Lawyer Advising Vets Quits Bush Campaign

Lawyer Advising Vets Quits Bush Campaign: "'The sudden resignation of Bush's top lawyer doesn't end the extensive web of connections between George Bush and the group trying to smear John Kerry's military record,' said Kerry-Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. "In fact, it only confirms the extent of those connections." A senior House Democrat, Michigan Rep. John Dingell, sent a letter asking Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the possible "illegal coordination" between the two."

Does this guy Ginsberg look to you like someone who may be prosecuted for a crime? How can the Dems ask Ashcroft to bust Bush? Ashcroft committed Contempt of Congress on international television, and without the immunity loyal Bush service provides apparent here on the face of Ginsberg, his proselytizing days would be over. It's like asking Boss Tweed please to look into allegations of government corruption.

U.S. Prepares for Possible Flu Outbreak

My Way News-U.S. Prepares for Possible Flu Outbreak: "The United States may have to close schools, restrict travel and ration scarce medications if a powerful new flu strain spurs a worldwide outbreak, according to federal plans for the next pandemic..." There have been three flu pandemics in the last century, the worst in 1918, when more than half a million Americans and 20 million people worldwide died. Concern is rising that the next pandemic could be triggered by the recurring bird flu in Asia, if it mutates in a way that lets it spread easily among people. ... Among its suggested preparations to limit the spread of infection and care for the ill, the plan stresses major federal research to create "seed strains" of worrisome flu types as potential vaccine candidates. ...The plan is a first draft, open for public comment through October. ...Doctors and public safety workers may be just as important to treat early as frail patients... The CDC is increasing surveillance to better spot dangerous flu strains as soon as they emerge anywhere in the world. First on the list of potential pandemic vaccine candidates is the bird flu... the first protections probably will include travel restrictions, schools closures, restrictions on public gatherings and even quarantines to limit the spread of infection...

Plan B. This is why you should read my Blog. Didn't I just discuss the significance of bird flu jumping to pigs in China (a fact that the CDC here seems somehow to have missed). If the flu killed half a million US in 1918 and 20 million world wide, then the next one that they say could kill 207,000 US (round number?) should kill almost ten million people. This would not drive the value of labor up enough in itself to shift out of the depression cycle, but if it can be combined with nuclear annihilation of the starving Koreans and a bloody invasion of Iran, it would certainly put a dent in it. The current interest, however, seems to be more short term. The flu is annual; it just jumped species in a way that "lets it spread easily among people"; public comment is requested through October; all of CDC's stated concerns amount to activating the police state measures in the Patriot Acts: increased surveillance, travel restrictions, schools closures, restrictions on public gatherings, quarantines, and rationing. They inadvertently I'm sure left out the more ominous provisions such as forced vaccinations and internments, but the list is now the third suggestion of how November's elections might be deferred in addition to: 1) response to a terrorist attack that threatens to scare people into voting wrongly, and 2) an attempt by Osama to disrupt said elections. If the bird flu already migrating to Chinese pigs shows to the WHO or the CDC or FEMA any greater inclination to jump to humans as the flu season approaches, well, quarantined people can't share voting booths.

CBC News: South Korea to abandon Seoul as capital

CBC News: South Korea to abandon Seoul as capital: "Seoul is located about 65 kilometres from the North Korean border, within the range of rocket attack should hostilities break out.Prime Minister Lee Hai-chan said the new capital will be built in the Yeongi-Kongju area, with work beginning in 2007. Most government agencies will shift their headquarters by 2014..."

Just a minor detail. As they're not building the new capital city until 2007, this doesn't seem to support the plan for a nuke attack on the North this October which I discuss below. The fact that major construction won't begin for two years, however, doesn't prevent some gov't functions from getting a head start.

Militants Eyeing Seaborne Attack, U.S General Says

Militants Eyeing Seaborne Attack, U.S General Says : "COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - It is "only a matter of time" before militants try to launch a seaborne attack on the United States, but threats of terrorism are greater abroad because they are avoiding hardened U.S. targets, a senior U.S. military official said on Wednesday. General Ralph "Ed" Eberhart, who as head of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) is responsible for defending U.S. land, sea and air, also said North Korea posed the greatest threat to the United States of any country -- as opposed to non-state actors such as al Qaeda -- even as Washington tries to negotiate with Pyongyang." ... Asked what countries currently posed the greatest threat to the United States, Eberhart only mentioned North Korea. "As you know, we are building missile defense capability predominantly for North Korea. I'm sure they're a wild card in our book," he said. Yet the United States was doing everything it could, he said, to reconcile its differences with North Korea, especially concerning its nuclear capability.

Please see scenario outlined below (Saturday, August 07, 2004: Rev Moon's Mysterious Empire) concerning fake Korean missile attack on West Coast. Today it looks even more likely. Notice how the "militant" seaborne attack of the headline turns out to be an attack by North Korean nuclear missiles delivered by sea. Yesterday, discussion in the corporate media concerning New York security measures simply conflated security against protest demonstrations with the security against terrorist attack that, remember?, the ramped up police state is allegedly designed to provide. The government has so far not tried to justify its restrictions on Constitutionally protected political assemblies with the specter of terrorist vulnerabilities, but openly refers to "anarchists" (other than the ones it admits to having planted in various organizations I assume) who might abuse their civil liberties and break a corporate window. In other words, precisely what the Constitution forbids. Now "militants" and enemy nation states are interchangeable. This warmonger's identification of N Korea as a "wild card," together with his claim that our sea defenses, despite an extra century of practice, are not as "elegant" as our air defenses, together with Sun Myung Moon's newspaper exposeing Sun Myung Moon's sale to N Korea of submarines (however actually functional), together with Rumsfeld's "quiet" mobilization of the missile defense shield on the West Coast, should leave no one surprised if some Korean Nodongs are blown out of the sky before they cancel the US elections and launch ICBM's.

In run-up to Republican convention 24-hour surveillance of protest organizers

In run-up to Republican convention 24-hour surveillance of protest organizers: By denying a permit for Central Park, the city administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYPD are inviting the kind of chaos and disruption they claim they are trying to prevent. There have been suggestions that the Bush camp would welcome a scenario in which there were clashes between police and protesters. The Republicans would then brand the demonstrators as “terrorist sympathizers,” while linking them to Kerry and the Democrats. Given the acknowledged infiltration of protest groups by New York City police, the danger of violent confrontations sparked by agents provocateurs is very real.

When UFPJ agreed to march by the river, I decided to skip the protest and leave town for the week. Now that there will be some resistence, I wish I hadn't already bought the tickets. Forget New Yorker; here's my list of rules for conventioneers:

Taxis will be tax free but you have to buy the gas.
Given recently discovered plans by al Qaeda to use limousines to deliver bombs, all limousines will be stopped and searched at random.
No metal objects (including sharp US flag lapel pins).
No one refusing a videotaped body cavity search will be allowed into Manhattan.
All sightseeing must be done in a designated free tourism zone, a narrow walking path by the Hudson River.
Anyone not from New York can be qestioned at random and searched without probable cause.
All garbage must be taken with you when you leave.
Meals will be served in one restaurant only which will be fenced in with barbed wire (prices to be set on award of lifetime cost-plus no-bid contract).
Meals and other services will appear as an automatic charge on the delegate's credit card.
Ten o'clock curfew.
No talking to fellow delegates.
All delegates must wear surgical masks at all times.
No use of public services funded by tax and spend Democrats: no public transportation, no libraries, no parks, no museums, no police, no firemen, no Statue of Liberty, and any sidewalks must be cleaned after use by the delegate.
No helicopter rides.
No photographing or videotaping of tourist attractions or other symbols of American society.
No tape recorders or laptops. A pad and ball point pen will be provided for a mandatory $100 fee.
All phone calls will be monitored.
Mandatory Bible study at 8am daily.
Because first responders may have to attend to New Yorkers in case of an attack on the convention, a $100 fee will be booked to your credit card to provide hazardous duty pay.
No prescription drugs purchased in other cities. A no-bid cost-plus contract currently being awarded to a pharmacy near the convention site.
Delegates sharing hotel rooms must be married Christians.
No condoms or other artificial birth control.

Any delegate found in violation of any of these rules, or suspected or even accused of thinking about it by a life-long enemy is liable to be thrown in solitary confinement incommunicado and subjected to torture and abuse until the election is safely over.

Bank with close ties to Bush administration engulfed in scandal

Bank with close ties to Bush administration engulfed in scandal: There are three separate activities for which Riggs has come under investigation: (1) its relationship with the Saudi royal family and the potential financing of two of the September 11 hijackers through an account owned by the wife of the Saudi ambassador; (2) its relationship with the corrupt and dictatorial regime of the oil-rich West African country of Equatorial Guinea; and (3) its banking business with the former military dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet. ... The report found that “the evidence reviewed by the Subcommittee staff establishes that, since at least 1997, Riggs has disregarded its anti-money laundering (AML) obligations, maintained a dysfunctional AML program despite frequent warnings from OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] regulators, and allowed or, at times, actively facilitated suspicious financial activity.” The OCC, a branch of the Treasury Department, is responsible for regulating nationally chartered banks. Equatorial Guinea was Riggs’ largest client. It held over 60 accounts at the bank, with varied holdings of $300-700 million. Its ruler, Teodoro Obian Nguema Mbasogo, came to power in a military coup in 1979 and is infamous for his corruption and brutality. Relations with the United States became strained in the mid-1990s, when the Clinton administration broke off diplomatic ties. However, these were restored by the Bush administration in 2003. The country holds interest for the United States because of its large oil reserves. ... In addition to its dealings with the Saudi royal family and Equatorial Guinea’s dictator, Riggs had a close relationship with the former dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet held numerous active accounts at Riggs between 1994 and 2002, even while he was under house arrest in Britain and his assets were supposedly frozen. According to the subcommittee report, “The aggregate deposits in the Pinochet accounts at Riggs ranged from $4 to $8 million at a time.... Riggs account managers took actions consistent with helping Mr. Pinochet to evade legal proceedings seeking to discover and attach his bank accounts.... The revelations of the activities at Riggs Bank demonstrate how commonplace and extensive criminal activity has become within the American financial and political establishment. Not coincidentally, the bank’s activity has a great deal in common with certain features prominent in the Bush administration: the heavy influence of oil interests, the close ties with the Saudi ruling elite, the funding and support given to dictators and former dictators, including General Pinochet.

