Peace deadline set between Israel, Palestinian Territories

Deutsche Welle, 30 July 2013

A nine-month deadline has been placed on a final peace deal between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, according to US Secretary of State John Kerry. Talks between the two parties will resume in two weeks.

A three-year freeze on talks ended on Tuesday in Washington DC, with Kerry telling reporters both sides had agreed on which issues were key if peace was to be reached. Those issues include the definition of borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The next round of talks will take place in either Israel or the Palestinian territories.

"The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues," said Kerry, standing side-by-side with Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erakat.

"They will meet within the next two weeks in either Israel or the Palestinian Territories in order to begin the process of formal negotiation," he said.

"[Those key issues] are on the table with one simple goal: a view to ending the conflict, ending the claims," Kerry added. "Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months."

The top US diplomat went on to say there was "no other alternative" than a two-state solution. Kerry's work to reignite peace talks was praised by Erakat, while Livni said it was their task to "work together so that we can transform that spark of hope into something real and lasting".

The parties met with US president Barack Obama as part of talks. Attempts to last open negotiations in 2010 were almost immediately unsuccessful, with the previous talks being held in 2008.

Talks fail to please all

The latest round of negotiations have, however, been condemned by Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip.

There are also doubts over the motives of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 "The question is whether Netanyahu is happy with simply holding negotiations or if he really wants to reach a peace accord," Israeli public radio presenter Chico Menache told AFP news agency. "It's difficult to know if he's ready to make territorial concessions on Israeli settlements."

ph/dr (AFP, AP)

Related Article:

Israeli government agrees to release Palestinian prisoners ahead of peace talks

London gay community joins boycott of Russian vodka

BBC News, Mark Grigoryan, BBC Russian Service, 30 July 2013

Campaign organisers consider Stolichnaya vodka a national brand

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Popular London gay bars and nightclubs have decided to boycott Russian vodka brands, joining a global campaign launched by North American gay activists in solidarity with the LGBT community in Russia.

The organisers accuse the Russian authorities of an increasingly aggressive stance towards sexual minorities.

They are angry about a controversial law signed by President Vladimir Putin banning the promotion of "non-traditional values" to children, the refusal to allow gay pride events and harassment of gay activists.

Many conservative Russians suspect gay rights campaigners of trying to undermine traditional family values.

The purpose of the vodka boycott is clear: to harm the image of a product that has become a national brand, symbolising Russia.

Some activists suggest going further by boycotting the 2014 Winter Olympics, due to be held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The call to boycott was posted on the
websites of London's popular gay bars

The SPI Group behind the most famous vodka brand in the West - Stolichnaya - has declared its firm support for the LGBT community.

Russian Standard - another popular vodka brand in the UK - declined to comment.

'How can it get any worse?'

The vodka boycott campaign was launched by US writer and activist Dan Savage.

He wrote in his blog that gay bars in Seattle should "dump Stoli... to show our solidarity with Russian queers and their allies and to help to draw international attention to the persecution of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, and straight allies in Putin's increasingly fascistic Russia".

Savage's initiative generated a swift response in the US and Canada, and then on the other side of the Atlantic.

Jeremy Joseph is co-founder and owner of the G-A-Y Group, which owns a bar chain of the same name. He sees the vodka boycott as an act of solidarity with the Russian LGBT community.

"There are other countries where it is illegal to be lesbian or gay. But this is shocking, because they are taking a step back rather than a step forward. And in the last couple of weeks, looking at some of the videos and stories coming out of Russia - it's so horrific, it's so scary," Mr Joseph said in an interview with BBC Russian.

Moreover, Mr Joseph believes that boycotting Russian vodka may be just the beginning.

"Hopefully, this would lead to not just Russian vodka being banned, but looking at the brands that will be sponsoring the Winter Olympics [who will know that] unless they make a stand, then their products will get banned."

At the same time, the G-A-Y Group owner does not believe that a high-profile campaign in the West will make life worse for LGBT people in Russia.

"How can it get any worse? I would like to hope, not. But what do we do? Sit back and do nothing?" he asks.

Global 'act of despair'

Peter Tatchell, a veteran gay rights activist and human rights campaigner, has expressed his support for the vodka boycott.

Peter Tatchell (l) joined protests against a ban on gay pride in Moscow in 2008

"The Russian government has passed a draconian new homophobic law that criminalises any public expression of gay identity or call for gay human rights," Mr Tatchell told BBC Russian.

"In addition, there has been a wave of organised homophobic violence targeting individual LGBT people. Some of the victims have been tortured or killed. The police are doing little or nothing to bring the perpetrators to justice," he adds.

