. In court, defendants are not allowed to present this as evidence for their defense, or even to mention that such state laws exist. As a result, many innocent people are serving time in federal prisons, and many more are waiting for their sentence.

We demand change NOW. Stand up for them by joining our effort!

Once you’ve made the call, send a letter to increase the pressure even more!

Change will not be handed to us. If we want it we have to demand it, and now is the best opportunity this country has ever had. Thank you for being a part of it.

Sincerely,

George Pappas
Field Coordinator
Americans for Safe Access

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Americans for Safe Access is the nation's largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.

Holder-Breuer Law Firm Long Involved In Drug Policy

Obama Asst AG Breuer Also From Covington & Burling

From The Washington Post:

The same firm with Eric Holder

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2009/01/09/lanny_breuer_to_lead_justice_c.html?wprss=the-trail

(excerpt)

By Carrie Johnson

White collar defense lawyer Lanny A. Breuer has emerged as the top candidate to lead the Justice Department's criminal division, two sources told The Washington Post.

If he is nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Breuer would oversee some of the department's most sensitive prosecutions in the areas of business fraud and public corruption.

He is no stranger to the intersection of law and politics. From 1997 to 1999 Breuer served as special counsel to President Bill Clinton, whom he defended in impeachment hearings and in the investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

In recent years Breuer has worked at the Washington office of the Covington & Burling law firm, alongside Attorney General designate Eric H. Holder Jr. There Breuer represented former Clinton national security adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger in the investigation of tampering with presidential documents at the National Archives. He also defended baseball ace Roger Clemens in proceedings before the House Government Reform panel into the use of steroids in the sport.

And from his Covington & Burling website bio:

http://www.cov.com/lbreuer/

Lanny Breuer, co-chair of Covington’s White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group, specializes in white collar criminal and complex civil litigation, internal corporate investigations, congressional investigations, antitrust cartel proceedings, and other matters involving high-profile legal, political, and public relations risks. Mr. Breuer represents corporations and individuals across a broad array of subject matters including corporate accountability, fraud and abuse, securities investigations and litigation, food and drug regulation, medical device health and safety, antitrust, conflicts of interest, environmental crimes, foreign corrupt practices, national security, and export controls. Mr. Breuer has been recognized as a leading litigator, including being named a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Washingtonian Magazine recently described Mr. Breuer as “one of the cleverest in Washington.”

Representative Matters

• Representing the Special Litigation Committee of the Hewlett Packard Board of Directors.
• Representing a Lieutenant Governor in a case brought by the public integrity section of the Department of Justice.
• Representing the former Minister of Atomic Energy for Russian Presidents Yeltsin and Putin in a case alleging theft of tens of millions of dollars.
• Representing several major corporations before Congress, including a leading Internet company in a hearing concerning its foreign business activities, major pharmaceutical companies targeted in oversight investigations, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in a national security investigation, and a large Wall Street firm in the Enron hearings.
• Represented leading telecommunications investors in a billion-dollar False Claims Act lawsuit.
• Represented former National Security Advisor Samuel Berger in an investigation of documents at the National Archives.

Previous Experience

• Special Counsel to President Clinton (1997 to 1999). Mr. Breuer represented President Clinton and the White House staff in the presidential impeachment hearings and trial, independent counsel investigations, a Justice Department task force investigation, and numerous congressional oversight investigations.
• Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan (1985 to 1989)
  

Honors and Rankings

• Washingtonian, named one of thirty “Big Guns,” the top lawyers in Washington (December 2007).
• Best Lawyers in America, selected as a top white collar criminal defense, health care, corporate governance and compliance law attorney as well as a top commercial and product liability litigator (2009).
• Guide to the World's Leading White Collar Crime Lawyers (2008)
• The International Who's Who of Business Crime Lawyers (2008)
• Chambers USA, America's leading lawyers for litigation (2006-2008)
• Legal 500 US, recognized as a leading lawyer in white collar criminal defense (2007-2008)
• American Lawyer, one of the top 45 private lawyers under the age of 45 in the United States (2003)
  

Pro Bono

• Vice-chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee.
• Handled one of the longest contested adoption trials in DC Superior Court, and the subsequent appeal.
  