One of the hardest things about arguing with Americans about the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack is the limit to the extent to which they are prepared to recognize the criminality of the Bush family. Likewise, the clear collaboration of "the Saudis" in the attack obscures the question of "which Saudis?" The answer to this calls into question the entire social fabric of Middle Eastern nation states with which most Americans are not equipped to deal. Most Americans think that the reason Milosevic is on trial for war crimes and Pinochet was let go because of ill health reflects the distinction between good guys and bad guys by which their country chooses its allies and enemies.

Kerry's dilemma-defending medals from criminal war

[Kerry's dilemma-defending medals from criminal war: My father] often voiced his distress over the war in Vietnam. It was for him the end of the army as he had known it. The democratic sentiments that animated many of those who went into the Second World War had been dragged through the mud. He left the military in 1968, the same year I first became active in the struggle against the war. ... Kerry served for a little more than four months in Vietnam, winning the medals now being questioned by the Republican attack dogs. It was what he did after he returned, however, that earned him justifiable notice. Kerry joined with other veterans to demand an end to the US intervention in Southeast Asia. He briefly became their leading spokesman, publicly denouncing war crimes against the Vietnamese people that they themselves had witnessed. In the midst of another criminal colonial war and in the shadow of fresh US war crimes against a civilian population, Kerry and the Democrats have worked assiduously to bury this, the worthiest, episode in his political life. Instead, they have cast the Democratic nominee as a “war hero,” highlighting his brief exploits in the Mekong Delta and surrounding him with his former Swift boat crew and other veterans. Kerry is endlessly described as a “man who knows how to defend his country,” even though he publicly insisted at the time that it was the Vietnamese liberation fighters who were defending their country. ... Enter “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” a loathsome lie machine put together by a collection of ultra-right-wingers, Texas bagmen for the Republican National Committee and Bush, and specialists in media manipulation. The group first aired a commercial that featured other Swift boat veterans claiming that Kerry lied about the incident for which he received his medals and faked his combat wounds. A number of these individuals have themselves been exposed as liars, impeached by praise they had for Kerry as recently as 1996. This smear campaign has created what would seem an improbable scenario. Kerry, who went to Vietnam and then opposed the war, has been placed on the defensive about his military record. Those orchestrating the attack are Bush, who pulled family strings to avoid the draft by entering the National Guard—remaining largely AWOL—and Cheney, who obtained five separate deferments from military service. Both supported the war politically, but were content to let others do the fighting and dying. As Cheney put it, they had “other priorities” at the time. ... Kerry’s situation begins to resemble the old slapstick comedy routine in which the hapless hero is hit by the swinging door both coming and going. After first goading him into a defensive position on his military record in Vietnam, Kerry’s attackers now raise the obvious question: “Why is he claiming to be a hero in a war he denounced as a crime?” For this, the Kerry campaign has no answer... There are those in the “anybody but Bush” camp who still reassure themselves with the belief that the Democrats’ pro-war policy is merely a campaign ploy, a regrettable but necessary tactic to win votes from the Republicans. Once the election is over, according to these self-deluded elements, Kerry will be free to show his true liberal colors. Nothing could be further from the truth. Kerry’s embrace of the Iraq war, just as his attempt to rehabilitate the intervention in Vietnam, is an accurate barometer of the continuous lurch to the right by the Democrats over a whole historical period.

Both parties are collaborating in reducing this to a one issue campaign. As bizarre as it is, having already resolved upon a Kerry White House as the most effective way to move the imperialist agenda forward without the taint of the universally recognized criminality of the Bush administration, it doesn't matter that Bush partisan financiers are obviously behind the Kerry smear, or that Bush's war record would have made anyone ineligible for presidential canditate in any previous decade; Bush has publicly disclaimed the smear (although, of course, without erasing it from the public discourse) and nobody who discusses it in the corporate media raises Bush's refusal to release his military records as a relevant issue.

CNN.com Kerry accuses Bush of fear and smear tactics 24 Aug2004

CNN.com-Kerry accuses Bush of fear and smear tactics: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused President Bush's campaign and political allies on Tuesday of conducting a campaign of "fear and smear..." While he seemed eager to talk about domestic and foreign policy issues, Kerry got in a few shots at the controversy over his service in Vietnam. "My duty ... is to be a president and commander in chief who finds the truth and tells the truth instead of misleading the American people, hiding behind front groups, saying anything and doing anything to avoid the real issues that matter, like jobs, health care and the war in Iraq."

And the irony is? This is not an article about a speech about "jobs, healthcare, and the war on Iraq," but about a speech about not talking about "jobs, healthcare, and the war on Iraq."

"You can't lead America by misleading the American people," said Kerry..."

Well, even Lincoln said you can fool all of the people some of the time.

"... The Kerry campaign says Bush used a newly formed veterans' group not subject to campaign spending limits to attack his character.. ...He said the administration has favored tax cuts for the rich, given special access to polluters, rewarded companies that send jobs overseas and sided with big oil. ... Kerry said his plan would preserve middle-class tax cuts, reduce the cost of health care, education and energy, and increase the federal minimum wage. The Democrats also promise to close the pay gap between men and women and help families balance competing demands at home and at work."

Instead of repeating his radical program of giving out tax breaks to the poor on $4000 of their kids' $20000 tuition and a $7 minimum wage, while committing more resources to the Pentagon without saying where he plans to get the troops without a draft, Kerry could only defend himself agains the baseless charges that he did not go to Vietnam to kill gooks in their own houses as he claimed. Even Bush condemns such political smear tactics, in which veterans who hate Kerry for blowing the whistle on American war crimes are funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars of corporate money that cares only about its tax cuts, which is why no one mentions his war record in the course of this one issue election without being shushed.

Guardian Unlimited Special reports We could have stopped him

Guardian Unlimited Special reports We could have stopped him: There are a lot of angry spies at Langley, and one of the angriest is Mike Scheuer, a senior intelligence officer who led the Bin Laden station for four years. While some of his colleagues have vented their frustrations through leaks, Scheuer has done what no serving American intelligence official has ever done - published a book-length attack on the establishment. "America ought to do what's in America's interests, and those interests are not served by being dependent on oil in the Middle East and by giving an open hand to the Israelis," Scheuer argues. "If we're less open-handed to Israel over time we can cut down Bin Laden's ability to grow. Right now he has unlimited potential for growing." What makes these comments the more challenging to the Bush administration is that they come from a self-described conservative and instinctive Republican voter. It seems extraordinary that Scheuer's bosses allowed him to publish his book at all. They had already permitted him one book, Through Our Enemies' Eyes, written anonymously, but that was a more analytical work on Bin Laden and al-Qaida. Imperial Hubris is altogether different: a bitter polemic against orthodoxy and the powers that be. ...his identity has been leaked (first by a liberal weekly, the Boston Phoenix, then this week by the New York Times). Even now, he sticks closely to his employers' guidelines, refusing formally to confirm his identity, while describing his employers vaguely as "the intelligence community". (It is for this reason that he is not permitted by the CIA to be photographed except in silhouette.) ... His interview with the Guardian is one of Scheuer's last before being gagged. ... "If getting in somebody's face [helps] prevent the death of 3,000 Americans in New York or the sinking of the Cole in Yemen, or two embassies in East Africa, then I'm in your face," he says. His bosses at the CIA have not confronted him over the book, other than to tell him what he can or cannot do with the press. "I don't think they get it yet. I still think there's a large group in the American intelligence community who talk about the next big attack but really believe 9/11 was a one-off," he says. "I think they believe their own rhetoric that they've killed two-thirds of the al-Qaida leadership, when they killed two-thirds of what they knew of." ...CIA claims that the Bin Laden team is hundreds strong, but Scheuer is insistent that ..."The numbers are big, but it's a shell game..." ... from May 1998 to May 1999, Scheuer reckons the US had up to a dozen serious chances to kill or capture Bin Laden. Only one was taken - a missile attack on an Afghan training camp in August 1998 - but either the al-Qaida leader was not there, or he had left before the missiles landed. Months earlier, however, Scheuer believes there was a far better opportunity to grab Bin Laden. ... Scheuer was informed that the operation had been cancelled because of the risk of civilian casualties. The pattern was repeated on December 20 the same year ... Other intelligence veterans are more sympathetic to the policymakers' dilemma, pointing out that if the US had shot and missed Bin Laden, while killing others, the country would have been condemned around the world, potentially winning more recruits for al-Qaida. ... "When I took my oath of office, it was to preserve and protect and defend the constitution of the US. It wasn't 'to preserve and protect and defend as long as you don't kill an Arab prince, as long as you don't offend the Europeans, as long as you don't hit a mosque with shrapnel'." ... Certainly he is bitter at being "sidetracked for the past five years without any sort of explanation from my employers"...

