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February 28, 2006
When a later U.S. survey of the damage to Hiroshima discovered that the bomb had mostly destroyed residential areas, the government did not release the information to the press. Any revealed information was part of a calculated public relations campaign that the contemporary press ate up with a spoon. As the military director of the Manhattan Project, Gen. Leslie Groves, later proudly remarked, "Most newspapers published our releases in their entirety. This is one of the few times since government releases have become common that this has been done."
Some pundits have used Iran’s apparent quest for an atomic weapon as an excuse to push, with a straight face, the silly idea of inducting Israel into NATO. The idea is not just absurd because NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Israel is nowhere near the North Atlantic, but because Israeli security has never been better and doesn’t need NATO protection. Furthermore, U.S. security would be undermined by admitting Israel into NATO.
Almost 90% of US soldiers in Iraq think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11...
ATTENTION US SOLDIERS READING THIS BLOG: THE US GOVERNMENT HAS LONG AGO ADMITTED THAT SADDAM DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH 9-11.
PASS IT ON. - M. R.
The House of Representatives will vote this week on a controversial "national food uniformity" labeling law that will take away local government and states' power to require food safety food labels such as those required in California and other states on foods or beverages that are likely to cause cancer, birth defects, allergic reactions, or mercury poisoning. This bill would also prevent citizens in local municipalities and states from passing laws requiring that genetically engineered foods and ingredients such as Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) be labeled.
The US Federal Reserve has asked Wall Street dealers to develop a "stand-by" bank that would step in if one of the two leading Treasuries clearing banks encountered problems.
The Fed and the US Treasury depend on the Treasuries securities market to implement monetary policy and fund the US government. But the market, in which $545bn is traded daily, depends on two banks, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York, to clear its trades. This situation concerns regulators.
Registration is required for further reading. However, the question which needs to be asked is, why do we need another "stand-by" Treasuries bank now? - M. R.
The Secret Service at Booker Elementary: The Dog That Did Not Bark...
With a supposedly unknown number of passenger jets flying overhead crashing into buildings, with the President's presence at Booker Elementary School announced in the media three days in advance, and with an airport only 4 miles away, how did the United States Secret Service Protective Detail KNOW that President Bush was safe as he sat there reading about goats, waiting for his scheduled speech?
- M. R.
As Iraq spirals deeper into chaos and perhaps civil war in the wake of the attack on the Golden Mosque, critics of the US-led invasion and occupation will no doubt refocus attention on the role of Israel in the march to war and the conduct of the occupation.
Today I am issuing a direct challenge to Bush supporters. I challenge them on the facts. I challenge them on the issues. I challenge them to prove that the have even the slightest bit of information about the people in the Bush administration, their philosophies, their histories and their conduct.
Congress Lives in a Bubble, Bloggers Know More...
Microsoft could be teaching police to hack Vista...
Find your own encryption if you need to keep secrets. Use multiple layers and the longest possible keys. Stay AWAY from "standard" encryption tools. Remember that the government has been repeatedly caught looting the secrets from businesses to use for their own personal gain. You want some smelly government agent making more money off of your work than you do? I don't. - M. R.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have engineered a strain of pond scum that could, with further refinements, produce vast amounts of hydrogen through photosynthesis.
So please be careful tossing lit cigarettes into the pond. - M. R.
The 9/11 Reichstag Fire...
The White House on Monday rejected the call by more than a dozen House Democrats for a special counsel to investigate the Bush administration's eavesdropping program.
Imagine my shock. - M. R.
The United States said that Iran had a one-week "opportunity," before the March 6 meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, to ease fears that it seeks atomic weapons.
"And the fact that nobody has found any evidence of bomb-making activities at all doesn't count!" -- Official White Horse Souse! - M. R.
Get Over It, America: Osama bin Laden Didn't Do 9/11!...
Hawaii has a may issue law, which allows police chiefs of the state's four counties, total power to decide who gets a permit to carry and who does not. In the last 15 years, police testified at a recent hearing that no one has been granted a permit allowing them to carry a firearm - not domestic violence victims, not those whose life has been threatened, not even retired police officers. Lawmakers say they don't have any plans to change the law this year so that the chiefs would have to issue a permit unless the applicant is not mentally competent or has a criminal record. A total of 38 states allow their citizens to carry a firearm for protection.
The cash machine that sustained a world boom is about to close, and it's going to get ugly.
While the US has a history of imperialism, deep cruelty, and mass murder, including slaughtering one million civilians in the conquest of the Philippines, legalizing the institution of slavery, and committing the Native American genocide, by World War II America had arguably begun to demonstrate a reasonable level of commitment to humanitarian ideals. While it was a long, painful process, Abolitionists, Women Suffragists, Populists, Labor Activists, Civil Rights Protestors, and the like forced the United States to strive for truly noble causes. From the end of World War II up until the 1960's, one could reasonably conclude that the nation primarily responsible for the defeat of militaristic fascism in both Europe and Asia had earned a degree of moral authority, in spite of its remaining flaws.
Members of the press corps might wonder why Dick chose to return to the house and fix himself a cocktail rather than accompany his victim to the hospital. They might also be interested in comments made by Dick's Secret Service agents who say Dick was "clearly inebriated" when he bagged Harry. Capitol Hill Blue's Doug Thompson reports, "According to those who have talked with the agents and others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up."
US sees decline in housing sales...
"POP!"
- M. R.
DELANEY AMENDMENT: If a product causes cancer in animals it cannot be put in food!
The parallells between Nixon and Bush...
The Dutch wake up to what is going on. - M. R.
In the past week, the Bush administration and the neocons have been hemorrhaging bigtime supporters so badly you'd be forgiven for assuming there's another Cheney hunting party in the works.
Users of Apple computers are being warned to stay alert after being hit by the latest in a series of security problems. The most recent flaw, which was discovered by a German student, could expose users to so-called "drive-by downloads".
It is the third serious flaw uncovered in the past week, following the emergence of the Leap-A Trojan, believed to be the first ever virus for the Macintosh, and the Inqtana Bluetooth exploit.
