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Conscious Flow Radio


Friday, August 29, 2008

Halliburton sued for Human Trafficking




Thirteen Nepali men were recruited and held against their will for thirteen months in a human trafficking scheme engineered and perpetrated by Halliburton and its Jordanian contractor, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in California federal court.


This spring, a judge at the Department of Labor ordered KBR's contractor, Daoud, to pay $1 million to the families of 11 of the victims. "The Inspector General for the United States Department of Defense investigated and confirmed the facts related to the fate of the 12 men, which led to increased enforcement of anti-trafficking measures by the United States," the lawfirm said in a release.


KBR was spun off from Halliburton in a 2006 IPO, and formally disengaged from the company in 2007. The spinoff appears party as a result of negative press relating to allegations the company engaged in overbilling and got sweetheart deals. KBR had been Halliburton's engineering arm for 44 years, and was also accused of overbilling and sweetheart deals during the Vietnam War.

A New 911 Clue

The recording is titled, “The WTC-10-5-the-message-about-the-remote-controlled-plane.” In the mélange of scratchy voices bumping each other off and on, around minute three, the words “remote controlled-plane” bump through clearly, are interrupted, and finally assert quite clearly again that “there’s a big truck on King Street with the mural of an airplane painted on it diving into New York City and exploding.” It was later noted “King Street between 6th and 7th Avenues,” about a mile north of WTC, which was in direct line of sight from King St. and 6th Avenue.

U.S. Military Keeping Secrets About Female Soldiers’ ‘Suicides’?




Since I posted on April 28 the article “Is There an Army Cover Up of the Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers,” the deaths of two more U.S. Army women in Iraq and Afghanistan have been listed as suicides—the Sept. 28, 2007, death of 30-year-old Spc. Ciara Durkin and the Feb. 22, 2008, death of 25-year-old Spc. Keisha Morgan. Both “suicides” are disputed by the families of the women.

Since April 2008, five more U.S. military women have died in Iraq—three in noncombat-related incidents. Ninety-nine U.S., six British and one Ukrainian military women and 13 U.S. female civilians have been killed in Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as probably hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and girls. Of the 99 U.S. military women, 64 were in the Army active component, nine in the Army National Guard, seven in the Army Reserve, seven in the Marine Corps, nine in the Navy and three in the Air Force. According to the Department of Defense, 41 of the 99 U.S. military women who have been killed in Iraq died in “noncombat-related incidents.” Of the 99 U.S. military women killed in the Iraq theater, 41 were women of color (21 African-Americans, 16 Latinas, three of Asian-Pacific descent and one Native American—data compiled from the Web site http://www.nooniefortin.com/).

Thursday, August 28, 2008

What Were Mossad with New Zealand Passports doing In Iraq?

In a July 16, 2004 article, Mossad spies’ jailed over New Zealand passport fraud, David Fickling of the Guardian reported, “The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport. The plot, which involved obtaining a passport in the name of a tetraplegic man who had not spoken in years, provoked a furious reaction yesterday.”
Peace Researcher editor Murray Horton in a March 2006 article, Israel Apologizes to NZ For Bungled Mossad Passports, noted what he had reported in his March 2005 2005 article, Mossad Spies Imprisoned In New Zealand: Our Passports Valued For Use By Israeli Covert Killers, that “in 2004, New Zealand authorities became aware of a covert operation mounted by Israel’s external intelligence agency, Mossad, to secure NZ passports (which are keenly sought after by those who seek hassle free entry to most countries. Mossad has a long track record of using fraudulently obtained passports of friendly counties, such as Canada, for its agents to commit crimes, including several murders, in countries throughout the world).

Rare Carroll Quigley Interview




"The Council on Foreign Relations is the American branch of a society which originated in England ... [and] ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established." Dr. Carroll Quigley
"I know of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years in the early 1960s to examine its papers and secret records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments. I have objected, both in the past and recently, to a few of its policies ... but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known." -- Dr. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope


Rare Carroll Quigley interview in 1974 Part 2

Rare Carroll Quigley interview in 1974 Part 3

Rare Carroll Quigley interview in 1974 Part 4

Rare Carroll Quigley interview in 1974 Part 5 Final

New Details Reveal Early Spy Network

The 750,000 documents identify the vast spy network managed by the OSS, which later became the CIA. President Franklin Roosevelt created the OSS, the country's first centralized intelligence operation.
The OSS files offer details about other agents, including Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, major league catcher Moe Berg, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and film actor Sterling Hayden.
Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt; and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

Back in Time: The American Dollar


Sunday, August 24, 2008

Twilight of the Psychopaths

Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and “warfare.” Incidentally, the latter term is a euphemism for mass murder.
The prevailing recipe for civilization is simple:
1) Use lies and brainwashing to create an army of controlled, systematic mass murderers;
2) Use that army to enslave large numbers of people (i.e. seize control of their labour power and its fruits);
3) Use that slave labour power to improve the brainwashing process (by using the economic surplus to employ scribes, priests, and PR men). Then go back to step one and repeat the process.
Psychopaths have played a disproportionate role in the development of civilization, because they are hard-wired to lie, kill, injure, and generally inflict great suffering on other humans without feeling any remorse. The inventor of civilization — the first tribal chieftain who successfully brainwashed an army of controlled mass murderers—was almost certainly a genetic psychopath. Since that momentous discovery, psychopaths have enjoyed a significant advantage over non-psychopaths in the struggle for power in civilizational hierarchies — especially military hierarchies.

LAOS: Film Reveals CIA's 'Most Secret Place on Earth'




PHNOM PENH, Aug 22 (IPS) - It was known as the ‘secret war’, a covert operation waged by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout the sixties and early seventies against communist guerrillas in Laos.


It was completely run by the CIA using largely civilian pilots from the agency’s own airline, Air America, and mercenaries recruited from the Hmong, an ethnic tribe living in mountainous areas in central and northern Laos.


"Laos was the progenitor of the way America fights wars in the 21st century," he says. "Outsourcing the war to private companies, gathering public support by falsifying intelligence and documents, embedded journalism and automated warfare including the use of so-called ‘smart weapons’, all these methods were first tested in Laos."

Lone Accountant Takes on IRS and Wins




WASHINGTON - It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS in a tax dispute.


Not only that, but tax experts say potentially millions of other taxpayers could benefit from his victory.


"There's a tremendous amount of money at stake," said Robert Willens, a New York City-based tax analyst at Robert Willens LLC. "Tens of thousands of people could be in line for a refund."