Book contract did I say. Here begins the calling in the Zionist scapegoat card. Scheuer, sounds like German for skewer. There's more Germans in that spook's nest than I realized. There are alot of angry spooks, claim the spooks. They've never had their hard won intelligence misrepresented to the public by the White House simply to justify a war in the international community before. This spook's tranformation from ideologue for the Marvell Comics terrorist villain to bitter critic of the Bush administration has the advantage of being admittedly controlled by the CIA so that the inconsistancies of the spook's character development can't be challenged. After blaming its subservience to its Zionist puppet masters, Scheuer wonders aloud why his employers declined to capture bin Laden when it was easily possible. The recent blowing the cover of their own spook in Pakistan, the trial of a freelance vigilante running his own private Abu Ghraib in Aghanistan while claiming to be an employee of the US Government who would have had bin Laden within the month, might seem to beg the question could somebody be trying only to appear to be after him while letting him always escape? But nor for Scheuer. He is yet another publicly identified victim of his own bitterness: what other motive could retiring whistle blowers have for pointing to the culprits it was their job to prosecute but they're bitter, as is the whole CIA and MI6 too, at being misrepresented in public, imagine, spooks. Scheuer generously explains that the operations of his place of employment were a "shell game" designed to fool the public, and that the failure (whether of imagination, leadership, or intelligence he doesn't say) to accept bin Laden hand cuffed by UPS overnight results from some spooks' he could name's fond but vain hopes that their own fabricated claims to having wiped out al Qaeda are true. But the Mutt and Jeff (remember the arrangement in the Bereuter statement earlier posted) team say the US would have been condemned for blowing up more pharmaceutical factories and large housing complexes every time somebody claimed bin Laden was hiding there. Anyone opposed to some collatoral damage in the present war without a cause in Iraq should check themselves. And so says Herr Scheuer. I took an oath to protect the Constitution, not Arab Princes, foreign temples, or European feelings. They haven't actually managed to bruise an "Arab Prince" including Osama or any rich people at all as usual. It's generous of the rich to spend so much time protecting the homeland from enemies that never touch them. The upshot of this most bitter of bitter polemics of right wingers against the right wing yet seems to be that unless we want to see a repeat of Sep 11, the Europeans should kiss our ass in our unconstitutional slaughter to protect the constitution from the shredder at least.

Yahoo News-China says deadly bird flu found in pigs for first time

Yahoo News-China says deadly bird flu found in pigs for first time: China said it had made the first ever discovery of a deadly strain of bird flu in pigs, a development that could have ominous implications for efforts to restrict the disease's spread to humans. ... Scientists have warned that if pigs are infected, the virus could mutate to a more lethal form that could spread more easily to humans because pigs are a "mixing vessel" in which viruses swap genes. Until now H5N1 had been found only in poultry and while it was suspected to be carried by swine no cases in pigs had been officially reported, FAO officials said. Malaysia reported an outbreak earlier this week and was scrambling to contain it. ... Chen Friday refused to provide more details. It was unclear whether she had been authorized to release the information or inadvertently revealed it. "We probably should not talk about this anymore.... Don't report it. Once it's reported, it will make a lot of people really scared," she said. Julie Hall, WHO's Beijing-based coordinator for communicable disease surveillance and response, urged China and other countries to be on alert and "think the worst case scenario". "If the bird flu virus were to change significantly and be able to jump more easily from animals to humans, we would obviously be in a situation where we need to strengthen systems even further," Hall said.

Well, you know I've been saying that the only way that war gets the capitalist macroeconomy out of its depression cycle is because, besides creating full employment and industrial production, it kills off a large percentage of the working class, driving up the value of labor which can then demand wages sufficient to stimulate full consumption. But even the two world wars of the twentieth century might not have been enough without the help of the Spanish Flu that wiped out another eighteen million people. The wars we're in now, by comparison, are not scratching the surface, and the global economy can only therefore continue to collapse unless we start getting serious with the hardware and unless somebody around here starts dying in a hurry. Along comes this methodical development of our most familiar, predictable, and best understood annual pandemic, closely related to the Spanish Flu, obligingly doing its own genetic research with the WHO carefully watching over it. I found it strange when the talk was of SARS combining with the contagious power of bird flu, that the careless doctors who got themselves infected with these things always decided it was a good time to take some international flights and hang around the halls of some international hotels in three continents, but the main victims seem to be the poorest peasants, mostly moslems in rural western China, whose new demand for gasoline is currently threatening to upset the macroeconomic apple cart by driving the price up beyond what makes working for a living in this country a net gain. Judging by the fourteen million people displaced by floods in Bangladesh compared with the "devastation" of Florida by Charley, the entire population, tens of millions of people, could drop dead, and it might not make the evening news. The WHO fieldmarshall's conclusion that "systems must be stengthened even further" must refer to the medical police state functions of the WHO to monitor populations and gather statistics, to administer hopefully untainted mandatory vaccines to select populations in controlled conditions, etc. But when I read that Dr Hatfill, "the" person of dwindling interest in the anthrax attacks before they found another wacko to slander who already has a record of spousal abuse, has been followed by the FBI only intermittently because his professional duties, whatever those may now be, keep taking him to eastern Afghanistan, I get nervous that someone might leave some confidential WHO intelligence in a lab in Ft Detrick near some deadly weaponized fungus spores where it could easily be pocketed by the wacko the FBI missed.

Rumsfeld Says U.S. Expects Limited Missile Defense by End of 2004

Rumsfeld Says U.S. Expects Limited Missile Defense by End of 2004: In remarks prepared for delivery to the seventh annual Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, on August 18, Rumsfeld pointed out that the first ground-based missile interceptor was placed in its silo in Fort Greely, Alaska, on July 22, some two years after President Bush announced his decision to deploy an initial missile defense capability. Disputing critics who claim that such defense capabilities are destabilizing, the secretary said "missile defense continues to be a means of building closer relations with allies like Japan, Italy, and Israel, as well as new friends and allies." Instead of waiting to launch what he described as a fixed and final missile defense architecture, Rumsfeld said the United States is deploying only "an initial set of capabilities." In a follow-up session with reporters, he said it is not necessary to wait "to have something perfected." The notion, he said, is to evolve and test systems, to learn from that and to then make improvements. ...In his speech, Rumsfeld said terrorists carefully study the United States for any indications of potential vulnerability. History offers the lesson, he said, that "weakness is provocative." The secretary said the longer limited defenses against ballistic missile attacks are delayed, "the greater the likelihood of an attempted strike." ...He also talked about North Korea's pursuit of missiles "capable of reaching not just their neighbors, but our country as well," adding, "The same can be said of Iran." Answering a question about North Korea, Rumsfeld conceded that there is a lot that is unknown about its missile development program because much of its work is conducted underground.

He admits that the thing doesn't work. It nevertheless should be established as a money pit from here to perpetuity because it helps us strengthen our alliances by separating the dicks in the emperor's new duck blind from the ducks. Is this a way of sneaking ballistic missiles as close to China as possible? Not that the Chinese would miss it, but the US public would believe that the mere appearance of strength makes the likelihood of Iran or even Korea lobbing a SCUD or Nodong anywhere near the west coast billions of dollars a year less likely. Or is it what I was saying before: preparations for a fake attack by Korea before the election, retaliatory strike, red terror alert=martial law, cancellation of elections, permanent military posture off the coast of China in preparation for 2008 invasion? The Elder Bush when asked about his plans for the future said he wants to be on the bridge of a brand new aircraft carrier, the USS George Bush, steaming to China in 2008 to accept an invitation from his old friend Deng to tea. Is he hipping us to the midterm agenda? Rumsfeld's talk of underground weapons laboratories in Korea must make some of the courtesans nervous. I don't know. On the one hand, it looks as though the ruling class has come to a consensus on a President Kerry, probably to be prostrated by a surprisingly Republican congress, but I don't see the dicks in the duck blind spending so much political capital neutering checks and balances in favor of dictatorial executive powers just to hand them to John Kerry. Besides, it would damage the American mystique to let a Catholic be president without getting his head shot off.

Leukaemia risk fo kids living near petrol stops-New Scientist

Leukaemia risk for kids living near petrol stops: “The link between benzene and leukaemia has been shown for workers in a rubber factory, but the benzene levels are very high in that instance. Exposure to benzene is much lower for children near a petrol station, so it was surprising,” she told New Scientist.

Everybody lives near a petrol station in America. The problem with benzene is that it is bio undegradable. It never breaks down so it can only accumulate and spread out through the water table.

