Judge rules schools’ purpose is to train loyalty to the state

IDAHO OBSERVER

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children’s schooling under the provisions of these laws."

It has been understood since Ancient Greece that the purpose of public instruction is to mold children into the type of adults most likely to serve the interests of the state. The policymakers in the U.S. who are molding our children understand the value of state education, which is why more than half of budgets from the several states are thrown into "education"—and why the more money states throw at education, the less educated children become. It does, however, illustrate the height of arrogance when the state comes right out and admits that the function of schools is to entrain loyalty to the state among its children and parents do not have a right to homeschool their own sons and daughters.

Peru Court Convicts 4 for '92 Massacre

AP

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Peruvian court on Tuesday convicted a former general and three members of a military death squad of kidnapping and murder in a ruling that prosecutors say could set a precedent in the trial of former President Alberto Fujimori.

The four were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 35 years in connection with a 1992 massacre, but the three-judge panel absolved another member of the squad and three officers accused of providing support for it. The verdict made no reference to a ninth man charged.

Military Mom Says She Was Brutally Raped In Iraq

ABC

Dawn Leamon, who has two sons on active duty, says she was raped earlier this year by a U.S. soldier and a KBR colleague. She will tell her horrific story to members of Congress today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Leamon says that following her rape, she spoke with a woman at the KBR Employee Assistance Program. "She discouraged me from reporting, saying, 'You know what will happen if you do,'" Leamon said.

Leamon says KBR then assigned full-time security guards to her which gave her no privacy to talk about the incident, and her movements around camp were restricted, yet her attackers' movements were unrestricted.

Hillary Exposed!

True story of how the Clintons committed election fraud on tape,

crashed Stan Lee Media and ruined Peter Paul, a former donor.

Sonny Bono "Assassinated" By Hitmen?

The Australian

SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.

Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.
"It's nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There's zero evidence in this autopsy report... to show such an accident happened. Instead, there's powerful proof he was assassinated.
"This was an evil plot that was carried out to almost perfection by ruthless assassins," Mr Gunderson told the paper.

His claims have reportedly been backed by top forensics experts who fear Nevada authorities were too quick to call the death a skiing accident.
Investigator Bob Fletcher had also confessed he sent evidence of a 10-year study that linked top US government officials to arms and weapons dealers to Bono less than a month before his death, the Globe reported.
"(Bono) was going to make it his No.1 priority... There's no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed him silenced," Mr Fletcher told the paper.

The Age of Autism: 'A Pretty Big Secret'

UPI.com

CHICAGO, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- It's a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill.

But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don't have autism.

"We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated.

40 NASA Workers On Same Floor Diagnosed with Cancer

WEWS Cleveland

Dozens of the employees fear that their cancer was triggered by years of working in the developmental engineering building, NewsChannel5 reported.
The union that represents hundreds of scientists and other workers said nearly half of the 100 employees on the third floor of the building have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer in the past three to four years.

"What we've seen in the way of cancer here has just been astronomical on this third floor alone and we're just a little scared," said Dennis Pehotsky, of the Lewis Engineers and Scientists Association.

In a written statement, the head of safety at NASA Glenn said an employee survey shows cancer rates among workers are within the normal range, saying "Glenn management has no evidence of the number of cases that the union is reporting."

Kissinger’s 1974 plan for food control genocide

Tehran Times

On Dec. 10, 1974, the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth control, and also, implicitly, war and famine. Brent Scowcroft, who had by then replaced Kissinger as national security adviser (the same post Scowcroft was to hold in the Bush administration), was put in charge of implementing the plan. CIA Director George Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture.

Seymour Hersh: Children raped at Abu Ghraib; Pentagon has videos

Boing Boing

" Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

Rapists in the Ranks

LA Times

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

Weather Channel Founder Wants To Sue Al Gore For Global Warming Fraud

Prison Planet

A landmark court case that would destroy the so-called "consensus" behind man-made global warming could be in the works after Weather Channel founder John Coleman expressed his intention to sue Al Gore for fraud.

"Since we can't get a debate, I thought perhaps if we had a legal challenge and went into a court of law, where it was our scientists and their scientists, and all the legal proceedings with the discovery and all their documents from both sides and scientific testimony from both sides, we could finally get a good solid debate on the issue," Coleman said. "I'm confident that the advocates of 'no significant effect from carbon dioxide' would win the case."

11 Hawaii Senate Chairs and Vice Chairs Cosponsor Resolution Asking FDA Commissioner to Rescind Approval for Aspartame

Hawaii Reporter

There is now a Hawaii Senate Resolution authored by Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, which requests the Department of Health and National Academy of Sciences to review existing reports and studies related to aspartame, by funding source.

It resolves that given the enormous amount of evidence that has been compiled concerning the neurodegenerative harm it can cause, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requested to rescind approval of aspartame immediately on a phase-out basis over six months to one year.

We are very pleased to note that this is the strongest legislative document concerning aspartame ever presented anywhere in the world.

Pa. trooper protected child prostitution ring, feds say

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG -- A former Pennsylvania state trooper tipped off pimps who ran a child prostitution ring in exchange for money and sex, federal prosecutors said today in announcing charges against him.

Kevin J. Coleman, 42, of Harrisburg, was accused of interfering with a nationwide investigation into a ring that used women and teenagers as prostitutes. He was accused of disclosing investigative details, wiretaps and police sweeps.

UK Top Cop Who Led CIA Probe Found Dead

Associated Press

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said Tuesday.
Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, about 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. He had been missing since going out for a walk Monday during his day off.


The association gave him the task of looking into accusations that Britain allowed the CIA to use the country's airports to fly terrorism suspects to other countries without any extradition hearings, a clandestine procedure known as "extraordinary rendition."
Todd's investigation concluded last June that there was no evidence to back the claim. Last month, however, Britain admitted one of its remote outposts in the Indian Ocean had twice been used by the United States as a refueling stop for the secret transfer of two terrorism suspects.

Top Ranking CIA Operatives Admit Al-qaeda Is a Complete Fabrication

Polidics.com

BBC’s killer documentary called “The Power of Nightmares“. Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time. The Bush administration needed a reason that complied with the Laws so they could go after “the bad guy of their choice” namely laws that had been set in place to protect us from mobs and “criminal organizations” such as the Mafia. They paid Jamal al Fadl, hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the U.S. Government’s story of Al-qaeda, a “group” or criminal organization they could “legally” go after. This video documentary is off the hook…

See Parts I and II here

Wyoming Sheriff puts Feds in their place

Disinter

Here’s one the mainstream media isn’t going to tell you: County sheriffs in Wyoming are demanding that federal agents actually abide by the Constitution, or face arrest. Even better, a U.S. District Court agreed according to the Keene Free Press:

The court decision was the result of a suit against both the BATF and the IRS by Mattis and other members of the Wyoming Sheriff’s Association. The suit in the Wyoming federal court district sought restoration of the protections enshrined in the United States Constitution and the Wyoming Constitution.

