Castro faces surgery, cedes power to brother

In a stunning development, Cuban leader Fidel Castro temporarily ceded his presidential power to brother Rául Castro late Monday due to ''an intestinal crisis'' that requires ''complicated surgery,'' according to a letter read on Cuban national television.

The letter, reportedly signed by the Cuban leader and read by Carlos Valenciaga, his secretary, said that Castro was assigning his top duties to his brother because Cuba is ``threatened by the United States government.''

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz predicted that the next few days would be ``very tense.''

He called it ''unusual'' that Castro would be willing to cede power, even temporarily, and suggested that it was a sign that the Cuban leader's health was deteriorating sharply.

''Obviously, we're all going to be very, very happy the day that he dies,'' Diaz said. ``We'll be keeping a close eye.''

US 'could be going bankrupt'

The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank.

A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.

Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked.

Kotlikoff's homepage at Boston University

Is the United States Bankrupt? by Laurence J. Kotlikoff

Commentary on Kotlikoff's paper by Anjan Thakor

Now, with all of this said, please read the next post about the trillions due the US Treasury, and the BushCo attempt to prevent it from going through.

Fed Reserve Board Dubiously Blocks 4.5 Trillion In Funds Due U.S. Treasury

An absolute must-read:

Called the Wanta Plan, former Ambassador enters massive settlement that could turn around the American economy. The settlement also reveals massive corruption and trillions stolen from the people by the Bush and Clinton crime family.

An agreement was reached June 12 between U.S. authorities and Leo E. Wanta, the legal trustor of more than 27.5 trillion in lost or stolen U.S . assets from the Cold War era, to return 4.5 trillion of the looted money by the Bush and Clinton crime families, less money for taxes and other related expenses.

However, the Arctic Beacon, one of the only news outlets in the country covering the hush-hush story, has learned the Federal Reserve Board has acknowledged the Wanta settlement and is now without sufficient public justification, blocking the return of the money which could turn the bewildered American economy around overnight.

In one of the major stories of the century, Wanta provided details of a massive 4.5 trillion dollar settlement reached as a way to get the stolen money back into U.S. coffers, a settlement now being dubiously blocked by the Federal Reserve Board.

The vast sum of money, used illegally by corrupt insiders inside the U.S. government, was amassed by Wanta as part of a plan he and several other financial whizzes devised on behalf of President Ronald Reagan to destabilize the Soviet currency, bringing a quick end to the Cold War.

Wanta, jailed illegally for over a decade, began trying to recover the money when released on house arrest more than a year ago. The settlement reached on June 12 precludes him from trying to recover any more of the stolen money, which some financial observers estimate to be more than 70 trillion while calling it the biggest bank heist in the history of the world.

The basics of the deal outlined in the Arctic Beacon but as follows:

The agreement provides for the prepayment of taxes to the U.S. Treasury, at a rate of 35% of the $4.5 trillion, equating to $1,575 trillion, together with prepayment of taxation to the State of Virginia at 6%, amounting to some $270 billion.

In addition, Wanta through his AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc., has put financial mechanisms in place for the further generation of corporation tax deposits payable to the U.S. Treasury Department/Internal Revenue Service of about $96 billion per banking day.

Because of financing transactions which will consequently be carried out by other U.S. financial institutions, estimated total windfall accruals to the U.S. Treasury are likely to exceed $200 billion per banking day, from the moment of start-up. This is now running nearly three months late. Finally, Wanta has given U.S. authorities until the close of business on Monday, July 31, to release the funds.

Cottrell has been working with Wanta for more than two years to recover a vast sum of money diverted by the Bush and Clinton crime families, money estimated at more than $70 trillion.

The trillions were first raised by Wanta at the end of the Cold War when he was bankrolled by $150 billion of taxpayer money and appointed by President Ronald Reagan to devise a financial plan to destabilize the Soviet currency and use profits for the betterment of the American economy. He still remains legal trustor of the money spread out in more than 190 overseas banks, a position given to him by President Reagan and a position affirmed by Federal Judge Bruce Lee in 2003.

In fact, Wanta efforts were so successful he raised an estimated $27.5 trillion by the late 80's early 90's, thinking all along the money would be returned to the people as President Reagan had intended. However, in a turn of events contrived by former President George H. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton, he was backstabbed and jailed in an effort to keep him quiet as legal trustor, a move calculated so they could use the trillions for their own private agenda and not the agenda of the people.

Cottrell and Wanta both said they have solid documentation and evidence of illegal transactions of more than $743 billion (a conservative estimate), including a $1 billion transfer of American taxpayer money into a Panama bank account under Pilgrim Investments/Jorge (George) Bush in August of 1989.

AmeriTrust Treasurer Verifies Docs Behind $4.5 Trillion Wanta Deal

Bush 'Preparing the Way' to Release $4.5 Trillion in Repatriated Offshore Funds to AmeriTrust

Saga of Leo Wanta

Article from the International Currency Review on these funds

Ashley Mote (MEP of the EU Parliament) asks about the GSF

Is Bush Trying to Dodge the Gallows?

Could George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and maybe Alberto Gonzales all end up sucking poison gas?

