UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells

More on Depleted Uranium...this time from the UK's The Sunday Times:

RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.

Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.

Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from local sources.
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Impossible! Is it?

US conducts subcritical nuclear test: Krakatau

The Energy Department has confirmed the United States has carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment at an underground test site in Nevada on Thursday (2/23/06).
The test was aimed at gathering ''scientific data that provides crucial information to maintain the safety and reliability of... nuclear weapons without having to conduct underground nuclear tests,'' the department said.

Some anti-nuclear groups are concerned that the Bush administration is trying to accelerate its efforts to develop new nuclear arms through such tests.
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It's true...here is the National Nuclear Security Administration's Press Release

Note: The press release says that no nuclear explosions can occur during a non-critical test, but putting plutonium and chemical explosives together is a bad mix. For example, in 1963, a nuclear excursion occurred during a similar test. Nuclear excursion is what instigated the Chernobyl accident.

Quantum Computing...Ever closer

A quantum computer at a US University has solved a computational problem without running a program. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gleaned the answer to an algorithm by combining quantum computation and quantum interrogation (a technique that makes use of wave-particle duality to search a region of space without actually entering that region) in an optical-based quantum computer through a process called "counterfactual computation".

War on Norway Next???

Norwegian Bourse Director wants oil bourse - priced in euros

Dubai Ports World and the "6" US ports deal

Today, the UAE has offered to delay portions of the deal. What most do not realize is that the deal actually would involve 21 US ports, and the fact that a foreign company (P&O of Britain) currently run the 6 at the forefront of the story.

The only real concerns here are:

1. relationships between the company and Bush Adminsitrations officials

2. grease money the company and the ruling family of the UAE have given to the Bush family

3. the $100 million in for "Katrina Relief" the UAE sent the US just before the ports deal was reviewed

4. the UAE will also control two ports where the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command [military equipment logistics] load and unload equipment

5. the fact that the internal security review on the deal was done by an agency that is only a few months old and run by William F. Dawson who began work at the Intelligence Community Acquisition Risk Center in the middle of January 06.

Dubai Ports World is one of the leading ports management firms in the world. Many merchant mariners say they feel more secure in ports managaed by DPW than those in the US.

The point is: This needs to be reviewed very carefully. Bush's first veto in 5 years shouldn't come from his brash (his press secretary said "he just learned about the deal a few days ago from the media")run into handing over our port security to a foreign firm.

Ted Koppel: "The U.S. adventure in Iraq is about the oil."

While it's wrong to say that we invaded the country to take over its oil supply, Koppel writes in the Times, "the construction of American military bases inside Iraq, bases that can be maintained long after the bulk of our military forces are ultimately withdrawn, will serve to replace the bases that the United States has lost in Saudi Arabia. There may be other national security reasons that the United States cannot now precipitously withdraw its forces from Iraq, including the danger that the country would become a regional terrorist base; but none is greater than forestalling the ensuing power vacuum and regional instability, and the impact this would have on oil production...."Perhaps the day will come when the United States is no longer addicted to imported oil; but that day is still many years off. For now, the reason for America's rapt attention to the security of the Persian Gulf is what it has always been. It's about the oil."

Google Videos Blocked In US

"We're sorry, but the provider of this video has not authorized Google to display this video in your location." [This used to read, "This video is not available in your country."]

"This is a weapons cache found in Iraq, we detonated it with a few satchels of C4."

"The Strikeball News Infromation Game Status"

Something you will not see on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, or anything American

Top Iranian and Venezuelan lawmakers signed a document condemning nuclear weapons but saying all nations have a right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

From a Venezuelan News service

Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago

From Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist Bush tried to shut up...

A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels - and climate change - could be dramatic.

Yet, a few weeks ago, when I - a Nasa climate scientist - tried to talk to the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the Nasa public affairs team - staffed by political appointees from the Bush administration - tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored the restrictions. The first line of Nasa's mission is to understand and protect the planet.

This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the first time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining the Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at least 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years ago, when people still said the ice sheet was in balance.

Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just the beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping point beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. The issue is how close we are getting to that tipping point. The summer of 2005 broke all records for melting in Greenland. So we may be on the edge.
_________________________________

Link to a 2001-2003 Meltzone comparison of the Greenland Ice Sheet. (Note the stream coloration on left side of each of the photos. The water is black and green in the 2001 photo, but is icy blue in the 2003 photo implicating that water is rushing out of the sheet.)