After the MAC users wipe the egg off of their faces, maybe they will realize that the solution to the problem isn't constantly switching machines, or crippling our machines with layer upon layer of "protection racket" software, but to demand hackers be treated as the threats to critical infrastructure that they are. - M. R.
THE LIE OF THE CENTURY...
The lies that led to Iraq are worth studying as Bush and his Neocons drive us towards Iran. - M. R.
IAEA Cites Tehran's Lack of Cooperation...
Note the obvious spin in this article, starting with the headline. Only if you read the whole article do you realize that what it really says is that no evidence has been found of any bomb making activity anywhere in Iran. But, of course, we cannot let a little thing like innocence stand in the way of the holy wrath of the United States, so (repeating the same spin used in Iraq), the IAEA claims Iran is "not cooperating enough" and that therefore the absence of any proof of bomb making should not be assumed to mean that there isn't any bomb making going on. i.e. the absence of proof is now cause for more suspicion.
Remember that in Iraq, Saddam even allowed inspectors into his private quarters (yeah, like he has Plutonium hidden under his bed, right?) and even then the IAEA said he was not cooperating enough. Can you imaging George Bush allowing the IAEA into the White House third floor? Or Israel allowing the IAEA anywhere in their country at all?
Folks, the important part of the story is plain as day. The IAEA has been looking in Iran for bomb making evidence for three years and came up with NOTHING. NADA. ZIP.
Now the US is making enrichment of fuel for a power station the cause for war. That's a pretty long reach.
The fact is that the US has no legitimate reasons to invade Iran, any more than they had legitimate reason to invade Iraq. But they are going to try to do it anyway, only THIS time, you cannot look the other way and pretend you don't know the atrocities being committed in your name. - M. R.
The US says the planes carry "embassy cargo." European governments pretend to believe them -- and never inspect the planes. But, "Who you gonna believe, them or your lying eyes?" Just look at the photograph. See your flag? See your Stars and Stripes, Old Glory? See the MPs? See the prisoners? All of them (prisoners) are INNOCENT! Innocent until proven guilty, remember? They haven't even been legally arrested. What you see here, though, IS crime in progress. Kidnapping. Torture.
Prosecutors at the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have presented a memo allegedly showing his approval of the execution of 148 Shias.
Okay, then... you honors, I would like to enter THIS into evidence.
Now can someone in this court explain why one author of such a memo is sitting in this court, while the author of a similar memo is out lawyer hunting with some quail... I mean quail hunting with some lawyer. - M. R.
Another obvious "Halo" photo...
Bush obviously doesn't know how silly these halo photos really look. - M. R.
72% of U.S. Troops Want Out of Iraq Within One Year...
"Oh, all right, if you insist, I'll go home..." -- Any US soldier in Iraq - M. R.
Today, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “Our focus is on the important priorities of the American people.” Looks like the American people disagree.
TONY BLAIR has vetoed the appointment of an independent regulator to oversee the conduct of government ministers and their spouses.
I understand keeping an eye on the conduct of the ministers, but the spouses are effectively private citizens, and their conduct is rightfully not subject to government oversight. - M. R.
The top conservative blogs are very conservative, and do represent the far-right of the Republican party.
With one notable exception. :) - M. R.
Blair Approval Rating Falls to 28% in Britain...
That's lower than Charles I, and the Brits cut his head off! - M. R.
US: Iran has one-week 'opportunity' to defuse standoff - Yahoo! News...
If the U. S. can't get a sanctions vote from the U. N. on this, prepare for the U. N to - once again - become "irrelevant". - M. R.
Homicide Unpunished
The de facto principles governing the punishment of U.S. personnel guilty of prisoner abuse since 2002 now are clear: Torturing a foreign prisoner to death is excusable. Authoring and implementing policies of torture may lead to promotion. But being pictured in an Abu Ghraib photograph that leaks to the press is grounds for a heavy prison sentence.
The de facto principles governing the punishment of U.S. personnel guilty of prisoner abuse since 2002 now are clear: Torturing a foreign prisoner to death is excusable. Authoring and implementing policies of torture may lead to promotion. But being pictured in an Abu Ghraib photograph that leaks to the press is grounds for a heavy prison sentence.
"The only way you can do what they want to do in terms of actually cutting the budget is to throw a lot of veterans out who are already in the system and/or redefine who is a veteran," said Rick Weidman, director of government relations for the Vietnam Veterans of America.
Even with recent funding increases, cost-cutting moves have locked more than a quarter million veterans out of the system. Those excluded have no illnesses or injuries attributable to their military service and earn more than the average wage in their community.
So this is how Bush thinks he's moving toward a balanced budget: on the backs of our American Vets. - M. R.
The Raw Story | Officials: Iraq violence may forestall U.S. drawdown in Iraq
The recent explosion of violence in Iraq is forcing a debate inside the Pentagon about whether the U.S. military can proceed with plans to cut the number of troops in Iraq, Defense officials said Monday, The Los Angeles Times is set to frontpage in Tuesday editions, RAW STORY has learned. Excerpts:
The violence came at a crucial time for the U.S. military: Top generals must decide within weeks whether to carry out a long-anticipated reduction in American troops this summer. Threats of civil war in the country have raised questions about the wisdom of a troop drawdown in the next few months.
``One perspective certainly is that with so much turmoil, how can you possibly think about drawing down at this point?'' said one senior Defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because decisions on troop levels have yet to be made.
One has to ponder just how convenient the current wave of violence is to those forces in government not wanting to see any reduction in troop strength in Iraq. - M. R.
February 27, 2006
A small group of sociopaths, seeking world domination, set fire to a nationally symbolic building and blamed it on a group of misguided idealists, thereby inculcating a sense of fear into the nation and enabling the perpetrators to gain total control of the nation.
Sound familiar ?
Cheney seen retiring after midterm elections...
GOP governors worried about Bush stumbles...