That, apparently, is a concern now being taken seriously by Attorney General Gonzales, who is quietly working with senior White House officials and friendly members of Congress to do what murderous dictators in Chile, Argentina and other bloodthirsty regimes have done as their future in office began to look uncertain: pass laws exempting them from prosecution for murder.
At issue is a growing legal threat of the president and other top administration officials facing prosecution for violations of the U.S. War Crimes statutes, which since 1996 have made violation of Geneva Conventions adopted by the U.S. violations of American law, too.

Gonzales knows the seriousness of this threat. As he warned the president, in a January, 25, 2002 "Memorandum to the President" (published in full in the appendix of Barbara Olshansky’s and my new book, The Case for Impeachment), "It is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges based on Section [the US War Crimes law]." In another part of that same memo, Gonzales notes that the statute "prohibits the commission of a `war crime'" by any U.S. official, with a war crime being defined as "any grave breach of" the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War or of the Geneva Convention's Article 3. That article extends protection to combatants in other than official wars or formal armies. Gonzales, in that memo, also pointedly notes that the punishments for such violations, under U.S. law, in the event that mistreated captives die in custody, "include the death penalty."

What has the White House, and Bush's mob attorney, Gonzales, worried is the decision last month by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamden v. Rumsfeld, which expressly established that the president has "violated" the Geneva Convention's Article 3 by arbitrarily deciding that captives in the so-called War on Terror and in Afghanistan, and held in Guantanamo, would not be considered POWs, and would not be accorded protection from torture or access to the courts as required under the Geneva Convention. This determination by a 5-3 majority of the US Supreme Court could easily provide the basis for the very "unwarranted" prosecution Gonzales warned about.

Of course, the president could not be indicted for this offense while in office. The Constitution provides a protection against that. But he could be indicted once his term ends. Meanwhile, other administration personnel, including the vice president, have no such protection against indictment even while in office.

The very fact that Gonzales, according to a report in the Washington Post, has been "quietly approaching" Republican members of Congress about passing legislation exempting Americans involved in the "terrorism fight" from war crimes prosecution suggests how worried Bush and his subordinates really are.

It's interesting how this has become the tactic of choice for the criminals in the White House. When Bush was caught violating the clear provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by authorizing spying by the National Security Agency on Americans' communications without a warrant, the administration went to Congress to seek legislation retroactively authorizing the crime. Since the president was exposed as having summarily and unconstitutionally invalidated some 800 laws passed by Congress through the use of what he calls "signing statements," an astonishing breach of the separation of powers, the administration has been seeking a new law in Congress that would in effect grant that power to presidents, again retroactively. Now Bush is apparently hoping to get the same compliant Republican-led House and Senate to backdate a law exempting him and his cohorts from punishment under the War Crimes statute--a law, ironically, passed almost without objection by both houses of a Republican-led Congress in 1996.

There is a delicious irony in watching this law-and-order, let-'em-fry president and his tough-guy VP, attorney general and defense secretary, resorting to the same kind of dodgy legal tactics that they accuse convicted killers (and terrorists) of using in an attempt to avoid the gallows.

THE TWO ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED IN LEBANON

Links to 11 news reports that claim the start of the most recent violence in the middle east are in fact due to Israeli provocation.

It has happened before...research the USS Liberty and the Six Day War

American astronomers claim that black holes may not exist

They swallow everything that comes their way and exercise the world's finest minds, but the portrayal of black holes as awe-inspiring celestial menaces may be woefully inaccurate, a team of scientists claim. Indeed, they might not exist at all.

According to the researchers, the traditional astronomers' view of a universe liberally sprinkled with invisible, all-consuming black holes should be replaced with an alternative that sees strange, magnetic balls of plasma floating in their place.

The scientists, lead by Rudy Schild at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, spotted what they claim to be the death knell for black hole theory while observing a quasar, lurking nine billion light years from Earth.

Greek protesters topple Truman statue in anti-war demo

In a move harking back to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Greek leftists pulled down a statue of former U.S. President Harry S. Truman as part of an anti-war demonstration on Tuesday against the Israeli bombing of Lebanon.

Rep. John Conyers wants you to get good healthcare

Rep. Conyers has proposed a nationalized healthcare system for the US.

THOMAS filing on the bill

The Case for Universal Health Care in the United States

Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush

Nobel peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.

"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

"I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."

New questions over death of David Kelly

Alarming new questions about the death of Iraq weapons inspector David Kelly have been raised as a major investigation cast doubt on the official verdict that he committed suicide.

The inquiry by campaigning MP Norman Baker will spark renewed speculation about how the Government's leading expert on weapons of mass destruction was found dead in a field in Oxfordshire three years ago.

In particular, the dossier compiled by the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes shows that the method of suicide said to have been chosen by Dr Kelly, far from being common as was claimed at the time, was in fact unique.

Dr Kelly was the only person in the United Kingdom that year deemed to have died from severing the ulnar artery in his wrist, a particularly difficult and painful process as the artery is deep and Dr Kelly had only a blunt garden knife.

Dr Kelly's body was found shortly after he was named as the source for a BBC report which claimed Downing Street 'sexed up' the official dossier on Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological arsenal.