Guess what? The District Court ruled in favor of the sheriffs. In fact, they stated, Wyoming is a sovereign state and the duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official within a county and has law enforcement powers exceeding that of any other state or federal official.” Go back and re-read this quote.

The court confirms and asserts that “the duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official within a county and has law enforcement powers EXCEEDING that of any other state OR federal official.” And you thought the 10th Amendment was dead and buried — not in Wyoming, not yet.

Wal-Mart Milk will no longer come from Hormone-injected Cows

Organic Consumers

"It's reached the tipping point," said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association in the U.S., who has spent years campaigning against the use of hormones designed to boost milk production by up to 15 per cent in dairy cows.


Grocery chain Kroger Co., with 2,500 stores in the U.S., began last month selling only milk produced without the use of hormones like recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST). Safeway Inc., with more than 1,700 stores, has switched its in-store brands to non-rBST milk, though it also sells other brands produced from cows given the hormone. And starting in January, Starbucks Corp. has only used non-rBST milk in its stores.

U.S. scientists discover genetic switch to "turn off" HIV

ChinaView.cn

LOS ANGELES, March 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers have discovered the genetic circuit in HIV that controls whether the virus turns active or stays dormant, and have succeeded in forcing the virus toward dormancy.

The study shows how a developmental decision between HIV's two "replication fates" is made. The authors were able to measure the level of "noise" or randomness in HIV gene expression and use this noise to probe how HIV decides to replicate or remain dormant.

This method is somewhat like finding a radio station by homing in on regions with the most static. It provides a new tool for probing cellular and viral regulation, and for understanding how other biological decisions are made, notably how stem cells choose between different developmental fates.

The DC Gun Ban Doesn't Work

Jacob Hornberger

It is not a coincidence that a black market in D.C. handguns has been going on for decades and that the handgun ban in D.C. has been in effect for 32 years. The handgun ban itself gives rise to a black market in handguns, just as making drugs illegal has given rise to a black market in drugs.

There are two lessons to be learned from this.

First, making guns illegal gives rise to collateral crime — theft of guns. Why is this? Because the illegality makes the price of guns in D.C. artificially high, making it extremely profitable to steal them in Virginia and sell them in D.C. (The drug war has produced a similar cascade of collateral crime, such as muggings, thefts, and robberies in order to get the money to pay the exorbitant black-market prices of illegal drugs.)

Second, real criminals don’t give a hoot about gun-control laws. In other words, a robber or a rapist in D.C. isn’t going to say to himself, “I can’t use a gun to commit this crime because that would be illegal.”

Is it any surprise that Washington, D.C., has been called the murder capital of the United States? After enacting their gun ban 32 years ago, D.C. officials should have initiated a nationwide advertising campaign proclaiming: “Attention robbers, murderers, muggers, burglars, rapists, and thieves! Come to the most glorious model city in the country — Washington, D.C. — a gun-free zone, one where people are prevented from defending himself from you.”

Eliot's Mess - The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked

GregPalast.com

This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

Who are they kidding? Spitzer’s lynching and the bankers’ enriching are intimately tied.

How? Follow the money.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Climate Change Optimist

In 2000, when we did the artwork for our album Kid A, our designer Stanley Donwood and I spent a disproportionate amount of time on the net. We came across the Worldwatch Institute's website, which was full of scary statistics about icecaps melting, and weather patterns changing. At the time these things were being talked about a little, but they weren't the obsession they are now. We became obsessed with it, and it ended up inspiring us to use an image of a mountain range on the cover of the record.

I got involved with Friends of the Earth after the UN report on climate change was published in 2003 and decided to support their Big Ask campaign for a strong climate change law.

At first I told Friends of the Earth that I was absolutely the wrong person to be associated with their campaign. I've based my life on touring, and the rock industry is a high energy-consuming industry. But they persuaded me that that was exactly why it was a good idea for me to be involved; that they didn't want to present a holier-than-thou message.

I've not made a habit of meeting many politicians. That said, I was impressed with Ken Livingstone - he was very clued-up on the technical side of things, almost to the point of geekdom. One of the interesting things Ken said to me is that lots of business people really want some laws laid out so they can plan long-term. They think further ahead than the next opinion poll.

Ken is best known for the congestion charge, and he's just introduced incentives for Londoners to own low-emission cars. But my difficulty with the car issue is the motor industry's attitude to the whole problem. I went to Brussels last week and learnt how car companies are lobbying frantically against emission-reduction targets. My generation was brought up with the idea that speed, horse power and cylinders were king, but owning a fast car will soon become naff.

In Freiburg, an amazing green city in Germany, they have done a huge amount to make it easier for people to get around without the car, and generally live low-carbon lifestyles. It's not without its problems, but it shows that a bit of political leadership can get you a long way, and that green living can be good living, too.

With the Big Ask, we started campaigning from the grass roots, asking people to persuade their own MPs that we needed a law to limit carbon emissions, and then asking them to put pressure on the prime minister. The government has said it will introduce a law, which is fantastic news.

Now we just need to make sure it is strong enough. One big problem is that the UK's share of international aviation emissions isn't covered at the moment. The government is also hiding behind old science figures that a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 will be enough, even though the science community is saying at least 80% cuts will be needed. I'm disappointed with Gordon Brown. It's a good thing the climate change bill is still going through, but other than that they seem to be going in the opposite direction - nuclear power, new coal-fired power stations, new airports, chucking out road pricing.

With Radiohead, the most shocking yet obvious thing we discovered was that the way people travel to our shows has the biggest impact. So we now play in venues that are supported by public transport. We have a new lighting rig that is, hopefully, powered by super-efficient generators, and we've made deals with trucking companies to cut their emissions.

These changes might be small, but they are in the right direction. Unlike pessimists such as James Lovelock, I don't believe we are all doomed. It was good to hear Sir David King recently saying he was an optimist and human behaviour is changing.

As I heard George Monbiot saying not long ago, isn't it funny how in the space of a year we went from listening to sceptics who denied this was happening to suddenly saying we're all doomed - how interesting that both scenarios demand that we do nothing. That can't be right.