Abu Ghraib Probe Points to Top Brass

Abu Ghraib Probe Points to Top Brass "An Army investigation into the role of military intelligence personnel in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison reports that the scandal was not just caused by a small circle of rogue military police soldiers but resulted from failures of leadership rising to the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq, senior defense officials said. ...nearly 20 low-ranking soldiers ...could face criminal prosecution in military courts. No Army officers, however, are expected to face criminal charges. ... Army officials plan to recommend that [the cases of five civilian contractors] be sent to the Justice Department for possible prosecution in civilian courts. ...the abuse... became widely known after hundreds of photographs surfaced depicting detainees in mock sexual positions, in a naked human pyramid and being intimidated by unmuzzled dogs. While the Pentagon and the White House have consistently blamed the abuse on what they have called a rogue band of MPs acting on their own, officials said this new report spreads the blame and points to widespread problems at the prison. ... and were exacerbated by a lack of leadership. The lawyers have asserted that their clients were acting on orders...to abuse detainees. ...Concerns are also raised about the vague instructions from high-ranking officials ...which led military intelligence and military police soldiers to misapply them... the probe criticizes commanders for ...all but ignoring reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross detailing the abuse. The top command "shares responsibility for not ensuring proper leadership..." In the medical journal the Lancet, an American physician and bioethicist called for an investigation of the role medical personnel may have played in enabling and overlooking the abuse at Abu Ghraib. "...and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings," Steven H. Miles of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota wrote... a physician permitted an untrained guard to stitch a cut on a prisoner's face; and that doctors "routinely attributed detainee deaths on death certificates to . . . natural causes" when the deaths were the result of torture... inadequate medical records on detainees and that monthly "health inspections," required by the Geneva Conventions, were not always done. ..."When the health professionals are either silent or actively complicit in these abuses, it sends a message to the detainees how utterly beyond human protection they are."

Abu Ghraib Doctors Knew of Torture, Says Lancet Report
John Carvel
The Guardian U.K.
Friday 20 August 2004

* Failure to maintain medical records, conduct routine medical examinations and provide proper care of disabled or injured detainees;
* Medical personnel and medical information were used to design and implement psychologically and physically coercive interrogations.
* Death certificates and medical records were falsified.

An example of the ethical failings of medical personnel came in November 2003 after Iraqi Major General Mowhoush's head was pushed into a sleeping bag while interrogators sat on his chest. Dr Miles said: "He died... Army investigations have looked at a small set of human rights abuses, but have not investigated reports from human rights organisations..."

Witness to Abuse Trying to Be Heard
Elizabeth Williamson
The Washington Post
Friday 20 August 2004

Interrogators responsible, ex-soldier says. Hagerstown, Md. - In his 33 years, Ken Davis has had two big chances to change history. The first was 10 years ago in the District, when a man standing next to him started shooting at the White House. The second was last year in Iraq, when he saw naked Iraqi prisoners on the floor, screaming. ...is trying to do now: persuade the Army that it was military intelligence and other intelligence operatives, not the seven soldiers charged, directing the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison. ...He agreed that the alleged abuses by his fellow soldiers, documented in sickening detail in hundreds of photos, were "morally wrong." He also conceded that his own state of mind became so twisted by the horrors of war that he, too, might have abused prisoners... a superior, Capt. Christopher Brinson, tells Graner: "You are doing a fine job..." ...Brinson's attorney, said his client, who is an aide to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), has been ordered not to comment during the investigation. Davis isn't surprised. ...He said he started thinking that way Oct. 29, 1994, when he was with a buddy at the White House, on his first-ever trip to Washington. Francisco Duran, an angry Army veteran next to them, pulled an assault rifle out of his coat and started firing. Davis and another tourist tackled him. He joined the Army Reserve after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and arrived in Iraq last September, his knapsack filled with pocket Bibles and toys. His job was to transport dignitaries and prisoners, but the former Pentecostal minister pursued another mission, too. Photos show him holding a bedraggled girl; smiling with two boys holding the religious booklets he gave them. ...involuntarily switched out of his Reserve unit...Paperwork and inmates got lost. ...Intelligence personnel walked the halls in flip-flops and shorts, tape over their name tags, doing "basically whatever they wanted," Davis said. One warm night in late October, according to his statement to Army investigators, Davis went to find a fellow member of his unit on Tier 1A, a military intelligence holding area. Three prisoners were there, he said, with the military intelligence personnel and Graner. They ordered the prisoners to strip and cuffed them together in a sort of embrace. Then they made them crawl, their genitals dragging on the floor, holding them down with boots pressed against their backs. ... Davis went to his platoon leader, 1st Lt. Lewis Raeder. ... who has been admonished for not training his troops on the Geneva Conventions... Rick Hernandez, civilian attorney for Pfc. Lynndie England...believes that Davis's testimony would be valuable. But military prosecutors have said the focus should be on England, not on personnel who have not been charged. "They're still trying to portray the accused as rogue soldiers acting on their own," Hernandez said. On Nov. 8, the day photos were taken showing Graner standing over a pyramid of naked Iraqis, Davis's convoy hit a roadside bomb. He never was able to check, but he said he thinks the Iraqi who died was one of those he'd seen on the floor. "I shut down," he said. "I hated everything. It became real to me that they're trying to kill me." In that state of mind, he acknowledged, if he'd had the opportunity to abuse prisoners, "I cannot guarantee what I would have done." Two days later, Davis's superiors recommended him for an Army Commendation Medal. "Sgt. Davis' courage, selfless service and dedication to duty . . . bring great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army," the citation reads. In December, Davis's father had a heart attack, and he flew home. After a checkup for a prior groin surgery, a doctor denied his request to return to Iraq, pending a decision by an Army medical board. From February until he left the military last month, he worked at Fort Lee, Va., as an aide to higher-ups. Last month, according to his personnel records, he received a disability discharge. ... Davis said that Hunter, whose son is a Marine serving in Iraq, told him he understood what he'd been through. "No, you don't," Davis said. Hunter, Stavenas said, advised Davis "to seek counseling and comfort with his church group."

The most bizarre sentence of all may be the one that seems to equate allowing an untrained guard to stitch a cut with torturing prisoners to death, or perhaps: "Paperwork and inmates got lost." One warm night in late October, this individual says he wandered into the interrogation room to see, who else, Graner. Small world in which Pentecostal ministers get in the national papers twice for national security matters, once for unarmed wrestling a White House sniper to the ground, and once for doing, what, I don't know, you tell me, at Abu Ghraib prison and complaining unheeded about the scapegoating of seven enlisted men. Hundreds of photos? At the very least, the consumption of film should have tipped someone off, and yet all I hear is about the same three pictures of somebody's idea of fun, the naked prisoner pyramid, etc. So far no torturing prisoners to death or losing them along with their paperwork. Nobody still remarks the, at the very least, psychological implications of compulsion to photograph sexually humiliated prisoners of war as a symptom of post-traumatic stress. This person Davis is quoted twice as suggesting he might have done the same under those stressful conditions. Oh really? Not me. Sorry. Nor anyone I know would be driven by stress to lead naked men around on a leash, much less take hundreds of photos of the act. How 'bout you? How about stabbing your spouse to death multiple times like five soldiers all from Ft. Bragg Delta Force decided to do in a single month. This compulsive photography is clearly a symptom of a complex, as some rogue British prison guards did precisely the same thing in Basra, and something similar seems to have taken place in Cuba. Am I the only one who remembers the Village Voice article about a "conscience pill" designed to deaden the conscience of post traumatic stress victims. Aren't these soldiers acting a little wacko like they're on some kind of drug? Wasn't Rumsfeld CEO of Searl? Anyway, interesting career this Davis had. After man of the cloth and White House hero, witness to the conversations and deeds of intelligence officers involved in smothering a Maj. General to death during interrogation, then "not allowed" to return to Iraq for medical reasons, taking a job with "higher-ups" in Virgina, and getting a disability pension as well as a special commendation, unusual treatment for a whistle blower these days (it's usually a book contract). But to his attempts to bring these war crimes, from murder to walking in the halls in your flip flops, to the responsible authorities, he only got the typical advice to "seek counseling and comfort with his church group." Yes, it was a failure of leadership all around, a new term to go with the failures of intelligence and imagination already identified as culprits. This one failed to give lectures to his men on the Geneva Conventions, these failed to order the Maj General's head removed from the pillow case in time to save his life. Thank God people like Davis always seem to be standing right next to you in the crowd when you need them.

CNN.com-Retiring GOP congressman breaks ranks on Iraq-Aug 18 2004

CNN.com-Retiring GOP congressman breaks ranks on Iraq-Aug 18 2004: "Breaking ranks with his party and reversing his earlier stance, a senior Republican lawmaker who is retiring said Wednesday the military strike against Iraq was "a mistake," and he blasted a "massive failure" of intelligence before the war. The unexpected four-page statement came from Rep. Doug Bereuter of Nebraska, who until earlier this month was vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee -- a panel that reviewed much of the evidence the Bush administration cited before going to war... I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action, especially without a broad and engaged international coalition..." Bereuter voted in support of an October 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, but he said that vote was based on what he had been told about the weapons threat from Iraq. "Left unresolved for now is whether intelligence was intentionally misconstrued to justify military action," Bereuter said. ... Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Illinois, a member of the intelligence panel, described Bereuter as "very bitter" for having been passed over in recent years... "I don't think you can take this as a sign his comments are a barometer of other Republican thinking," one Bush political aide said. ... He also said the administration was wrong to ignore military leaders who warned many more troops would be needed in Iraq to maintain the postwar peace. "Now we are immersed in a dangerous, costly mess and there is no easy and quick way to end our responsibilities in Iraq without creating bigger future problems in the region and, in general, in the Muslim world," Bereuter said. ... Bush officials said they are in constant contact with congressional Republicans. They said they want to to keep these lawmakers engaged in the president's campaign, and behind his argument that even knowing what he knows now, war in Iraq was the right thing to do.