Pentagon Papers Author Daniel Ellsberg Says 9/11 Deserves Further Investigation

Predicts Bush Regime Will Institute Police State, With Mass Detentions, Following Another 9/11

Daniel Ellsberg is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national firestorm in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, the US military's account of activities during the Vietnam War, to The New York Times. The release awakened the American people to a systematic program of organized deception carried out by the Pentagon against the population to continue the Vietnam War.

Daniel Ellsberg, speaking on air to GCN radio host Jack Blood, stated his concerns that criminal elements of the US government were psychologically capable to have carried out 9/11.

Ellsberg said that he worked with individuals at the highest levels of government who staged war provocations several times to whip up pro-war sentiment in the US. Daniel Ellsberg now joins the ranks of hundreds of prominent engineers, physicists, economists, military officers, pilots, high-level intelligence analysts, and cabinet ministers who are exposing the 9/11 hoax.

Each day more and more respected professionals are going public with their questions about the official 9/11 fable. The 9/11 cover-up dam is breaking under the weight of these truthseekers' efforts and the perpetrators of 9/11 are watching them in horror while wondering who will be the next to speak up.

Click here to listen to the audio interview

Last 9-11 Detainee Released From Prison

An Algerian man believed to be the last domestic detainee still in custody from a national dragnet after Sept. 11 - and who was cleared of links to terrorism in November 2001 - was set free this week, his lawyer said Friday.

Moussaoui's case is, so far, the only conviction obtained by the US in relation to the attacks of 9/11 (even though bin Laden denied Moussaoui's connection to the 9/11 plot). One person in five years. To me it seems likely that justice has not been served, and that those truly responsible for what happened on that fateful day will never be brought to trial, nor be sentenced for their crimes.

Officials from Across the Political Spectrum Question 9/11

Link to a table showing high-ranking officials from across the political spectrum that question the official version of 9/11

Judge Orders Teen to Cancer Treatment

A judge ruled that a 16-year-old boy fighting to use alternative treatment for his cancer must report to a hospital and accept treatment that doctors deem necessary, the family's attorney said.

The judge also found Starchild Abraham Cherrix's parents were neglectful for allowing him to pursue alternative treatment of a sugar-free, organic diet and herbal supplements supervised by a clinic in Mexico, lawyer John Stepanovich said.

A legal defense fund has been set up for the family. Legal defense donations can be sent to:

Abraham Cherrix Legal Defense Fund

c/o RBC Centura Bank

2422 Princess Anne Rd.

Virginia Beach, VA 23456

If you have any questions about this fund you can e-mail to defensefund@abrahamsjourney.com

If you wish to help out with a donation, then e-mail to donations@abrahamsjourney.com

Or mail a donation to:

7721 East Side Dr.

Chincoteague, VA

23336

Abraham's trial is scheduled for August 16th.

http://www.abrahamsjourney.com/

Bush Personally Blocked DOJ Investigation Of Wiretapping Program

Thanks to thinkprogress.org:

Earlier this year, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which is charged with investigating attorney misconduct, announced that it could not pursue an investigation into the role of Justice lawyers in crafting the NSA warrantless wiretapping program because it was denied security clearance.

Previously, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would not explain why the security clearances had been denied, saying he did not want to “get into internal discussions.” But in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales said President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an investigation of the warrantless eavesdropping program.

Judge in AT&T case refuses "state secrets" privilege in motion to dismiss

UN Human Rights Commissioner warns of war crimes in Lebanon

The statement by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour that war crimes may have been committed in the Lebanon conflict was deliberately couched in diplomatic terms.

Arbour took pains to identify both Israel and Hezbollah as potentially guilty parties. Nevertheless, there was little doubt that her target was Tel Aviv, and her warning that liability for war crimes is not restricted to the military, but extends to politicians who approve their operations was also meant to be heard by Israel’s political backers in Washington and London.

Her reference to the “scale of killings in the region,” and “the supreme obligations to protect civilians” under international law could only be directed at Israel, given the massive and disproportionate violence it has meted out.

The fact remains that millions throughout the world believe that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair should face war crimes charges. And Arbour is fully aware of the outrage and disgust that has been aroused internationally by the appalling destruction heaped upon the Lebanese people by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) with the unconditional backing of the US and Britain.

Cost of the Global War on Terrorism

"Neither DOD nor the Congress reliably know how much the war is costing and how appropriated funds are being used or have historical data useful in considering future funding needs."

GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM: Observations on Funding, Costs, and Future Commitments, Statement of David M. Walker Comptroller General of the United States

A Call for Modern-Day Patriots, Presentation by The Honorable David M. Walker Comptroller General of the United States

From the WH: Setting the Record Straight: President Bush's Foreign Policy Is Succeeding

Are you serious?!
_________________________

Analysis: Bush Foreign Policy Struggles in the Face of Unyielding Foes and Skeptical Allies

Conservative Anger Grows Over Bush's Foreign Policy

Labor Pains of a Stillborn Foreign Policy

Commentary: Bush Foreign Policy: A Bully Boy In Man’s Clothing

Retired general: Bush foreign policy a 'national disaster'

Former officials to condemn Bush foreign policy

No Room for Logic in Bush Foreign Policy

Opus Dei financier is found dismembered under bridge

The badly beaten and mutilated corpse of Gianmario Roveraro, one of Italy's reputedly most pious financiers, was discovered "cut to pieces" under a motorway overpass near Parma yesterday, some two weeks after he was kidnapped while returning home from a meeting of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of the kidnapping and macabre murder of Mr Roveraro, a banker who had been questioned by investigators in connection with the spectacular €14bn (£9.5bn) collapse of the Parmalat food empire in 2003.