Your cell phone is a miniature tracking device

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have seized on the ability to locate a cellular customer and are using it to track Americans' whereabouts surreptitiously--even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

A pair of court decisions in the last few weeks shows that judges are split on whether this is legal. One federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin on Jan. 17 ruled it was unlawful, but another nine days later in Louisiana decided that it was perfectly OK.

This is an unfortunate outcome, not least because it shows that some judges are reluctant to hold federal agents and prosecutors to the letter of the law.

It's also unfortunate because it demonstrates that the FBI swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) to track cellular phones--but then, secretly, went ahead and did it, anyway.

_______________________________________

The US Secret Service is developing the following:

The Wireless Tracking Device Program: The USSS portfolio is funding development of a handheld, man-portable, concealable, wireless tracking device for locating operators of wireless communication device(s) in difficult radio frequency environments such as an office building or an event stadium. Taken directly from the DHS FY2006 Congressional Justification Report. [see pg. S&T - 110]

AND,

Loss of Location Fidelity Program: The USSS portfolio will initiate an Optical & Chemical Tagging/Tracking Project under this program. This project’s objective will be the development of optical and chemical tags that are robust and covertly deployable. Additionally, the mechanism used for tracking of the “tagged” individual/item must also be covertly deployable. [see pg. S&T - 112 of the report]

January 4, 2006, post on the topic

US-India deal uncertain ahead of Bush visit

Non-proliferation experts have warned the deal would enable New Delhi to expand atomic weapons production and encourage Pakistan and China to do likewise, a violation of U.S. obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

For 30 years, the United States led the effort to deny India nuclear technology because it tested and developed nuclear weapons in contravention of international norms. Both India and neighbor and nuclear-armed rival Pakistan have refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But Bush now views India, a rising democratic and economic power on China's border, as an evolving U.S. ally and the new nuclear deal is central to that vision.
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The hypocrisy is thick. Iran, you can't have them...India, you can make more...Israel, ignore weapon inspectors and the NPT...Russia, quit selling them to terrorists...North Korea, uh...give us our ship back. Oh, and we are developing new ones, yippee!!!

To all those I've loved before...

The Bureaucracy Strikes Back By Nick Turse

State Department bureaus concerned with arms control and international security -- and nothing is ostensibly more important to the Bush administration -- have recently been "reorganized" to "better deal with 21st-century threats." This reorganization was done in secret (a typical administration thumbprint); evidently in violation of long-standing management and personnel practices (another telltale fingerprint); by a panel of political appointees (yet another, from the heck-of-a-job-Brownie crew); the result, predictably, has been chaos. "An exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters" has occurred and their replacements are (yet another Bush fingerprint) "political operatives," guaranteed to cause more chaos.

This administration is always after power and control; and, in their pursuit, sacrificing governance is never a problem, hardly even a consideration. Our unfettered commander-in-chief presidency desires only to be ever less fettered -- with its own hand-picked operatives ever more in positions of command in the Washington bureaucracy. It need not be capable of actually governing.

Fallen Legion I October14, 2005
Fallen Legion II November 27, 2005
Fallen Legion III February 12, 2006

more to come...

Feb. 9 - 12, 2006, USA TODAY/CNN GALLUP POLL

These results show that Americans trust the U.N. more than George W. Bush to handle the Iran issue, and that they are fearful of him using military force too quickly...or should I say, prematurely. [source]

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?

Approve 39%
Disapprove 56%
No opinion 4%

2. Would you say that you are financially better off now than you were a year ago, or are you financially worse off now?

Better off 37%
Worse off 39%
Same 24%

3. In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, or not?

Yes, a mistake 55%
No, Not 42%
No opinion 3%

3A. Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war with Iraq?

Favor 40%
Oppose 56%
No opinion 4%

3B. Who do you think is currently winning the war in Iraq — the U.S. and its allies, the insurgents in Iraq, or neither side?

U.S. and its allies 31%
Insurgents in Iraq 10%
Neither side 55%
No opinion 4%

4. Thinking about the efforts the federal government is making to rebuild areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina, do you think the federal government – is doing too much, is doing the right amount, or is not doing enough?

Too much 8%
Right amount 35%
Not enough 51%
No opinion 7%

5. What do you think the United States should do to get Iran to shut down its nuclear program – take military action against Iran now, use economic and diplomatic efforts but not take military action right now, or take no action against Iran at this time?