Female Strip-searched in Handcuffs by 7 Officers of both sexes

Healing Cancer: The Truth about Hydrazine Sulfate

The purpose of this statement is to guide you, step by step, through the scientific development of hydrazine sulfate as an anticancer agent, the clinical trials—and the high-level negative politics which came to surround this drug from the very beginning. It will be plainly seen that the cautions against this drug presented on the Internet by our highest federal health agencies are but an assemblage of misinformation and disinformation which acts to discourage this drug's use both by individual patients as well as by well-meaning physicians.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones Dies after Brain Aneurysm

The hemorrhage was in an inaccessible part of Jones' brain, Kious said during a news conference at the hospital earlier on Wednesday.
Cleveland Heights police said Tubbs Jones' car was observed traveling east on Mayfield Road at about 9 p.m. in a weaving fashion. The officer activated the cruiser's emergency lights and attempted to pull the vehicle over. The vehicle started rolling across the southbound lanes.
Police said Tubbs Jones was found in "obvious medical distress."
She was one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's biggest supporters during the primaries. She threw her support to Sen. Barack Obama in June.

Police: Arkansas Shooter had Party Boss' name on Post-it Note!

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- The killer of Arkansas' Democratic Party chairman had written his victim's name on a Post-It note and had two sets of car keys from his victim's car dealership, but links between the men and a motive for the slaying remains a mystery to investigators.

Police said Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, also owned at least 16 guns, had antidepressant pills and made out a will before shooting Bill Gwatney on Wednesday at party headquarters in Little Rock.
The name "Gwatney" and a telephone number were written on a Post-It note found in Johnson's home, police said. They wouldn't say whether the number matched the Democratic headquarters or a Gwatney-owned car dealership, if either.

Gunman Kills Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A man recently fired from a Target store barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters Wednesday and fatally shot the state party chairman before speeding off in his pickup. Police later shot and killed the suspect after a 30-mile chase.
Police identified the suspect as 50-year-old Timothy Dale Johnson of Searcy, a town about 50 miles northeast of Little Rock. They said that moments after the shooting, Johnson pointed a handgun at a worker at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters. An official there said he told the worker, "I lost my job."
Chairman Bill Gwatney died four hours after the shooting. The 48-year-old former state senator had been planning to travel to the Democratic National Convention later this month as a superdelegate. He had backed Hillary Rodham Clinton but endorsed Barack Obama after she dropped out of the race.

Tommy Chong Gets Last Laugh on Bush Administration




And then he went to prison. A documentary, "a/k/a Tommy Chong," on how he was jailed for his reputation, part of a nationwide sting aimed at sellers of pot paraphernalia, has won awards at film festivals. The movie comes out on DVD Tuesday.


Chong became a symbol for victims of the politicized Bush Justice Department, which followed up its "selective prosecution" of Chong by seizing 10,000 copies of the DVD last May, even though he doesn't profit from the film.


"The Justice Department? They're my best career boosters," Chong jokes. Chong's stand-up act was re-invigorated. His long-estranged partner, Cheech Marin, agreed to re-form their act and take it on the road.


But I'm their bad karma, by the way. They arrested a popular guy. And everybody wants to hear my story. Now I've got a DVD, Cheech and I are touring. I do interviews about the why and how of what they did all the time. I'm that headache that won't go away for them.

D.C. To Pay Middle School Students For Attendance, Behavior

The city plans to spend about $3 million on the pilot program. The money will go to about 3,000 students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee said it's during middle school when many students either learn the value of education or start down the road toward failing or dropping out.
The pay-for-performance program will reward up to $100 every two weeks for attending classes, behaving well and achieving other goals.

Corps Issues Smaller, Lighter Body Armor




The Marine Corps has issued thousands of new body armor vests that are lighter, more comfortable and allow more freedom of movement than the current vest, but offer less ballistic protection than the Corps' standard-issued armor.


The so-called "scalable plate carrier" uses the same enhanced small arms protective plates and Kevlar ballistic inserts as the Corps' Interceptor body armor and modular tactical vest, but in a more streamlined, less bulky package than vests issued to most Marines.

28 Women Miscarry after Receiving Gardasil HPV Vaccination; FDA Not Concerned

Since the approval of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil in June 2006, 28 cases have been reported of pregnant women miscarrying after receiving the vaccine. Saying that this miscarriage rate is no different than that of the general population, the FDA has said that it will not call for further investigations into the drug's safety.
Gardasil, produced by Merck, protects against two strains of HPV that have been identified as responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, plus two strains that cause 90 percent of genital warts. A total of 3,461 negative reactions after taking Gardasil were reported to the database, including eight deaths.
Of the 28 reported miscarriages, several were listed as cause unknown, leading a federal investigator to say that one of these, at least, "may have been caused by Gardasil because the patient received the injection within 30 days of the pregnancy."

Ex-US Diplomat get 20 Years for Child Porn

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Map, News) - An ex-U.S. diplomat who admitted taping his sexual encounters with teenage girls while stationed in Brazil and the Congo was sentenced Friday to 20 years, the maximum possible prison term.
Gons G. Nachman, 42, had sought leniency, claiming among other things that cultural differences in those countries made sex with teenage girls more acceptable.
"I reject out of hand completely the idea that I should take into account cultural differences," Lee said. He said even if such differences exist, Nachman was answerable to U.S. standards and U.S. law while working as a diplomat on embassy grounds.

Obama to Announce Biden as Running Mate



CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate, CNN said on Saturday, citing several unnamed sources in the Democratic Party.

Biden, 65, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a highly respected voice on international affairs.


The long-serving senator emerged as a strong possibility after three other contenders -- Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- reportedly were told they had not been picked.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Passengers Can Challenge No-Fly Status

Critics of the government's secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights.
A federal judge in San Francisco had dismissed the suit, citing a law that requires all challenges to TSA orders to be filed directly in an appeals court, with no right to present evidence or convene a jury. But the appeals court majority, led by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, said the no-fly list, though maintained by the TSA, is actually compiled by a branch of the FBI, which can be sued in a trial court like most other federal agencies.

Did Scientology Kill Isaac Hayes?




Isaac was found dead by his treadmill, but conveniently missing from the wire stories was a significant fact: in January 2006, Isaac had a significant stroke. At the time, the word went out only that he had been hospitalized for exhaustion.


But the truth was, Isaac, whom I’d seen just a couple of months earlier when he headlined the Blues Ball in Memphis, was in trouble. Having lost the rights to his songs two decades earlier, he was finally making some money voicing the character of Chef on “South Park.” But “South Park” lampooned Scientology, so the leaders wanted Isaac out.


Push came to shove on Nov. 16, 2005, when “South Park” aired its hilarious “Trapped in the Closet” episode spoofing Tom Cruise and John Travolta. “South Park” creator Matt Stone told me later that Isaac had come to him in tears.
“He said he was under great pressure from Scientology, and if we didn’t stop poking at them, he’d have to leave," Stone said.


The conversation ended there. Isaac performed Chef’s signature song at the Blues Ball a week later with great delight. Although he was devoted to Scientology, he also loved being part of “South Park.” He was proud of it. And, importantly, it gave him income he badly needed.


But then came the stroke, which was severe. His staff — consisting of Scientology monitors who rarely left him alone — tried to portray it as a minor health issue. It wasn’t. Sources in Memphis told me at the time that Isaac had significant motor control and speech issues. His talking was impaired.