You should never give up hope.

· To see Thom talking more about the campaign click here or here, or watch our video of his CO2 campaign here

Source

Judicial Watch Uncovers 3 Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine

Judicial Watch

(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician’s assistant reported that a female patient “died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine.” Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.

Click here to view the Garadsil Related Deaths Reported to VAERS as of May 11, 2007
Click here to view the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) Reports as of May 11, 2007

The Age of Criminalizing Children

American Chronicle

I remember when I was in school, misbehaving children received a visit to the principal´s office, detention, in-house or off grounds suspension, but now schools have police or "safety" officers on the grounds, quick to view our kids as hardened criminals. I´ve seen a few headlines of late about children being handcuffed in school and I wondered how often these "isolated" events happen and shockingly, with very little effort, I found case after case. I´m not talking about children who are threatening other students or bringing guns or knives to school, I have been dismayed to learn that simple and typical childhood behaviors are now introducing children to the criminal justice system.

New Orleans Homeless rate swells to 1 in 25

USA Today

An estimated 12,000 homeless accounts for 4% of New Orleans' estimated population of 302,000, according to the homeless advocacy group UNITY of Greater New Orleans. The number is nearly double the pre-Katrina homeless count, the group says.

Many of the homeless are Katrina evacuees who returned to unaffordable rents or who slipped through the cracks of the federal system designed to provide temporary housing after the storm, said Mike Miller, UNITY's director of supportive housing placement. There are also out-of-state workers who came for the post-Katrina rebuilding boom but lost their jobs, and mentally ill residents in need of services and medication, he said. Many of the city's outreach homeless centers and public mental health services have been closed since Katrina.

New Report on Abu Ghraib prisoners

Crimes and Corruption of the New World Order News

Muslim prisoners held in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were submerged in water-filled garbage cans with ice or put naked under cold showers in near-freezing rooms until they went into shock, Sgt. Javal Davis, who served with the 372nd Military Police Company there, has told a national magazine.

Davis, from the Roselle, N.J., area, said while stationed at the prison he also saw an incinerator with “bones in it” that he believed to be a crematorium and said some prisoners were starved prior to their interrogation.

In a letter to a friend Harman described “sleep deprivation” used on the prisoners: “They sleep one hour then we yell and wake them---make them stay up for one hour, then sleep one hour---then up etc. This goes on for 72 hours while we fuck with them. Most have been so scared they piss on themselves. Its sad.” On one occasion, she wrote, sandbags soaked in hot sauce were put over the prisoners’ heads.

Sergeant Javal Davis, describing Abu Ghraib generally, said the prison reminded him of something out of a “Mad Max” movie, explaining, “The encampment they were in when we saw it at first looked like one of those Hitler things, like a concentration camp, almost.” The inside, he said, is “nothing but rubble, blown-up buildings, dogs running all over the place, rabid dogs, burnt remains. The stench was unbearable: urine, feces, body rot. Their (prisoners’) rest rooms was running over. It was just disgusting. You didn’t want to touch anything. Whatever the worst thing that comes to your mind, that was it --- the place you would never ever, ever, ever send your worst enemy.”

Indian DNA links to '6 Founding Mothers'

Yahoo News

NEW YORK - Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.

Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.

This DNA is found in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. Unlike the DNA found in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed along only by the mother. So it follows a lineage that connects a person to his or her mother, then the mother's mother, and so on.

Del tha Funkee Homosapien speaks...

powered by BREAKDOWN FM & ODEO

http://odeo.com/audio/17851413/view

The 11th Hour Striketh-An Interview w/ Del
by Davey D

We sat down and spoke with Oakland legend and Hiero frontman Del tha Funky Homosapien. He just released a new album called ‘The 11th Hour’ as the collective just celebrated its 10 year anniversary.

Del noted that he's ambivalent and that he doesn't really pay too much attention to anniversaries although he does appreciate all the fanfare being made about the group being around for so long.

"Actually we been around longer", Del notes.

He then walks us through his long career which goes back to 1991 when he hooked up with Sir Jinx of Da Lench Mob. He talks about how Jinx was connected to his cousin Ice Cube's original group CIA. He also talked about being a rapper in high school here in 'Tha town'-Oakland.

Del went on to talk about how Hiero eventually formed. He noted that the collective formed with him A Plus and Taje who were in a group called Rhythm and Excellence which later became known as Souls of Mischief. A few years latewr they adapted the name Hieroglyphics.

Del spoke to us about how and why he studied music theory and how it made him a better emcee and and song writer. He talked about his love of funk music as defined by Parliament/ Funkadelic and the long relationship Hip Hop especially out here on the West Coast has had with that genre.

Del also talked to us about his relationship with his cousin Ice Cube and how he was given his first shot by his famous cousin. He later went on to pen some of the lyrics to Cube’s biggest hits including ‘Gangsta Fairytale’ and ‘Who’s The Mack?’. He later wrote songs for Yo Yo.

Del revealed that early on his career there were so called Hip Hop purists who hated on him and claimed that the music he was doing both on his own album ‘I Wish My brother George Were Here’ and with Cube was NOT real Hip Hop. He rebelled and moved in another direction. Its something he regrets because he eventually realized that Hip Hop was not this big fraternity or family the way people made it out to be. He noted that many who talked out and tried to define were full of contradictions and at the end of the day, it was not about trying to appease other 'Hip Hoppers' but to appease his audience and fans. Del concluded that he had focused far too long on being technical i.e. being a dope lyricist and not being a good artist who connects with people.

Del talked about the fervent fan base that he and the mighty Hiero Crew has and got his take as to why they can routinely sell out shows, sell lots of albums, yet not recieve any commercial airplay. This topic was the subject of a recent cover story here in the Bay Area in the SF Weekly. Del drops some serious science onto that phenomenon. He says he wants to change that practice and move things to another level.

Del gave us the real scoop behind the hit song ‘Clint Eastwood’ which he rapped on with the group the Gorillaz. Apparently Del was not supposed to be the original rapper for that project. Producer and long time friend Dan the Automator wasn’t feeling the first rapper and turned to Del who happen to be in the studio that night. Unbekwonst to Dan, Del had recently purchased a book called ‘How to Write a Hit Song’. The purchase was supposed to be a joke but Del soon discovered the book had lots of game that he was able to apply to the Gorillaz track which went on to be nominated for a Grammy.