"Ya got nuttin' to worry about if'n you'll just certify these here Diebold machines for all future elections!" -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
9/11 Revisited - Were explosives used?...
Watch it for free online.
- M. R.
Sharp differences emerged between Israel and the international community over the acute financial crisis faced by the Palestinian Authority as the EU agreed to an emergency aid package of $143m (about Ł82m).
"You better behave, or we'll sic the Americans on you!" - M. R.
Poll: Bush Ratings At All-Time Low...
More popular than, than, than ... Ming the Merciless.
- M. R.
The backlog of unsold new homes reached a record level last month, as sales slipped despite the warmest January in more than 100 years.
The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new single-family homes dropped by 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million units last month.
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That was the slowest pace since January 2005 and left the number of unsold homes at a record high of 528,000.
Analysts viewed the new data as further evidence that the nation's red-hot housing market, which hit record sales levels for five straight years, has definitely started to cool.
Stephen Heller is alleged to have exposed documents in Jan. & Feb. 2004 which provided smoking gun evidence that Diebold was using illegal, uncertified software in California voting machines. The docs also showed that Diebold's California attorneys (the powerful international law firm Jones Day) had told them they were in breach of the law for using uncertified software, but Diebold continued to use the uncertified software anyway.
Actor Dennis Weaver, best known for his television roles as the loyal, limping deputy to Marshal Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke" and as the urban lawman with a cowboy hat on "McCloud," has died at age 81, his publicist said on Monday.
Army Pays for Halliburton Unit Costs Disputed by Audit...
The wishy-washy senator now claims Bush misled her leading up to the invasion of Iraq. I don’t think she’s being honest with us though, there may have been other reasons she helped sell Bush’s lies. According to The Center for Public Integrity, Senator Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum has racked in millions of dollars from Perini, a civil infrastructure construction company, of which the billionaire investor wheels 75 percent of Perini’s voting share.
Baigent and Leigh claim Brown appropriated their ideas and themes in writing his book, which has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide since its 2003 publication.
Both books hinge on the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and they had a child, and that blood line survives to this day. The earlier book set out the notion that Christ did not die on the cross but lived later in France.
The book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" claims to have gotten the idea from Les Dossiers Secrets, so I guess under the legal precedent that Baigent and Leigh are claiming, the Priory De Sion can sue them! :) - M. R.
Words do not kill. So there is no statement for which it is permissible to send a person to prison. Freedom of speech is absolute, even when that which is spoken is as despicable and ridiculous as Holocaust denial. Those who start to doubt that principle will not know where to stop. Is denial of the Jewish Holocaust deserving of punishment while denial of the Armenian Holocaust, perpetrated by the Turks, is not?
Lucrative opportunities taken away on a political whim; the danger of being locked up by an over-mighty government agency; the brick wall of protectionism - the business community expects to do battle with all these things in an emerging market.
Yet this suddenly seems to be a description of doing business in that most developed of all markets, the United States of America.
An American-run prison for terrorist suspects in Afghanistan has grown to rival and even eclipse Guantanamo Bay with hundreds of inmates in legal limbo, it was disclosed yesterday.
Away from the spotlight focused on the more notorious detention camp in Cuba, Bagram, a US base north of Kabul, now houses about 500 detainees, claimed the New York Times.
The situation there resembles the "legal void" that led to the Supreme Court ruling in 2004 giving Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention in US courts, Bush administration officials told the paper.
Conditions at Bagram have improved since the violent deaths of two inmates in late 2002 but they remain harsher than at Guantanamo.
For the second straight year, personal savings have been in the red, a phenomenon that has only happened once before, at the height of the Great Depression. Research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the indebtedness of U.S. households has risen nearly 36 percent over the last four years. As a result, the gulf between the “haves” and “have nots” is reaching crisis proportions.
Military interrogators posing as FBI agents at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wrapped terrorism suspects in an Israeli flag and forced them to watch homosexual pornography under strobe lights during interrogation sessions that lasted as long as 18 hours, according to one of a batch of FBI memos released Thursday.
An Israeli flag? Nice of them to let the world know who they are really working for.
- M. R.
An examination of Palm Beach County's electronic voting machine records from the 2004 election found possible tampering and tens of thousands of malfunctions and errors, a watchdog group said Thursday.
If a government cannot prove the accuracy and honesty of the elections by which they claim lawful authority over the people, then the people are neither legally nor morally obligated to obey that government's dictates nor to pay its bills. - M. R.
AICN’s Drew McWeeny wrote a piece about the film where he said that the right-wingers who are already bristling about the movie (and feel free to check out some of these goose-steppers over at the Libertas forum, where they hurl invective at a film they haven’t seen and say the main character looks “gay.” Hey, isn’t it interesting that the fascistic future rulers of England corralled and exterminated gays in the film?) should check themselves – the movie is anti-fascism, and not taking on a particular current American ideology. He’s right. Sort of. But it’s no accident, no mistake, that the fascist government of this film is a conservative Christian one.
Back in the days when newspapers and magazines were printed on paper once something was committed to ink that was pretty much it, you had to live with it. And while I do look quite fetching in my tin foil hat I generally like to save it for special occasions, but there's something unexplained and a little disturbing going on with internet news scrubbing.
We've seen quite a few instances of it recently and it usually has to do with explosive comments that are unfavorable to the narrative being disseminated by the administration (and quite often the Vice President)
The Queen's Death Star...
Depleted uranium from weapons used in the Middle East has been detectable in the air over Great Britain for some time now, but the air monitoring laboratory, OPERATED BY HALLIBURTON, refused to release the data as required by law.
So, take a deep breath, Brits. That faint metallic taste is your future of cancer, leukemia, and major birth defects for generations to come.
And Americans? You're next. If the DU has been in England for years, it's already in America as well; A gift that keeps on giving courtesy of the Neocon war machine. - M. R.
Hard numbers: Average family incomes, after adjusting for inflation, fell to $70,700 in 2004, a drop of 2.3 percent when compared with 2001. That was the weakest showing since a decline of 11.3 percent from 1989 to 1992, a period that also covered a recession.