Another Repub leaving public office "retrospectively now" thinks like the vast majority of Americans that the war is a mistake. This one signed the resolution after being vice chairman of the committee that reviewed the evidence he now says may even "intentionally" have been used to deceive the public and world leaders into supporting the war. Despite the skepticism of a Bush aide, like the other "defecting" Repubs on their way to the private sector or to book contracts, this accusation of war crimes will be taken "as a sign his comments are a barometer of other Republican thinking." In fact, they prove that you don't have to vote Democrat if you agree with Michael Moore. The plan seems to be, if the election is not cancelled over nuclear war with Korea and a red terror alert at home, to put Kerry in the White House to carry on the regrettable exigencies of "a dangerous, costly mess" with "no easy and quick way to end our responsibilities... without creating bigger future problems in the region and, in general, in the Muslim world" (not to mention a depression and potential draft riots at home), while using rigged voting machines, unilateral redistricting, etc. to give the Repubs a decisive majority in congress capable of unilateral gatekeeping. Bereuter will not only be taken as a barometer by Repub voters desperate for an excuse to reaffirm their political convictions in the face of a nightmare White House cabal, but is being rewarded with presidency of the "Asia Foundation" for providing it. It is not credible that, of all the apparently deceived people in Washington and the UN, the vice chairman of the House intelligence committee from which Porter Goss was just promoted to head of CIA, a Nebraska senior Repub in Washington for the last thirty years, whose hand picked job it was before the invasion of Iraq to review Bush's evidence, ostensibly received from George Tenet, the resigned head of the CIA, only realizes these things on the way out the door. Two other Repub members of the same committee play Mutt and Jeff, suggesting bitterness as the motive (like the anthrax attacker) and reconfirming the credibility of the evidence passed as conclusive by the committee. In effect, this is the statement he was supposed to make as vice chairman, postponed until leaves office and the former deception is becoming costly to Repub lawmakers up for election next to Bush. It's not only a matter of the evidence, insufficient for internatonal law of war even if believable, was patently contrived, and that only under the color of seeing evidence Powell couldn't show to the UN could they have voted for the war resolution, which evidence this statement proves to have been imaginary, or that the new CIA director's vice chairman acknowledges that the pose of misconstrual may be an intentional deception while claiming misconstrual to justify his vote on the war resolution, but that the evidence itself was not merely misconstrued, but fabricated by the Executive branch, and this individual can not have been out of that loop.

Swift Boaters Lie for Bush :: Intervention Magazine :: War, Politics, Culture

Swift Boaters Lie for Bush :: Intervention Magazine :: War, Politics, Culture: "This was after McCain defeated Bush in the New Hampshire primary and the Bush camp had turned desperate. In what has to be one of the lowest blows in the history of American politics, the Bush team suggested that McCain’s incarceration as a POW had affected him mentally and made him unfit to be president."

And yet there's McCain, trying not to cringe as Bush tries to get his arm around his shoulder at the latest Florida bigot rally.

BBC NEWS | Business | Oil prices surge to record high

BBC NEWS | Business | Oil prices surge to record high: "Production from the Opec cartel of oil-producing countries is already at its highest level since 1979 - 30 million barrels a day - to meet huge consumption growth in China and the US. It is also pressing ahead with a renewed increase in capacity in August. The move has threatened further strain on tight international supplies. If the problems at Yukos prevent Russian production from meeting forecasts of further growth, pressure on the global oil supply system would intensify, leaving it even more pressed to meet rising demand, analysts have said. On Tuesday, Venezuela's oil minister said Opec had little spare capacity to help lower high oil prices."

Two weeks on, and the talk is no longer about Russia, but Venezuela. The key point is that oil is being pumped as fast as possible (excepting that the rate of extraction depends on how quickly the oil companies are willing to destroy their golden goose by blasting water into the oil fields), but demand is now so high, thanks to years of giving away SUV's in the US and the concerted effort to get developing countries' industries, especially China, hooked on petroleum, that keeping the price down is like trying to hold an inner tube under water. As long as the US can print petrodollars, it can manage significant price rises, but 1) eventually they will drive up the price of gasoline; 2) they instantaneously drive up the overhead costs of every corporation that uses light bulbs, instantaneously cutting their profit margins and stock values and driving away investment capital, which forces them to turn to other overhead costs like labor merely to stay alive, driving down jobs, salaries and benefits, driving down consumption of consumer goods, driving down prices and profit margins and go back to 2 rinse and repeat. If the price of gas goes up to five dollars a gallon, it will no longer be cost effective to drive to minimal paying job with no benefits, job security, or retirement provision. As soon as it costs more to get to work than one is paid for working, one stops going to work. In an environment of energy production in which full capacity can barely contain transportation costs below this critical point, small disruptions in the hydrocarbon supply chain start to threaten the entire macroeconomy. This set of conditions is not compatible with the spread of democracy which US capitalism claims to be concerned with. Democracy is unstable and unpredictable. A couple of little bombs go off on the subway during rush hour, and everybody starts voting Socialist. It is therefore no longer a matter of foreign policy being decided upon rationally by altruistic technocrats, but an increasingly desperate series of damage control crises, the illegal, oppressive and genocidal nature about which the corporate capitalist political powers have as little choice as prisoners in Iraq about posing for souvenir snapshots.

Persian Peril

Persian Peril: "Then in 1978, in neighboring Afghanistan, the Washington-approved strong man Mohammed Daoud Khan began arresting the leaders of the influential People's Democratic Party, a pro-Soviet political formation that had substantial support within the Afghan army. As it turns out, this was an action that Washington was fomenting in order to provoke a Soviet response - hoping to trap the Russians in a guerrilla struggle in Afghanistan. The author of this plot was none other than arch-realist/technocrat Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security advisor. It worked. The leftist officers organized a coup against Daoud and shot him, establishing a secular socialist government. The CIA began funneling support to right-wing clerical opponents of the regime inside and outside Afghanistan, and the Soviets were eventually drawn into a protracted and destructive military occupation of Afghanistan. As part of this fight against the left, the Shah in neighboring Iran increased his repression of left secular forces inside Iran, driving them back into a tactical alliance with Iran's own clerical right-wing, and this alliance poured into the streets in 1978. That security crisis exacerbated the existing economic and political crisis that broke Pahlavi's power. Carter's Ambassador in Tehran, William Sullivan, tried to warn the administration of the impending revolution. A contingency plan was even organized for a US military takeover of Iran that was later rejected as unlikely to succeed. In 1979 the Shah was overthrown; the clerical forces had suppressed the secular left; and fifty-two Americans were taken hostage inside the US Embassy in Tehran. For the US, this was an utter debacle, and it led to Jimmy Carter's defeat in the 1980 election. When Reagan's people took power, they turned to the one leader in the region who might be able to confront Persian-clerical Iran: Iraq's Arab secular nationalist, Saddam Hussein, even as the administration was colluding behind the scenes with Iran to finance its illegal war in Nicaragua. Massively supported by the US, Saddam's Iraq inaugurated a grueling eight-year, high-attrition border war with Iran that chewed up around a million human beings. On the other side of Iran, in Afghanistan, the US was providing massive materiel and training support to the Sunni jihadists who would eventually constitute the Taliban government of Afghanistan and the network associated with Osama bin Laden. This element operated out of Pakistan for more than a decade, and came to exert a tremendous social and political influence on large sectors of Pakistan, including its intelligence service and military. This foreign policy kept at least one partner stable within the region, tacking back and forth between the tides and currents. It developed a partnership with Zionist Israel as a surrogate US military in the region, and the result has been a relatively stable American hegemony over the area for the last sixty years. But such a policy causes pressurized violence in the imperial periphery, the kind that eventually burst into the imperial center on September 11th, 2001. It came not from Iran, and not from Iraq, but from Saudi Arabia and tangentially from Pakistan in response to the basing of military troops in Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam."

How the war on terror is still the same old cold war against world socialism now so perverted by religion that it's no longer recognizable as class war. You need a subscription to FTW to read this stuff, which I strongly recommend, as it's on the cutting edge of several historically vital issues, especially the implications of declining global oil reserves, drug trafficking and the CIA, and, except for this guy who seems still to think the 9/11 plot originated in Saudi Arabia, the false flag terrorist attacks of 2001. At least he gets the nothing particularly neo about the "neocons" thing and puts the role of Zionist Israel in its proper perspective as Pinocchio, not Giapetto.

Heat of Battle Takes Toll on U.S. Forces

Heat of Battle Takes Toll on U.S. Forces " NAJAF, Iraq — In two days of combat, U.S. Army Spc. Steve Koetting dodged bullets, overcame sleep deprivation and endured the stress of fighting grave-to-grave in a cemetery against an enemy who rarely showed his face. In the end, however, it was Iraq's oppressive heat that put the 21-year-old soldier on his back and out of the fight."

Mother Nature opposes the war.

My Way News

My Way News: "Florida braced for a potential double dose of hurricanes Thursday, ordering Florida Keys visitors to get out of Hurricane Charley's path and preparing for possible flooding as Tropical Storm Bonnie approached the already soaked Panhandle. ... The prospect of back-to-back hurricanes prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to declare a state of emergency ..."

Mother Nature punches her chad.