In March 2006, news came that Hayes was resigning from “South Park." On March 20, 2006, I wrote a column called “Chef’s Quitting Controversy,” explaining that Hayes was in no position to have quit anything due to his stroke. But Scientology issued the statement to the press saying Hayes had resigned, and the press just ate it up. No one spoke to Isaac directly, because he couldn’t literally speak. "Chef” was written out of the show.


Isaac’s income stream was severely impaired as a result. Suddenly there were announcements of his touring, and performing. It didn’t seem possible, but word went out that he’d be at BB King’s in New York in January 2007. I went to see him and reported on it here.


The show was abomination. Isaac was plunked down at a keyboard, where he pretended to front his band. He spoke-sang, and his words were halting. He was not the Isaac Hayes of the past.


What was worse was that he barely knew me. He had appeared in my documentary, "Only the Strong Survive," released in 2003. We knew each other very well. I was actually surprised that his Scientology minder, Christina Kumi Kimball, with whom I had difficult encounters in the past, let me see him backstage at BB King’s. Our meeting was brief, and Isaac said quietly that he did know me. But the light was out in his eyes, and the situation was worrisome.


But the general consensus was that he needed the money. Without “Chef,” Isaac’s finances were severely curtailed. He had mouths to feed to home. Plus, Scientology requires huge amounts of money, as former member, actor Jason Beghe, has explained in this space. For Isaac to continue in the sect, he had to come up with funds. Performing was the only way.


In recent months, I’ve had conflicting reports. One mutual friend says that Isaac had looked and sounded much better lately at business meetings. But actor Samuel L. Jackson, who recently filmed scenes with Isaac and the late Bernie Mac for a new movie called “Soul Men,” told me on Saturday that Isaac really wasn’t up to the physical demands of shooting the movie. (Neither, it seems, was Bernie Mac.)


But there are a lot of questions still to be raised about Isaac Hayes’ death. Why, for example, was a stroke survivor on a treadmill by himself? What was his condition? What kind of treatment had he had since the stroke? Members of Scientology are required to sign a form promising they will never seek psychiatric or mental assistance. But stroke rehabilitation involves the help of neurologists and often psychiatrists, not to mention psychotropic drugs — exactly the kind Scientology proselytizes against.


What will come next, I’m afraid, is a wild dogfight among family members for Isaac’s estate. His song catalog (with David Porter) is one of the greatest in music history. Isaac lost the rights to his big hit songs in 1977. But thanks to something called the Songwriters Act, his heirs — whoever they are determined to be — automatically get the rights back as the songs come up for copyright renewal. I guarantee this will not be pretty. Isaac Lee Hayes has over 300 original compositions listed with BMI, from the Sam & Dave songbook to Carla Thomas’ “BABY (Baby)” to his monumental instrumental “Theme from SHAFT.”

Pistol-packing woman, 85, forces intruder to call 911

POINT MARION, Pa. — An 85-year-old woman boldly went for her gun and busted a would-be burglar inside her home, then forced him to call police while she kept him in her sights, police said.
Smith heard someone break into her home Monday afternoon and grabbed the .22-caliber revolver she had been keeping by her bed since a neighbor's home was burglarized a few weeks ago.
After the 17-year-old boy called 911, Smith kept holding the gun on him until state police arrived at her home in Springhill Township, about 45 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Vaccines Found to Cause Diabetes in Children

Two new studies showing that vaccines increase the risk of diabetes have been published in the Open Pediatric Medicine Journal.
In a prior study, published in the journal Autoimmunity, Dr. J. Bartholomew Classen of Classen Immunotherapies and David Carey Classen of the University of Utah compared more than 100,000 children who had received between one and four doses of the hemophilus vaccine with more than 100,000 unvaccinated children. The Classens found that after seven years, children in the vaccination group had a 26 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than children in the non-vaccine group. This amounted to an extra 54 cases of diabetes per 100,000 children vaccinated.

Judge Denies Sen. Stevens's Request to Transfer Corruption Trial

Stevens, 84, was indicted July 29 by a federal grand jury on charges he failed to report on Senate financial disclosure forms that he accepted more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from executives of Veco, a now-defunct Alaska oil services company.

The Anthrax Files

The FBI claims to have caught the killer. But so much evidence has been neglected or mishandled that many experts still have doubts.
The first week of August, the popular press got back in the game, reporting the apparent suicide of USAMRIID scientist Bruce E. Ivins, alleged to be the sole operator behind the anthrax letters. The Associated Press reported that Ivins, who is said to have killed himself on July 29 with an overdose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, was “one of the government’s leading scientists researching vaccines and cures for anthrax exposure.” According to the AP, he was “brilliant but troubled.” His lawyer, Paul Kemp, says that Ivins passed a pair of polygraph tests and that the grand jury investigating the case was weeks from returning an indictment. Yet within days of his death, the bureau announced that it was beginning the shutdown of its “Amerithrax” investigation. “Anthrax Case a Wrap,” blared the Daily News on Aug. 4.
In April, it was reported that the FBI had been focusing on as many as four suspects. Fox News identified them as a “former deputy commander,” presumably in the U.S. Army, a “leading anthrax scientist,” and “a microbiologist.” The fourth suspect was given no description. Now the bureau is “confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks,” according to the assurances of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Army Eyes Invisibility Cloak


After two years of rapid scientific progress, the U.S. Army is getting closer to mastering man-made "meta-materials" that can bend light around an object, according to one military researcher.
Okay, seriously. According to Dr. Richard Hammond from the Army Research Office, the military is two or three years away from being able to manufacture devices using meta-materials that allow "unprecedented extreme control over the flow of light." And not just that: in theory the materials could deflect radar and other sensors, too.

Rounded up into torture camps: the 'undesirables' China doesn't want you to see

The Beijing regime has deployed an army of 500,000 smiling volunteers to help foreigners find their way around the teeming capital city.Blades of grass have been individually combed. Signs have been erected in English.Spitting has been banned and taxi drivers have been told to wear ties.
But there's none of that here in the suburb of Daxing, where the only 'venues' are the five camps into which thousands of China's 'undesirables' have been swept from the streets of Beijing and locked up.
From street children, hawkers, the homeless and prostitutes, to the mentally ill, black migrants, drug dealers and gays caught in public bathhouses, the camps on the outskirts of the city started filling up with Beijing's 'undesirables' last year as part of the Chinese regime's determination to present what it sees as an acceptable face to the world.

Before Salmonella Outbreak, Disease-Ridden Mexican Peppers Repeatedly Stopped at Border

Fresno, Calif. - Federal inspectors at U.S. border crossings repeatedly turned back filthy, disease-ridden shipments of peppers from Mexico in the months before a salmonella outbreak that sickened 1,400 people was finally traced to Mexican chilies.
Yet no larger action was taken. Food and Drug Administration officials insisted as recently as last week that they were surprised by the outbreak because Mexican peppers had not been spotted as a problem before.