Net worth, the difference between assets and liabilities such as loans, rose by 6.3 percent in the 2001-04 period to an average of $448,200, after adjusting for inflation. That gain was far below the huge increases of 25.6 percent from 1995 to 1998 and 28.7 percent from 1998 to 2001, increases that were fueled by soaring stock prices.
“To take away the excuse,” he said, “that we didn't know.” So that two or four or ten years from now, if somebody should ask, “Where were you, Conyers, and where was the United States Congress?” when the Bush Administration declared the Constitution inoperative and revoked the license of parliamentary government, none of the company now present can plead ignorance or temporary insanity, can say that “somehow it escaped our notice” that the President was setting himself up as a supreme leader exempt from the rule of law.
Everyone in the Middle East rewrites history, but never before have we had a US administration so wilfully, dishonestly and ruthlessly reinterpreting tragedy as success, defeat as victory, death as life - helped, I have to add, by the compliant American press. I'm reminded not so much of Vietnam as of the British and French commanders of the First World War who repeatedly lied about military victory over the Kaiser as they pushed hundreds of thousands of their men through the butchers' shops of the Somme, Verdun and Gallipoli.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Arab Parliamentary Union's 12th Conference in the Jordanian part of the Dead Sea, Moussa emphasized the fact that the conference was taking place in unfavorable circumstances.
He slammed Israel for possessing nuclear weapons and called on the international community to pave the way for approving the setting up of a nuclear-free Middle East zone.
Sharar said in a statement that five million dollars would be allocated for the restoration of the Shrine of the Two Imams' dome in the city of Samarra following the sabotage operation which had taregted it last Wednesday.
He added that the remaining five million dollars would be allocated to restore damage inflicted on mosques as a result of this criminal act.
Top News Article | Reuters.com...
Translation: the reason to attack Iran appears to have just gone away. - M. R.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction CJCSI 3610.01A (dated 1 June 2001) changed the protocol so that any requests for "potentially lethal support" had to come explicitly from the secretary of defense, leaving commanders in the field unable to respond to hijackings in any meaningful fashion.
Flight 11 had crashed into World Trade Center 1, and Flight 175 was hijacked and heading toward New York.
Fighter jets were ordered to stay in a holding pattern off Long Island.
Why weren't they ordered to protect New York?
February 26, 2006
Certain of the Breaking All The Rules web sites were cracked somewhere in the vicinity of 10:50 PM EST Wednesday. Intended content was replaced with a banner linking to this forum: http://www.g00ns-forum.net/ Portions of this forum were also visible on the BATR sites.
The attack left information stating that an entity calling itself "Noob" was responsible for the attack. "Noob" does not appear in listings of membership at the above web forum. One having "admin" in an email address at the above forum has been contacted for comment.
BATR's hosting and web mastering personnel have been asked to provide investigators certain information which may be useful in determining both the cause and origin of the attack. Investigators say it would be very difficult to determine which actual human being launched the attack, though the vicinity of the hardware used should be ascertainable, depending on content of the web hosting service's logs.
Event at historic Grand Lake Theatre asks serious questions about what really happened on Sept. 11, 2001
For the approximately 500 people who streamed into the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland last Thursday it was at night at the movies with a twist.
The requisite popcorn, soda and hot dogs were there as usual but so too were the unexpected—the activists selling books, videos and stickers questioning the official story of 9/11, and hundreds of curious truth seekers leafing through them, chatting and buying the items.
Israel stopped supplying Palestinian terriories with petroleum products because of Palestinian past due energy bills, said Sunday chief of the Palestinian public bureau for petroleum Mahmoud Al-Bader.
Of course, the reason for the cash shortfall is that Israel is keeping the tax money collected from the Palestinians. - M. R.
A burst of communal mayhem, growing political tensions and a still-raging insurgency have left US officials struggling to keep their vision for an exit strategy from Iraq in focus.
Imagine my shock.
- M. R.
Venezuela could easily sell oil to markets other than the United States and is prepared to end exports to its No. 1 buyer if needed, the oil minister said in comments published Sunday.
President Hugo Chavez's government has recently stepped up threats to cut off oil exports to the United States and sell Venezuelan-owned refineries there amid rising tensions with President George W. Bush's administration.
Infectious disease-causing viruses are already blamed for causing some liver cancers and cervical cancer. That has planted nagging suspicions in the minds of scientists that some diseases may play important roles alongside genetics, environment and chance in causing breast, stomach and several other forms of cancer.
Augustine Volcano Webcam...
Something to bookmark in case Augustine puts on a show - M. R.
Former CIA analyst a and presidential advisor Ray McGovern does not rule out Western involvement in this week's Askariya mosque bombing in light of previous false flag operations that have advanced hidden agendas of the ruling elite.
Unrest continues at Augustine Volcano...
In the 2004 presidential election, an electronic voting machine (manufacturer: ES&S) in Youngstown, Ohio (Mahoning County) recorded NEGATIVE 25 MILLION votes for Kerry.
Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in 5.5 years in January as demand for commercial aircraft suffered the biggest setback in seven years, the government reported today.
It's true, they do hate us for our freedoms. But we have been fooled, through a coordinated propaganda campaign, into looking in the wrong direction! Our enemy isn't over in some distant land, most people couldn't find on a map. No, the enemy is at our doorstep.
The reduction was due mainly to a sharp rise in household debt -- particularly home mortgage debt -- and a decline in real wages. Adjusted for inflation, wages have actually fallen 6.2 per cent.
Russia and Iran have agreed to set up a joint uranium enrichment venture in Russia.
Bush just lost his excuse for invading. - M. R.
Actor Don Knotts dies at age 81...
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | U.S. Defends Conditions at Bagram Prison
The Times report described conditions as ``primitive.'' It cited military figures as saying numbers of detainees at Bagram had risen from about 100 at the start of 2004 to as many as 600 at times last year.