"Russian LGBT organisations and international human rights groups have appealed to the Russian government to scrap the anti-gay laws and crack down on homophobic violence. Their appeals have been ignored, the repression is intensifying", says Mr Tatchell.

Mr Tatchell describes calls to boycott Russian products as an act of despair and expresses hope that "this campaign will go global in the coming weeks".

Stoli's 'equality and diversity'

Val Mendeleev, chief executive officer of the SPI Group, which owns Stolichnaya, said his company "is an apolitical, business-oriented organisation". "However, the LGBT community in the US and worldwide are consumers of Stoli Premium vodka globally, and as such are our stakeholders," he told BBC Russian.

Mr Mendeleev stresses that his company's "corporate values stand for transparency, fairness, equality and diversity".

Stolichnaya's owners argue the vodka
is not a Russian product as it is
produced in Latvia

Earlier he wrote an open letter to the LGBT community, which was published on the SPI Group's website and on Facebook page.

"Stolichnaya Vodka has always been, and continues to be a fervent supporter and friend to the LGBT community," he wrote, citing examples of the SPI Group's support for gay events all over the world, including gay pride events in Durban, Tel Aviv and Vienna.

He also said Stolichnaya should not be regarded as a Russian product, since it is produced in Latvia, albeit using Russian ingredients.

Chris Amos, the owner and manager of Manbar in London's Soho, welcomed Mr Mendeleev's statement.

"It's regrettable for them that they are getting the raft of the gay fury and all of this. But at the same time, it will be them and other Russian companies like them who will then go back to the Russian government to argue for our case and support our case," he told BBC Russian.

"That's great that they are doing that [writing the letter], but that doesn't stop the boycott. And the boycott will hopefully go to other Russian companies, who will - like Stoli - issue statements in support of the gay and lesbian population", Mr Amos said.

Sochi Olympics

Gay rights campaigners protested
 against the new law in St Petersburg
in May

LGBT activists have been discussing another form of protest against the Russian authorities: boycotting the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Jeremy Joseph of the G-A-Y Group is fully behind the idea.

"I personally believe that Russia doesn't have the right to host the Winter Olympics now", he argues. "There is supposed to be an Olympic spirit of everybody joining together as one. How can you have it in a country that is so prejudiced?"

Dan Savage, however, believes that it would be better if athletes from the LGBT community went to Sochi to compete and win, to show the whole world they are not afraid to be themselves.

Last Friday, the International Olympic Committee announced that it had received assurances from the Russian officials that "the [new anti-gay] legislation will not affect those attending or taking part in the games".

But immediately after that one of the most prominent Russian anti-gay campaigners, Vitaly Milonov of St Petersburg Legislative Assembly, called on the Russian authorities to refrain from applying the gay-propaganda law inconsistently during the Sochi Olympics.

After all, Mr Milonov actively participated in writing it.

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Manning guilty of espionage but not 'aiding enemy'

Google – AFP, Arthur MacMillan (AFP), 30 July 2013

US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning is pictured July 30, 2013

(AFP, Saul Loeb)

FORT MEADE, Maryland — A US military judge convicted Bradley Manning of espionage Tuesday, leaving him facing a lengthy jail term despite clearing him on the most serious charge that he 'aided the enemy.'

Colonel Denise Lind found Manning guilty of 20 of 22 counts related to his leaking of a huge trove of secret US diplomatic cables and military logs to the WikiLeaks website.

She said she would begin sentencing hearings on Wednesday, at the Fort Meade military base outside Washington where the trial was held.

If Lind decides to impose penalties in the higher ranges permitted under the charges, the now 25-year-old Manning could face a de facto life sentence of more than 100 years in jail.

"On charge one, court finds you not guilty," Lind told the hearing, before reading the long list of lesser counts on which Manning was found guilty of breaching the espionage act or disobeying orders.

The court was silent and Manning, a boyish young man in an army dress uniform and round glasses, showed no emotion before the live feed to the press room was cut.

Supporters of Manning hold signs to show

 support during a demonstration outside

 Fort Meade on July 30, 2013 in Maryland

(Getty Images/AFP, Alex Wong)

Some freedom of information activists will welcome the news that he was at least cleared of knowingly aiding US foe Al-Qaeda by leaking secrets to be published on the Internet.

But there have been warnings that the case, and the harsh penalties Manning could still face, could deter whistleblowers and have a chilling effect on future media investigations.

A few dozen protesters had gathered outside Fort Meade to support Manning and WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group set up by Australian cyber-activist Julian Assange, expressed fury at the verdict.

In a Twitter message, the WikiLeaks group said the court's decision reflected "dangerous national security extremism" on the part of US President Barack Obama's White House.