Memberships and Affiliations

• Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, Barrister
• American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow
• Council for Court Excellence, Director
• Columbia College Alumni Association, Director
• American Jewish Committee, Washington Chapter, Director
• United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Member (Presidential appointee) (1999-2004), Committee on Conscience, Member (1999-present)

Publications and Speeches

• "Repairing America's Image Abroad Will Take Time," The Washington Times (8/28/2008), Co-Author
• "When Congress Calls," Legal Times (8/13/2007), Co-Author
• "Pharmaceutical Product Liability Update: Rowe v. Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.," Covington E-Alert (3/29/2007), Co-Author

More Publications and Speeches

Practices

	White Collar Defense & Investigations – Civil Antitrust Investigations – Congressional Investigations – False Claims Act – Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – Internal Investigations – Pharmaceutical Investigations
	Government Affairs – Congressional Investigations
	International – Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – Foreign Trade Controls
	Litigation – Pharmaceutical Litigation & Investigations – Product Liability & Mass Tort Litigation – Trials
	Securities Litigation & Securities Enforcement – Securities Enforcement – Securities, Derivative & Transactional Litigation
	Antitrust & Consumer Law – Criminal Antitrust & Cartel Law

Industries

Responding to the Global Financial Crisis

Education

• Columbia Law School, J.D., 1985
  • Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
• Columbia University, B.A., 1980

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia
• New York

Holder-Breuer Law Firm Long Involved In Drug Policy

Eric Holder Role Reversal?

From Steroid Nation:

http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2008/12/eric-holder---.html

12/25/2008

Eric Holder -- Barack Obama's Attorney General nominee -- not a big hit with doping agencies

President elect Barack Obama nominated long time Washington lawyer Eric Holder as his cabinet's Attorney General (AG). Holder's nomination prompted some critique of his time in the Clinton White House. However the countries anti-doping enforcement agencies also hold opinions about the AG-in waiting. They are not pleased. Maybe Holder will treat steroid offenders the way he treated Clinton-era sleazeball Marc Rich.

Seems Holder wanted all the information top steroid-enforcement government agencies could gather, but didn't want to reciprocate. Guess that's called 'diplomacy'...or 'stubborn self-interest''. Lester Munson writes a fascinating article at ESPN on the subject.

When the NFL grew tired of embarrassing disclosures and congressional hearings about performance-enhancing drugs and wanted to establish a voice in the federal government's investigations, league officials turned to Eric Holder, the man who is now President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general.

Holder quickly gathered senior executives from the other three leagues and their player unions and led them into a series of meetings in 2007 with top officials of, among others, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the agency that presides over the nation's "war on drugs." The sessions began with a measure of fanfare.

Holder was a natural choice to lead the effort. He served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration and then became a partner in Covington & Burling, a powerful Washington law firm that has long represented the NFL. For seven years, Holder helped the NFL through a number of difficulties, including an investigation of the dog-fighting charges against Michael Vick, the implementation of the Rooney Rule that requires owners to interview minority candidates for head coach vacancies, and the league's personal conduct crackdown.

Meetings began with all concerned hoping to develop a cooperative environment.

At the outset, hopes were high. After the first meeting in March of 2007, Scott Burns, the deputy director of the ONDCP and a participant in the sessions, said, "This is the first step in changing the way we look at the problem in the U.S. I hear more about human growth hormone and steroids and athletes than I do about crack cocaine. This is important to America."

Darryl Seibel, an official of the U.S. Olympic Committee, which also participated in the meetings, was equally hopeful. "You have, for the first time, a collaboration on an entirely new level on a national issue that requires a response such as this," he said.

But the efforts at cooperation ended badly when, led by Holder, the leagues and the unions refused to consider serious reforms in the way in which users of steroids were investigated and prosecuted and insisted on maintaining their own drug enforcement procedures under their respective collective bargaining agreements. The collaboration between law enforcement and sports organizations quietly fell apart.

"There was no substance to it," said one law enforcement official who participated in the meetings. "It was all for show."

Apparently some organizations, and their representatives, cannot play well with others:

"Holder and the professional leagues wanted us to share information with them," a top official of a law enforcement agency who participated in Holder's meetings told ESPN.com. "They wanted to know what players were involved. They wanted an end to leaks from our investigations. But when we asked for their information about players who used or where players bought their drugs, they didn't want to give us anything."

Might Holder's cooperating and stances with top Federal law enforcement agencies filter into the AG confirmation hearings? Interesting questions, and ESPN responds after the jump.