Take military action now 9%
Use economic/ diplomatic efforts 68%
Take no action at this time 18%
No opinion 5%

5A. Suppose the United States does take economic and diplomatic action, but those efforts do not work. If that happens, do you think the United States should – or should not – take military action against Iran?

Yes, should 40%
No, should not 49%
No opinion 11%

5B. How confident are you in the Bush administration’s ability to handle the situation in Iran – very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confident?

Very confident 17%
Somewhat confident 28%
Not too confident 27%
Not at all confident 28%
No opinion 1%

5C. How confident are you in the United Nations’ ability to handle the situation in Iran – very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confident?

Very confident 8%
Somewhat confident 39%
Not too confident 27%
Not at all confident 24%
No opinion 2%

5D. How concerned are you that the U.S. will be too quick to use military force in an attempt to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons – very concerned, somewhat concerned, not too concerned, or not concerned at all?

Very concerned 34%
Somewhat concerned 35%
Not too concerned 20%
Not concerned at all 10%
No opinion 1%

5F. Suppose Iran does develop nuclear weapons. Just your best guess, how likely is it that …

Iran would provide a nuclear weapon to terrorists who would use it against the United States
Very likely 50%
Some-what likely 30%
Not too likely 12%
Not at all likely 6%
No opinion 2%

Iran would provide a nuclear weapon to terrorists who would use it against Israel
Very likely 49%
Some-what likely 32%
Not too likely 12%
Not at all likely 4%
No opinion 4%

The Iranian government would use nuclear weapons against Israel
Very likely 41%
Some-what likely 36%
Not too likely 15%
Not at all likely 4%
No opinion 4%

The Iranian government would use nuclear weapons against the United States
Very likely 30%
Some-what likely 29%
Not too likely 26%
Not at all likely 12%
No opinion 2%

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Trust Gap

Click here for the full article...it's short and worth the read.

We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has deserved that trust less.
This has been a central flaw of Mr. Bush's presidency for a long time. But last week produced a flood of evidence that vividly drove home the point.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." -- Benjamin Franklin

The Plame Leak Investigation takes an unexpected turn

It turns out the Valerie Plame was working on IRANIAN nonproliferation at CIA. So...Cheney wants to remove her from the equation so he and Daddy's Boy can use faulty (at best), or false intelligence to invade Iraq and Iran.

Oh crap is right, Dick. But you have more important things to worry about right now...like, possible negligent manslaughter.

Clint Curtis, vote rigging whistleblower, considering a run for congress...against Tom Feeney!!!

This is one of those just-under-the-radar stories that will become national news if Curtis runs and takes a lead in the polls. It is also a story that touches the foundation of how vile the corruption has become in the state of Florida and this country.

Write this man, and tell him that you want him to run! Then call all of your rich friends, send them to bradblog.com's story about Clint Curtis, and tell them to donate to Clint's election fund. Then call the Orlando Sentinel (407-420-5000) and WFTV (407-841-9000) and ask them to do a story on Clint.

The 24th Congressional District (Central Florida) seat is currently occupied by Rep. Tom Feeney, the very man who Curtis has alleged once asked him to create a vote-rigging software prototype program back when both men worked for the software firm Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) in Oviedo, Florida.

bradblog article breaking the news that Curtis is considering a bid

From Mr. Curtis's election campaign website:
My name is Clint Curtis. I am considering running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida's 24th Congressional District. This great district is currently represented by one of the most corrupt politicians in history. Having personally attended closed-door meetings where Tom Feeney spoke candidly about his aspirations of corruption forces me to provide this district with an alternative to this man.

Previous post on Tom Feeney

Note: Feeney batters women when drunk...see the bottom of the previous post.

New GITMO photos

The Sydney Morning Herald published the photos Bush doesn't want you to think about...

UN inquiry demands immediate closure of Guantanamo

A United Nations inquiry has called for the immediate closure of America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre and the prosecution of officers and politicians "up to the highest level" who are accused of torturing detainees.

The UN Human Rights Commission report, due to be published this week, concludes that Washington should put the 520 detainees on trial or release them.

Related Christian Science Monitor report

From the DOD: final decisions on all 463 Administrative Review Board recommendations on detainees; these decisions consist of 14 releases (3 percent), 120 transfers (26 percent) and 329 continue to detain (71 percent).

Remember: Estimates range that from 50 - 80% of the detainees are non-combatants.

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John Bolton says, "I told you the UN is totally soft and unecessary!"