New Guantanamo Bay torture allegations incriminate Australian government

New Guantanamo Bay torture allegations incriminate Australian government: "White House and Blair government officials immediately attempted to deny the contents of the report, but additional evidence emerged on August 8 with the publication of letters from Martin Mubanga, a British citizen still being held in Guantanamo Bay. Mubanga’s letters, which were written in a coded-mixture of London street-slang, Cockney, Jamaican patois and rap lyrics, and therefore not understood by US military censors, revealed that he had been subjected to physical violence and threatened with sexual humiliation. Mubanga wrote of “radix”, slang for the authorities or police, and about the “bull boy” guards “giving it large”, a reference to the use of violence. Other passages in the correspondence accused the guards of threatening him with sexual abuse. The letters confirm statements by Spanish, French and Swedish citizens repatriated from Guantanamo Bay over the past four months. ... He had seen Habib being dragged around in chains and bashed by army guards at Guantanamo Bay, and American interrogators had told the Australian that his wife and children had been killed."

Nobody has yet asked John Kerry whether, knowing what we know now, he would shut down the torture camps we are now famous for running. Anyone planning to vote for him should acknowledge that they are therefore voting for this historic war crime perpetrated mostly against perfectly innocent people. There seems to be an attempt to make the crimes at Abu Ghraib prison merely the work of some out of control macho National Guardsmen trying to impress their equally wacko (and perverted) girlfriends, but that doesn't explain why identical crimes, including the polaroids, were carried out by the British in their prison camps, and similar treatment without the polaroids is going on in Cuba. In the case of the British, the bizarre abuses were only allegedly discovered when one of the soldiers tried to get his souvenir fotos developed at a local apothecary, and the druggist called the gov't. How did the US fotos get to the press?

Britain: anti-terror raids condemned as victimisation

Britain: anti-terror raids condemned as victimisation: "Police have refused to reveal the identities of those detained, and have not given details of the allegations against them. That has not prevented the British media from indulging in highly speculative and lurid claims that a major terrorist network has been uncovered. ... It has subsequently been revealed that Khan had been working as a covert agent for Pakistani intelligence in a sting operation against Al Qaeda suspects internationally ... Ahmad was previously arrested in December, when detectives apparently discovered the 2001 battle-group documents, said to give details of the ships’ movements in the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf. But the case against him was so flimsy that he was released without charge six days later. ... His rearrest came just two days before he was due to speak at an STP conference about the police violence he allegedly suffered during his previous detention. An STP action alert states: 'It is rather convenient that the British establishment are now seeking to eliminate the very individual who has exposed and widely publicised the extent of police brutality and the arbitrariness of their arrests.' ... “Surely if there had been a shred of incriminating evidence it would have been found in the forensic search of his property, in the intricate scans of his computers or in the raid of his workplace. ... In a strident defence of his son, Ashfaq denounced the allegations against him as 'wild and ridiculous lies. My son is completely and totally innocent. He is an average, law-abiding young man who has never been in trouble—he has never even had a parking ticket. My son is not a terrorist—he is a junior IT support officer.' ... 'Don’t they understand they are destroying other people’s lives just to please the USA?'"

The extradition to a country known for its human rights abuses refers to the US.

US commanders stop troops from protecting Iraqi torture victims

US commanders stop troops from protecting Iraqi torture victims: "The US military’s intervention to protect the torturers and abandon their victims says a great deal about the American occupation of Iraq. It gives the lie to the claims that the installation of the interim government represents a “transition to democracy” in Iraq, and demolishes the official US position on torture at US-run prisons such as Abu Ghraib—namely, that any incidences of prisoner abuse are aberrations carried out by a few “bad apples,” and not the product of US policy decisions. ... The sentry radioed his battalion headquarters to report the abuse. According to the statements of one anonymous soldier, the distressed sentry threatened to begin shooting the torturers if something wasn’t done. ... The Guardsmen were told by the Interior Ministry interrogators that the prisoners were 'all dangerous criminals, and most were thieves, users of marijuana, and other types of bad people.'"
This is part of the transition to democracy. They don't have a system in place yet where they can limit elections to two candidates who both serve US imperialist war mongering interests. John Kerry must be able to show that Iraq is becoming a self-reliant country where all torture of Iraqis is carried out by Iraqis.

Kerry: "I would still have voted for Iraq war"

Kerry: "I would still have voted for Iraq war" "While polls indicate that fully half of the American population is opposed to the war in Iraq—including a large majority of Democratic voters—the tens of millions who want an end to the killing have been politically disenfranchised. The threadbare slogan of “anybody but Bush” has, whatever the subjective intentions of those who embrace it, assumed the objective political significance of facilitating a continuation of the war and occupation, as well as the attacks on social conditions and democratic rights that are the inevitable domestic counterpart of militarism."
A vote for Kerry is a vote for more war, more dead Americans, more dead Iraqis, more invasions of more countries, and ultimately, the drafting of your own children, as the poverty draft is not enough even to continue the occupation of Iraq into 2005.

My Way News

My Way News Bush mocks Kerry for agreeing with him.

MSNBC - Colin Powell will skip GOP convention

MSNBC - Colin Powell will skip GOP convention "With Bush in a close race against Democratic nominee John Kerry, Powell’s stature with both Republicans and Democrats who favor a cautious approach to world problems could be an asset to the president. In fact, Powell has defended Bush’s foreign policy in interviews and speeches, dismissing Kerry’s assertions that the president is inclined to go it alone in dangerous overseas ventures and favors pre-emptive action."

I'll be spending the week out of town. I'm glad the protesters finally rejected the "stand by the river so your body parts don't hit any tourists" plan, but militating for John Kerry is too much for me. It seems Powell still wants a political career when the evil Bush cabal takes the sins of the war mongers back to Texas and leaves a bunch of innocents stuck with having to support the troops in Washington, so he hopes we'll forget the UN and still see him as a moderate dove-like general who got his medals in the Peace Corps. Maybe he has more children who need jobs.

Bin Laden hints major assassination - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - August 11, 2004

Bin Laden hints major assassination - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - August 11, 2004: "The assassination plan is among new details of al Qaeda plots disclosed by U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the kiilling could be carried out against a U.S. or foreign leader either in the United States or abroad. ... The planning for the attacks to follow involves "multiple targets in multiple venues" across the United States... The new details of al Qaeda's plans were found on a laptop computer belonging to arrested al Qaeda operative Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan of Pakistan. "We're talking about planning at the screwdriver level," one official said. "It is very detailed.""

Only despite the fact that Khan was our mole, we just found out about it, and despite the screwdriver, we don't know who or where. I have nothing to add to this BS from the Moonie right wint Washington Times, but that, with Porter Goss as head of the CIA, a PR nightmare for the Bushes for the sake of three months? Or do they think they'll be reelected? Or do they have screwdriver level intelligence about the disrupting of the election? Porter Goss will probably never get to the bottom of why the Paki ISI official responsible for wiring money to M Atta was having breakfast (by their own account, who knows?) in DC with... Porter Goss. For possible motives see article below suggesting veiled threats by the Bush fascists against whistle blowing politicians. They've brought back the "female suicide bomber" scenario as if it's new. This provides an excuse to search women, and it raises the question whether it's possible to plant bombs in women's bags and detonate them remotely. They have sketchy reports that a new bin Laden video may emerge soon. We don't know; we're discussing whether anyone will buy it before we send it to al Jazeera. After being called ridiculous by the Brits, their only staunch collaborators, and very disturbing by the Pakis, their puppet CIA, they've decided, instead of dropping the issue like a hot anthrax letter, they've decided to raise the BS level from elevated to high. Now they're stuck. Any gov't cabal capable of "permitting" a terrorist attack to take place would almost be obliged to wish for one soon to salvage any credibility. Watch out for the power of positive thinking.

Spain: Commission of Inquiry into Madrid bombings allows rightwing to regroup

Spain: Commission of Inquiry into Madrid bombings allows rightwing to regroup "The most explosive discovery before the commission opened were reports leaked to El Pais from Madrid’s Anti-Terrorist Brigade. Aimed at deflecting criticism from the security services, the internal reports described how the perpetrators of the bombings had been under direct surveillance since February 2003. This surveillance continued, according to El Pais, until two weeks before the bomb blasts. The unit was photographing the suspects, tapping their telephones and monitoring their homes. One of those under surveillance was Sharhane Ben Abdel Majid Fakhet, leader of the group that carried out the bombings, and Jamal Zougam arrested for placing the bombs on the train. The report asserted that in the weeks before the bombings the unit was removed from the case, and transferred to provide security for the wedding of Crown Prince Felipe to ex-TV anchorwoman Letizia Ortiz in May. If true, the removal of surveillance has all the hallmarks of an official stand-down that gave Al Qaeda a free reign in Madrid. Still the PSOE continued to cover for the PP. On July 1 the PSOE government refused to release some of the reports requested by the commissioners, including a 150-page report on the investigation between March 11 to April, 57-pages of which detail the immediate actions taken and decisions made after the blast."

Despite the fascist conspiracy behind the Madrid bombings (now accusing the left wing of a conspiracy) and the attack and subsequent commission investigation following the same script as the US version, the socialists don't seem to have taken the same step beyond allowing it to happen and actively assisting it that they have in the article below. The common thread here is old fascism: Franco fascists in the security services and Hitler financier legacies in the CIA.