Revealed:CCTV Cameras Spying on Hundreds of Classrooms

CCTV monitors classrooms at one in 14 schools, according to a survey.
The poll of teachers also found that almost a quarter feared there might be more cameras hidden around the campus that they did not know about.
Most said their schools were fitted with surveillance cameras. Almost 80 per cent said there were cameras at the entrance and more than 7 per cent said there were some in classrooms.
Nearly 10 per cent of teachers polled by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said there were cameras in the lavatories.

DOJ Preparing to Charge Six Blackwater Guards in Nisour Square Massacre

Indictments for the killing of 17 Iraqis would likely be sought under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which would be unprecedented.
The U.S. Justice Department has sent so-called target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the September 16 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Sources told the Post that the letters, which provide an opportunity for the recipients to contest grand jury evidence, indicate the Justice Department will likely seek indictments against at least some of the guards under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA). Indictments against the Blackwater employees under the MEJA would mark the first time that State Department contractors were prosecuted under the Act, which allows criminal charges to be filed against contractors working for the Department of Defense. The sources explained that a final decision on whether to indict the men may not be made until October. The Washington Post has more.

Dave Matthews Band Saxophonist Leroi Moore Dies at 46

LOS ANGELES—Dave Matthews Band saxophone player LeRoi Moore, one of the group's founding members and a key part of its eclectic jazz-infused sound, died Tuesday from injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident in June. He was 46.
Moore had classical training but said jazz was his main musical influence, according to a biography on the band's Web site. "But at this stage I don't really consider myself a jazz musician," Moore said in the biography. Playing with the Dave Matthews Band was "almost better than a jazz gig," he said. "I have plenty of space to improvise, to try new ideas." Lead singer Dave Matthews credited Moore with arranging many of his songs.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Terrorist Watch List Hits One Million Names

"Members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other 'suspicious characters,' with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress needs to fix it, the Terrorist Screening Center needs to fix it, or the next president needs to fix it, but it has to be done soon."
"Putting a million names on a watch list is a guarantee that the list will do more harm than good by interfering with the travel of innocent people and wasting huge amounts of our limited security resources on bureaucratic wheel-spinning," said Steinhardt. "I doubt this thing would even be effective at catching a real terrorist."

The Truth About Home Births

Home births presided over by trained midwives are as safe as hospital births. Yet many in the medical community present midwifery as dangerous.
While another profession might have the popular reputation of being the world's oldest, you can make a strong case that midwifery is a more realistic contender for that title. The tradition of caring for pregnant women and delivering babies in homes or community spaces is ancient the world over. And it's present today, in the providers who practice within an American medical culture in which 99% of births take place in hospitals, presided by OB/GYNs.
Jessica Mattingly, a doula from Blue Springs, MO, notes that midwifery-assisted home birth can foster the understanding that "birth is a normal, celebrated, empowering experience for a woman and her family." And, she adds, "This is not done at the sacrifice of safety for mother and baby, but at the enhancement of it. Midwives and mothers can be and are able to identify the rare cases when medical intervention is needed and can seek collaboration and assistance."

PAKISTAN PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF RESIGNS

Islamabad, Aug 18: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Monday announced that he was stepping down from the post, amid tremendous pressure from the ruling coalition government to do so. “For the sake of the nation and people, I’m resigning. I don’t want anything from anybody. I’m not vindictive. Let the people be the judges. Let them do justice. I’m going with the belief that I have done everything for the nation with honesty,” Musharraf said in a live televised address to the nation. The President added that he will submit his resignation to the National Assembly in a shortwhile. Senate Chairman Mohd Mian Soomro will meanwhile take over as Acting President.

2008 Now or Never

NOW OR NEVER BANNER



FULL PRESS RELEASE

We are writing you in the hopes of grabbing your attention regarding an important event that is coming up for the anniversary of September 11th, 2001.

The 9/11 Relief Fund was designed to go to victims’ family members, rescue workers who dug through the asbestos, and projects underway in hospitals for all Americans that were affected. However, like many things, this fund was squandered by Washington politicians. As a result, thousands of sick rescue workers are bed-ridden at home and in hospitals, and are passing away at an alarming rate.

We Are Change, a non-profit organization based in NYC, along with a coalition of the FealGood Foundation, (which aids sick 9/11 first responders) Louder Than Words (the creators of Loose Change) and SMT Studios in NYC would like to invite you to the most important benefit you may ever attend...

The 2008 NOW or NEVER First Responders Relief Benefit at the Manhattan Center Stages, Grand Ballroom in NYC on September 12, 2008. Events are taking place from the 10th – 12th, and we would be honored to have you in attendance.

If you can't make it but would like to donate to support the cause, head to the Loose Change Store and make a donation to support first responders and this event.

For the official website click here or click here to download an informational pdf.

Thanks for your support. We hope to see you in New York City. Buy your tickets now before they sell out.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Average Briton Recorded 3000 Times per week



In one week, the average person living in Britain has 3,254 pieces of personal information stored about him or her, most of which is kept in databases for years and in some cases indefinitely.

The data include details about shopping habits, mobile phone use, emails, locations during the day, journeys and internet searches.
In many cases this information is kept by companies such as banks and shops, but in certain circumstances they can be asked to hand it over to a range of legal authorities.

This newspaper's findings come days after the Government published plans to grant local authorities and other public bodies access to the email and internet records of millions. Phone companies already retain data about their customers and give it to 650 public bodies on request.

DC: Able Danger Premier on 9/11/08

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If you're in the DC area, feel free to join us for a very informed evening of discussion, Q&A with 9/11 filmmakers and research experts, as well as the DC Premiere of the dark levity and film noir 40s detective style of the 9/11 film, ABLE DANGER. abledangerthemovie.com.
Opening the evening's film series will be the film TERRORSTORM at 6pm followed by a question and answer session wth a series of short videos. At 9:11pm, we will then present the screening of the DC premiere ABLE DANGER.


Special guest Sander Hicks will be the featured speaker, in a discussion of the crimes of 9/11, within the heart of the District of Criminals. Sander is the founder of VoxPop café on which the film is based, and author of The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistleblowers, and the Cover-Up. The film, Able Danger, is the story of A Brooklyn 9/11 Truther who falls into a noir pastiche when a mysterious Eastern European beauty arrives at his bookstore-café with irrefutable proof of American secret intelligence involvement in the planning and execution of 9/11.


