• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- South Carolina)
• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
• Sen. John Kyl (R-Arizona)

This time it is to keep the public safe from those infamous killers - vitamin pills. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has introduced legislation that effectively would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to remove from the market any dietary supplement it chooses, including vitamins E and C. Opponents of the bill say the senator may be deficient in his understanding of natural supplements . . .

Durbin's Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 (S 722), cosponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) . . . [would] require exotic proof of safety from any dietary-supplement maker if the agency has received so much as a single report of an adverse reaction (AR). If the manufacturers fail during hideously expensive tests to prove that the product is safe, the commissioner of the FDA can remove it from the market.

. . . the Durbin claims about dangers seem nothing if not wildly exaggerated.

. . . the senator wants to impose on manufacturers of natural dietary supplements the same exorbitant costs as have been imposed on drug manufacturers to make prescription medicines prohibitively expensive for so many Americans.
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Advocates of natural medicines say the antidepressant Prozac, made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, is another interesting case Durbin may want to review before putting all his "public-safety" eggs in the FDA basket. As of September 1993 there had been nearly 30,000 AR reports associated with Prozac filed with the drug agency, including side effects such as delirium, hallucinations, convulsions, violent hostility and psychosis, plus 1,885 suicide attempts and 1,734 deaths - 1,089 by suicide. And according to Thomas G. Whittle and Richard Wieland, critics who obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act, "both Eli Lilly and officials of the FDA were aware that at least 27 deaths had been linked to the use of Prozac prior to the drug being released on the market."
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Given the enormous number of AR reports filed about Ritalin and Prozac, to name just two pharmaceuticals, critics wonder aloud why, given the senator's concern about public safety, he has submitted no legislation to ban the use of those products. . .

David Seckman, executive director of the National Nutritional Foods Association. . . says "Our concern is that we're talking about products that have been used safely and effectively for thousands of years that now can be pulled from the market because of just one report. People will be able to call in with an adverse reaction to multivitamins and the commissioner will have the authority to make the manufacturer prove that multivitamins are safe. Under the 1994 DSHEA, supplements were classified as foods and under a totally different category than drugs. Drugs require premarket approval and are granted a patent. You're not going to be able to do that with vitamin C and other such natural products". . .

Len Horowitz, an internationally known public-health authority . . . continues . . . "This argument has to be understood within the context of the fear mentality generated by the media on behalf of the pharmaceuticals who don't want to tell you that the third leading cause of death in the U.S. is drug-induced, physician-prescribed, hospital-prescribed medications. You don't see the intensity over that, but you do see it over and over again when someone overdoses on ephedra."

The raid of the Burlingame firm, also known as Balco, owned by nutritionist Victor Conte, was conducted by agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the San Mateo County narcotics unit. Neither agency would discuss the raid.

No arrests were made, but agents were seen leaving with several boxes.

"We are not even acknowledging it was a search," IRS spokesman Mark Lessler said. "We are only calling it a law enforcement action."
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Conte is well known for helping athletes, from 49ers and Raiders players . . . to Olympic stars and bodybuilders.

[Aug. 30, 2003] Bombing could lead to anarchy, reports Anton La Guardia

With his black turban and greying beard, Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim was often regarded as Iraq's version of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini - a charismatic, exiled cleric who preached Islamic revolution.

But since his momentous return to Iraq from Teheran last May, the Shi'ite cleric became a central element of America's strategy to remake Iraq after Saddam Hussein.....

Despite his alliance with Iran - or perhaps because of it - Ayatollah Hakim's support for the coalition was essential, by encouraging patience among the Shi'a and winning the acquiescence of Teheran.

Before the war Ayatollah Hakim's faction took part in talks between Iraqi opposition groups and senior US officials.

After the conflict, he demanded that coalition soldiers leave Iraq quickly, but pragmatically agreed to co-operate with the allies. His brother, Abdel-Aziz, is a member of the US-appointed Iraqi governing council

Just minutes before the explosion that killed him and scores of other people at the gates of the Imam Ali mosque yesterday, Ayatollah Hakim delivered a sermon at Friday prayers denouncing attacks against coalition forces....

Imprisoned and tortured by Saddam's henchmen in the 1970s, Ayatollah Hakim fled to Iran in 1980, shortly before Saddam launched the ill-fated invasion of his neighbour. Eighteen of his close relatives were subsequently executed by the Baghdad regime.

He set up the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) and, with Iran's assistance, a military wing known as the Badr Brigade.

Sciri yesterday blamed the attack on Saddam loyalists seeking to undermine the coalition by making Iraq ungovernable.

It is possible, however, that Ayatollah Hakim fell victim to violent rivalry among Shi'a factions...