It also said the conviction of Manning set a "very serious new precedent for supplying information to the press."

WikiLeaks is also working with a second American leaker, civilian former intelligence technician Edward Snowden, who is seeking asylum in Russia after revealing vast US electronic surveillance programs.

His supporters have cited Manning's trial as proof that Snowden was right to flee abroad with his leaks rather than face trial at home.

The best known US rights group, the American Civil Liberties Union, gave a measured response to the verdict, but reiterated its concern about the use of draconian anti-spying laws to curtail government whistleblowers.

"While we're relieved that Mr. Manning was acquitted of the most dangerous charge, the ACLU has long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act," said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

"Since Manning already pleaded guilty to charges of leaking information -- which carry significant punishment -- it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future."

Private Manning was serving as a 23-year-old intelligence analyst in Iraq when he sent WikiLeaks a cache of secret diplomatic cables and classified military reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He had admitted giving the site some 700,000 documents and pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges, while firmly denying that he had intended to help America's enemies.

In closing arguments last week, defense attorney David Coombs said Manning was no traitor but a "young, naive and good-intentioned" citizen who wanted to encourage public debate.

But the prosecution insisted Manning recklessly betrayed his uniform and his country by leaking documents he knew Al-Qaeda would see and use.

"Your honor, he was not a whistleblower, he was a traitor," lead prosecutor Major Ashden Fein told the court.

Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?

BBC News, 29 July 2013

The Pope's position on gay people appears to contrast with that of his predecessor

Pope Francis 

• All eyes in Brazil on the Pope
• Pope's daily routine
• New priorities
• The Pope's inbox

Pope Francis has said gay people should not be marginalised but integrated into society.

Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?"

He also said he wanted a greater role for women in the Church, but insisted they could not be priests.

The Pope arrived back in Rome on Monday after a week-long tour of Brazil - his first trip abroad as pontiff - which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival.

Festival organisers estimated it attracted more than three million people.

His remarks on gay people are being seen as much more conciliatory than his predecessor's position on the issue.

Pope Benedict XVI signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests.

Pope Francis said gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.

Gay 'lobbying'

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well," Pope Francis said in a wide-ranging 80-minute long interview with Vatican journalists.

"It says they should not be marginalised because of this but that they must be integrated into society."

But he condemned what he described as lobbying by gay people.

"The problem is not having this orientation," he said. "We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem."

On the role of women in the Church, he said: "We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more.

"But with regards to the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and says no... That door is closed."

Answering questions about the troubled Vatican bank, he said the institution must become "honest and transparent" and that he would listen to advice on whether it could be reformed or should be shut down altogether.

"I don't know what will become of the bank. Some say it is better that is a bank, others that it should be a charitable fund and others say close it," he said.

'Undisciplined'

Before leaving Brazil, Pope Francis gave a highly unusual one-to-one interview to a Brazilian TV programme.

The interview was shown on TV Globo's high-profile Sunday night documentary programme Fantastico, broadcast not long after the Pope departed for Rome.

The Pope was asked about the moment on his visit when his driver took a wrong turn and his vehicle was surrounded by crowds.

"I don't feel afraid," he answered. "I know that no-one dies before their time.

"I don't want to see these people who have such a great heart from behind a glass box. The two security teams [from the Vatican and Brazil] worked very well. But I know that I am undisciplined in that respect."

Asked about the recent protests by young people on the streets of Brazil, the Pope said: "The young person is essentially a non-conformist, and this is very beautiful.

"It is necessary to listen to young people, give them places to express themselves and to be careful that they aren't manipulated."

Asked about his simple lifestyle and use of a small car, he said it wasn't a good example when a priest had the latest model of a car or a top brand.

"At this moment I believe God is asking us for more simplicity," he added.

Related Articles:

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Archbishop Tutu 'would not worship a homophobic God'

‘Pray away the gay’ therapies quickly losing ground in the United States

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness. …”

Washington takes sides ahead of Obama's Fed bank pick

France24 – AFP, 28 July 2013

The seal of the Federal Reserve Board

 of Governors during a press conference

on June 19, 2013

AFP - As US President Barack Obama narrows his choices to head the Federal Reserve, focus in Washington has centered on two brilliant economists with divergent styles -- both said to be top contenders for the powerful post.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is widely expected to retire when his current term ends in January, relinquishing a post seen not only as one of the most influential in the US capital, but the entire world.

With a mere word, the head of the US central bank can send global financial markets into a tailspin and US homebuyers scurrying to refinance their mortgages.

Obama's former White House economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, 58, widely tipped as one of two front-runners to succeed Bernanke, also served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton.