Two "sting" operations raise disturbing questions about US terror alert

Two "sting" operations raise disturbing questions about US terror alert "The alternative explanation is that elements within the US security apparatus made a decision to blow up the Pakistani sting operation. The exposure was not a chance slip by a single official, but a deliberate policy that included a concerted media blitz by the administration to tout the “treasure trove” in Khan’s computer. The question is, what was the motive for terminating the Khan operation? Two answers suggest themselves: either the sting was getting too close to Al Qaeda operatives that at least some in Washington did not want to see captured, or it was threatening to disrupt another operation that they wanted to see completed. This is an administration that utilized the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as the justification for all of its policies since—most particularly, the long-planned war to conquer Iraq and its oil fields. Ample evidence suggests that this casus belli did not fall out of the blue. ...Was this a matter of criminal negligence, or was a deliberate decision taken to either permit or actively assist in the carrying out of a terrorist attack on US soil in order to create popular support for war? ... Have elements within the US administration been warned about another attack, and are they prepared to allow it to take place in order to terrorize the American people into reelecting Bush—or provide a pretext for canceling the November election? ... It is revealing that, in the midst of a terror alert in three major cities and a nationwide attempt by the government and media to whip up fear and hysteria, the only significant arrests conducted in the US are of people lured into a phony plot invented by the government itself."

And not even a plot against Americans. The socialists finally say not just "permit" but "actively assist."

International News Article | Reuters.com

International News Article | Reuters.com: "'It was clear he was close to the group and supporting them, but if you want to charge someone as an accessory, you have to prove he really knew something,' a Hamburg security source told Reuters."
In Germany. There they want testimony from Moussaoui et al before convicting people for 9/11. In America we just throw the rat bastards in jail to rot and forget about them. No. Nobody here cares what that Moussy bastard has to say.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nature 'mankind's gravest threat'

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nature 'mankind's gravest threat': "Giant tsunamis, super volcanoes and earthquakes could pose a greater threat than terrorism, scientists claim."
A bit more sophisticated global warming denial from the BBC than from Time Magazine below. Tsunamis, caused by industrial capitalist messing with the greenhouse effect, is tossed in with volcanoes, earthquakes, and asteroids, and then the only Tsunami danger mentioned results from a volcano. Duh?

t r u t h o u t - Pakistan Outraged over Another U.S. Anti-Terror Blunder

t r u t h o u t - Pakistan Outraged over Another U.S. Anti-Terror Blunder: "Two men are being held in the US for allegedly laundering money for an agent posing as a militant who wanted to use a missile to kill Mr. Akram.Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan asked why the US authorities had not picked an American "target" instead."
What BS. What difference does it make? What it really means is that the US gov't knows that Islamic terrorists aren't really out to kill Americans.

My Way News

My Way News: "'We don't think a journalist should be required to give up a confidential source. We're going to appeal it as far as it goes.'Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, said the network agreed that forcing reporters to testify about their sources is "contrary to the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press.'"
Like they used the Voter Rights Act to deny the vote to Fla Blacks, they use the First Amendment to perpetrate their coup against Constitutional rights and liberties.

My Way - News

My Way - News: "the Massachusetts senator said: 'I'll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively.'"
Wrong answer John. At least Bush can claim to have an excuse.

Ex-Enron chief Lay files for quick start to trial - Aug. 9, 2004

Ex-Enron chief Lay files for quick start to trial - Aug. 9, 2004: "'Ken Lay is innocent and he wants a trial, and he's entitled to a speedy trial,'"
It must have been hard waiting four years. I guess he wants to get it done in time for his presidential pardon.

TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine -- Why the West Is Burning

TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine -- Why the West Is Burning: "Scientists believe this dry spell, which has plagued a broad swath of the West since 1999, is more typical of the region than its 60 million inhabitants would care to admit." Time Magazine pretends that it's not just denying global warming here. In fact, in five pages, Ms. Nash/Sage somehow manages to omit any mention of global warming. "Scientists" pretends to say most scientists, or the preponderance of legitimate scientists, but in fact it doesn't. What causes the drought? El nino. But what causes el nino? Dunno; stay tuned I guess. There are no theories worth the breath it takes to deny them. The usual tactic of pointing to historical climate changes, even a thousand years ago, to deny the artificial causes of climate change today (just a lucky guess by scientists who hate our freedoms) are trundled out, but without apparently any consciousness of what they're designed to deny. Political leaders are turning to scientists for help, she tells us, but without apparently any conscousness that they are looking for ways for their oil/auto/energy etc. corporate pimps to deny responsibility for it which the already published consensus assigns them: a curious admission for a writer paid by the same corporate pimps. Mother Nature's aim is getting better: the hurricanes are hitting closer to DC and the fires are creeping up on Hollywood. Tidal waves won't save the world from californication, but fires will. Despite the long winded excuse for the corporate capitalists and their whores and fans to deny responsibility for the coming catastrophe; despite the failure to explain similarly catastrophic and simultaneous climate anomalies all over the world, at least Ms. Nash/Sage got the catastrophe right. So what? Blame whom you choose; you're all done. To the schmuck who called me a "tree hugger" in 1989 for suggesting the future was less than paradisal, hug this.

My Way News

My Way News: "'I think a presidential election year is a marvelous thing. I think Senator Kerry is a patriot. And I think what ... what we're doing is, we're seeing an attempt to sort of draw the lines between the two parties in this country. And I wouldn't have it any other way," Franks said." Well that's big of him after his valiant defense of the Constitution in Afghanistan and Iraq and discussion of the pros and cons of martial law in Cigar Officianado.

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004?

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004Sun Aug 08 2004 09:59:10 ET: "TIME MAG DETAILS EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE AL-QAEDA ATTACK ON U.S. ‘This is looking more real every day,’ says senior intelligence official. FBI official warned a congressional leader he and others could be targeted in Washington and on trips around U.S." More wishful thinking from the Department of Homeland Propaganda. Instead of dropping the issue as usual when it doesn't pass the smell test, let's get the Brits to help us trump it up to high heaven. This warning to congressional leaders reminds me of the anthrax attack. Only they were busted outright making the stuff themselves that time. It also reminds me of Muhammed the sniper, the world's record holder for arrest to gas chamber without a peep out of him. There was some talk of politicians getting sniped at the golf course at the time. It sounds like a reminder to any politician thinking of jumping on the Michael Moore whistle blowing wave that if they get killed by "terrorists," nobody in the US press will raise any more eyebrows than they did at Wellstone going down with his whole family in another Dem plane crash.

The New York Times > Washington > Security: Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target

The New York Times > Washington > Security: Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target: "The seized files are now being subjected to intensive analysis by British and American intelligence, but they appear to contain evidence of previously unknown terrorist planning activities in the United States, the official said. As a result, Bush administration officials are preparing for the possibility of expanded public and private threat alerts... The senior intelligence official and security advisers to President Bush have said they increasingly see the intelligence about the financial institutions and about possible plans by Al Qaeda to stage an attack in the United States as part of a unified terror plot to disrupt the elections in the fall... An article in the Aug. 8 issue of Time magazine said that after conducting surveillance of the Prudential building in Newark, operatives of Al Qaeda wrote a report suggesting that a limousine carrying enough explosives to destroy the building might be able to enter the parking lot more easily than trucks or vans...As a result, Bush administration officials are preparing for the possibility of expanded public and private threat alerts." What possible reason does Mr. Bush suggest for al Qaeda wanting to disrupt an election that, if fair, Mr Bush will lose by a landslide? Wasn't Mr. Bush just discussing ways to disrupt, I mean postpone the election himself? After that plan got panned in the press, al Qaeda is discovered to have the same plan. Since limosines have been specified as a weapon of choice for the mad bombers, will they stop and search limosines like they did commercial vans? The problem with suicide bombers is just that they don't need four years of surveillance since they don't plan to get away. They can blow up anything at any time unless there are concrete barracades around it. Real terrorists would not spend years planning spectacular attacks, but would just kill people with dynamited mailboxes all over the country at random. Helicopters have no advantage over car bombs except for surveillance, and my guess is that they simply found aerial fotos in their own undercover mole's possession which, since they can't have come from police or military helicopters, must come from tourist helicopters, but why wouldn't their mole have police fotos? This comic book fantasy of terrorist threats is being brought to you by the very people who trumped up Saddam's nuclear threat, no matter how they tried to distance themselves from it afterward. CIA and MI6 were flabbergasted and offended that Bush and Blair did not report the intelligence they gave them accurately to the public. Nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of imperialist war mongering.

CNN.com - International team to monitor presidential election - Aug 8, 2004

CNN.com - International team to monitor presidential election - Aug 8, 2004: "Thirteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 election, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July, asking him to send observers...In November 2002, OSCE sent 10 observers on a weeklong mission to monitor the U.S. midterm elections. OSCE also sent observers to monitor the California gubernatorial recall election last year." But both these elections were rigged. In 2002, not only did opinion polls suddenly reverse direction at the last minute, putting Republicans ahead where they were being trounced, with Zogby saying about a poll he decided to do personally "I goofed," but they used the same fraudulent rolls from 2000 in Fla. (which they will apparently again in November). In California, besides a bought and paid for petition drive by the richest Christian fruitcake in the state and his corporate cronies, it's simply incredible that the population sick of the corporate pandering of Grey Davis would vote to replace him with an obvious corporate shill like Arnold (but watching some of the "reality" TV out of Hollywood, I guess anything is possible out there). Perhaps the OSCE had something to do with the numerous reports of improprieties in 2002, many to do with computer voting machine malfunctions which always favor Repubs, but we see how much difference such numerous reports make.