It said the increase was in part a result of decision by the U.S. government to shut off the flow of detainees to Guantanamo after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those prisoners had some basic due-process rights. The report said the question of whether those same rights apply to detainees in Bagram has not been tested in court.
The Times report described conditions as ``primitive.'' It cited military figures as saying numbers of detainees at Bagram had risen from about 100 at the start of 2004 to as many as 600 at times last year.
It said the increase was in part a result of decision by the U.S. government to shut off the flow of detainees to Guantanamo after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those prisoners had some basic due-process rights. The report said the question of whether those same rights apply to detainees in Bagram has not been tested in court.
Give 'em hell, Harry!...
In this clip Harry Belafonte repeats an earlier charge that GWB is a terrorist,
gets in some digs at the war on terror and drops a not so subtle hint that
he doubts the official Osama did 911 story.
- M. R.
I tend to believe that the pro-Jewish acts we had witnessed yesterday in London, as well as last week in Austria, are not exactly a manifestation of some genuine pro-Jewish feelings. In fact, it may very well be the complete opposite. These acts are there to cover up some severe antagonism. The more that ordinary Westerners disapprove of the Jewish state colonizing Palestine, the more they feel contempt towards Zionism, the more they suspect the official Zionist historical narrative, the more they feel guilty about their scorn. To a certain extent, the more we hate inwardly, the more we support and empathize outwardly. Supporting Jewish interests is there to cover up a growing discomfort. This very pattern was rather apparent in pre-Nazi Germany. If one wants to learn from the past, this is a clear historical lesson.
Austria's treatment of Irving as a political dissident should offend both the people who defend the rights of political cartoonists to express their opinion of Islamic terrorists and the civil libertarians who leaped to the defense of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill when he exercised his right to call the victims of 9/11 "little Eichmanns." Why doesn't it? Why aren't freedom lovers everywhere offended by Irving's court conviction?
Freedom is a principle that must be applied indiscriminately. We have to defend Irving in order to defend ourselves. Once the laws are in place to jail dissidents of Holocaust history, what's to stop such laws from being applied to dissenters of religious or political histories, or to skepticism of any sort that deviates from the accepted canon?
According to people who claim to have actually seen them in action, however, US troops who have been coming to the country are doing more than that. The target: not a terrorist group but legitimate liberation movements in the country.
WARNING: Bushites Suppressing Dissent, Retaliating Against Whistleblowers, Shredding the Constitution. Ask Yourself: Where Does This Road Lead?
WARNING: Bushites Suppressing Dissent, Retaliating Against Whistleblowers, Shredding the Constitution. Ask Yourself: Where Does This Road Lead?...
Israel has said that it will not do business with a Palestinian Authority that is led by Hamas, because they claim that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Now Israel has also threatened Iran with legal opposition to Iran’s offer to help the PA. They also opposed Russia’s overtures, prior to Rice taking off to the Middle East to dissuade Arab governments from offering any assistance. Does it seem strange to anyone that Rice, and her friends in Israel, seem to be pushing the Palestinians away from the West and into the hands of the Eastern powers, and those deemed potential enemies of the US, such as China, Russia, and also Iran?
IN A BALD WARNING, the Philippine National Police yesterday said it would take over any media organization that would not follow "standards set by the government" during the state of national emergency.
A government team will examine the editorial contents of newspapers and the news or views aired by broadcast stations to see if these conform to the standards, according to PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao.
"We will recommend [action] based on our evaluation," Lomibao said in a press conference, adding that the PNP would work in cooperation with other government agencies which he did not name.
He appointed the PNP spokesperson, Sr. Supt. Samuel Pagdilao, to serve as "liaison officer" between the media and the police.
Upping the ante in what may be a high-stakes legal battle, an Upstate New York lawyer filed a $20 billion class-action lawsuit against Verizon last week, charging that the company violated customer confidentiality in aiding warrantless eavesdropping by a federal spy agency.
U.S. commanders say the recent spike in violence in Iraq is more than just a “bump in the road,” but they have confidence in Iraqi army forces to quell the unrest themselves. They do not rule out increasing U.S. force levels, however, if the Iraqis are unable to stabilize the country.
“This is more than a bump in the road, it’s a pothole,” said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of plans and strategy for Central Command, in a Thursday interview at a hotel near the Pentagon. Kimmitt said the ability of Iraqi security forces to address the violence occurring now is a major test of Iraqi forces’ competence, but that he remains confident they can do what is needed.
And just where are these" increasing U. S. force levels" coming from, with the military as overstretched as it is? I can make you one pretty certain bet, however: these generally won't be coming from families of members of Congress, the judiciary, or the executive branches of U. S. government. - M. R.
Insurgent attacks in Iraq reached a postwar high in the four months preceding Jan. 20, according to a Iraq progress report issued Friday by the Pentagon.
More than 550 attacks took place in Iraq from Aug. 29, 2005, to Jan. 20, 2006, according to the latest “security and stability” report the Defense Department is required to send lawmakers every four months.
Speaking to Pentagon reporters Friday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs said that the survey’s conclusions “were not good,” but that “loving us is not what it’s about.”
Awareness of the relative unpopularity of U.S. troops “is one of the reasons we want to turn over the battlespace” to the Iraqi security forces, Rodman said.
These people want their country back. - M. R.
Late at night on Saturday 18 February a huge Israeli military force invaded the refugee camp of Balata. The military occupied immediately many public, social, educational places, and houses in the camp. Before sunrise the UNRWA schools in the camp were occupied, as well as the Balata Youth Sport Club, the Women Activity Centre, the Yafa Cultural Centre and fourteen houses. The occupied public places were used by the military as temporary bases. The houses were used as monitoring points and as a basis for snipers to shoot at Palestinians.