We concluded our interview by talking about the art of battling and who is the best emcee amongst the Hieros. We also went into great detail about the infamous battle between Hiero and Hobo Junction. del explains why he didn’t show up that night on the Wake Up Show and the conflict he was having in trying to calm things down.

Del ended our interview by talking about how he would love to do a song with hometwon heroes Too Short and E-40.

You can peep the Del Interview on Breakdown FM by clicking here

Ex-DEA Head Admits CIA Imported Cocaine

Heated 'Hobbit' Debate Takes New Turn with Thyroid Theory

Guardian UK

The bitter scientific squabble over the true identity of the fossil hobbit has taken another acrimonious turn. An analysis by Australian researchers suggests the diminutive creatures were not members of a new species at all, but suffered from a congenital thyroid deficiency that stunted their growth.

They are not the first scientists to propose that the so-called hobbit, which was found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, was a sick human. But they are the first to suggest an environmental contribution to the disease. They believe the hobbit's diet was low in iodine and selenium. "Dwarf cretinism is the result of severe iodine deficiency in pregnancy in combination with a number of other environmental factors," said Dr Peter Obendorf of RMIT University in Melbourne. "Our research suggest these fossils are not a new species but rather the remains of human hunter-gatherers that suffered from this condition."

Exhaustive Review Finds No Link Between Saddam, Al Qaeda

Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East , U.S. officials told McClatchy . However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

Gulf War Syndrome Firmly Linked to Chemical Exposure

Raw Story

Nearly two decades after veterans of the 1991 Gulf War came home complaining of odd illnesses, enough evidence has been gathered to determine that many of them were sickened by chemical exposure, a study published Monday concluded.

And some of the damage was likely caused by pills prescribed to protect against the use of nerve gas and pesticides used to control sand flies, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jersey Children's Home Hell: Victims of Haut de la Garenne tell their story

Source-Mirror

I was drugged, beaten and sexually abused ..

what went on there was cruel, sadistic, evil

Pamela blew the whistle in 1974 but no one listened. A year later she was moved to a psychiatric unit and left when she was 16. Yesterday a card left with flowers at the local church read: "We children of Haut de la Garenne have waited a long time. We knew one day someone would listen."

Satanic Child Abuse and The Beast of Jersey

Source-Nona

Edward Paisnel, the Beast of Jersey, was the son of wealthy Jersey landowners.


During the period 1958 - 1971, Paisnel abducted and abused a number of children.


Paisnel was a fan of the 15th-century Breton, Gilles de Rais, who murdered around 200 children.


The authorities discovered that Paisnel had a secret satanic chamber. (Sir Peter Crill obituary - Times Online)


Paisnel claimed he was a member of a satanic group.
File: /files/Religion/Wicca/witchcraftDeviltry.txt


No other members of the 'black magic group' were ever arrested.


In 1971, Paisnel was convicted of thirteen sex offences against young children, ( The Human Beast ) and sent to jail.


Paisnel, the Beast of Jersey, visited Jersey's Haut de la Garenne orphanage dressed as Father Christmas during his reign of terror in the 1960s (Notorious paedophile dubbed the 'Beast of Jersey' linked to ...)

Haut de la Garenne: Why Abuse on this Level could happen again

Haut de la Garenne: Despite numerous cries for help, children continued to be abused in the Jersey home for decades

The truth only emerged thanks to a three-year newspaper campaign which revealed that all of Islington's 12 children's homes were run by, or included, staff who were paedophiles, child pornographers or pimps.

How did this come about? Child care was - and remains - underpaid and undervalued. Sadists easily acquire jobs when no one else wants them.
But there was another insidious factor in Islington - one which I fear leaves other children at equal risk today.

Haut de la Garenne: Why Abuse on this Level could happen again

Author admits making up memoir of surviving Holocaust

Source-Boston Globe

Eleven years after the publication of her best-selling Holocaust memoir - a heartwarming tale of a small Jewish girl trekking across Europe and living with wolves - the Massachusetts author yesterday admitted the whole story was a hoax.

In a statement issued by her Belgian lawyer, Misha Defonseca of Dudley, whose book, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years," has been translated into 18 languages and is the basis for a new French movie, "Survivre avec les Loups" ("Surviving With the Wolves"), confessed that she is not Jewish and that she spent the war safely in Brussels.

Clintons to Face Fraud Trial

Source-World Net Daily

While Hillary Clinton battles Barack Obama on the campaign trail, a judge in Los Angeles is quietly preparing to set a trial date in a $17 million fraud suit that aims to expose an alleged culture of widespread corruption by the Clintons and the Democratic Party.

At the conclusion of a hearing tomorrow morning before California Superior Court Judge Aurelio N. Munoz, lawyers for Hollywood mogul Peter F. Paul will begin seeking sworn testimony from all three Clintons – Bill, Hillary and Chelsea – along with top Democratic Party leaders and A-list celebrities, including Barbra Streisand, John Travolta, Brad Pitt and Cher.

Vaccines, Depression and Neurodegeneration after 50

Source-Mercola

Researchers have also discovered that most people with major depressive disease (MDD) have higher levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate in their spinal fluid (CSF) and blood plasma. This is the same glutamate found as a food additive-for example, MSG (monosodium glutamate), hydrolyzed proteins, calcium or sodium casienate, soy protein isolate, vegetable protein concentrate or isolate, etc.

There are other ways that vaccines can cause havoc in the brain. Most vaccines contain aluminum compounds. A multitude of studies have shown that aluminum, especially if combined with fluoride, is a powerful brain toxin and that it accumulates in the brain. With each vaccine injection, a dose of aluminum is given. These yearly aluminum inoculations accumulate not only at the site of the injection, but travel to the brain, where it enters neurons and glial cells (astrocytes and microglia).

Award-Winning Reporter details Media Blackout on Mexican Military Incursions

Source-InfoWars

Sara A. Carter, National Security and Pentagon reporter for the Washington Times, spoke to the Alex Jones show today regarding consistent incursions into the U.S. by armed Mexican troops aiding illegal smugglers.

"This is a very serious national security issue in many respects and it deals with an array from smuggling humans, to smuggling narcotics, and the whole mix up is that there's many people within the Mexican government and military that have already been bought and sold out to the drug cartels."

Was Moses Hallucinating His Religious Experiences?

Source-Daily Mail

Psychology professor Benny Shanon says it was likely Moses was hallucinating under the influence of a mind-altering drug at the time of his biblical achievements.

To back up his theory, Professor Shanon says the acacia tree, frequently mentioned in the Bible, contains one of the most psychedelic substances known to man.