Syria Denominates in the Euro, Move away from the Dollar a message to the US

"It looks like a kind of pre-emptive action aimed at making their foreign assets safer, preventing them from getting frozen in case of any conflict," said a Middle East economist who requested anonymity.

CIA's top counterterrorism officer relieved of his position

The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as “water boarding”, intelligence sources have claimed.

Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism centre, was relieved of his post after a year in the job. One intelligence official said he was “not quite as aggressive as he might have been” in pursuing Al-Qaeda leaders and networks.

Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism at the agency, said: “It is not that Grenier wasn’t aggressive enough, it is that he wasn’t ‘with the programme’.

The Sunday Times (UK) article

The Washington Post article

Presidential Term Limits: I've been saying it for years...

Those who know me know that I'm completely convinced that Bush will make some attempt to stay in power beyond his second term. What's below may very well be evidence of just that...and some info from a Clinton/Dole debate that passed under my radar. Enjoy.

Thanks to Bob Cesca at the Huffinton Post.

The inscription noting the duration of Bush's presidential term doesn't read "2001-2009." It reads "2001-BLANK." In other words, the statue says he's going to be president from 2001 through infinity! Everyone knows that Bush is supposed to leave office in January of 2009. No mystery. No uncertainty. The 22nd Amendment makes it so. It's the law. No gray area.

Or is there?
________________________________

109th CONGRESS, 1st Session, H. J. RES. 24
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 17, 2005

Excerpt from a June 8, 2003, debate between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton on presidential term limits

Remember: It was the Republicans, in 1947, who pushed the 22nd Amendment through the Congress. It should also be noted that FDR based the necessity of his 3rd and 4th terms on the need for a stable government in the chaos that was WWII. George Washington said that "term limits would exclude from the presidency a man whose leadership might be essential in a time of emergency." I'm sure you will hear this quote used excessively during the course of the next two years.

US plans massive data sweep

By Mark Clayton Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor:

"We don't realize that, as we live our lives and make little choices, like buying groceries, buying on Amazon, Googling, we're leaving traces everywhere," says Lee Tien, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We have an attitude that no one will connect all those dots. But these programs are about connecting those dots - analyzing and aggregating them - in a way that we haven't thought about. It's one of the underlying fundamental issues we have yet to come to grips with."

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.

DHS officials are circumspect when talking about ADVISE. "I've heard of it," says Peter Sand, director of privacy technology. "I don't know the actual status right now. But if it's a system that's been discussed, then it's something we're involved in at some level."

________________________________

It's good to know that Peter Sand is so on top of his responsibilities...

Statement for the Record by Dr. Charles E. McQueary, Under Secretary for Science and Technology, Department of Homeland Security, Before the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Science, February 16, 2005

Report from Sandia and Lawrence Livermore Labs September 2004: Data Sciences Technology for Homeland Security Information Management and Knowledge Discovery

Presentation by Robert Burleson of Lawrence Livermore circa 2003: Information to Insight in a Counterterrorism Context

More soldiers suffer from DU

"I have good days, I have bad days," said M. Sterry, of New Haven, CT. "There were eight of us that served together. Six of my friends are dead."

She looks healthy, but Sterry is a very sick woman who has no idea how much longer she will live.

"I have good days, I have bad days. There were eight of us that served together. Six of my friends are dead."

"I've had three heart attacks, two heart surgeries. I have chronic headaches, chronic upper respiratory infections. I get pneumonia two or three times a year," she said. "I have chronic fatigue, joint aches, muscle aches. I have a rash that migrates all over my body."

Sterry figures the initial symptoms began in Saudi Arabia in September of 1991 while she was serving with the National Guard. Three years later, after completing her tour of duty and coming back home, the symptoms were still there, but much more severe.

Intel pros say Bush is lying about foiling 2002 terror attack

From The Rant By DOUG THOMPSON:

Outraged intelligence professionals say President George W. Bush is "cheapening" and "politicizing" their work with claims the United States foiled a planned terrorist attack against Los Angeles in 2002.

"The President has cheapened the entire intelligence community by dragging us into his fantasy world," says a longtime field operative of the Central Intelligence Agency. "He is basing this absurd claim on the same discredited informant who told us Al Qaeda would attack selected financial institutions in New York and Washington."

Within hours of the President’s speech Thursday claiming his administration had prevented a major attack, sources who said they were current and retired intelligence pros from the CIA, NSA, FBI and military contacted Capitol Hill Blue with angry comments disputing the President’s remarks.

"He’s full of shit,” said one sharply-worded email.
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Related article from today's Hartford Courant.