Neo-Con, QED

Neo-Con, QED: "This meaning too makes eminent sense for Bush-Cheney and their gang of power-drunk warlords. For how about those (unreported in the U.S.A.) incidents of American armed forces maiming and murdering Afghan children? Or of American troops shooting at ambulances evacuating the war-wounded in Iraq? Or of Americans dropping their daisy-cutter bombs in civilian areas in Afghanistan? Or of Americans sadistically torturing and giving frightful beatings to their Afghani and Iraqi prisoners-of-war? No question about it, mate, these are crimes. And war-crimes at that."
Neo-con means not a real conservative republican like us: a fake puppet of the zionist jew puppet masters whose philosophy goes back to Trotskyism or whatever lets us distance ourselves from the Bushes we voted into the White House to restore integrity and honesty. Otherwise, what fools are we all our lives to support the American right wing because they'll save the unborn babies they really poison every day with their polluting corporate prostitution? And because we're suckers for anyone that uses the word God in their campaign lies? This way, we can still vote for Repub congressmen, and when Bush leaves in Jan and takes the five or six fellow cabalists with him, we can go back to blaming the liberals for all the problems, and make sure the corporate whores we put in the congress can keep them from doing any more damage.

Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | Why Bush could be a fan of terror

Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | Why Bush could be a fan of terror: "Did al-Qaeda, last March, aim to overthrow José María Aznar's government and set Spanish forces scurrying home from Iraq? Subsequent trial evidence doesn't wholly confirm that."
Is UK Observer suggesting Osama actually works for Bush? Wasn't the Bali bombing a way of cementing support for, not opposition to, the war by Indonesia?

t r u t h o u t - Nader Fails to Make California Ballot

t r u t h o u t - Nader Fails to Make California Ballot: "'(Nader) can't just say, 'Sure, I affected the election, but who cares?' ' Stone said. 'That's just a much less compelling argument now.'" So they signed for Arnold but not for Ralph. Stupid or rigged, either way they lose.

Drought-Stricken Cubans Get By On A Trickle Of Water

Drought-Stricken Cubans Get By On A Trickle Of Water: Still, in communist Cuba, social solidarity is deeply ingrained, and the few remaining people with water on their property open wells and hoses to neighbors. Capitalists, on the other hand, think it's a good time for a bigger embargo.

Remotely Reading A Person's Mental State

Remotely Reading A Person's Mental State Oh great, and they're in my neighborhood.

My Way News

My Way News: "In 48 hours, Rep. Rodney Alexander went from Democrat to Republican, friend to foe - or foe to friend, depending on your political persuasion."
Another southern Republican comes out of the closet.

My Way - News

My Way - News: "A San Francisco computer expert duped international media on Saturday into believing Islamist kidnappers had executed an American hostage in Iraq by staging his own mock beheading on the Internet."
Wasn't that guy Berg a computer geek with his own company? This article doesn't really say what the guy's point was in finding out how quickly a phony video would spread.

My Way News

My Way News: "'Information from arrests in Pakistan, taken together with information gathered by the U.S. intelligence community, indicated that al-Qaida has cased financial targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., and has recently updated their targeting information," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "This information was buttressed by other information we already had." He did not elaborate on the "other information.""
Bush says, but see below we don't know who did the casing, only who ended up with the pictures. See fotos of Bush suddenly becoming the loving father of two clean American daughters. I hear Barbara Jr.'s going to Africa soon to teach about abstinence.

My Way News

My Way News: "The first-person accounts detailed by the prosecutors add to long-standing claims that al-Qaida laundered millions of dollars in terror funds through African diamonds before launching its deadliest offensive. Al-Qaida figures, including some already wanted in pre-Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. targets, dealt directly with then-President Charles Taylor and other leaders and warlords in the West African country of Liberia from 1999 onwards, according to the accounts. The witnesses told of meetings and sightings in the seedy hotels and safehouses of Monrovia, the blighted capital of what was then a rogue nation."
In this one, they bust al Qaeda as mere diamond smugglers. You're supposed to believe the diamond smuggling was just to get money to kill you with rather than what these people do for a living before they're recruited for CIA dirty work.

My Way News

My Way News: "U.S. counterterror officials have said previously that they believe al-Hindi, known by dozens of aliases, was the author of documents describing surveillance at U.S. financia buildings during 2000 and 2001. The documents, written in fluent English, were found among a trove of papers, computer files, sketches and photographs recovered during mid-July raids in Pakistan...The government commission that investigated the 2001 attacks included in its final report accounts of Mohammed's interviews after his arrest in Pakistan in 2003. Throughout the report, al-Hindi is referred to as al-Britani but U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have confirmed they are the same person. ...Mohammed told interrogators he sent al-Hindi in early 2001 to do surveillance on possible economic and "Jewish" targets in New York. The mission was ordered by al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, Mohammed said."
Note they don't tell you who referred to al Hindi as al Britani. Here is your terrorist network. One spook busted in Pakistan who fingers other spooks trying to recruit for jihad against Russia. All tied to Osama except mysterious sources of US govt documents and US photos.

My Way - News

My Way - News: "'The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse,' said Tim Ripley, a security expert who writes for Jane's Defense publications. 'You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place? "It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?" A source such as Khan -- cooperating with the authorities while staying in active contact with trusting al Qaeda agents -- would be among the most prized assets imaginable, he said. "Running agents within a terrorist organization is the Holy Grail of intelligence agencies. And to have it blown is a major setback..."
More on busting your own spook

Rev Moon's Mysterious Empire...And Influence

Rev Moon's Mysterious Empire...And Influence: "Even more disturbing is the fact that DIA documents indicate that one of Moon's salvage companies bought 12 decommissioned Russian missile submarines and then transferred them to North Korea. The Washington Times on May 24, 1994 downplayed the issue in this manner: 'A South Korean foreign ministry official states that the Russian submarines purchased by North Korea have had their weapon systems removed and are so obsolete that they are unusable for offensive purposes...'" Scrap or not they prop up the idea that NK can launch a nuclear attack with some flimsy nodongs if they sneak up on the west coast. This is what I think somebody has in mind. Here's my evidence: early this summer there were strange and unexplained meteor events from San Diego to Seattle; Rumsfeld has ordered the missile defense shield to be up by October (i.e. before the election); a new missile defense complex was just placed in Alaska; the fake recovery financed apparently by Citigroup is unsustainable; the troops in Iraq must be replaced soon, and nobody's joining up; and while, on the one hand, it looks like the capitalists are throwing in with Kerry=Carter=Clinton kinder gentler capitalist imperialist war monger, I can't believe they went to all that trouble blasting underground facilities for the Executive branch just to hand it all to a Democrat.

t r u t h o u t - Halliburton Accused of Fraud under Cheney

t r u t h o u t - Halliburton Accused of Fraud under Cheney: "New York - Halliburton Co. and several top executives intentionally engaged in 'serial accounting fraud' from 1998 to 2001, including when it was led by Vice President Dick Cheney." Anybody remember Spiro Agnew?

News

News: "There were strong hints that Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, could for the first time apply his emergency powers..." State of Emergency and postponed elections. Sure glad I don't live in Iraq.

MSNBC - Pakistan: U.S. blew undercover operation

MSNBC - Pakistan: U.S. blew undercover operation: "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The al-Qaida suspect named by U.S. officials as the source of information that led to this week’s terrorist alerts was working undercover, Pakistani intelligence sources said Friday, putting an end to the sting operation and forcing Pakistan to hide the man in a secret location. Under pressure to justify the alerts in three Northeastern cities, U.S. officials confirmed a report by The New York Times that the man, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, was the source of the intelligence that led to the decision." Now think. Is it likely that ISI didn't tell CIA about undercover investigation. They justify the crowd control training op by identifying their source as their own spook. Well they did say he must have had contacts in US.

US Biological Attacks And Operations On US Citizens

US Biological Attacks And Operations On US Citizens: "1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections." Read the highlights of US biowarfare history from 1931. Texas and Florida, what a shock. Testing on prisoners? You don't suppose they're testing anything on the wacko guards at Abu Ghraib?

Yahoo! News - Kerry Raps Bush on Initial 9/11 Inaction

Yahoo! News - Kerry Raps Bush on Initial 9/11 Inaction: " The Democratic challenger said he'd never waver — "I can fight a more effective, smarter and better war on terror that actually makes America safer," Kerry told Missouri voters." But where are you going to get the troops John? Expecting a new wave of recruits to go join the fun at Abu Ghraib? Poverty draft? No wonder McCain comes to his defense. He's a Vietnam mole like him. Oh yeah, being staked to the ground by gooks made me a liberal.

UAL Flight 93 Landed Safely At Cleveland Hopkins Airport

UAL Flight 93 Landed Safely At Cleveland Hopkins Airport: "White said the plane had been moved to a secure area of the airport, and was evacuated. United identified the plane as Flight 93. The airline did not say how many people were aboard the flight." OK. Explain this.

My Way News

My Way News: AP "Payroll figures released early Friday showed employers added just 32,000 jobs last month, data low enough to warrant worries that a slowing in the economy in June may have been more than just a brief pause."
They really thought employment was recovering. This loose grip on reality among our business and political elites is more frightening than el nino. If the slowing economy since 2000, I mean, since June was only a brief pause, what did they think all the crowd control training was for?

My Way - News

My Way - News: "LONDON (Reuters) - A British man accused of raising money through Internet sites in the United States for Islamic militants in Chechnya and Afghanistan was remanded in custody by a British court Friday on a U.S. extradition warrant."
They're probably not getting the support from the CIA they used to. Perhaps the Russians will send troops to Iraq in exchange for ceasing support of the "jihad" against them. Since the USS Cole bombing let them move the navy to the Gulf to protect the oil shipping lanes before the Iraq invasion, a few official instructions on how to launch grenades at carrier battle groups in 2001 might have helped make the case to launch it.