Destruction of Voice of Palestine’s building. Reporters without Borders indignant at that new act of war against Palestinian media
In a letter addressed to Defence minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Reporters Sans Frontičres (RSF - Reporters Without Borders) got indignant at the destruction, by Tsahal, of the television and radio building of the Palestinian authority, in Ramallah. "This action is utterly unacceptable, whatever the judgement we may have about the content of the programs broadcast by Voice of Palestine. We protest against that deliberate policy of eliminating all official Palestinian point of view on the conflict. After having refused to renew the press cards of Palestinian journalists working for the foreign press, the Israeli government is reducing to silence the media of the Palestinian authority", affirmed Robert Ménard, RSF General secretary.
TOKYO, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Several thousands of residents in Kanoya, Japan's southern prefecture of Kagoshima, protested on Sunday against a possible military transfer plan, under which a U.S. air tanker fleet may move to the city, Kyodo News reported.
Israeli forces backed by bulldozers, military jeeps and armored personal carriers invaded the city of Nablus and Balata refugee camp in the early morning hours, while Apache helicopters continue to circle overhead, Maan News Agency reported.
Arroyo set off an uproar with her decree Friday as Filipinos celebrated the 20th anniversary of dictator Ferdinand Marcos' ouster in a "people power" revolt, and even some supporters questioned the move.
Telegraph | News | Iran and Russia strike nuclear deal...
Ahmadinejad: Israel 'will be removed'...
If Israel and Iran want to go to war, fine with me. I think they are stupid. but stupid people cannot be saved from themselves.
What I oppose and will continue to oppose is American kids being sent to be killed and crippled to protect Israel's government from their stupidity.
All of this hate and fear and death began back with the United Nations created TWO new Mideastern states, Israel AND Palestine. Israel started right out refusing to recognize Palestine because Palestine stood on land that Israel coveted, primarily Jerusalem. The new Palestine refused to recognize Israel as a result, and the other Arab nations joined in. And THAT is the reason for all the wars since; Israel's double standard of wanting recognition of their right to exist but refusing that same right to their neighbors. - M. R.
Iran's nuclear facility could be bombed in one night - Edward Luttwak...
Israel's plan is simple; to bomb Iran while all those American men and women in uniform are on the ground in Iraq, right in the path of an Iranian retaliation.
Israel attacks, Americans bleed. - M. R.
In the UK, in the cash-rich Gulf states and in fast-growing India, different incidents in the past week have made people ask the same question: is it worth doing business with the US?
H. Douglas Talbott told investigators last summer that he and Doug Moormann took part in Mr. Noe’s alleged scheme in October, 2003, to illegally funnel money into the President’s campaign.
As a reward for their fund-raising efforts, Mr. Noe gained the elite fund-raising status and an invitation to a White House Christmas party, and Mr. Talbott had his photo taken with the President, Mr. Talbott said.
Research under the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program -- which developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States -- was moved from the Pentagon's research-and-development agency to another group, which builds technologies primarily for the National Security Agency, according to documents obtained by National Journal and to intelligence sources familiar with the move. The names of key projects were changed, apparently to conceal their identities, but their funding remained intact, often under the same contracts.
The radioactive waste, eventually slated for permanent storage at a still unfinished site in Nevada, has been piling up, mostly at the nation's 65 commercial nuclear power plants. Late Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave its blessing to a solution: a storage site on a barren patch of a reservation in Utah that's home to some 25 native Americans, next to a proving ground for chemical and biological weapons, and near an Air Force bombing range.
Valley of the Wolves, by the Turkish director Serdan Akar, shows crazed American GIs massacring innocent guests at a wedding party and scenes in which a Jewish surgeon removes organs from Iraqi prisoners in a style reminiscent of the Nazi death camp doctor Joseph Mengele.
Note that the film shows Americans in a poor (if accurate) light, but it's only because of the Jewish doctor scene that there is an uproar. The film is condemned as "virulently anti-Semitic", with no concern at all that it is clearly anti-US occupation.
- M. R.
17 arrested at Florida neo-Nazi rally...
Staged event. Lee Harvey Oswald deliberately got himself arrested in New Orleans for publicity sake while Guy Bannister was his handler, prior to getting set up as the patsy in Dallas. This smells like more of the same, waving "Nazis" at the public whenever support for Israel starts to erode.
- M. R.
Sammara eyewitness, however, have published accounts on various websites, like Iraqirabita.org, saying US and Iraqi forces had sealed off access ways to the Shrine the night prior to the explosion. Some have said that Bahjat had interviewed some of these eyewitnesses.
Prolific Actor Darren McGavin Dies at 83...
America, you are being set up for a nuclear false flag attack.
With an international showdown fast approaching, Iran once again upset Jewish organizations and raised Western ire by questioning the Holocaust. This time, Iran proposed sending a team of investigators to conduct on-site inspections of Nazi concentration camps, in advance of a Tehran-sponsored conference to debate the "real scale of the Holocaust."
"What? Actually look at the facts and evidence? Are you out of your #$%#^# MIND!!!!"
(Ahem)
Obviously, my stance on freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry has provoked the usual deluge of emails (mostly obscene and anonymous) screaming that I must be an anti-Semite Jew hating bastard to think that anyone questioning the orthodox account of the holocaust should not be thrown into jail as a means to silence them.
My goal is truth. and if there is one lesson to be learned from the current Iraq war it is that governments do lie to their people to manufacture consent to various agendas. Therefore prudence demands that the citizen ALWAYS question what they have been taught in school.
One thing is clear. It is the very actions of those defending the orthodox view of WW2 that most suggest there have been other lies on a scale equal to that which launched the war on Iraq.
There are people who claim the Apollo Moon landings are fake. Such people are treated as nutcases who refuse to look at the facts (or government plants out to make trouble for serious investigators). Those who are really interested in examining the issue are free to do so, and a simple science experiment with a laser and telescope easily confirms that the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflectors (part of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package) are exactly where they are supposed to be. Nobody takes these Apollo questioners and throw them into jail for their refusal to accept on faith, and more to the point, nobody throws scientists in jail for firing laser beams at the moon and measuring the reflected pulse from the LRRR.