Now, Holder's role in the meetings and their outcome could become an issue in his confirmation hearing, which is scheduled to begin before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 15. Congressional interest in steroids issues has been intense in recent years, including the infamous hearing featuring Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa in March 2005, and last February's contentious session starring Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee.

If the Senate confirms Holder as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, he will be responsible for federal prosecutions throughout the U.S. and will quickly face decisions concerning the government's investigation of possible perjury by Clemens during his appearance on Capitol Hill and the disposition of pending perjury charges against Barry Bonds. It is possible committee members will ask Holder about his stand on enforcing drug laws against players in light of his past representation of a professional league and its athletes. Holder is still being paid for his NFL work, with $2.5 million in deferred compensation and separation payments coming to him in 2009, according to a financial disclosure statement he filed with the Judiciary Committee in mid-December.

Neither Holder nor the Obama transition team responded to numerous calls and e-mails from ESPN.com.

2.5 million left form the NFL in deferred compensation. One, that a ton of dough; and two, wonder where Holder's sentiments lie?

US drug agencies including the USADA wanted a cooperative sharing environment as with the Olympics and WADA. Holder and his organized USA sports cronies wanted nothing to do with it. Now, Holder as possible AG will be key in determining where and when anti-steroid and anti-doping enforcement go....both of which lag in the US compared with Olympic efforts. Munson concludes:

Now that Holder has left Covington & Burling, the failed meetings raise another issue. As an attorney for the NFL and the leader of these sessions, Holder's duty on performance-enhancing drug issues was to work privately to protect the leagues, the unions and their interests. As attorney general of the U.S., his duty will be to work publicly to prosecute the players he once protected. The role reversal could be interesting.

Posted by GRG51 on 12/25/2008 | Permalink

Technorati Tags: Attorney General, Barack Obama, DEA, Eric Holder, FDA, Law enforcement, NFL, Olympics, Steroids, USADA, WADA

Holder-Breuer Law Firm Long Involved In Drug Policy

Eric Holder Civil Rights Protest

To be held January 13 -14, 2008, in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between the White House and the Old Post Office Building; sponsored by the Fourth Of July Hemp Coalition.




http://smoke-in.org/

Obama's Surgeon General Pick Not Good

Just another 'yes' man


Found at Sam Smith's:

DIAGNOSIS ON GUPTA NOT GOOD

Brian Clark, Daily Green - Gupta is a skilled surgeon who even distinguished himself saving lives in Iraq, while embedded with a Navy unit. But not everyone is bully on the choice. A number of people, including prominent New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, are uncomfortable with the fact that Gupta harshly criticized Michael Moore for his muckraking Sicko, when most observers believe Moore's work holds up better than the "fudging" Gupta accused him of.

For his part, pundit Keith Olbermann had this quip about the possible nomination: "Isn't this like making Judge Judy the Attorney General?" Olbermann argued that Gupta is "transparently TV," and wonders if the media connection is an evolution of the Surgeon General's role. Others have wondered if Gupta has enough public health experience.

Gupta once told Wolf Blizter, "We spend so much of our health care budget towards taking care of people after they've already become sick, instead of preventing some of those diseases in the first place. Medically and morally, it makes a lot of sense to keep people from getting sick in the first place, and I think that has got to be a big component of fixing the health care system overall."

That's a very commendable position, and one we at TDG absolutely support. However, we question whether Dr. Gupta's record -- while including many examples of commendable journalism -- really lives up to such ideals on balance. Now, we take a look back at Gupta's most disturbing positions:

- Chris Mooney blasted Gupta in Columbia Journalism Review for giving wide-eyed coverage of the Raelian cult's highly dubious claims of having cloned a human being back in 2002. Mooney faults Gupta for saying the Raelian-connected Clonaid group had "the capacity to clone," and, "We are certainly going to be anxiously awaiting to see some of the proof from these independent scientists next week." Despite the fact that Clonaid was providing no evidence of the purported "Eve" whatsoever, not even a photo.

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- Despite the widespread evidence of harm from phthalates, Gupta soft pedals and downplays the risks:

"As we've been talking about, it's really hard to quantify just how much of a risk these phthalates are. Most of the studies have been done on animals. There's not human trials that actually show that they might be harmful, but a lot of people worried about it nonetheless."

Actually, a number of human studies have shown harm. For example, a recent study conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that exposure to phthalates not only causes reproductive problems in men (as suggested by a previous study) but is also linked to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in adult males.

Later, Gupta does concede: "So, you know, the likelihood of them being in combination possibly causing some detrimental effect is something that hasn't been studied as well."