Bring your friends, especially the ones that tend to role their eyes at you when the subject of 9/11 and the government's obvious inconsistencies with their account of their official conspiracy theory are brought to their attention. As always, the metro area's Fed paychecks spooks of COINTELPRO operatives/spooks, who employ fearmongering as a form of warfare are welcome, as well as their corporate cubicle-dwelling counterparts of blog infiltrators, the internet trolls that are paid with your tax dollars to attack you ad nauseam throughout the web 24/7. You spooks will be fine. We don't know your faces, only your team screennames. Maybe, you'll learn something about Treason! ;)


Commemorating the Seventh Anniversary of Seeking the Truth
dc911truth.org Presents our
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Thursday, September 11, 20086:00pm – 11:00pmBUSBOYS AND POETS14th & V Streets NWWashington DCBusboys and PoetsRock Creek Free Press

Rep: 1/2 of House Dems May Vote Hillary at DNC

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy for the chance to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention — and she predicts that as many as half of the Democrats in the House could join her.

Said Sanchez: “I believe there are a lot of supporters for Hillary among the superdelegates, especially now that they’ve agreed to place her name in nomination. I think half the House Democrats would probably be Hillary supporters, especially women. ... I felt she was the most experienced and the best candidate and I still feel that way.”
Obama’s decision to accept a roll call vote, which came after weeks of talks with the Clinton camp, doesn’t mean he’ll let the process get out of hand, observers say. “The convention is about nominating Barack, so his people want to speed through the vote as fast as possible so it won’t take too much TV time,” said a Democratic delegate who plans to vote for Clinton. “They also want to avoid a scenario where she’s leading at any point.”

Friday, August 15, 2008

Judge quashes murder charges against New Orleans police in Katrina shootings

The district attorney's office in New Orleans is considering whether to appeal a judge's decision to toss out murder and attempted murder charges against seven police officers for a shooting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In quashing the indictments Wednesday, District Judge Raymond Bigelow agreed with defence arguments that prosecutors violated state law by divulging secret grand jury testimony to a police officer who was a witness in the case.
Survivors of the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings have said the officers fired at unarmed people crossing the Danziger Bridge to get food at a grocery store.
Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, and James Brissette, 19, were killed and four other people were wounded.
The officers admitted to shooting at people on the bridge, but said they were fired upon first.

Clinton to get Roll Call at Democratic Convention

WASHINGTON — Turns out Democratic primary loser Hillary Rodham Clinton will get time to shine at the party's national convention after all _ and quite a bit of it. Democrats officially will choose Barack Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall.
But in an emblematic move meant to heal divisive primary wounds, the vanquished Clinton name also will be placed in nomination alongside his during the traditional state-by-state delegation roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Historically, the roll call has occurred on the convention's third night. That's still likely, although Democrats say the mechanics of how the vote will play out still are being determined. When it occurs, Clinton _ herself a superdelegate who gets a vote _ is expected to release her delegates to Obama, announce her support for him and ask her backers to do the same.
See Also:

U.S. court rules Saudi Arabia immune in 9/11 case



NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, four princes and other Saudi entities are immune from a lawsuit filed by victims of the September 11 attacks and their families alleging they gave material support to al Qaeda, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

The ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a 2006 ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Casey dismissing a claim against Saudi Arabia, a Saudi charity, four princes and a Saudi banker of providing material support to al Qaeda before the September 11 attacks.



DOHERTY: NEW SCIENTIFIC DATA JUSTIFIES REPEALING GLOBAL WARMING RESPONSE ACT

Urges State To Hold Off On Damaging New Regulations As Climate Change Theories Clash
Responding to various new scientific reports questioning the concept of global warming, Assemblyman Michael Doherty today called on Governor Corzine to hold off on proposing any new regulations associated with the state’s Global Warming Response Act and urged the Legislature to repeal that act when it returns to legislative business after Labor Day.
“There are many credible members of the scientific community who have questioned the theory of global warming, and now we have some scientists actually suggesting the earth’s temperatures may be entering a period of dramatic cooling,” said Doherty, R-Warren and Hunterdon. “With this growing level of scientific uncertainty, it makes no sense to enact a new set of economically damaging regulations prompted by the global warming hysteria of recent years.”
According to recent news reports, a top observatory that has been measuring sun spot activity predicts that global temperatures will drop by two degrees over the next 20 years as solar activity slows and the planet drastically cools down. They suggest this could potentially herald the onset of a new ice age. Following the end of the sun’s most active period in over 11,000 years, the last 10 years have displayed a clear cooling trend as temperatures post-1998 leveled out and are now decreasing.

EXCLUSIVE: FAA Tapes Reveal Drama of Obama Jet Incident

The incident involving Sen. Barack Obama's campaign plane last month was much more serious than the airline or the Federal Aviation Administration said, according to FAA control tower tapes obtained by ABC News.
Just 41 seconds after discovering he no longer had full control of the plane's up and down movements, the pilot told an FAA air traffic controller "at this time we would like to declare an emergency and also have CFR [crash equipment] standing by in St. Louis."

Operation Sentinel: The High-Tech Police State Takes Shape

Operation Sentinel, a new program unveiled by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would encircle Manhattan with thousands of surveillance cameras that photograph every car or truck entering and exiting the city across its network of bridges and tunnels.
Information captured by this intrusive project would be stored in a huge database for an undisclosed period of time. Additionally, a network of sensors installed at toll plazas would allegedly be able to capable detect radiological materials that could be used in potential terror plots, the New York Times reports.
However, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has denounced the proposal as "an attack on New Yorkers' right to privacy." NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman lambasted this outrageous proposal saying,
"The NYPD's latest plan to track and monitor the movements of millions of law-abiding people is an assault on this country's historical respect for the right to privacy and the freedom to be left alone. That this is happening without public debate, and that elected officials have had no opportunity to study this program is even more alarming." ("NYCLU: NYPD Plan to Track Millions of Law-Abiding People is an Assault on Privacy Rights," New York Civil Liberties Union, August 12, 2008)

Monday, August 11, 2008

Prince George's Raid prompts call for probe

When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead. A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back. His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body of one of the family pets that police had killed before her eyes.
After the raid, Prince George's County police officials who burst into the home of Berwyn Heights' mayor last week seized the same unopened package of marijuana that an undercover officer had delivered an hour earlier.
What police left behind was a house stained with blood and a trail of questions about their conduct. No other evidence of illegal activity was found, and no one was arrested at Mayor Cheye Calvo's home in this small bedroom community near College Park.
Yet neither county Police Chief Melvin C. High nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson have apologized to him, his wife or her mother, Georgia Porter, for the raid that traumatized the family and killed their black Labrador retrievers, Payton and Chase.
Thursday, Calvo called on the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate the raid and other similar actions by Prince George's law enforcement. He said officers burst into his house without knocking or announcing themselves, in violation of the warrant they had.
"Trinity was an innocent and random victim of identity theft. Apparently, so were four or five other county residents whose names and addresses were stolen and used as addresses on drug packages," Calvo said at a news conference outside his house, near a garden of tomatoes and strawberries.
"However, Trinity and our family have not been treated as victims of a crime. Instead, our home was invaded. Our two beloved Labrador retrievers are dead. My mother-in-law and I were tied up for nearly two hours," he said. "We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us."