Article from the BBC

High-Flying, Secret Drone Unveiled

Lockheed Martin has pulled the lid off of a secret, stealthy, high-flying drone. Built and flown by its famous "Skunk Works" division, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) could serve as a model for a new generation of robotic aircraft that hits targets halfway around the world.

With a 90-foot wingspan and a tailless design, the "Polecat" UAV looks like a smaller version of the B-2 stealth bomber. And like the B-2, the drone has been built to be stealthy and sneaky. But the twin-engine Polecat is "90 percent composite materials, rather than metal," the L.A. Daily News notes. "The vehicle is also made from less than 200 parts," adds Aviation Week. "Adhesives are used rather than rivets, decreasing the amount of labor needed to construct it -- that approach also contributed to a lower radar cross section inherent in the design."

Skunk Works is also trying to rig Polecat up with "a fully autonomous flight control and mission-handling system that will allow future UAVs to conduct their missions, from take-off to landing, without the intervention of human operators," Jane's adds.

Welcome to Skynet...

Machine Vote-Flipping Claimed in McKinney Primary

“You’ve got electronic voting machines. Many people called in and shared their concern. They pushed the button for Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson came up. It wasn’t one time, it wasn’t two times, it was many, many times,” Karen Fitzpatrick, who has been monitoring elections for US Rep. McKinney’s re-election campaign, told Atlanta Progressive News in an exclusive interview.

Let me repeat: The McKinney Campaign says they have documented complaints of voters here in Georgia whose votes FLIPPED BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES on Diebold machines.

US vetoes UN ceasefire call

The US was the sole member of the 15-nation UN body to oppose any council action at all at this time, they said.

"We would expect much more from the Security Council," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud told reporters after the council meeting, singling out the United States for blame.

While Washington has been very supportive of the Lebanese government in the past, "when it comes to Israel, it seems things changed," Mr Mahmoud said. "Destruction is still going on, people are still dying ... and here we are impotent."

China's People's Daily called for both sides to sit down and talk.

"History tells the peoples of the Middle East that armed force does not solve the enmity between the Arabs and the Israelis.

"Only if a political road is followed will it be possible to replace war with talks, fighting with consultation, extremism with reason, and hostility with tolerance."

______________________

Bush and Co. are looking for a "lasting peace". Allowing Israel to kill children in Lebanon will not bring this about.

Secrecy ruling by judge on Blair-Bush talk

The public must be prevented from learning the contents of a conversation between Tony Blair and President George Bush about the conduct of the war in Iraq - crucial evidence in a forthcoming official secrets trial - an Old Bailey judge ruled.

Any discussion of an already partially leaked document - in which Mr Bush purportedly said in April 2004 that he wanted to bomb the Arabic satellite TV station al-Jazeera, and Mr Blair expressed concern about US military tactics in the Iraqi city of Falluja - must be heard behind closed doors, Mr Justice Aikens ruled. He also banned the public and the media from hearing the prosecution's arguments on the grounds of national security.

TWA Flight 800 Federal Law Suit for ‘missing evidence’ Filed

Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization (FIRO) is filing a federal complaint against the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for data and information related to the crash of TWA Flight 800. Specifically, FIRO is suing for documents regarding the chain of custody of evidence.

One wreckage item in particular (the missile) was described as possibly being the “smoking gun” by FIRO Chairman Dr. Tom Stalcup. The wreckage exited Flight 800’s airframe at apparent supersonic speeds and landed about a half mile closer to JFK airport than any other piece of wreckage. The Navy recovered it, but it never made it to the reconstruction hangar.

flight800.org

Previous post on TWA 800

Florida's Fear of History: New Law Undermines Critical Thinking

One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control over knowledge.

By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking.

as part of an education bill signed into law by Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida has declared that “American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed.” That factual history, the law states, shall be viewed as “knowable, teachable, and testable.”

Florida’s lawmakers are not only prescribing a specific view of US history that must be taught (my favorite among the specific commands in the law is the one about instructing students on “the nature and importance of free enterprise to the United States economy”), but are trying to legislate out of existence any ideas to the contrary. They are not just saying that their history is the best history, but that it is beyond interpretation. In fact, the law attempts to suppress discussion of the very idea that history is interpretation.

Project Bioshield

Legislation that ramps up the US biomedical research into vaccines against the most threatening diseases assumed most appealing to international terrorists. It also has provisions that immuninize pharmacutical companies from lawsuits for wrongful death or disability from use of their vaccines (the US government would assume their roles in a lawsuit...good luck), and allows the administration of unapproved vaccines in times of "national emergency".

PDF of a CRS report on Project Bioshield

THOMAS link to the actual legislation

THOMAS link to proposed legislation on Project Bioshield II (a nastier version that included forced vaccinations)

Previous post on Project Bioshield, forced vaccinations, etc.

US vetoes UN ceasefire call

THE UN Security Council has again rejected pleas that it call for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon after the United States objected, diplomats said overnight.