The TSA's Secure Flight program "has not been effectively managed and is at risk of failure." The program began testing in the last half of 2004. The February 9, 2006, GAO report on the topic states that "TSA has not completed any of the actions it had scheduled to accomplish."

Dick Cheney: What the bastard son of Joseph Stalin and Lizzy Borden has become

After dropping out of Yale he decided: politics.

His political career began during the Nixon administration at the United States Office of Economic Opportunity as a special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld beginning in the spring of 1969. He went on to weasel his way into becoming the youngest White House Chief of Staff undger Ford. (To achieve that, he and Rumsfeld pushed Ford to fire Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, tell Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to look for another job and remove Henry Kissinger from his post as national security adviser.)

From 1978 unitl 1989, he served as a member of the Congress representing Wyoming, his home state. Under George H. W. Bush he was the Secretary of Defense from 1989 unitl 1993.

When the Dems took back the presidency in 1993, he joined the American Enterprise Institute which has guided George W. Bush's policy and the neo-conservative movement very blatantly considering that over two dozen people from the Institute have been appointed to policy, panel and/or commission posts.

Of course, who could forget that he was the Chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995 until 2000. While he was at Halliburton he, William Kristol, Richard Perle, and Donald Rumsfeld founded the Project for the New American Century in 1997, with the stated goal of establishing "American global leadership". (Remember, PNAC called for a "new Pearl Harbor" to make that prospect a reality. [see page 51 of Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces, And Resources For A New Century])

In 2001, he became Vice President of the United States.

What are the most important things that he's done in all the intervening years?

Opposed legislation such as: Safe Drinking Water Act, funding for the Veterans Administration, extensions of the Civil Rights Act, creating the Department of Education, banning cop-killer bullets, banning plastic guns that could slip through metal detectors, requiring industry from making public records of emissions known to cause cancer, birth defects and other chronic diseases,

Fought the release of Nelson Mandela from jail in South Africa

Asked thousands to risk their lives while having deferred military service five times

Stumped for torture

Authorized the release of classified information to the media

Misled the country with forged intelligence documents into Iraq

Pushed for the consolidation of power in the president

Directed 911


Read the letter John Conyers sent to Bush and Cheney about the release of classified material here.

Straight from Abramoff's OUTBOX to Kim Eisler's INBOX [she's the national editor of Washingtonian magazine]

Thanks to ThinkProgress:

YES, I WAS INVITED [to Bush's Texas ranch for a 2003 fundraiser], DURING THE 2004 CAMPAIGN. IT WAS SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2003 AT THE RANCH IN CRAWFORD.

[with regards to Bush's claim he does not know Abramoff] HE HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET. IT WAS ONE IF [sic] HIS TRADEMARKS, THOUGH OF COURSE HE CAN’T RECALL THAT HE HAS A GREAT MEMORY! THE GUY SAW ME IN ALMOST A DOZEN SETTINGS, AND JOKED WITH ME ABOUT A BUNCH OF THINGS, INCLUDING DETAILS OF MY KIDS. PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. WHO KNOWS.
_______________________________

Bush is lying...again...

Hey, that kindergartener might be an Al-Qaedian

WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL Alberto Gonzalez assures the U.S. Senate that the Bush Administration’s domestic eavesdropping program is a vital “early warning system” for terrorists, another homeland security measure strikes at a local elementary school.

The kindergarten class at Lakewood’s Taft Elementary was planning a field trip to NASA Glenn Research Center. It’s a popular trip because it’s free, because the NASA staff already has age-appropriate tours that fit well with school curriculum, and, well, it’s outer space, for pete’s sake. They’ve got rocket ships.

But school principal Margaret Seibel says this year’s trip for Taft kindergarteners — we’re talking 6-year-olds here — had to be canceled due to homeland security concerns. Since new security regulations went into effect in May 1, 2005, access to the Visitor Center is restricted to United State citizens. All others might be terrorists.

No tourists from France, no exchange students from Tokyo and, no foreign national kindergarteners on field trips.

“I was told they would not make any exceptions,” Seibel says. Because two kids in the kindergarten class are not U.S. citizens, the teacher had to cancel the trip.

We are moving ever closer to the era of mind control

The military interest in new brain-scanning technology is beginning to show a sinister side, and Britain's lean towards minority reporting...

You want proof that Americans don't know much about the Iranian oil bourse?

Here it is.