With the holocaust, things are obviously quite different. The mere asking of a question is a jailable offense in many nations, and scientists who have carried out experiments looking for the physical evidence that support the orthodox account are in prison. Why? Why such a heavy-handed response if those who question the holocaust are as nutty as those who question the Moon landings?
Israel has a world-class once in a lifetime opportunity for Iran's government to self-destruct. LET them hold their investigations. Let them send scientists to the various locations of holocaust history. Let EVERYONE send scientists to the various holocaust locations and let the results of all experiments be published openly. Let us settle this nonsense once and for all and if Iran is as foolish as the people who think the Moon landings are faked then the world media can ridicule Iran's government out of existence.
But as long as the defenders of the orthodox history of WW2 continue to jail researchers and forbid examination of the facts, the world will continue to wonder: "What are they afraid of?"
"What are they afraid of?"
"What are they afraid of?"
"What are they afraid of?" - M. R.
The ethnic cleansing of Sunni Muslims this week in Iraq reminds me of the genocide in Lebanon 20 years ago, and the same actors are working behind the scenes.
February 25, 2006
The 1975 World Trade Center Fire...
One of the World Trade Towers caught fire long before 9-11, but did not collapse.
- M. R.
Force Feeding - Sanitized Horrors of Guantanamo Bay...
Satellite films North Korea dollar factory...
Looks like a desperate plan to blame North Korea for the coming hyper-inflation.
- M. R.
Verizon Faces New $20B Suit over NSA Spying Complicity...
Why Has Our Military Refused to Show This Training Video To Our Troops Now Serving In Iraq?...
Experts say jump in cancelled orders for new homes is latest sign of how investors inflated the real estate market recently, and how the market is due for a downturn.
A defense contractor who pleaded guilty Friday to bribing a California congressman told federal authorities he also funneled illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris of Longboat Key, who's running for the U.S. Senate.
US conducts subcritical nuclear test...
Nuke-lite. Radiation without that full bloated bombed-out feeling. - M. R.
If we did not have blogs, we might never know about the latest assaults on truth, and we certainly would not know the details. We assuredly would not have the audio and video evidence.
Somerset County boom a mystery...
The description sounds like a shock wave from a supersonic aircraft.
- M. R.
On Monday, October 19, 1987 – infamously known as “black Monday” – the Dow fell 508 points, or 22.9%, marking the largest crash in history. Using an analytical approach similar to the one applied to explore heart rate, physicists have discovered some unusual events preceding the crash. These findings may help economists in risk analysis and in predicting inevitable future crashes.
Quantum computer solves problem, without running...
The first application ought to be a single-step adder. That one development alone would revolutionize computing. - M. R.
A long-standing public records request for the release of Election 2004 database files created by Diebold's voting system had been long delayed after several odd twists and turns, including the revelation of a contract with the state claiming the information to be a "company secret."
But while it finally appeared as though the state had agreed to release the information (after reserving the right to "manipulate the data" in consultation with Diebold before releasing it), the state's top Security Official has now -- at the last minute -- stepped in to deny the request. The grounds for the denial: the release of the information poses a "security risk" to the state of Alaska.
Now stop and think for a moment how the release of the voting records in any way threatens the security of the state.
- M. R.
The sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and other attacks were created to justify wars, just like the 9-11 attack.
At 2:00 without any warning shots they were fired at and a grenade was thrown at them from around the corner. According to the volunteers the shooting came from the direction of the Alleyway where the Israeli soldiers were. A twenty two year old American student was wounded by shrapnel in the hand a twenty nine year old Dutch volunteer was wounded by shrapnel in the thigh and shoulder, Jirar Candola an ambulance driver with the UPMRC was shot in the arm and leg and Ihab Mansour, a medical volunteer working with the Palestinian scientific society, was shot in the head and taken away by the Israeli soldiers.
The belief that the attack was the work of American and Israeli covert-operations (Black-ops) is widespread throughout the region as well as among leftist political-analysts in the United States. Journalist Kurt Nimmo sees the bombing as a means of realizing “a plan sketched out in Oded Yinon’s “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” (the balkanization of Arab and Muslim society and culture.) Nimmo suggests that the plan may have been carried out by “American, British or Israeli Intelligence operatives or their double-agent Arab lunatics, or crazies incited by Rumsfeld’s Proactive Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG) designed to ‘stimulate’ terrorist reaction.”
Iranian advisor: We'll strike Dimona in response to U.S. attack...
A reactor for a reactor. - M. R.
Soldiers Charged With Performing for Gay Porn Site...
Something for parents to keep in mind before the recruiters get to their kids.
- M. R.
White House 'Discovers' 250 Emails Related to Plame Leak...
"Oh ... you mean THOSE emails..." -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
Where's the Washington Post article with the charge that Bush's foreign policy is based on "geopolitical fantasy"?
Earlier tonight, the Washington Post had a pretty blistering article on Bush's foreign policy speech today to the American Legion. There was no question from reading that piece that Bush really thinks things are going well with his foreign policy. And, it left no doubt that Bush's optimism is not widely shared. I started to write a post because I was struck by this passage:
...
But, when I went back to the Post to get the link, the article was gone. The link is now to another story that incorporates Bush's foreign policy speech today in to the Iraq debacle.
Mockingbirds are not an endangered species.
Yet. - M. R.
If the Pentagon is really so worried about “bad press coverage” why not close down the torture-chambers and withdrawal from Iraq? Instead, Rumsfeld is making the case for a preemptive-assault on free speech.
Two top Bush administration officials who played an active role in the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, have been removing from their jobs, career State Deptartment weapons experts who have spoken to investigators during the past two years about the officials role in the leak, according to a half-dozen State Department officials.
The State Department officials requested anonymity for fear of further retribution. They said they believe they are being sidelined because they have been cooperating with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, and have disagreed with the Bush administration's intelligence that claimed Iraq sought 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger - an explosive piece of intelligence that was included in President Bush's January 2003, State of the Union address that was found to be based on crude forgeries, but helped pave the way to war.
One can never expect to be rewarded for telling the truth in an administration so mired in lies. - M. R.