Washington argued in closed-door talks that the focus for Middle East diplomacy for now should be on the weekend summit in St Petersburg of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, council diplomats said.

It was the sole member of the 15-nation UN body to oppose any council action at all at this time, they said.

"We would expect much more from the Security Council," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud told reporters after the council meeting, singling out the United States for blame.

Enron witness found dead in park

A body found in north-east London has been identified as that of a banker who was questioned by the FBI about the Enron fraud case.

Police said they were treating the death in Chingford of Neil Coulbeck, who worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland until 2004, as "unexplained".

He had been interviewed by the FBI as a potential witness.

Bush I was seen at Kenneth Lay's funeral...

Putin Jabs Bush: ‘We Certainly Would Not Want…The Same Kind of Democracy As They Have in Iraq’

During a press conference today at the G8 summit in Russia, President Bush told President Vladimir Putin that Americans want Russia to develop a free press and free religion “like Iraq.” To laughter and applause, Putin responded: “We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.” CNN’s Ed Henry called it a “tough jab.”

Watch it

Full transcript:

BUSH: I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq, where there’s a free press and free religion. And I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia will do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy.

PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.

BUSH: Just wait.

Wife of Al-Jazeera Journalist Files Lawsuit Against Bush, Rumsfeld

Dima Tahboub, the widow of Tareq Ayyoub, has announced she is suing the White House and the Pentagon for $30,000,000 over her husband’s death. Ayyoub, a 35-year-old Palestinian who lived in Jordan, had traveled to Baghdad to report the war for Al-Jazeera five days before he was killed when US bombing shattered their bureau in Baghdad. His widow told reporters from her home in Jordan, that she was unable to comment on the lawsuit.

Hamdi Rifai — Tahboub’s lawyer — told Arab News in a phone interview yesterday that prior to the bombings in 2003, Al-Jazeera had provided the coordinates of their bureau in Baghdad to the US military “to ensure there would be no accidental bombing, particularly in light of the fact that the US allegedly accidentally bombed in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2001.” He said Al-Jazeera was aware “there was anti-Al-Jazeera rhetoric coming from the US Administration at that time.” Rifai said more facts “will be revealed as the case proceeds, demonstrating with clear and convincing evidence of the US Administration’s intent to bomb Al-Jazeera in Baghdad.”

Rifai also referred to ‘The Number 10 memo,” which he said showed the US Administration’s efforts to seal the content of that memo, and the discussions where Bush suggested the bombing of Al-Jazeera to Blair.” It is because of these facts, said Rifai that: “We proceeded with filing of the notice of claim, pursuant to the tort claims act, under US federal law, to enforce the Geneva Convention protocols for the protection of civilians within areas of armed conflict.”

Rifai said the Bush Administration — the lawsuit specifically names President George W. Bush as the Commander in Chief, and Donald Rumsfeld as the Secretary of Defense — has six months to respond. “If they fail to respond, we will proceed with the filing of the lawsuit in the federal district court in Washington D.C.”

On April 8, 2003, US forces bombed the Baghdad offices of Al-Jazeera, killing Ayyoub. Moments later and less than a mile away, another explosion, reportedly from US artillery, damaged the offices of Abu Dhabi TV trapping as many as 30 journalists in the debris. A US tank then fired on the Palestine Hotel, where almost all the international journalists were staying. A Ukranian cameraman with the Reuters news agency Taras Protsyuk, and Jose Couso, who worked for Telecinco Spanish televison, were killed.

Pentagon officials adamantly maintain US military forces “absolutely did not” target the journalists. At the time, a US military spokeswoman denied the missile strike was intentional. “We did not target Al-Jazeera. We only target legitimate military targets,” said Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green at US forward headquarters in Qatar. Al-Jazeera accused the US military of deliberately targeting its offices and recalled that the station’s Kabul bureau had been hit in November 2001 during the US-led assault on Afghanistan.

Last November, in what is has become know as the “Downing Street Memo,” the Daily Mirror, a British newspaper, reported that President Bush had also wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The memo allegedly reported that during a 2004 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush discussed the bombing. Blair allegedly talked him out of it.

The meeting between Bush and Blair occurred as US troops were engaged in brutal combat in Fallujah (west of Baghdad) — an offensive aired with all its gore by Al-Jazeera but mostly sanitized in the United States. Bush was reportedly outraged that Al-Jazeera was reporting the high number of Iraqi civilians killed in the assault.

The Bush Administration described the Daily Mirror’s report as “outlandish.” After refusing to comment on the story for close to a week, Blair called the Mirror report a “conspiracy theory.” Blair then responded to a parliamentary request whether he had any information on the Bush administration’s plans to bomb Al-Jazeera. Blair’s written response was one word: “None.” The British government then banned the British media from disclosing the memo’s contents. It also pressed charges against two former government officials for leaking classified government information.

Are you stupid enough to believe one word from Bush & Cheney?

A great overview of the misdirection and flat-out lies from the Bush administration by Helen & Harry Highwater

Scientists question nature's fundamental laws

Public confidence in the "constants" of nature may be at an all time low.

Recent research has found evidence that the value of certain fundamental parameters, such as the speed of light or the invisible glue that holds nuclei together, may have been different in the past.