The professor, who came up with his theory after experiencing firsthand the effects of a hallucinogenic brew used in religious rituals in Brazil, said the story of Moses and the burning bush also had the hallmarks of a psychedelic experience.

Raped and Silenced In the Barracks

Source-AlterNet

When military sexual assault survivors call Susan Avila-Smith, she advises them to keep their mouths shut while she works on getting them home.
“It breaks my heart to do that,” she says, “but I want to get them out alive and that’s my main goal.”

Since she left the Army in 1995, Avila-Smith estimates that she has helped about 1,200 rape survivors separate from the U.S. Armed Forces and claim their Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits. As founder of Women Organizing Women, an online support group for survivors of military sexual trauma (MST), Avila-Smith has heard it all. But lately, she’s been more sensitive than usual.

“Maria” is 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who disappeared from Camp Lejeune, outside of Jacksonville, N.C., on Dec. 14, 2007, one month before she was expected to give birth. As the local police enlisted the press to help reach out to Lauterbach and solicit information from the local community, it was soon reported that she had recently accused a superior at Camp Lejeune of rape.

FLASHBACK: Bin Laden Already Dead -- 2001 Fox News

Source-Fox

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

Kidnapped By The CIA

Source-Mother Jones

For hours, the words come pouring out of Abu Omar as he describes his years of torture at the hands of Egypt's security services. Spreading his arms in a crucifixion position, he demonstrates how he was tied to a metal door as shocks were administered to his nipples and genitals. His legs tremble as he describes how he was twice raped. He mentions, almost casually, the hearing loss in his left ear from the beatings, and how he still wakes up at night screaming, takes tranquilizers, finds it hard to concentrate, and has unspecified "problems with my wife at home." He is, in short, a broken man.

7 Conspiracies That Actually Happened

Source-Cracked

People love a good conspiracy theory. The JFK assassination plot, aliens crash landing at Roswell, the 9/11 truth movement and charges of government surveillance are all an indelible part of our pop culture landscape and are by and large, total bullshit.

So where does your average conspiracy buff go to learn about shadowy plots that aren't pure tinfoil hattery?

Look no further.

Cop Plants Weed on Suspect, Caught on Dashcam

Click Here for Video

Arrested for Videotaping a Police Beating

Source-The Phoenix.com

A do-gooder who recorded abusive Boston police officers was

himself arrested under a controversial ‘wiretapping’ law

This past October, when Simon Glik used his cell phone to record Boston police officers making what he thought was an overly forceful arrest on Tremont Street, he didn’t think he would be the one who ended up in the back of a police cruiser. But cops saw Glik using his cell phone’s camera with its sound-recording feature, so they arrested him for breaking the Massachusetts law that prohibits secret electronic recording, deemed “wiretapping.”

Police Reject Candidate for being too Intelligent

Source-Ananova

Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took an exam to join the New London police, in Connecticut, in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125.

But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.

The FBI allowed the 1993 WTC bombing to happen

Source-What Really Happened

Law-enforcement officials were told that terrorists were buildinga bomb that was eventually used to blow up the World Trade Center,and they planned to thwart the plotters by secretly substitutingharmless powder for the explosives, an informer said afterthe blast.

The informer was to have helped the plotters build the bomband supply the fake powder, but the plan was called off byan F.B.I. supervisor who had other ideas about how the informer,Emad Salem, should be used, the informer said.

Dick Gregory on O.J.

Source

I say that to say this: John Belushi called Mark Lane and said "I have some information to share with you about the Kennedy assassination." So Mark called me. I couldn't rearrange my schedule. They were supposed to meet in Detroit. The night before they were supposed to meet, John Belushi was murdered, with that overshot of drugs, and that woman from Canada.

If you're sitting where I'm sitting, that's a CIA hit.

Who's the Canadian woman's lawyer? Robert Shapiro.

I suspected how in LA county where there's only 4% black folks, how nine got on the jury? That has always bothered me. When there was Rodney King, we couldn't get none. How come we can't get any black folks? Well, they just won't show up. We tried everything: we tried barbecue ribs, watermelon, we even tried naked white women, it just ain't coming. Somewhere when you think about all the odd things that have happened. What we saw when that trial ended. That was act one. Act two will be in a few minute. It's the whole manipulation of how they're doing it, and why they're doing it, I don't know.

Fred Hampton: History Is A Weapon

Source

"You can kill a revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution" is a phrase made famous by Fred Hampton, who was killed at 20 by the FBI's COINTEL-PRO and the Chicago Police Department in 1969. Hampton, who was a high school leader and NAACP activist in suburban Maywood, Ill., quickly assumed the state leadership of the Panthers when he joined in 1968. Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark were murdered in an early-morning raid of Panther headquarters. An FBI informant, William O'Neal, provided the Bureau with information on the headquarters' floor plan.

http://www.afro.com/Panthers/Hampton/Hampton.html

A Speech By Fred Hampton

POWER ANYWHERE WHERE THERES PEOPLE!

Power anywhere where there's people. Power anywhere where there's people. Let me give you an example of teaching people. Basically, the way they learn is observation and participation. You know a lot of us go around and joke ourselves and believe that the masses have PhDs, but that's not true. And even if they did, it wouldn't make any difference. Because with some things, you have to learn by seeing it or either participating in it. And you know yourselves that there are people walking around your community today that have all types of degrees that should be at this meeting but are not here. Right? Because you can have as many degrees as a thermometer. If you don't have any practice, they you can't walk across the street and chew gum at the same time.

Alleged Hijacker Booked on post-911 Flights

Source-PrisonPlanet

Astounding FBI documents contradict 9/11 Commission report as CIA veteran Robert Baer calls for investigation to be re-opened

Astounding newly released FBI documents obtained via the Freedom Of Information Act show that alleged 9/11 hijacker Hamza Al-Ghamdi had booked future flights to San Francisco and Riyadh, suggesting that he was unaware of his eventual fate aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the plane that hit the World Trade Center's south tower.

The papers consist of a 300 page Federal Bureau of Investigation timeline (PDF link) that was used by the 9/11 Commission but not made public until now.

Raw Story provides further details concerning how the documents shed more light on the role of Saudi authorities and their complicity in the attack.

Gov't Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court

Source-David Kirby

After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.

The doctors conceded that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month well-baby visit, when she received vaccinations against nine different diseases all at once (two contained thimerosal).