On March 25 2003 President Bush signed executive order 13292, a hitherto little-known document that grants the greatest expansion of the power of the vice-president in US history. It gives the vice-president the same ability to classify intelligence as the president. By controlling classification, the vice-president can control intelligence and, through that, foreign policy. Bush operates on the radical notion of the "unitary executive", that the presidency has inherent and limitless powers in his role as commander in chief, above the system of checks and balances. Never before has any president diminished and divided his power.
In Howard's Australia, the ultimate "no-hoper" is a sick, terrified, deeply troubled and abused young man called David Hicks. Hicks was a drifter, which was once an Australian type known as a "swagman" and a "larrikin" and lauded by our bush poets and balladeers. In the 1990s, Hicks became a Muslim and drifted through Kosovo, then on to Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped by the Americans and sent to their concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Not a shred of evidence exists that Hicks fought for al-Qaeda, or is a terrorist. He is a drifter. Yet he is to face one of Bush's "military commissions", for which torture is used to extract confessions, and there is no right to cross-examine witnesses, no presumption of innocence and no standard of proof "beyond a reasonable doubt". Even three of the hand-picked US military prosecutors have withdrawn, arguing that the commission is rigged to secure convictions. Many of Australia's leading jurists agree.
The Howard government has said, in so many words, that David Hicks can rot. He is a no-hoper, un-American, unaspirational. Put out more flags.
Wade founded MZM Inc., specializing in the electronic gathering and analysis of intelligence. The Washington-based company, which he has left, has received more than $150 million in contracts since 2002.
The Raw Story | Data mining program continues after lawmakers order it closed
A controversial intelligence data mining program, which was closed by lawmakers over privacy concerns two years ago, has continued to receive funding and remained in operation under different code names in different agencies, according to today's National Journal.
Excerpts from the Journal's article follow:
A controversial intelligence data mining program, which was closed by lawmakers over privacy concerns two years ago, has continued to receive funding and remained in operation under different code names in different agencies, according to today's National Journal.
Pentagon Chief Says If You Speak Out About the Port Deal, You’re Threatening National Security...
The problem with using "National Security" too much is that you wear the phrase out. It loses impact. People tune it out.
- M. R.
[T]here's no excuse for exposing the integrity of our election system to computer hackers. Yet that's what California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson may have done last week by approving electronic voting machines from Diebold Election Systems for use in California elections through the end of this year.
...
As the last two presidential elections demonstrate, ballot results are of profound interest to everybody — including determined hackers with partisan agendas. Therefore, it's proper to demand of the high-tech machines replacing the paper ballots and punch cards of yore that they be technologically bulletproof. The Diebold systems certified by McPherson — an optical scanner that reads hand-marked ballots and a touch screen that totes up votes directly — fall well short of that standard.
If the nation's largest ISPs are allowed to discriminate against the flow of web traffic, The New York Times editorial board wrote on Sunday, "the Internet providers, rather than consumers, could become the driving force in how the Internet evolves."
Two years ago, FBI veteran Jack Cloonan, who had been the senior agent on the FBI's bin Laden squad in New York and later was in charge of investigating Al Qaeda master planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (now in some CIA "black site"), asked on ABC's Nightline:
"What are we going to do with these people [in the CIA secret cells]? . . . Are they going to disappear? Are they stateless? . . . What are we going to explain to people when they start asking questions about where they are? Are they dead? Are they alive? What oversight does Congress have?"
The present answer to Jack Cloonan's last question is this: There is no congressional oversight. Congress has been blocked—by its Republican leadership, the president, Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA chief Porter Goss—from having any oversight at all. The constitutional separation of powers has also fallen into a black hole.
The most important question to ask regarding the bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra on the 22nd is: who benefits?
Prior to asking this question, let us note the timing of the bombing. The last weeks in Iraq have been a PR disaster for the occupiers.
And let us not forget that the Mosque bombing drove "Dead-eye" Dick Cheney's drunken shooting spree off of the front pages. - M. R.
Russia’s foreign trade turnover increased by 32 percent last year, to $370.4 billion, the Economy Ministry said in its report on the country’s socio-economic development for 2005. The trade surplus for 2005 balance was $120.1 billion, up from $85.8 billion in 2004.
While the American trade surplus was..... non-existent. - M. R.
Atta being in two different places at the same time on September 7 and 8 proves that we have here a clear case of an alleged hijacker and his double.
The Mosque Guards testimony says: Four people with ING uniforms blind folded them and set the bombs.
Punishing someone for peacefully expressing an opinion about history is a step backwards to the legal standards of the Middle Ages.
he battalion, according to the Pentagon, was downgraded from "level one" to "level two" after a recent quarterly assessment of its capabilities.
"Level one" means the battalion is able to fight on its own; "level two" means it requires support from U.S. troops; and "level three" means it must fight alongside U.S. troops.
And this means we'll be in Iraq for HOW long??? - M. R.
"I can tell you the main reason behind all our woes — it is America." The New York Times reporter is quoting the complaint of a clothing merchant in a Sunni stronghold in Iraq. "Everything that is going on between Sunni and Shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is America."
February 24, 2006
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Bush administration was ordered by a U.S. federal judge on Friday to explain why it did not give New Jersey officials documents and information Washington had about a deal allowing an Arab company to take over management of a container terminal in Newark.
U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares signed an order demanding to know why the government did not carry out a full investigation into the change of ownership of the container terminal at Port Newark.
The judge set a hearing for Wednesday and said in the order he would issue a preliminary injunction blocking the deal, pending a full investigation, unless he was satisfied with Washington's answers.
The judge asked in the order that federal officials explain why New Jersey officials were not given the same documents and information that Washington used to approve the deal, under which state-owned Dubai Ports World would take over management from the British company P&O.
On Thursday, the State of New Jersey sued the federal government to block the deal on the grounds it violated the 10th Amendment, which says states control anything not explicitly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
Earlier, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine urged the governors of states with ports affected by the deal -- Louisiana,