"Since fleeing the holy city of Najaf for Iran 23 years ago, Hakim has been closely aligned with and supported by Iran's Islamic government and the clerics who lead it, including the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whom Hakim thanked for his support over the years.
Hakim established his own large militia in Iran, known as the Badr Brigade, composed not only of infantry but heavy artillery and tanks. Members of the brigade have been pouring into Iraq, though they have not come as an organized army......
Moreover, Hakim took the side of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, which taints him in the view of some more secular Shiites."

KUWAIT, Nov. 22 [2002] — An Iranian-backed ayatollah may seem an unlikely ally for the Bush administration. But consider Ayatollah Muhammad Bakir al-Hakim.
The ayatollah is an Iraqi Shiite who has been living in Tehran for more than two decades. He is backed by the Iranian government, the one that President Bush has derided as part of an "axis of evil." His father once gave sanctuary to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the fiery anti-American cleric who later rose to power in Iran's 1979 revolution.
Still, the United States and the Shiite cleric are in the process of forging a political alliance of convenience. It is an arrangement that is strongly supported by Kuwait, Washington's staunchest Arab ally in its campaign to dislodge President Saddam Hussein......"

"a senior official of the Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said Iraqi opposition leaders had already agreed on a blueprint for a new government as part of a process started by Washington last year......
"Our problem with America is this: is it correct to ignore all the opposition efforts during the last six months started in Washington?" asked the official, who attended meetings in the U.S. capital which included Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld."

When controversial New York attorney Stanley Cohen came to court last week seeking to represent Portland Seven defendant Patrice Lumumba Ford, the focus was on Cohen's prior representation of the spiritual leader of a Portland mosque where Ford had worshiped.

How can Cohen fairly represent Ford, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones asked, when Cohen's former client Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye is being investigated for allegedly helping to finance the same conspiracy with which Ford is charged?

According to an FBI affidavit unsealed Friday, Kariye may have raised $12,000, through unidentified worshipers at Masjed As-Saber in Southwest Portland, for Ford and five other Portland area Muslim men to go to China in fall 2001.

The men are charged with planning to fight with al-Qaida and the Taliban against U.S. forces in post-9-11 Afghanistan. A seventh defendant is accused of wiring money from an unidentified source to them in Asia.

Kariye has not been charged in the Portland Seven conspiracy; Cohen had represented Kariye earlier this year when the latter pleaded guilty to Social Security and public insurance fraud.......

"I don't know where your money (to pay Cohen) is coming from," Jones said to Ford at the Friday hearing.

"There's an allegation by the government that somebody funded the trip to Afghanistan," Jones said. "Where'd that money come from? If that money is traced back to your backers, who are paying your defense fund, that could create more problems."....

Who paid Cohen to represent Kariye on the fraud charges? Who is paying him to represent Ford, who received court-appointed counsel after his Oct. 4, 2002, arrest, based on his stated financial inability to hire an attorney?

In a telephone conversation with the Tribune on Wednesday, Cohen was vague about who paid for both clients, making general references to the money coming from "the community" and to "something blossoming up and raising the money.........


After a brief aside with Cohen, Ford added, "I've just been informed that the community as a whole has come together."

In 1998, Cohen represented Mohammed Moataz Al-Hallak, former spiritual leader of the Islamic Society of Arlington. Al-Hallak was called to testify before a New York grand jury investigating the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 and injured thousands......

Wadih El-Hage Osama bin Laden's former personal secretary.... who previously had worshiped at Al-Hallak's mosque in Arlington, subsequently returned to Texas, where he was living when he was indicted by the grand jury before which Cohen had represented Al-Hallak. Charged with conspiracy and perjury, El-Hage was convicted of both and sentenced to life in prison.........

In 2000, Cohen had another case with a connection to Portland when he represented Hazem M. Ragab, treasurer of the Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation, which Ragab, Kariye and several others had co-founded in 1992......"

"All seven of the Portland-area defendants charged with attempting to join the Taliban attended the mosque Kariye leads, the Islamic Center of Portland.....
PSU attracted Muslim students because of its well-regarded Middle East Studies Center, created in the 1960s with support from the CIA, which hoped to recruit some of the students as agents. The mosque that would grow into the Islamic Center of Portland was created by PSU students in 1983, and Kariye soon was an active member.
Like many Muslims around the world, he supported the cause of the Afghan rebels, who were fighting a CIA-supported war to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan....
According to a federal affidavit, [defendant] Jeffrey Battle told an informant that Kariye "is a good brother who had fought in the jihad" and had prepared others to fight the Soviets…..
In 1991, while in Pakistan, Kariye helped found an Islamic charity, the Global Relief Foundation. Ten years later, federal officials shut down the charity, designating it a terrorist organization for what they say were ties to al-Qaida. Global Relief disputes those charges.
The foundation formed in 1991, listing Kariye as a founding director. The Islamic Center of Portland, Kariye's mosque, helped underwrite the new foundation that year, donating $5,300 in one of the largest, earliest gifts to the charity. …….
Kariye returned to Portland in 1994 and emerged as a leading imam, or prayer leader, at the Islamic Center, which grew into the state's largest mosque…..
The Global Relief Foundation played a role in supporting the Portland mosque, donating $19,000 toward a new building in 1997. In 2000, the mosque gave $38,000 to the foundation…”