Days later, the girl began spiraling downward into a cascade of illnesses and setbacks that, within months, presented as symptoms of autism, including: No response to verbal direction; loss of language skills; no eye contact; loss of "relatedness;" insomnia; incessant screaming; arching; and "watching the florescent lights repeatedly during examination."

Drummer Buddy Miles Departs the 3rd Stone From the Sun

from BuddyMiles.com

It is with tremendous sadness that we must share with all Buddy's fans around the world that Buddy passed away peacefully and quietly at his home last night (Tuesday, February 26, 2008) in Austin, Texas surrounded by his family. Buddy will be greatly missed as a wonderful person and as a truly gifted musician who gave so much to so many through the years.

The family ask for your prayers and that you respect their privacy. A tribute show will be announced within a short period of time and all are welcome to come and share in the magic that was Buddy Miles.

Fans, friends and family will all join in a celebration of the life and music of this talented and big hearted musician, so we hope everyone can be a part of this fond farewell.

God Bless each of you, Buddy truly appreciated EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU.

Buddy Miles with Santana doing Buddy's hit "Them Changes"




Heres Buddy as the drummer with Hendrix in Band of Gypsys doing "Machine Gun" part 2

..
Jimi and Band of Gypsys - Machine Gun II (part 2) - Fillmore
Uploaded by rockderk..

Study doubts effectiveness of antidepressant drugs

Source-Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Antidepressant medications appear to help only very severely depressed people and work no better than placebos in many patients, British researchers said.

Researchers led by Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull reviewed a series of studies, both published and unpublished, on four antidepressants, examining the question of whether a person's response to these drugs hinged on how depressed they were before getting treatment.

They were Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac, also known as fluoxetine, Wyeth's Effexor, also called venlafaxine; GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil, also called Seroxat or paroxetine, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's drug Serzone, also called nefazodone, which it no longer markets in the United States.

Traitor (and Former FED Chairman) Alan Greenspan Urges Gulf States to Abandon Dollar

Source-PrisonPlanet

Alan Greenspan has again exposed himself as a traitor working against the interests of the American people by urging Gulf states to abandon the dollar peg, a move that could result in financial chaos and an economic depression in America.

The dollar peg mandates Gulf nations to price their assets in U.S. dollars and follow U.S. monetary policy at a time when the Fed is cutting interest rates, a system that has produced a boom in oil revenues but led to high inflation as the dollar weakens.

"It [de-pegging] is probably the most useful thing that can be done to stop the increasing influence of foreign assets on the monetary system and therefore the monetary base which is basically the major force in inflationary pressures," Greenspan told the Abu Dhabi Corporate Leadership Forum yesterday.

North American Army Created without OK by Congress

Source-World Net Daily

In a ceremony that received virtually no attention in the American media, the United States and Canada signed a military agreement Feb. 14 allowing the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency, even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis.

The agreement, defined as a Civil Assistance Plan, was not submitted to Congress for approval, nor did Congress pass any law or treaty specifically authorizing this military agreement to combine the operations of the armed forces of the United States and Canada in the event of a wide range of domestic civil disturbances ranging from violent storms, to health epidemics, to civil riots or terrorist attacks.

Panel says pull your gun if you feel endangered

Source-Arizona Star

HB 2629 would provide immunity from prosecution for anyone engaged in "defensive display" of a firearm. That ranges from telling another person you are armed to showing off the weapon, as well as actually holding the gun, provided it is not pointed directly at another person.

The legislation says the display of a firearm is justified "to the extent a reasonable person would believe that physical force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful physical force."

New evidence challenges official picture of Kennedy shooting

Source-GuardianUK

The official record states that senator Robert F Kennedy, like his brother before him, was killed by a crazed lone gunman. But the assassination of a man who seemed to embody so much hope for a bitterly divided country embroiled in an unpopular war still troubles this nation.

Little about the official explanation of the events at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5 1968 makes sense. Now a new forensic analysis of the only audio recording of the fatal shots has given new weight to a controversial theory that there were in fact two shooters, and that the man convicted of Kennedy's killing — Sirhan Sirhan - did not fire the fatal shots.

The inconsistencies in the case have bred numerous conspiracy theories, including the involvement of the CIA and the idea that Sirhan - who claims not to remember the shooting and pleaded insanity at his trial - was a "Manchurian Candidate" assassin who was hypnotically programmed to kill the senator.

Major General who rigged Pakistan 2002 polls, spills the beans

Source-Top News

According to The Dawn, Major General Ehtesham Zamir has admitted his guilt of manipulating the 2002 elections, and has directly blamed General Musharraf for ordering him to do so.

Talking to The News, the head of the ISI's political cell in 2002, admitted manipulating the last elections at the behest of President Musharraf and termed the defeat of the King's party, the PML-Q, this time "a reaction of the unnatural dispensation (installed in 2002)."

When the Terrorists were 'Our Guys'

Source-Consortium News

In 1976, when George H.W. Bush was CIA director, the U.S. government tolerated right-wing terrorist cells inside the United States and mostly looked the other way when these killers topped even Palestinian terrorists in spilling blood, including a lethal car bombing in Washington, D.C., according to newly obtained internal government documents.

That car bombing on Sept. 21, 1976, on Washington’s Embassy Row, killed Chile’s former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and an American co-worker Ronni Moffitt, while wounding Moffitt’s husband.

Recently obtained internal FBI records and notes of a U.S. prosecutor involved in counter-terrorism cases make clear that the connections among Bush’s CIA, DINA and the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) – which supplied the trigger men for the Letelier bombing – were closer than was understood at the time.

Appeals court rejects Agent Orange suits

Source- UPI

A U.S. appeals court has upheld the dismissal of lawsuits by veterans, their families and Vietnamese nationals over the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York issued three opinions affirming lower court ruling that dismissed 16 civil actions against Dow Chemical Co., Monsanto Co. and other chemical makers.

The three-judge panel said makers of herbicides that comprised Agent Orange were protected by the "military contractor defense," which shields independent contractors from liability when fulfilling government procurement contracts.

Secret Service Stand-down at Obama Event Raises Suspicions

Source-InfoWars.net

Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena, reports the Star-Telegram.

The Star Telegram article continues:
Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

* * * * * * *

As researchers of the JFK assassination will be aware, in addition to those who have looked into the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, a secret service stand down at a large public event should set alarm bells ringing.

Popular Mexican Singer of Narco-Ballads Killed

Source-UPI

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A popular Mexican singer of songs about the country's drug trafficking was killed by drug gang members, El Universal reported Thursday.