"There is absolutely no reason these constants should be constant," says astronomer Michael Murphy of the University of Cambridge. "These are famous numbers in physics, but we have no real reason for why they are what they are."

Northrop to sell laser shield 'bubble' for airports

Northrop Grumman forecast Wednesday a potential "very large" market for a laser-based system it has developed to shield airports and other installations from rockets, ballistic missiles and other threats.

Los Angeles-based Northrop said it had already pitched the system, called Skyguard, to Israel, which worked with the company and the Army to develop the technology.

Northrop described Skyguard as capable of destroying rockets, mortars, artillery shells, unmanned aerial vehicles, short-range ballistic missiles, as well as cruise missiles. Against shoulder-fired missiles, which are relatively easy to heat with a laser and destroy, the protective shield would extend to a 20-kilometer radius, Wildt said.

Invisibility at the flick of a switch

Adverts for x-ray specs have tantalised kids throughout the decades. Sadly the reality is always a pair of useless plastic glasses, but this could all change due to a breakthrough made at Imperial College London. By exploiting the way that atoms move in solids the researchers have made solid materials turn completely transparent. 'This real life x-ray specs effect relies on a property of matter that is usually ignored that the electrons it contains move in a wave-like way', says Chris Phillips. 'What we have learnt is how to control these waves directly'.

The stark reality: Israel hates the Palestinians

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation.

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006

#1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government
#2 Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death
#3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage
#4 Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In
#5 U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia
#6 The Real Oil for Food Scam
#7 Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood
#8 Iraqi Farmers Threatened By Bremer’s Mandates
#9 Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency
#10 Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy
#11 Universal Mental Screening Program Usurps Parental Rights
#12 Military in Iraq Contracts Human Rights Violators
#13 Rich Countries Fail to Live up to Global Pledges
#14 Corporations Win Big on Tort Reform, Justice Suffers
#15 Conservative Plan to Override Academic Freedom in the Classroom
#16 U.S. Plans for Hemispheric Integration Include Canada
#17 U.S. Uses South American Military Bases to Expand Control of the Region
#18 Little Known Stock Fraud Could Weaken U.S. Economy
#19 Child Wards of the State Used in AIDS Experiments
#20 American Indians Sue for Resources; Compensation Provided to Others
#21 New Immigration Plan Favors Business Over People
#22 Nanotechnology Offers Exciting Possibilities But Health Effects Need Scrutiny
#23 Plight of Palestinian Child Detainees Highlights Global Problem
#24 Ethiopian Indigenous Victims of Corporate and Government Resource Aspirations
#25 Homeland Security Was Designed to Fail

Justice Department Lawyer To Congress: ‘The President Is Always Right’

Thanks to thinkprogress.org:

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday heard testimony from Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel. When questioned by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on whether the President’s interpretation of the Hamdan case was right or wrong, Bradbury replied, “The President is always right.” Watch it

Bradbury served from 1992-1993 as a law clerk for Bush I appointed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and since then has been a Bush apologist.

Steven Bradbury has stated that the president has the authority to order someone who has not yet been charged as a terrorist to be killed on the grounds of being a terrorist.

He has defended Bush's use of covert propaganda on unsuspecting Americans in the form of video news releases produced by the Pentagon, State Department and at least 18 other US agencies.

Defused bomb crucial to Mumbai investigation

As forensic scientists begin poring over the wreckage of Tuesday’s seven train bombings in Mumbai, India, experts say the defusing of an eighth bomb could prove crucial to the investigation.

"It's enormously important to have discovered and defused one of the bombs," says Sidney Alford, a UK-based bomb disposal expert. "It lets you make some pretty critical deductions. You can work out the source of the explosives and perhaps the detonators. You may even get fingerprints or DNA."

In the space of 11 minutes on Tuesday 11 July, seven synchronised bombs blew apart several commuter trains and train platforms, killing 190 and injuring more than 700 people. Rush-hour traffic, a shortage of ambulances and monsoon rains combined to impede rescue efforts. "It took hours getting the bodies inside the hospitals," witness Bunty Jain told AFP. No terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombings.
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Let's see if there is anything further mentioned about this link back to those who carried out the attacks...I'll keep you posted.

Bayer Knowlngly Sold Aids Virus In Medicine

This clip from Scarborough Country highlights how Bayer knowingly dumped medicine that was proven to be contaminated with AIDS virus on the European market after it killed people in America.

Examples of the president's signing statements

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution. The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws. Here are 10 examples and the dates Bush signed them.

My personal favorite:

Dec. 23, 2004: Forbids US troops in Colombia from participating in any combat against rebels, except in cases of self-defense. Caps the number of US troops allowed in Colombia at 800.

Bush's signing statement: Only the president, as commander in chief, can place restrictions on the use of US armed forces, so the executive branch will construe the law ''as advisory in nature."

I wonder how Bush would feel if everyday Americans began seeing laws as merely "advisory in nature".

Previous posts on signing statments

Couple sues Lake Forest Park police for barging in without warrant

Miciah Massey, 31, says he stumbled to the door in his underwear the night in question, peered through the window and saw two Lake Forest Park Police officers standing there. "I said, 'Just a minute,' and went back to the bedroom to put my pants on." He was met by his frightened partner, Tashawntay Wade, 23, already wearing a bathrobe, who went to see what the officers wanted.