Kevin Griffey is my hero

A San Diego man briefly disrupted yesterday's Senate hearing on domestic surveillance, calling Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “a lazy fascist” as a protest to the Bush administration's eavesdropping program. __________________________________

Really, Alberto, we couldn't have done it without you...

So much for non-proliferation: Lab officials excited by new H-bomb project

For the first time in more than 20 years, U.S. nuclear-weapons scientists are designing a new H-bomb, the first of probably several new nuclear explosives on the drawing boards.
_________________________________

There's this place in Texas...

Scott Ritter says the decision to invade Iran has already been made...sounds like Bush hasn't even revamped his Iraqi strategy: WMDs, WMDs!!!

The former U.N. weapons inspector who said Iraq disarmed long before the U.S. invasion in 2003 is warning Americans to prepare for a war with Iran. "We just don't know when, but it's going to happen," Scott Ritter said.

Ritter described how the U.S. government might justify war with Iran in a scenario similar to the buildup to the Iraq invasion. He also argued that Iran wants a nuclear energy program, and not nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration, he said, refuses to believe Iran is telling the truth.

He predicted the matter will wind up before the U.N. Security Council, which will determine there is no evidence of a weapons program. Then, he said, John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, "will deliver a speech that has already been written. It says America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves."

"How do I know this? I've talked to Bolton's speechwriter," Ritter said.

Ritter also predicted the military strategy for war with Iran. First, American forces will bomb Iran. If Iranians don't overthrow the current government, as Bush hopes they will, Iran will probably attack Israel. Then, Ritter said, the United States will drop a nuclear bomb on Iran.

The only way to prevent a war with Iran is to elect a Democratically controlled Congress in November, said Ritter, a lifelong Republican.

Scott Ritter on Wikipedia

Ritter claims that June is D-Day

Ritter was Time Magazine's Person of the Week, September 13, 2002

Former United Nations weapons inspector and ex-marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter told a crowd of about 500 gathered at the West Hartford Town Hall that, "...the Bush administration is fixing intelligence around policy on Iran," and that it could lead to a new US war in the Middle East. He noted that the administration used a similar approach in its current war in Iraq. "There is nothing to prevent the president from going to war in Iran. He has no respect for checks and balances. We're heading toward Tehran unless we get representatives in Congress who respect the constitution of the United States," he said.

FEMA CONCENTRATION CAMPS: Locations and Executive Orders

There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.

The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.

Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.

The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.

Personal account of a post-Katrina visit to one camp near Falls Creek, OK. [with photos]

Drug combination prevents HIV infection in monkeys

An injection of two drugs normally used to treat HIV patients completely protected monkeys from becoming infected with the AIDS virus, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

While it is too early to tell whether people can pop a pill and escape infection, the study provides the strongest evidence yet that it might be possible, the researchers said.

14 characteristics of Facism

by Dr. Lawrence Britt

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
4. Supremacy of the military
5. Rampant sexism
6. Controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and government intertwined
9. Corporate power protected
10. Labor power suppressed
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

EPA Final Rule allows pesticide testing on pregnant women, children

The final rule. Morality and ethics are dead under George W. Bush.

For background information read the previous post on the topic.

Ford White House considered warrantless wiretapping and decided against it for legal reasons

The National Security Archive at George Washington University revealed Friday that despite objections from then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then-CIA director George H. W. Bush, President Gerald Ford came down on the side of a proposed federal law to govern wiretapping in 1976 instead of relying on the "inherent" authority of the President because the "pros" outweighed the "cons," according to internal White House documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

White House counsel Philip Buchen described a Situation Room meeting on March 12, 1976 with Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Bush, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and attorney general Edward Levi (notably absent was White House chief of staff Richard Cheney) in which Buchen's and Levi's outline of the advantages of a wiretapping law reduced the "adamant opposition" to neutrality, allowing Levi to testify before Congress in favor of a wiretapping statute on March 29, 1976.

Buchen's talking points said the proposed law (ultimately enacted as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA) "avoids likelihood that … courts will eventually decide a warrant is required," "eliminates question of validity of evidence obtained," "protects cooperating communications carriers," and would not "materially inhibit surveillance of these kinds of targets."

On the "cons" side of his talking points, Buchen described exactly the arguments against such a law that the Bush administration has now adopted as the basis for its warrantless wiretapping: "requires resort to the judiciary for exercise of an inherent Executive power" and "could result in troublesome delays or even a denial of authority in particular cases."