Known as the "Little Rooster," Jesus Rey David Alfaro was gunned down in the border town of Tijuana, along with his manager and assistant.

The body of Alfaro, believed to have ties to the Arellano Felix cartel, was discovered last week with a bullet wound to his head, said authorities. He was the latest of at least a half dozen singers killed this year by drug traffickers.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to border towns in a crackdown on rampant drug trafficking and crime associated with smuggling.

* * * * * * *

Also See: Mexican Country Music Singers Being Killed

Utah Students Hide Guns, Head to Class

Source-CNN

Nick, who asked not to be fully identified so his fellow students wouldn't know he carried a gun, says he has had a concealed weapons permit for more than three years. But it was Seung-Hui Cho's murderous campus rampage that made him take a gun to class.

"Last year, after Virginia Tech, I thought 'I'm not going to be a victim,' " Nick said.

He started carrying a gun to class after the massacre at Virginia Tech, but the student says he's not part of the problem of campus shootings and could instead be part of a solution.

Montana: 'Any Person' Has Right to Own a Gun

Source-WorldNetDaily

U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has asked President Bush to order the U.S. Justice Department to submit a brief to the high court supporting the rights of individuals under the 2nd Amendment. A similar request already has been submitted by officials for the Gun Owners of America, whose executive director, Larry Pratt, warned:

"If the Supreme Court were to accept the Solicitor General's line of argument, D.C.'s categorical gun ban of virtually all self-defense firearms could well be found to be constitutional. ..."

He warned such a precedent to affirm any and all gun restrictions if they are considered by a judge to be "reasonable" would place those rights on the lowest rung of the constitutional ladder.

But officials in Montana, including dozens of state lawmakers as well as Secretary of State Brad Johnson, have joined together in a statement that the U.S. already has determined the application, and 2nd Amendment rights apply to "any person."

Child Abuse By The Government

Source-Lew Rockwell

What kind of society rips a 17-year-old autistic boy from his loving home and places him in a state-run mental institution, where he is given heavy doses of drugs, kept physically restrained, kept away from his family, deprived of books and other mental stimulation and is left alone to rot?

Yet that's exactly what has happened to Nate Tseglin, after a teacher called Child Protective Services, the county agency charged with protecting children from many forms of abuse and given power to remove children from their family homes in certain circumstances. The teacher reported seeing self-inflicted scratches on Nate's body and complained about the doctor-approved arm restraints his parents used to keep Nate from hurting himself. Nate remains in Fairview Developmental Center (formerly Fairview State Hospital) in Costa Mesa, labeled a danger to himself and others, while his parents fight a lonely battle to bring their son back home.

Bush Judicial Nominee Arrested for DUI in fishnet hose

Source-Daily KOS

Pensito Review and All Spin Zone are both carrying this story about a Bush judicial nominee who was picked up for DUI wearing a little black dress, fishnet stockings and stilletto heels.

Okay, this is one of those people he's been threatening recess appointments for because they are going to protect our moral values. Apparently, Federal Judge Robert Somma, rear-ended another motorist in his Mercedes-Benz after tying one on in a local gay bar. He had difficulty locating his drivers license in his purse.

American Drug War: The Last White Hope

Click Here to Watch!

AmericanDrugWar.com

Thug Cop Beats Up Defenseless Handcuffed Woman

Source-PrisonPlanet

Shocking police station video of an argumentative woman who ended up unconscious in a pool of her own blood with two black eyes, a broken nose and broken teeth did not lead to criminal charges against the cop after officials claimed the woman "fell over."

Quite how Angela Garbarino received two black eyes, a broken nose, broken teeth and blood pouring from her head after a "slip and fall" is not quite explained by officials or ABC News, who ran with the headline Police Brutality or Slip and Fall?

ABC News version can be watched here.

The police are refusing to press criminal charges against the officer because "no one knows for sure what occurred." That's probably because this cowardly thug, Officer Wiley Willis, made sure his brutal assault wasn't recorded on camera.

Fidel Quits After 49 Years

(Source-Nat'l Post)

HAVANA - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down Tuesday 49 years after taking power in an armed revolution, closing the book on a Cold War career that turned him into a leftist icon and a tyrant to his foes.

Mr. Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery almost 19 months ago, said he would not seek a new term as president or leader of Cuba's armed forces when the National Assembly meets Sunday.

The charismatic Mr. Castro led the bearded and cigar-chomping guerrillas who swept down from the mountains of eastern Cuba to overthrow U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Blackwater Schooling Taiwan's Secret Police

(Source-Wired)

I know, I know. You've been worried. Sure, Blackwater is up to its mercenary neck in Iraq. They're protecting missile interceptors in Japan, and rescuing blondes in Kenya. And let's not forget about their fine work in New Orleans. But how, you're asking, is Blackwater going to get involved what many think is the great struggle of the 21st Century -- the upcoming war against China?

Well, never fear. Blackwater has got that struggle covered, too. Defense News reports that "Blackwater is training members of the Taiwanese National Security Bureau’s (NSB’s) special protection service, which guards the president. The NSB is responsible for the overall security of the country and was once an instrument of terrorism during the martial law period. Today, according to its Web site, the NSB is responsible for 'national intelligence work, special protective service and unified cryptography.'"

****************************

An NSB source stated that training began in 2007 and was conducted at Blackwater facilities in the United States. The source stated the NSB was satisfied with the training, and further training programs are being considered.
“The key thing would be to have special operations training for Army, Marines and Reserve units in Taiwan,” a former U.S. government official said.

22,000 Died Amid Delayed Bayer Drug Recall

(Source-Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The lives of 22,000 patients could have been saved if U.S. regulators had been quicker to remove a Bayer AG drug used to stem bleeding during open heart surgery, according to a medical researcher interviewed by CBS Television's 60 Minutes program.

The drug Trasylol was withdrawn in November at the request of the FDA after an observational study linked the medicine to kidney failure requiring dialysis and increased death of those patients.

It had been given to as many as a third of all heart bypass patients in the United States at the height of its use over a period of many years, according to the report.

He said in the broadcast that Bayer failed to disclose to the FDA during an FDA advisory panel meeting in September 2006 -- at which Mangano's negative findings were discussed -- that the German drugmaker had conducted its own research which confirmed the same dangers established by his study.

Illinois Shooter Did Stint in Mental Health Center

(Source-WashTimes)

Professors and students knew him as a bright, helpful scholar, but his past included a stint in a mental health center.