In the next few minutes, the family says, it was terrorized by an officer who walked into their home without a search warrant. The family says the officer woke from a deep sleep two little girls, as well as Massey's elderly father who suffers from both bone cancer and mental problems.

But it wasn't anyone in the family whom police were after that November night. Rather, their target was a family friend wanted on a misdemeanor DUI charge who lives 1,100 miles away and had once spent a couple of nights at their home. He failed to appear for a court date, and an arrest warrant was issued.

Citgo to stop selling gas at U.S. stations

Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. has decided to stop selling gasoline at some 1,800 stations in the United States following calls by President Hugo Chavez to nix contracts that benefit U.S. consumers more than Venezuelans.

Citgo, which is wholly owned by Venezuela's state oil company, currently has to purchase 130,000 barrels a day from other refining companies to meet its service contracts at 13,100 stations across the U.S.

That will mean that over the next year Citgo will withdraw completely from 10 states and stop supplying some stations in four additional states, Citgo spokesman Fernando Garay said Wednesday.

Chavez has long claimed that parts of Citgo's business produce losses for Venezuela and constitute a subsidy for the U.S. economy.

Bush plans $5 billion arms sale to Pakistan

The Bush Administration said on Monday that it planned to sell Pakistan up to 36 advanced F-16 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp, upgrades of about 60 existing aircraft, about 500 missiles, about 700 2,000 pound bombs, and support systems in a weapons package that could be worth more than $5 billion.

The proposed sale of 18 new "Fighting Falcon" fighters with an option for 18 more demonstrates the United States' commitment to a long-term relationship with Pakistan, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

"This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping an ally meet its legitimate defense requirements," the Pentagon said in the notice.
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What the Pentagon didn't say is that General Mahmoud Ahmad, director of Pakistan's version of the CIA (the Inter Services Intelligence), had $100,000 wired directly to 911 ringleader Mohammed Atta on September 10th, 2001. Not only that, but General Mahmoud Ahmad on the morning of the attacks was breakfasting with the heads of the House and Senate intelligence committees in Washington.

This doesn't even consider the larger issue of the Pakistani-Indian conflict and the Bush administration's decision to engage in nuclear technology transfer with India.
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Links to the details on the proposed arms sale to Pakistan

PDF 1
PDF 2
PDF 3
PDF 4

Japan Considers Strike Against N. Korea

Bush setting a wonderful precedent for the world...

Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

Treasury and IRS move to make it easier to audit anyone for almost any reason

...not only that, but it continues to give all "employees" the ability to call up an investigation. Do not piss off the government.

Bin Laden says he wasn't behind 911 attacks

There is nothing concrete here, but the fact that bin Laden initially denied his involvment, and that the FBI doesn't have any evidence linking him to the attacks poses yet another set of questions about the attacks.

CNN, 9/17/2001:

In a statement issued to the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, bin Laden said, "The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it.

"I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons," bin Laden's statement said.

The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.

Autism, mercury, and politics

By Robert Kennedy Jr.

MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.

Prior to 1989, American infants generally received three vaccinations (polio, measles-mumps-rubella, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis). In the early 1990s, public health officials dramatically increased the number of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations without considering the cumulative impact of the mercury load on developing brains.

In a 1991 memo, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccination programs, warned his bosses that 6-month-old children administered the shots on schedule would suffer mercury exposures 87 times the government safety standards.

In 2000, the CDC met with pharmaceutical companies and the FDA in secret to review its findings linking Thimerosal with the dramatic rise in neurological illnesses. According to transcripts, participants were alarmed about the undeniable links between the Thimerosal and widespread brain damage in children. Dr. Bill Weil told the group, ''You can play with [the results] all you want. They are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston admitted he feared his grandchild getting a Thimerosal-containing vaccine. But the group was most concerned with keeping the findings secret. ''Consider this embargoed information," said Dr. Roger Bernier, a senior director at the National Immunization Program, at the meeting's close. The CDC now says it has ''lost" the data that supported the crucial study and has persistently defied congressional requests and federal law requiring it to open up the federal Vaccine Safety Database to scientists and the public.

thimerosal-news.com

On the road: Will Bush get less Crawford this August?

This could be getting serious.

The White House is concerned enough about President Bush's job rating and its possible effect on Republican chances in the November elections that word of reduction in vacation time at Crawford next month is being put about.

Not noted in the report was which White House official delivered this view to Bush and whether the official's head had been reattached.

AP Protests Fox After Photographer Ban

The Associated Press is protesting plans by Fox to bar photographers from its news conferences at the Television Critics Association press tour and says it will not cover the events unless the network changes the policy.

Fox has asked journalists to accept handout photos from photographers it has hired. The news cooperative says Fox's decision interferes with its ability to fully report the event and sets a bad precedent.

The post "somebody" doesn't want you to see: Possible evidence of thermite at WTC

This post was originally posted in this space on 4/23/06, but upon an attempt to access it for relinking purposes I found that it had been scrubbed from this blog. I was able to find the link to the post by entering the word "thermite" in the blog search function, but the link was dead. Presently, even the old link is gone.

God bless Amerika.

There is substantial evidence that thermite was used to cut the central support columns, which caused the towers to fall.