[ Oct. 25, 2001] "Charitable organizations and religious leaders have often come to Northern California. Sacramento Muslims raised $38,000 in one night for Bosnia Muslims, $30,000 on another occasion for the Muslims of Kosovo, according to Amer.
Amer said some of the Kosovo funds went to the Global Relief Foundation, an Illinois charity that reportedly has been investigated by the Treasury Department for possible links to terrorism....
During the Afghan-Soviet war, Islamic relief organizations were in Sacramento once or twice a month….."

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 2 — An Indonesian court this evening acquitted the radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, widely identified as the spiritual leader of Al Qaeda's Southeast Asia affiliate, of charges that he ordered a series of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, and of plotting to assassinate the Indonesian president.

The court also said the prosecutors had not proven that Mr. Bashir was the head of Jemaah Islamiyah. He was, however, found guilty of aiding and abetting treason, apparently based on his support of the organization's goal to establish an Islamic state......

Mr. Bashir, who turned 65 two weeks ago, was sentenced to four years and said he would appeal the sentence;.....

Courts here are not known for being independent, and several Indonesians — analysts, and ordinary citizens — voiced the opinion that the judges had acted in accordance with what the Indonesian government wanted.....

Indonesian antiterrorism officials have criticized the United States for not helping enough to prosecute Mr. Bashir. Much of the evidence came from Omar al-Faruq, a senior Qaeda operative who was picked up here in June 2002, and turned over to the C.I.A......

The Bush administration would not allow Indonesian authorities to interrogate Mr. Faruq. They were allowed to submit questions, which the Americans then asked......

[Bashir] fled to Malaysia, along with several others, including Riudan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was arrested by the C.I.A. last month in Thailand. The two were among a very small community that lived quietly in a rural village.

It was during this time that Mr. Bashir appears to have made contact with Osama bin Laden, according to Western intelligence agencies. Mr. Bashir and Mr. Hambali spoke at mosques and in homes, raising money and encouraging young men to go off to fight first against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then to Qaeda training camps.......

"The alleged chief of the Bali bombers who trained for jihad under Osama bin Laden Muklas, or Ali Ghufron, one of the most senior members of the secretive South-East Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
Muklas learned his fighting skills in Afghanistan, and apparently used conflicts within his native Indonesia as well as in Bosnia to recruit fellow countrymen to his cause."

"The KLA's leadership was reportedly operating from a training camp near Kukes, Albania....... Some of these camps were being run by Osama bin Laden, and various other foreign mujahedeen. American intelligence had identified the presence of Egyptian, Afghanistani, Sudanese, Algerian, Saudi and Chechen nationals....There is a large amount of evidence that the CIA and British intelligence began training fighters in camps in Albania. The British Special Air Service (SAS) was apparently specifically tasked with training the guerrillas, while the CIA seems to have provided monetary support.....

A pact between the U.S. government and the electronic privacy company Anonymizer, Inc. is making the Internet a safer place for controversial websites and subversive opinions -- if you're Iranian.

This month Anonymizer began providing Iranians with free access to a Web proxy service designed to circumvent their government's online censorship efforts. In May, government ministers issued a blacklist of 15,000 forbidden "immoral" websites that ISPs in the country must block -- reportedly a mix of adult sites and political news and information outlets. An estimated two million Iranians have Internet access.

Among the banned sites are the website for the U.S.-funded Voice of America broadcast service, and the site for Radio Farda, another U.S. station that beams Iranian youth a mix of pop music and westernized news. Both stations are run by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the U.S. government's overseas news and propaganda arm.

The U.S. responded to the filtering this month by paying Anonymizer (neither the IBB nor Anonymizer will disclose how much) to create and maintain a special version of the Anonymizer proxy which only accepts connections from Iran's IP address space, and features instructions in Farsi.

The deliberately generic-sounding URLs for the service are publicized over Radio Farda broadcasts and through bulk e-mails . . .

Children's intelligence declines as their natural drinking water fluoride levels increase, concluded a Chinese study in the May 2003 journal, "Fluoride."

Children scored inferior IQ's even when fluoride levels were similar to that added to U.S. water supplies to prevent tooth decay(1).

"As the fluoride levels in drinking water increased, the IQ fell and the rates of mental retardation and borderline intelligence increased," write researchers Xiang, et al.
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