What people initially told police about the Northern Illinois shooter didn't add up, and now investigators are searching for answers to what triggered Thursday's bloody attack, in which five students were killed and 16 more injured before Kazmierczak committed suicide.

He also had a history of mental illness and had become erratic in the past two weeks after he stopped taking his medication, said university Police Chief Donald Grady.

Same Gun Dealer Supplied Both Campus Killers

(Source-SkyNews)

A gunman who shot dead five Illinois students bought equipment from the same internet gun dealer as the student who murdered 32 people at Virginia Tech last year, it has emerged.

Gun supplier Eric Thompson said his website, topglock.com, sold two empty magazines and a holster to Stephen Kazmierczak just 10 days before the 27-year-old launched a suicidal attack on an Illinois classroom.

Another of his sites, thegunstore.com, also sold a Walther .22-calibre handgun to Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in April 2007.

Cop Calls 911- Thinks He Overdosed on Pot Brownies

Click here for Link to Video

Diamonds Are Not Rare or 'Artificial Scarcity'

Second only to Christmas, Valentine's Day is the holiday when diamonds are most often given as the ultimate token of love. Central to the diamond's role as a romantic symbol is the belief that diamonds are one of the rarest, most precious gifts for a loved one. But it's only a myth--diamonds are found in plentiful supply. FRONTLINE examines how the great myth about the scarcity of diamonds and their inflated value was created and maintained over the decades by the diamond cartel. This report chronicles how one family, the Oppenheimers of South Africa, gained control of the supply, marketing, and pricing of the world's diamonds.

Gunman Opens Fire on Illinois Campus

(Source-MSNBC)

DEKALB, Ill. - A gunman opened fire Thursday in a packed lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, wounding as many as 16 people, police and witnesses said. Police said the gunman was dead.

Police reported that the scene was secure and that the gunman was “no longer a threat” about an hour after the shooting, which occurred about 4 p.m. ET in Cole Hall. It was not immediately clear whether the man committed suicide or was killed by police.

The man entered the room from the back, behind the professor, and began shooting without saying a word, Sundstrom said, firing in the general direction of the students. He emptied his clip of ammunition and calmly reloaded before resuming firing.

US-Vietnam Project Starts Agent Orange re-mediation

(Source-Raw Story)

A US-Vietnamese group said Friday 1.2 million dollars had been spent to contain rainwater run-off from a "dioxin hotspot" at a war-time US airbase that was a depot for the toxic defoliant Agent Orange.

As part of the project, scientists had tested blood and breast milk samples from residents and workers near the base and found they exceeded safe levels of the most toxic dioxin type TCDD "by a wide margin," the group said.

Under the 1961-71 "Operation Ranch Hand" US forces sprayed about 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of Agent Orange and other herbicides on southern and central Vietnam to deprive enemies of forest cover and food crops.

Washington has rejected responsibility for the millions of people Vietnam says have suffered direct or second-generation disabilities due to Agent Orange, with US officials pointing to a lack of mutually agreed data.

Anderson Cooper's CIA Past

(Source-Rogue Govt)

"Following his sophomore and junior years at Yale—a well-known recruiting ground for the CIA—Cooper spent his summers interning at the agency's monolithic headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in a program for students interested in intelligence work," reports Radar Online.

"His involvement with the agency ended there, and he chose not to pursue a job with the agency after graduation, according to a CNN spokeswoman, who confirmed details of Cooper's CIA involvement to Radar." See this article. And thanks to Brad Funkhouser for this post.

Baby 'snatched' from mother minutes after birth is ordered BACK into foster care

(Source-Daily Mail)

A mother who had her baby son taken illegally by social workers wept yesterday as a court ordered he should be put in care after all.

The 18-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, broke down in tears and had to be supported by two relatives as she received the devastating news.

It has been a three-day rollercoaster for the young mother. Her son, known as Baby G for legal reasons,was snatched from her in hospital by social services two hours after birth.

Australian Gov't to pass Fluoride Bill

(Source)

http://www.fluoridealert.org/

http://www.fluoridealert.org/f-pollut...

"Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic animals than any other air pollutant." - US Department of Agriculture. Air Pollutants Affecting the Performance of Domestic Animals. Agricultural Handbook No. 380. Revised. 1972. p. 109.

Truth or Terrorism: The Real Story Behind 5 Years of False Alerts

(Source-Rolling Stone)

"Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. There were times when some people in the administration were really aggressive about raising the threat level, and we said, 'For that?!'" — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, May 2005

The Bush administration has never shied from playing the fear card to distract the American public from scandal or goad them into supporting a deeply flawed foreign policy. Here a history of the administration's most-dubious terror alerts — including three consecutive Memorial Day scare-a-thons — all of which proved far less terrifying than the screamer headlines they inspired.

Soldier Suicides at Record Level

(Source-WashPost)

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who was waiting for the Army to decide whether to court-martial her for endangering another soldier and turning a gun on herself last year in Iraq, attempted to kill herself Monday evening. In so doing, the 25-year-old Army reservist joined a record number of soldiers who have committed or tried to commit suicide after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Rape in the US Military

(Source-LA Times)

Anne K. Ream's recent Op-Ed sheds much needed light on how the U.S. military continues to trivialize rape and sexual assault committed by members of the armed forces. Writing about whether a man who is convicted of rape in a civilian court should still be entitled to a traditional military funeral, Ream points out that although barring full honor burials in such a situation is largely a symbolic act, "the military policy of allowing honors burials for veterans convicted of rape sends a chilling message to victims: Even the most heinous sexual violence does not trump prior military service."

The Comments that got Montel Williams Fired

Mos Def on Bill Maher - 911 an Inside Job

Vaccine Companies Investigated for Manslaughter

(Source)

PARIS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - French authorities have opened a formal investigation into two managers from drugs groups GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sanofi Pasteur over a vaccination campaign in the 1990s, a judicial source said late on Thursday.

The investigations follow allegations that the companies failed to fully disclose side effects from an anti-hepatitis B drug used in a vaccination campaign between 1994 and 1998.

The Bank 'Implode-O-Meter'

Click for Link

Gang-Rape Victim Says She and Others Silenced by Halliburton

(Source-ABC)

A Houston, Texas woman, who says she was gang-raped by her co-workers at a Halliburton/KBR camp in Baghdad, says 38 women have come forward through her foundation to report their own tragic stories to her, but that many cannot speak publicly due to arbitration agreements in their employment contracts.

Jones returned from Iraq following her rape in 2005. She was the subject of an exclusive ABC News report in December which led to congressional hearings.