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- In a strange article for Time, Gupta criticized support of marijuana decriminalization for small possession, saying supporters of the law are just interested in getting stoned, not providing valuable medicine to those in pain. Gupta admits that marijuana can have benefits for some patients, but then he seems to fall on the favor of draconian control laws, instead of the rights of patients and doctors to best decide their own health care.

This is what he wrote: "But I'm here to tell you, as a doctor, that despite all the talk about the medical benefits of marijuana, smoking the stuff is not going to do your health any good." But what about those in pain and with glaucoma, whom he just wrote could be helped?

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- Counterpunch argues that Gupta oversold Merck's Gardasil vaccine for young girls, starting back in 2006, before the FDA had approved the drug, but after the manufacturer had started a PR and marketing blitz, including targeting of journos. According to Counterpunch, the clinical trials of Gardasil never tested for preventing cervical cancer, despite the fact that Gupta hyped the product for that use. The site argues that Gupta failed to mention that medical experts warn that the jury is still out on what impact this vaccine might actually have on cervical cancer rates. (Gupta also did not disclose that Gardasil was not tested on young girls before being approved, who may respond differently than adult subjects).

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- Then there's Vioxx, Merck's disgraced, canceled drug pulled off the market in 2004 after an increased risk of heart disease surfaced among users. There were thousands of lawsuits (settled for just under $5 billion), which faulted Merck for hiding dangers of the drug. But Gupta told Miles O'Brien on CNN's "American Morning" on October 30, 2003:

"Miles O'Brien: Let's talk about Vioxx. Some indication it might increase the risk of heart attack?

"Gupta: This stat has been around since August of 2001. They talked about the increase of heart attack with Vioxx. The numbers are very small. Perhaps a small percentage increase in the overall risk of heart attacks with Vioxx. They say 37 percent to 39 percent but that's of a very small number. After 90 days, no increased risk."

Bizarre words from Gupta, who later told reporters that he got that information from Merck, the drug's maker.

Counterpunch points out that Gupta benefited from a lucrative "integrated marketing" arrangement, whereby his work with Accent Health (which makes TV programs for doctor waiting offices) received substantial support from Merck -- something Gupta did not disclose in his reports.

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- The most infamous report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta was his scathing attack of Sicko, in which he accused the filmmaker of "fudging" facts. However, a detailed review by Moore's team pokes massive trauma-sized holes in the doctor's attacks. For example, Gupta said Moore falsely claimed the U.S. spends $7,000 per person on healthcare -- when the Bush administration's own report from 2006 bore this out (Gupta based his charge on an outdated report, but did not disclose this to viewers). In contrast, Cuba spent $251 per person (not $25, as Gupta first claimed, then retracted), despite being ranked only two slots lower in overall coverage by the World Health Organization (something the movie points out, but which Gupta bizarrely implied Moore was trying to hide).

Gupta said Moore falsely claimed Cubans live longer than Americans, while the most current data available at that time demonstrated Sicko's accuracy. The 2006 United Nations Human Development Report put U.S. life expectancy at 77.5 years, while Cuba's was listed as 77.6 years by the United Nations Development Program in that year.

Gupta also featured Moore critic Paul Keckley, whom he identified as affiliated only with Vanderbilt University, when in actuality Keckely has deep ties to the insurance industry and private sector. The list of other factual problems with Gupta's attack goes on and on. One would hope the Surgeon General would be more accurate on such an important issue. (To many viewers, the worst part of this wasn't so much the quibbling over facts, but Gupta's hostile, dismissive attitude, and his resorting to childish defense of the American system, which many Americans are very unhappy with -- especially the 45 million or so with no insurance whatsoever.)

Criminal Mercantilism For GM - Monsanto

U.S. occupation rule 81 mandating monopoly for GM seeds
over traditional Iraqi seeds

http://thepanelist.com/Opinions/Opinions/The_Real_Victor_in_Iraq%3A_Monsanto_200810281252/

Written by Jeanne Roberts
Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Five years of occupation, more than $558 billion spent, 4,182 U.S. soldiers and 655,000 Iraqi civilians dead, and it now looks like Monsanto (NYSE.MON - $71.95) is going to be the real victor in Iraq thanks to a postwar document known as Order 81.