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In related news, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA; senator in charge of a hearing on the program) said Sunday he believes that President Bush violated a 1978 law specifically calling for a secret court to consider and approve such monitoring. The Pennsylvania Republican branded Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' explanations to date as "strained and unrealistic."

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, predicted that the committee would have to subpoena the administration to obtain internal documents that lay out the legal basis for the program. Justice Department officials have declined, citing in part the confidential nature of legal communications.

US Beef: Japan, Commerce and Public Safety

As reported previously in this space, US beef shipments to Japan have been suspended (again) as of January 20, 2006. This is due to a breach in the US/Japanese agreement to prevent specified risk material (SRM) from being included in beef shipments. SRM are animal parts that are known to raise the chance of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) being transferred to humans. In this instance, spinal columns made their way to Japanese importers.

At the end of January the USDA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released an audit report on safeguard techniques within the US cattle industry that are designed to prevent BSE from entering the food supply. What the report found is startling:

The inspectors were unable to determine whether slaughterhouses and meat packers complied with rules to safeguard consumers.

OIG has found that USDA has not maintained a complete database of all meat renderers so that so that the Department can trace any possible infection back to its origins.

Inadequate documentation at nine of 12 slaughterhouses audited made it impossible to determine whether guidelines to detect high-risk material were followed.

Since USDA’s expanded testing and surveillance program is voluntary, it is unclear whether its sampling design was sufficient to make conclusions about the prevalence of BSE in the United States. The report emphasized the need to ensure that limitations in the testing and surveillance program are apparent to the public given that industry stakeholders could misinterpret USDA’s conclusions.

USDA did not conduct tests of clinically normal aged cattle in a statistically valid manner. This is important because countries in Europe have had a small number of cases with BSE from these clinically normal aged cattle. The OIG found that USDA put forth a half-hearted effort to conduct this testing, and focused on younger cattle -- guaranteeing their findings would be largely meaningless.

OIG could not determine if SRM procedures were followed due to a lack of record keeping at many establishments. OIG also found that inspectors responsible for ensuring proper SRM removal were not always experienced to identify problems. This limits their ability to know when requirements for removing risk materials are not met.

Stan Painter, a USDA inspector and chair of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, the inspectors union, notified the USDA`s management in a letter in December 2004, he was aware of instances where the riskiest parts of older cows were not being marked or removed from processing.

The USDA did not respond to Painter`s concerns until he made his letter known to news outlets.
On Dec. 28, 2004, the agency charged Painter with personal misconduct for not revealing the names of the inspectors who told him of the SRM violations. Officials also told him he was under a formal investigation, which was dropped in August 2005, after the release of internal documents (noncompliance reports) revealing more than 1,000 violations of the USDA`s SRM regulations. [see page CRS-10 of the report and note that as an excuse the author cites that the sampling of these reports consists of only 0.002% of the total cattle slaughtered during the research period, implying that it shows low-incidence; the fact remains that if these type of errors are occuring in 0.002% of cattle based on a very low n-sample (~600,000) who knows what inspectors are missing. The USDA should follow Japan's lead and inspect every cow.]

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's comments.

Product requirements for Japanese exports from the USDA.

The entire (130 page) USDA audit report, January 2006.

Previous post on topic.

The End of the Internet?

From The Nation:

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

How does the US get NATO member countries to join their coalitions?

The blackmail worked.

See earlier post.

The Miami Herald finally asks the right questions about 911

Excerpt from Avoiding the hard questions by ROBERT STEINBACK, 2/1/06 Miami Herald

A group of experts and academicians 'devoted to applying the principles of scientific reasoning to the available evidence, `letting the chips fall where they may,' '' last week accused the government of covering up evidence that the three destroyed New York City buildings were brought down that day by controlled demolition rather than structural failure. The group, called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, has a website, www.st911.org.

The reflexive first reaction is incredulity -- how, one asks, could anyone even contemplate, never mind actually do such a barbaric thing? But before you shut your mind, check the resumés -- these aren't Generation X geeks subsisting on potato chips and PlayStation. Then look at the case they present.

''I am a professional philosopher who has spent 35 years teaching logic, critical thinking and scientific reasoning,'' group co-founder and University of Minnesota professor James H. Fetzer told me. ``When I come to 9/11, it's not hard for me to determine what is going on. This is a scientific question. And it is so elementary that I don't think you can find a single physicist who could disagree with the idea that this was a controlled demolition.''

