An in-depth poll of Muslim countries has found that large majorities believe undermining Islam is a key goal of U.S. foreign policy. Most want U.S. military forces out of the Middle East, and many approve of attacks on U.S. troops there. "While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the U.S. as being at war with Islam," said Steven Kull, editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org. However, respondents strongly oppose attacks on civilians. Large majorities approve of many of al Qaeda's principal goals, but believe its violence against civilians is "violating the principles of Islam."

The Associated Press notes that the Bush administration "will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows," but the US government has said such private testing is illegal. "U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge has played out." Way back in 1997, the book Mad Cow USA by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber exposed the US government's failure to protect cattle and people against this bizarre and always fatal brain disease, including the failure to adequately test US cattle. One decade later the US cover-up continues.

Will it be "one of the most comprehensive screening programs ever to check whether chemicals can disrupt human hormones" or "a misleading $76 million waste"? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which is slated to begin tests in 2008, is already controversial. Some scientists are warning that the program will: use "a breed of rat that is relatively insensitive to several known hormone-disrupting chemicals"; feed the rats a soy-based chow containing natural hormone disruptors that may complicate test results; pay little attention to prenatal chemical exposure; test a too-high dosage range; and possibly allow "chemical companies to tailor certain aspects of the tests." The EPA counters that the program was developed "in an open manner to protect it from special interests," and that "it is not worried" about chemical industry involvement. Indeed, the EPA shaped the screening program with input "from people who may have financial interest in the outcome of the tests," using data from the American Chemistry Council and a toxicologist who works as an industry consultant.

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is criticizing U.S. news media for presenting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's non-renewal of the television station RCTV's broadcast license "as a simple matter of censorship." FAIR points out that "RCTV and other commercial TV stations were key players in the April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez's democratically elected government." Moreover, "the Venezuelan government is basing its denial of license on RCTV's involvement in the 2002 coup, not on the station's criticisms of or political opposition to the government." BBC News reports that the Latin American press is portraying Chavez as "authoritarian" and Venezuelan media as "increasingly suffocated." Journalism and human rights groups have denounced the non-renewal of RCTV's license. Governments have the right not to renew a broadcast license, but a standard process should be followed, international rights groups maintain. "We're not arguing that the concession ... should be given to RCTV," said the Committee to Project Journalists' Carlos Lauria. "We're just saying that there's no process to evaluate if it should be." Just Foreign Policy's Patrick McElwee agrees, but notes that a 1987 law -- enacted previous to Chavez -- "charges the executive branch with decisions about license renewal" and "does not seem to require any administrative hearing."