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<DIV>
<DIV>Greetings, all.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Both the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG) and various
committees within the Geological Society of America (GSA) are
circulating this request. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It is for petition-support to Italian geoscientists who have been indicted
for manslaughter because they did not "predict" the 2009 L'Aquila
earthquake.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>For your information and action.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thanks.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Earthquake Insight LLC<BR>Phyllis J. Steckel, RG<BR>PO Box
2002<BR>Washington, MO 63090<BR>636-239-4013<BR><A
title="wlmailhtml:{6B0CDDAE-B443-49CF-ABFD-67ADF985A6BB}mid://00000206/!x-usc:mailto:psteckel@charter.net CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="wlmailhtml:{6B0CDDAE-B443-49CF-ABFD-67ADF985A6BB}mid://00000206/!x-usc:mailto:psteckel@charter.net">psteckel@charter.net</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“Minimizing earthquake risk is a funny business. The payoff may not
come for a long time – and then it will be in terms of what did <EM>not</EM>
happen….”<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>********</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Two weeks ago the L'Aquila Prosecutor's office indicted of
manslaughter the members of the National High Risk Committee that met in
<ST1:CITY w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">L'Aquila</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY> one
week before the Mw6.3 earthquake. The charges are for failing to
provide a short term alarm to the population before the earthquake struck,
killing more than 300 people.<BR>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The president of INGV, Enzo Boschi (member of
the High Risk Committee), and the director of the <ST1:PLACE
w:st="on"><ST1:PLACENAME w:st="on">National</ST1:PLACENAME> <ST1:PLACENAME
w:st="on">Earthquake</ST1:PLACENAME> <ST1:PLACETYPE
w:st="on">Center</ST1:PLACETYPE></ST1:PLACE>, Giulio Selvaggi (just
accompanying Boschi to the meeting as technical specialist), are among the
scientists in seismology and earthquake engineering now under investigation
together with some civil protection officials.<BR><BR>We think that the
allegations against the scientists are completely unfounded and we look for
support on this from the international scientific community working on
earthquakes and in the Earth sciences in general.<BR><BR>We invite you to
sign the letter addressed to the President of the <ST1:PLACE
w:st="on"><ST1:PLACENAME w:st="on">Italian</ST1:PLACENAME> <ST1:PLACETYPE
w:st="on">Republic</ST1:PLACETYPE></ST1:PLACE>, published at the the web page <A
title=blocked::http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/
href="wlmailhtml:{6B0CDDAE-B443-49CF-ABFD-67ADF985A6BB}mid://00000206/!x-usc:http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/"><U><FONT
title="wlmailhtml:{6B0CDDAE-B443-49CF-ABFD-67ADF985A6BB}mid://00000206/!x-usc:http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/ CTRL + Click to follow link"
color=#0000ff>www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/</FONT></U></A> We also would be
glad if you could extend this invitation to other seismologists that can
possibly share our initiative.<BR><BR>We hope that by this action we can
increase the awareness of people on earthquake risk reduction through education,
preparedness, and a long term program of building
reinforcement.<BR><BR>Thank you in advance for your
support.<BR><BR>Daniela Pantosti<BR>Alberto Michelini<BR>Alessandro
Amato<BR>Massimo Cocco<BR>Ingrid Hunstad<BR>Warner Marzocchi<BR>Claudio
Chiarabba<BR>Massimiliano Stucchi<BR>-- <BR>Daniela Pantosti<BR>Istituto
Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia<BR>Via Vigna Murata 605 - 00143 ROMA<BR><A
title=blocked::mailto:daniela.pantosti@ingv.it
href="wlmailhtml:{6B0CDDAE-B443-49CF-ABFD-67ADF985A6BB}mid://00000206/!x-usc:mailto:daniela.pantosti@ingv.it"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>daniela.pantosti@ingv.it</FONT></U></A><BR>+39
0651860483 </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">+39 0651860483</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">+39 3357927038<BR>fax +39
0651860507<BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>