The other top contender, Janet Yellen, 66, currently the Fed's vice chairwoman, also was a Clinton adviser and is a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

The White House has been mum about Bernanke's possible successor. Without tipping his hand, Obama told the New York Times in an article published Sunday that he will announce his pick in "the next several months," and that he has settled upon "some extraordinary candidates" for the position.

The president said his Fed nominee would act "in service of the lives of ordinary Americans getting better."

US Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet

 Yellen speaks at a international monetary

conference in Shanghai on June 3, 2013

"I want a Fed chairman that can step back and look at that objectively and say, 'Let's make sure that we're growing the economy,'" Obama told the daily.

The administration's refusal to confirm who is in the running for the post has not stopped Washington's political establishment from taking sides, however.

According to news reports, one-third of the US Senate's 54 Democratic members have signed a letter urging Obama to nominate Yellen to the post.

"She's very well thought of. She knows the Fed, and she's highly qualified," Senator Dianne Feinstein told CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday.

A loyal ally of Bernanke's since joining the Fed Board of Governors, Yellen is seen as the candidate most likely to continue the policies Bernanke has adopted during his tenure.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Sunday would not be drawn on the Yellen vs. Summers debate.

"They're both friends, and I have great admiration for both of them," he told CNN.

"I'm going to keep the conversation about any future decisions here where it belongs, which is in "the privacy of the Oval Office."

Lew added: "Chairman Bernanke has been an extraordinary Fed chairman. He will be remembered... as somebody who did a great deal to save the US and the world economy."

Many experts say either Yellen or Summers would be a worthy Bernanke successor, but each has opponents.

Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence

 Summers speaks during an event at

 the London School of Economics on

March 25, 2013

Summers' detractors fault his handling of the early days of the Great Recession and global economic crisis, including his thrust on remedies involving deregulation and short sales that seemed for some too much in keeping the standard pro-Wall Street way of doing things.

Summers also is seen by some as irascible and somewhat intemperate -- in part because of controversial remarks made in 2005 while he served as president of Harvard University.

Those comments, made during a speech, were interpreted as suggesting that women may be less capable of success than men at the highest levels in math and the sciences.

The remarks ignited a firestorm and Summers eventually was forced to resign amid eroding support from the university's governing board and a no-confidence vote from the faculty.

Yellen is viewed as a more mild-mannered figure -- which her detractors say is precisely the problem.

They fault her as having a milquetoast personality which may not lend itself to the daily rough-and-tumble side of one of Washington's most high-stress and high-profile jobs.

But boosters like Feinstein point out that as a woman, Yellen's appointment would be historic -- one more reason, they say, to put a finger on the scale in her favor.

"A woman as head of the federal reserve, a qualified woman, would be a very positive thing for this administration," the Democrat told CNN.

Related Article:

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Israeli government agrees to release Palestinian prisoners ahead of peace talks

Deutsche Welle, 28 July 2013

The Israeli government has approved a proposal to release Palestinian and Arab prisoners in a bid to jumpstart peace talks. The proposal was greeted by protests from Israelis who view the prisoners as murderers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sought and won cabinet approval for the contentious release of the prisoners which he and others hope will enable negotiations to get past a three-year diplomatic rut.

The approval on was greeted with a positive response from Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

"I believe this is a step toward peace and I hope that we can use this opportunity that the U.S. has provided for us to resume negotiations," he said.

The vote

The Cabinet voted 13-7 with two abstentions in favor of Netanyahu's controversial proposal. Relatives of those killed in Palestinian attacks, meanwhile, protested against the measure outside Netanyahu's office (pictured above).

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the cabinet approved peace talks with the Palestinians but without elaborating where or when.

The move is part of a US-brokered push to get the two sides back to the negotiation table and envisions the release of the prisoners over a period of several months, in four stages, with each stage linked to the progress made in the negotiations.

Emotions run high

The move has stirred emotions on both sides, because the prisoners in question are viewed as heroes by many Palestinians and criminals by many Israelis. When Netanyahu asked the Cabinet to consider the proposal, he spoke of the difficulty of the decision.

"This is not an easy moment for me, and is not easy for the ministers in the government and is especially difficult for the bereaved families," Netanyahu said.

"But there are moments where I need to make tough decisions for the good of the country, and this is one of those moments."

He went on to say that the upcoming talks are important to Israel and that any accord reached in the negotiations would be put to a referendum in the country.

tm/dr (AP, dpa, AFP)

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Canada's tar sands oil a blight on Keystone

Deutsche Welle, 27 July 2013

Barack Obama has said that approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the US is dependent on it not increasing greenhouse gas emissions. But the oil inside it, from Canada, could be the real problem.