Part of the infamous 100 Orders, Order 81 mandates that Iraq's commercial-scale farmers must now purchase "registered" seeds. These are available through agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Cargill Corporation (a private company) and the World Wide Wheat Company (also private), but Monsanto is far and away the most significant player in the registered seed market.

Monsanto's seeds are "terminator" seeds. This means they are inherently sterile, and any seed they produce does not give birth to more plants.

The technology behind registered seed is called genetic modification, and genetically modified (GM) seeds supposedly can't reproduce, though "drift," via wind currents and bird consumption, has resulted in a great many instances where GM crops ended up in fields where they were not planted.

A classic example is Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, whose canola fields inexplicably sprouted GM varieties from Monsanto. Monsanto promptly sued Schmeiser for patent infringement.

Originally developed to avert world hunger (at least according to Monsanto), these GM crops not only do not produce more than their non-modified cousins, but the herbicide Roundup, developed in tandem by Monsanto to treat GM fields, is becoming increasingly ineffective. This has led to more herbicide purchases among farmers, greater profits for Monsanto, increasingly smaller yields, and greater environmental pollution overall.

Roundup, a glyphosate, is the direct descendant of Agent Orange (also produced by Monsanto), and is especially toxic to marine animals. Glyphosates, known as endocrine disruptors, are being increasingly implicated in neurological disorders, DNA damage and even death. However, as often (and mistakenly) reported, Roundup does not contain pesticide. Pest control is part of the genetic modification of seeds.

In the U.S., these GM varieties of corn, soy and rapeseed may have cost the U.S. economy $12 billion since 1999 in rising farm subsidies, lower crop prices, loss of major export orders and product recalls, according to Britain's premiere organic food
association, the Soil Association.

Contrary to popular belief, farm subsides do not protect small American farmers. They do drive down the profit on crops. In the US, 10 percent of farms receive 75 percent of subsidies, and all these farms are run by agribusiness giants like Monsanto. Exporting GM crops is hampered by the fact that many countries refuse to buy genetically modified crops, including Australia, the EU (except Spain), and Japan. Product recalls, involving the use of GM crops in food products sold to countries where GM food is forbidden, is not only costly but represents an ongoing bone of contention on the world market which hampers international trade relations.

In India, where regional governmental studies show Monsanto's GM cotton producing seven times less than an indigenous variety of cotton, farmers are drinking the toxic chemicals they formerly used to treat their fields in an effort to escape rising debt and poverty. This so-called "suicide by pesticide" is the final solution
for farmers locked into Monsanto contracts that benefit no one but Monsanto.

In Columbia, where Monsanto's RoundUp Ultra has been deployed in the war against drugs (under the name Plan Columbia), local communities and human rights organizations are charging that Ultra is destroying indigenous food crops, water sources and indeed entire protected ecologies in the Andes. Ironically, cocaine production has jumped almost 10 percent since the plan's inception, moving higher
into the mountains and decimating even more remote ecologies.

Monsanto's share of this American taxpayer-funded drug eradication enterprise ($1.3 billion) is more than $25 million. Ultra, a concentrated version of Roundup with added surfactants to increase its toxicity, has been implicated in the deaths of a number of children. DynCorp International (NYSE.DCP - $10.83), the company
doing the spraying, is under contract to the U.S. government.

Order 81, by first forcing Iraq's farmers to use GM seeds, and then by declaring natural seeds an infringement on Monsanto technology, will result in the sorts of tragedies seen elsewhere in the developing world, reducing Iraq's farmers to drinking field-grade herbicides to escape financial catastrophe.

Nor will the Iraqi people benefit in terms of more food. Order 81, mandated under the dystopian title "Plant Variety Protection," turns the agricultural world on its head by defining indigenous crops as invasive and GM crops as uniform and stable. Moreover, the six varieties of wheat developed for Iraq are primarily used in pasta.
Since the Iraqis don't eat pasta, one can only assume these food crops are destined for Western nations, leaving the average Iraqi that much closer to starvation.

Order 81, carefully crafted to look like humanitarian legislation aimed at rescuing a country decimated by half a decade of war, is in fact a Monsanto power play under U.S. government sponsorship. Farmers who do not comply will have seeds, farm implements and even land seized.

The infamous 100 Orders, of which 81 is only an instance, are clearly a ploy to allow multinationals like Monsanto to take over an entire nation. As Iraqi resentment over this privatization grows, expect continued resistance, more deaths, and ultimately a failure of democracy.

And that is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all.
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Monsanto is a client of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling.

Covington & Burling
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.