Paul Craig Roberts: Rational thought on America under George W. Bush

The US has become a rogue nation. The state of the union is disastrous. By its naked aggression, bullying, illegal spying on Americans, and illegal torture and detentions, the Bush administration has demonstrated American contempt for the Geneva Convention, for human life and dignity, and for the civil liberties of its own citizens. Increasingly, the US is isolated in the world, having to resort to bribery and threats to impose its diktats. No country any longer looks to America for moral leadership. The US has become a rogue nation.

This from a man who is a former Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a former assistant secretary of the treasury in the Reagan Administration and a prolific and popular journalist.

Paul Craig Roberts on Wikipedia

Paul Craig Roberts archive at LewRockwell.com

Paul Craig Roberts archive at antiwar.com

Talk of peace in the classroom no longer allowed in Bloomington, Indiana

Teacher says, "it's important to seek out peaceful solutions", and is reprimanded, loses her contract, and files suit.

Don't think we have far to go before house to house searches...think again.

Why wouldn't you want to teach kids peace?

So they can grow up and fuel the military/industrial complex's fire...oh, excuse me, how stupid.

Finally, someone notices that Bush is trying to bury the Abramoff Investigation...Again!

But, this time Martin Garbus has proof that Bush has something to hide!

If this is news to you...read this, and all of the links.

The End of the New Deal, or, Bush's F*ck You I need money for WAR

The House yesterday (2/1/06) narrowly approved a contentious budget-cutting package that would save nearly $40 billion over five years by imposing substantial changes on programs including Medicaid, welfare, child support and student lending.

With its presidential signature all but assured, the bill represents the first effort in nearly a decade to try to slow the growth of entitlement programs, one that will be felt by millions of Americans

And it will repeal a law -- considered illegal under international trade rules -- that directs payments of some import duties to the companies impacted by unfair trade practices. Instead, those duties will go to the U.S. Treasury.

The Bush administration said Thursday (2/2/06) it will ask Congress for $120 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and $18 billion more for hurricane relief this year.

The White House acknowledges the upcoming requests would cause total spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, to soar well past the $400 billion mark, while spending for hurricane relief would top $100 billion.

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Fiscal policy has been abandoned. Spend, spend, spend before the rest of the world realizes that the US isn't worth anything, except empty promises.

Bush: "Fizkal, uh...isn't that when you touch someone inappropriately or aggressively?"

Remember: This is the second memo that reveals Bush has no regard for anything but his own ego and oil profits

"The diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning", the president told Mr Blair. The prime minister is said to have raised no objection. He is quoted as saying he was "solidly with the president and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam".

The memo reveals:

· Mr Bush told Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours". Mr Bush added: "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]".

· Mr Bush even expressed the hope that a defector would be extracted from Iraq and give a "public presentation about Saddam's WMD". He is also said to have referred Mr Blair to a "small possibility" that Saddam would be "assassinated".

· Mr Blair told the US president that a second UN resolution would be an "insurance policy", providing "international cover, including with the Arabs" if anything went wrong with the military campaign, or if Saddam increased the stakes by burning oil wells, killing children, or fomenting internal divisions within Iraq.

· Mr Bush told the prime minister that he "thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups". Mr Blair did not demur, according to the book.

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If all of this is news to you, please read the Downing Street Memo, and this earlier post.

Greater-than-ever risk of terror is seen by U.S.

"The enemy - while weakened and under pressure - is still capable of global reach, and still possesses the determination to kill more Americans - and to do so with the world's most dangerous weapons," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in remarks prepared for delivery at the National Press Club. "There is a tendency to underestimate the threat they pose."

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No kidding, Rumsfeld...

Bush's SOTU: "America is addicted to oil and we need to break this addiction.", the refutation you knew was coming

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

Bush vowed to fund research into better batteries for hybrid vehicles and more production of the alternative fuel ethanol, setting a lofty goal of replacing "more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025."

He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

Not exactly, though, it turns out.

"This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.

Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.

How to pick a spouse by the US Army

This is reminscient of Nazi Germany...

They are the Pentagon's new "rules of engagement" - the diamond ring kind. U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk."

From the US military: Making the Marriage Decision

One angry kid...

The Secret Service is investigating a seventh-grader who wrote a school essay that authorities say advocated violence against President Bush, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and others.

The boy's homework assignment for English class was to write what he would do on a perfect day. In addition to the president and Winfrey, the boy wrote that violence should be directed at executives of Coca- Cola and Wal-Mart, police and school officials said.

"His perfect day would be to see the destruction of these people," Schools Superintendent David Raiche said.

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I'd be interested as to his reasoning...