"The water's been polluted so badly, you can't drink out of any of the creeks, or even the wells," Violet Cheecham Clarke explains. The 85-year-old is among the elders of a tribe known as Fort McMurray No. 468, in Alberta. "Nowadays, you can't even give the water to your animals."

The sprightly old lady with dark grey hair has seen the world, also having lived in Germany for some years. She's been fighting to prevent the water in her native home from getting polluted by the oil, often in vain, she says.

The Cheecham family is concerned
about environmental impacts

"I've been to an awful lot of meetings over this water business, and we never seem to get anywhere," Cheecham Clarke said. "They've had to buy drinking water here for years; it comes delivered once or twice weekly."

Not many First Nation peoples have profited from the tar sands operation, which has meanwhile made the neighboring town of Fort McMurray wealthy. Corruption is everywhere, people here say.

Water-intensive process

The tar sands were first tapped in Alberta in 1967, after it was discovered that the soil in Canada's northwest is soaked in black gold. It took several decades, however, to develop a technique cheap enough to make separating the oil from the soil profitable. The oil only makes up about 10 percent of the volume.

Generally the oil is heated to liquid by steam in underground pipes or the earth is excavated and then washed to separate the oil, as in pit mining. One thing required for both is a vast amount of water, which in this case comes from the Athabasca River.

What's left over is a sludgy mix of water, sand and bitumen, which is stored in so-called tailing ponds, for example north of Fort McMurray. The landscape there is marked by many such toxic tailing ponds, and also by huge heaps of tailings, as unwanted leftovers from mining are called.

Sandy wasteland left over after tar
sands processing, where the oil has
been removed

"We're making sure that the tailings ponds are safe and that the water can be reduced so they can extract the water out of that mixture faster," said Greg Stringham of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Stringham told DW that all the water in the tailings ponds is recycled, and not left to soak into the environment. A layer of mud seals the underside of the pond off from the water table according to Stringham.

High cancer rate

But environmental investigator Tony Boschmann doesn't believe Stringham's claims. He not only thinks that the official estimate of 2.7 barrels of fresh water usage for each barrel of oil produced is too low, he also believes the river is getting polluted.

"The chemistry of the water coming into the bottom of the river is completely different to what was in the river,'" Boschmann told DW.

Boschmann, at 53, is an expert at hunting polluters. But he said that the government has not been keen to follow up, also in this case. "We've brought it to the attention of the authorities, and we'd hoped that they would investigate this more deeply and fully," Boschmann said. "We've since realized that there's very little interest in showing anything negative in the oil sands domain."

Medical doctor John O'Connor is also concerned. He's been serving the Fort McKay area, north of Fort McMurray, for 15 years. He's also familiar with the medical situation in Fort Chipewyan, a nearby settlement accessible only by boat or plane.

Environmental investigator Tony
 Boschmann believes the tailings
ponds are leaking

The area has seen an unusually high rate of cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts in the human body. "Nobody is saying this cancer is connected with the tar sands," O'Connor said. But he pointed out that toxins have entered the environment and the food chain as the result of industrial activity upstream, and that "many of these toxins can be linked with these cancers."

The authorities have been absent from dealing with this phenomenon, O'Connor said. "I'm very disgusted with the lack of action, the lack of interest," he added. At the same time, he admits that Alberta in general and Fort McMurray have profited from the extraction of oil from the tar sands. There's more education than before, life expectancy is higher and also the standard of living has generally risen.

A dirty fuel

The alleged water pollution isn't the only problem with the tar sands - it's also a comparatively dirty fuel. Greg Stringham of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers admits that per barrel of tar sands oil, six to nine percent more greenhouse gases are emitted than from oil, both light and heavy, coming into the US.

An oil sands refinery and tailings pond,
located north of Fort McMurray

Mike Hudema of Greenpeace Canada pegged tar sands oil as a climate culprit: "Right now the tar sands are the single largest and fastest-growing source of emissions in Canada." They are also the primary reason why Canada isn't able to hold to the Kyoto Protocol of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and why the country is blocking international progress on future climate commitments, he said.

Mining of Canada's oil sands is due to continue, to the tune of about 1.8 million barrels daily, Stringham said. That makes up almost half of Canada's total production. By 2030, production is supposed to rise to 6.7 million barrels, with the goal of this oil reaching refineries and ports in the Gulf of Mexico.

But in order for that to happen, the Keystone XL Pipeline will have to be built through the United States. At the moment, US President Barack Obama's administration is still set to make the decision on that, after environmental impact studies have been carried out.

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