The Jews of Iraq

I write this article
for the same reason I wrote my book:
to tell the American people,
and especially American Jews,
that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate
willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave,
Jews killed Jews; and that,
to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands,
Jews on numerous occasions
rejected genuine peace initiatives
from their Arab neighbors.
I write about what the first prime minister of Israel
called "cruel Zionism."
I write about it because I was part of it.

Sander Hicks: The “Mad Scientist” Ivins, and Other 9/11 Legends


The note sent to Tom Daschle and the late Dr. Bruce Ivins




By Sander Hicks
9/11 Blogger - 8.8.08

As the sun begins to set on the tyrannical Bush/Cheney Administration, a “culprit” for the anthrax attacks has been dropped on us. The government has produced the dead body of “mad scientist” Bruce Ivins, the way a smiling cat produces a mouse carcass. This new lone assassin story holds together quite well: as long as you look only at it, and not at any of the other grisly details about US government involvement in anthrax.

The biggest hole in the current news story is that we all are expected now to reverse seven years of thinking, and suddenly believe that the anthrax attacks had no connection to 9/11. They were the work of an American insider, a psycho killer inside the US Army’s Fort Detrick, the Maryland headquarters of tax-payer funded chemical warfare.

With all the blame on Ivins, the official story has contradicted itself.

Above is the letter that was sent to Senator Tom Daschle. Would a crazy mad scientist NOT tied to the 9/11 attacks send his anthrax letters out right after 9/11, with “09-11-01” on top, and end the cover note with “Allah is Great”? Would he be willing to contribute to the public terror and build up the effect of 9/11, resulting in the advancement of the neo-con agenda? And here’s the stickler: Would he drive seven hours to Princeton, NJ to mail the letters, because he’s obsessed with a Catholic sorority there, but at the SAME time he’s sane enough to use the 9/11 attacks as a cover story? One that keeps him safe for seven years?

Something doesn’t add up.

Remember Jerome Hauer? We New Yorkers remember him well as the guy whose idea it was to spray carcinogenic insecticides, at eye level, from small pick up trucks, in residential city neighborhoods, to combat the almost nonexistent threat of “West Nile Virus” back in the Giuliani days. He was a NYC Government bio-terrorism expert who happened to be doing a bio-terrorism drill called “Tripod II” inside the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. It turns out Hauer is old friends with Steven Hatfill, the other anthrax suspect. It turns out, they both lectured at the Council on Foreign Relations together not too many years ago on the topic of “Building a ‘BioBomb’: Terrorist Challenge.” Yep, Hatfill, who commissioned a report from the CIA on how to attack people using anthrax in the mail, back when he worked at Ft. Detrick.

According to a San Jose newspaper, Jerome Hauer told the White House to go on Cipro on the evening of 9/11/01. They did. (On the phone with me, he denied telling the White House that, for what it’s worth.)

Shortly thereafter, Hauer’s next job was at the National Institute of Health, where he was tasked with, guess what? Investigating the anthrax attacks. And who did he point the finger to? Not Ivins, not Hatfill, not any of the gang at Ft. Detrick, or S.A.I.C., Hatfill and Hauer’s old employer, the military contractor. No, Hauer blamed Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. Another Democrat reading from the neo-con hymnal.

(In the same way, when Dan Rather looked at the collapse of the towers on 9/11 and on live TV said it looked just like one of those controlled demolitions, Hauer happened to be right there alongside Rather, saying, nope, it’s clear to me right now that it was jet fuel that dropped those structures. He knew more than one page of the hymnal.)

When you hear the media go on and on about Bruce Ivins’ obsession with sorority girls, or his insanity, take it with a grain of salt. A man’s reputation is fragile and it’s the first thing attacked in a situation like this.

For example, take Dr. Graham. He was a 9/11 truth researcher who died two years ago in Louisiana. Dr. Graham was a Louisiana community activist, a Vietnam veteran, an evangelical, an inventor, and a dentist who met two of the 9/11 hijackers in his hometown of Shreveport ten months before 9/11. He warned the FBI that he found the two young Saudis suspicious. But he was verbally abused and threatened by FBI. When 9/11 happened, these same two young Saudis were called Bin Laden’s right hand men. That’s interesting because the same two were protected by various agencies of the Federal government in multiple instances, in various cities across the USA.
In 2004, on the verge of publishing a book about his experiences with the FBI and the 9/11 terrorists, Dr. Graham was poisoned.
Here’s where the Graham story becomes a lot like the Ivins story. Graham was taken to the hospital and the FBI showed up in the ER at the same time. The FBI intimidated doctors, told them he was crazy. The cardiac surgeon abandoned Graham after that. The FBI implied Graham was suicidal to the Shreveport media. Graham died a slow death a year and a half later from the poisoning. The local media there have been reticent to cover this story, and effectively consented to let the FBI write it for them. But it’s the FBI who should be indicted for murder.
Recently, anthrax suspect Steven Hatfill was paid $6 million of your taxpayer dollars. He didn’t like being called a “person of interest” in the anthrax investigation and he sued the Department of Justice. Wow, $6 million. I guess it pays to be friends with people like Jerome Hauer and the Council on Foreign Relations. And yet I’m still waiting for answers regarding so much about Hatfill. I wish I had all the time in the world to fully research his alleged ties to far-right fascist groups in South Africa (who used anthrax). And why did the Washington Post Magazine report that a glove box for handling toxic chemicals was found concealed at the bottom of a pond on Hatfill’s property? The $6 million doesn’t exonerate him in my eyes. It sounds like someone pulling favors.
The same Department of Justice that paid him hasn’t responded to my formal request that the Inspector General at Justice look into FBI involvement in the death of Dr. Graham. This might seem unreasonable but they themselves promised a response. They are now five months late. I had called them from Shreveport after I had confronted the local FBI. I felt the walls closing in. The FBI didn’t deny that they had told the local media the Graham was crazy. They stuck to their story and tried to get me to believe it. But they couldn’t provide evidence. There is none. Graham was a good man and his suspicions were right on. The FBI agent I talked to had murder and cover-up just pouring out of his body-language, his nervous twitches, and the way he expelled me and another reporter from their offices.
In the same way, we are being handed an official story about Bruce Ivins. But details are left out. Like why did the FBI have to offer Ivin’s son $2.5 million and the “sportscar of your choice” to say certain things about his dad? If Ivins was guilty, then why the need to fabricate evidence? An offer of $2.5 million sounds heavy handed, like you’re desperate to find a fall guy, dead or alive. Preferably dead, patsies are so much more agreeable that way.
Let’s go back to Jerry Hauer. This was a guy who came up a lot at the Citizens Grand Jury convened by citizen activists in the well-organized 9/11 truth community. When I was researching my story on the Spitzer-Silverstein connection for New York Megaphone, I tracked down Hauer’s home phone number and called him on Labor Day, last fall. My timing was good, because I think he was a little drunk. He said things slightly slurred, and was at times a bit too honest. It was all a joke to him. On the audio file you can hear people laughing in the background.
We discussed the San Diego Citizens Grand Jury Indictment, which he dismissed with insults, but couldn’t say why.
He confirmed that he worked with Hatfill at SAIC. Then, I asked if Hatfill was innocent of involvement in the anthrax attacks. He was less than direct:

HICKS: A lot of people are wondering you know, where these anthrax attacks came from.
HAUER: I have uh…NO idea.
HICKS: Do you think that Hatfill is innocent?
HAUER: I…I…think that the FBI…should not have s…said anything about Hatfield until they knew more. I do not think Steve Hatfield is a murderer. I think Steve Hatfield is very passionate but I don’t think he’s a murderer. I don’t believe he did it.
HICKS: Uhhhh. That seems to be not the most clear, specific response in the world. I’m wondering if you’re saying that Hatfill…Can you say conclusively that Hatfill was not involved in the anthrax attacks? Is that what you’re saying?
HAUER: I’m not going to get into those details.
HICKS: So you’re leaving some room for ambiguity?
HAUER: No, I’m not. I’m not going to get into those details.
HICKS: Why not?
HAUER: I just don’t want to comment on it.
I just listened to the whole mp3 again for the first time in a while. I remember the night I made the interview. And then, using 1/8 inch audio cables, I turned my phone recording tape player into something that could talk to a Mac. Using some mp3-studio shareware I downloaded, I made this mp3. I was excited because I sort of knew that someday, the US Government and the FBI would throw up a sloppy non-answer for the anthrax attacks. And on that day, I knew that this interview would be especially relevant. I felt at the time I had contributed something to advancing the real story on anthrax.
In this audio file, notice how Jerry Hauer sort of acknowledges that the FBI is mishandling the case, and yet he still refers he to them as the place to go for answers. That’s called misprision of a felony, when you know that someone is committing a crime, like covering up the five anthrax murders. But you don’t do anything about it.
Maybe because you were involved.
Audio - Hicks and Hauer:

Civilian Genocide, Dead Americans Cost Of U.S.-Russia Proxy War


The truth behind who is primarily responsible for the bloodshed unfolding in South Ossetia and surrounding areas has been buried by the western corporate media. Georgian forces, with a green light from NATO and the support of American and Ukrainian mercenaries, launched a brutal attack targeting civilians and Russian peacekeepers timed to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Olympics so as to temporarily deflect attention before the inevitable Russian response, by which time the global media machine kicked into high gear to smear Russia as the villains of the entire piece.
To accept such a characterization is not parroting Russian military propaganda, it is a reflection of the stone cold fact that Georgia was responsible for the first provocation - which itself amounted to a war crime - that launched the conflict.
The initial Georgian bombardment of the provincial capital Tskhinvali was primarily directed to achieve maximum civilian casualties, with residential areas, hospitals and the university being targeted, leading to at least 1500 civilian deaths according to both western and Russian sources.
“The air and artillery bombardment left the provincial capital without water, food, electricity and gas. Horrified civilians crawled out of the basements into the streets as fighting eased, looking for supplies,” reported the Associated Press.
American citizen and resident of South Ossetia Joe Mestas described the war crimes he witnessed being carried out by Georgian forces, back by U.S. support, against innocent civilians.



“I thought that since U.S. is supporting Georgia there would be some control over the situation in South Ossetia and that there would be a peaceful solution to the conflict. But what is happening there now it’s not just war, but war crimes. George Bush and [Georgian president] Mikhail Saakashvili should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing grenades into cellars where people are hiding,” Mestas said.

“The war is when military fight against military. But the Georgian army is killing innocent civilians. This is genocide,” he added.

A prime example of media bias in shielding Georgia from responsibility for the carnage is the fact that news outlets like the BBC continue to report that 1500 civilians have been killed in Georgia, with the obvious inference being that these are victims of the Russian onslaught. But these victims were not killed in Georgia, they were killed in Ossetia - by Georgian forces.

As the Chimes of Freedom Blog elaborates, “While the Ossetians claimed over 1000 dead the BBC neither reported this or any newsreel coming out of Ossetia showing the destruction caused by the Georgian shelling of the breakaway republic. All we are getting is one-sided reports of the destruction being caused by the Russians.”

“The BBC is giving carte blanche to the Georgian point-of-view to be aired on its services while nothing whatsoever is being heard from the Ossetian side. The BBC’s repetitive playing of a statement by George Bush, given several days ago, without balancing these against statements from the Russian side indicates where the BBC is coming from.”

Tasers a form of torture, says UN

TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.
"The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN's Committee against Torture said.
"In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,'' the committee of 10 experts said.

Martial Law Declared in Arkansas Town



Areas of a town in Arkansas have been placed under a 24-hour, non-stop curfew described by the mayor as "almost akin to martial law". The lockdown, issued after a spate of robberies, home invasions and shootings, applies to everyone in Helena-West Helena, no matter what age or what time of day it is.

Mayor James Valley has indicated that the curfew could be extended indefinitely.
Residents have described the lockdown as "like being in jail" and critics have slammed it as unconstitutional given that it effectively suspends the fourth amendment.

The ACLU of Arkansas has sent Mayor Valley a letter outlining these concerns:

"Imposing house arrest and suspending the Fourth Amendment for law-abiding people is only going to cause more problems for this city," said ACLU of Arkansas staff attorney Holly Dickson.

"They need to work with the community to get this resolved instead of treating all of their citizens like criminals."

Watch a report from CNN:



Only two months ago Trinidad, a "troubled" community in northeast D.C., was subject to police checkpoints after a series of shootings.

Earlier this year curfews for minors were introduced in Chicago.

Back in April we reported on the fact that federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs offices as well state and local police forces in three states for a vast round up operation that one sheriff's deputy described as "martial law training".

Earlier this month presumptive Republican nominee John McCain told the National Urban League that military-style invasions modeled on the surge in Iraq should be adopted to control inner city crime in the U.S.:
McCain: And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

FBI Concedes Aafia Siddiqui in US Custody: lawyer



WASHINGTON, Aug 3: Five years after her mysterious disappearance in Karachi, the FBI has finally conceded that an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist is alive and is in US custody in Afghanistan.

Aafia Siddiqui, 36, disappeared with her three children while visiting her parents’ home in Karachi in March 2003, around the same time the FBI announced that it wanted to question her over her alleged links to Al Qaeda.

In a 2006 report, Amnesty International listed Mrs Siddiqui as among a number of “disappeared” suspects in the war on terrorism. On July 6, 2007, AI listed Mrs Siddiqui as a possible CIA “secret detainee”, although she was still on the FBI’s Seeking Information - Terrorism list. Late last week, Mrs Siddiqui’s photo still appeared on the FBI’s list of people wanted for questioning.Since no charges were ever filed against her, human rights groups treated her case as that of “extrajudicial detention”, although no government ever claimed detaining her.

‘Suicide’ of Anthrax Scientist–Another Mossad Frame Up?

But more importantly, as any good cop will testify, a case not closed means a case still open, which means going back to square one and reviewing the evidence all over again in the hopes of finding something possibly missed. Obviously this means looking at information certain entities (and particularly those interested in dragging the US into Israel’s dirty wars) can’t afford to have exposed to public scrutiny, and in particular the evidence revolving around a certain Lt. Col. Phillip Zack.
For those who bought into the made-in-Israel storyline following the 2001 anthrax attacks that ‘the Ay-rabs did it,’ Zack was a researcher at the same Ft. Dietrich bio-weapons lab where the now ‘suicided’ Bruce Ivins worked. Along with Zack and Ivins was also one Ayyaad Assaad, an Egyptian-born scientist who became the butt of a concerted anti-Arab, anti-Islamic campaign organized and executed by Zack and some of his cohorts at the lab who collectively called themselves ‘the Camel Club’. A few days after 9/11 an anonymous letter turned up at a Marine base in Quantico Virginia accusing Assaad of being a terrorist planning biological attacks against America. According to Assaad’s testimony to the FBI agents who interviewed him, the personal information contained in the letter could only have been written by a co-worker at the lab, and surprise, surprise, a few days later, anthrax turns up in the mail. Furthermore, a security film caught Zack entering the Ft. Dietrich facility after hours at a time he no longer worked there, and more importantly, caught him on tape entering a secure section of the facility where the very same strain of anthrax used in the attacks later turned up missing. Given that the anthrax attacks amounted to the use of a weapon of mass destruction against the United States, naturally investigative eyes were on all persons considered relevant to the case, and–almost as if on cue–just about the time Zack and his anti-Arab bigotry started to circulate as clues in the case, the previously-mentioned Barbara Hatch Rosenberg floated the idea that Steven Hatfill should be put under the microscope, which he was, while all investigation of Zack slipped out the proverbial back door, never to be mentioned again.

Anthrax victim doesn't believe Gov't Story


Winchester Star

Since inhaling anthrax at a Sterling postal facility in 2001 and filing a lawsuit against the federal government, he says he’s been wiretapped, followed, and threatened by government officials.

That’s why Hose, 66, has sympathy instead of anger for Bruce Ivins, the scientist who worked at the Army’s biological warfare defense labs. Ivins committed suicide last week as prosecutors prepared to charge him with carrying out the anthrax attacks seven years ago.

“I don’t care for anybody that does the kind of work he did, but they’re using him as a scapegoat,” Hose said. “They’ve harassed that man for 41/2 years and he finally broke.”

Ivins had 'no access' to powder Anthrax at Ft. Detrick

A BRAD BLOG reader points us to this curious note, near the end of a late-afternoon story from today's Washington Post coverage, noting that Ivins had "no access to dry, powdered anthrax" at the Fort Detrick lab where he worked [emphasis ours]:
Several scientists who worked with Ivins also question whether he would have had the technical skills to create the sophisticated powder used in the anthrax attack. Creating the kind of highly lethal, easily dispersible powder used in the 2001 attacks requires unique skills not normally associated with vaccine specialists.
"He had no access to dry, powdered anthrax, according to Fort Detrick spokespersons, who said that only liquid anthrax was used at the Fort Detrick facility in animal aerosolization experiments," said Meryl Nass, a physician and bioterrorism expert. "If he had been making dry anthrax, it would have been detectable."

Bruce Ivins: Patsy?

However, as we sift through the reams of media coverage occasioned by this startling development in a 7-year-old case, we get quite a different story from the alleged objects of his rage: his colleagues on the job at Ft. Detrick. As the Washington Post reported:
"Colleagues and friends of the vaccine specialist remained convinced that Ivins was innocent: They contended that he had neither the motive nor the means to create the fine, lethal powder that was sent by mail to news outlets and congressional offices in the late summer and fall of 2001. Mindful of previous FBI mistakes in fingering others in the case, many are deeply skeptical that the bureau has gotten it right this time.
"'I really don't think he's the guy. I say to the FBI, "Show me your evidence,"' said Jeffrey J. Adamovicz, former director of the bacteriology division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, on the grounds of the sprawling Army fort in Frederick. 'A lot of the tactics they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons.'"

Jury Dismissed in 7/7 Plot Trial



The jury in the trial of three men accused of helping the 7 July London bombers has failed to reach a verdict.
The Kingston Crown Court jury had spent three weeks considering a charge of conspiracy to cause an explosion.
Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all from Leeds, admit having known the 7/7 bombers but denied having helped them find targets.

Was Madeleine Snatched to Order?



Private detectives are investigating claims that Madeleine McCann may have been snatched to order for a Belgian paedophile ring.

Scotland Yard passed on a report from an informant who said a photograph of the child on holiday in Portugal was taken and passed to a "purchaser" in Belgium days before she vanished.

The Metropolitan Police email read: "Intelligence suggests that a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken.

Anthrax did NOT originate at Ft. Detrick

The argument boils down to the anthrax being specifically traced to a spore-containing flask of which Ivins was the master. Called RMR-1029, it was also referred to by Ivins as "Dugway Ames spores - 1997," apparently from its original point of manufacture, at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, an Army biodefense center administered by a company called Battelle.

Colonel Anderson Refutes False Allegations Against Dr. Ivins



Colonel Arthur Anderson is the chief of human use and ethics at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the bioweapons facility where Dr. Ivins worked and where the anthrax strains were apparently obtained by the anthrax killer.

In that position, Colonel Anderson's responsibilities include the following jobs:
*** "Conduct inquiries and investigations upon receipt of allegations of scientific misconduct or improper researcher behavior.

*** Prepare timely and intensive fact-finding reviews of minimal risk protocols that qualify for expedited review; ... Advise senior officials in writing of the approvability of protocols, and addenda; ... Conduct substantive continuing review of active protocols; ... Investigate issues arising during conduct of studies"



First, he disputes the allegation that Ivins told no one that he had found anthrax in his lab for many months. Specifically, as reported in today's Wall Street Journal:

"Col. Anderson says Dr. Ivins told him about the lapse in safety shortly after it occurred, contradicting Army findings in 2002 that Dr. Ivins had told no one."

Anderson's role as the person in charge of "conduct[ing] inquiries and investigations upon receipt of allegations of scientific misconduct or improper researcher behavior" and of "investigat[ing] issues arising during conduct of studies" is therefore important. He was an appropriate person for Ivins to speak to about his anthrax tests (admittedly, protocol required Ivins to tell others as well; but the fact that Ivins told Anderson shows good faith and a lack of guilty conscience on Ivins' part).


Second, Anderson says that social worker Jean Duley's conduct was wholly inappropriate and lacked credibility. Anderson, as an ethics expert and someone who knew Ivins well, simply doesn't buy Duley's allegations.