Evidence can be seen on photographs of the columns from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
In this photo, for example, the column directly above the fireman's helmet shows that it was cut with thermite. There is a substantial amount of hardened molten iron which can be seen on both the inside and outside of the box column. This is precisely what one would expect to find on a column which had been cut with thermite.

Experts who have viewed this photograph say that this column was not cut with a torch

Weapons in outer space

Tensions IN the United Nations over space-based weapons ran to new heights recently when the United States delivered a hard-line statement on its right to develop such weapons.

Responding to repeated and increased international pressure in recent weeks, John Mohanco, US deputy director of the Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs, said ``our government will continue to consider the possible role that space-related weapons may play in protecting our [space] assets."

Russia, which is pushing for a new treaty on such weapons, wanted countries to ``refrain from any practical activities aimed to place weapon systems in outer space while the international agreement on non-weaponization of outer space is being elaborated." Apparently the US reaction was only to harden its stance.

This adds to the alarming change of course last year when the United States became the first country to oppose the annual non binding resolution on Preventing an Arms Race in Outer Space. Essentially the world considers it important to develop a treaty to prevent an arms race in space by prohibiting weapons there. The need for a treaty is compounded by the US withdrawal in 2002 from the ABM Treaty, which had key restrictions on space weapons.

Naturally, Americans want to protect their space assets, so why not pursue space weapons? The most compelling reason is that they would actually make the situation worse.

Earlier posts on weapons in space

Hustler Magazine, the only publication willing to brave reporting the apparent Lemme murder cover-up

By Brad Friedman of bradblog.com [click here for the full story]:

More than a full year after I wrote the original draft for them, Hustler is now running my story on the mysterious "suicide" of Raymond Lemme, of the Florida Inspector General's office. This is the first time that uncovered police photos — the ones which were not supposed to have existed — have appeared in print, not counting the Internet, to our knowledge.

Here's a pornography-free PDF of the article — (WARNING: Includes graphic photos. Plus a sidebar on Clint Curtis' run for congress!) — as it's currently running in the September issue now available at a newstand near you. Unless you live in Utah.

Lemme was the investigator from the Inspector General's office at the Florida Department of Transportation who turned up dead in a Valdosta, GA motel room just weeks after allegedly telling Clint Curtis that his investigation into Curtis' claims [vote fraud, Tom Feeney's request for "vote rigging software", conflict-of-interest, overcharging the government, etc.] went "all the way to the top."

The photos taken at the scene by the cops didn't exist, according to the police report, until they turned up on the Internets after some jerk reported the whole story (we are that jerk) — causing the Valdosta Police to re-open the case, before swiftly shutting it back down again for equally mysterious reasons. You can catch up on that story here, as we broke those new details in the Lemme case in early 2005.

Click here for an earlier post on this topic

NASA Labor Union endorses Clint Curtis in his hopes to unseat corrupt Republican congressman Tom Feeney in Florida's 24th U.S. congressional district this fall

Man indicted in phone jamming case will argue Administration approved election scheme

The fourth man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme -- in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race -- will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney Thursday.

Shaun Hansen, the former owner of the company that placed hang-up calls to jam Democratic phone lines, was indicted in March for conspiring to commit and aiding and abetting the commission of interstate telephone harassment relating to a scheme to thwart get out the vote efforts on Election Day, 2002.

His lawyer's motion signals that Hansen intends to argue that he was entrapped because the Administration allegedly told his superiors the calls were legal. The filing indicates, however, that Hansen does not have firsthand knowledge of Administration intervention.

Hansen’s lawyer offered an inside look of his defense strategy in yesterday's filing: his client will assert that he believed he was acting on behalf of the government and the Republican Party through his work with GOP Marketplace, the company which subcontracted the phone jamming efforts.

"Mr. Hansen may assert that the government, or an agent therof, actually induced the offenses with which Mr. Hansen is charged, and was not otherwise prediposed to commit," Hansen's lawyer Jeffrey Levin writes.

"Mr. Hansen may asserts [sic] the defense of "derivative entrapment" in which the government uses a private party as its agent," Levin adds.

A liberal political action group, Senate Majority Project, also uncovered that GOP Marketplace, which subcontracted out the hang-up calls to Hansen’s Mylo Enterprises, was partly owned by Mississippi Governor and former RNC Chair Haley Barbour (current Governor of MS).

Hansen’s motion can be read here.

Previous posts on the phone jamming scandal

UK Home Secretary sanctions McKinnon extradition

British hacker Gary McKinnon has expressed shock at the speed at which Home Secretary John Reid has authorised his extradition to the US.

Speaking to vnunet.com this morning, McKinnon, who heard about Reid's decision two days ago, said: "I am not surprised at the decision, but I am surprised at the speed of it.

"The last time a case came up under the same act, with Babar Ahmad, the home secretary was David Blunkett. He took 11 months to make his decision.

"I guess John Reid has a lot of other stuff on his plate that he deems to be more important, so he got [my case] out of the way."

Earlier posts on Gary "UFO Hacker" McKinnon

CIA disbands bin Laden unit

The CIA has disbanded a unit set up in the 1990s to oversee the spy agency's hunt for Osama bin Laden and transferred its duties to broader operations that track Islamist militant groups, a U.S. intelligence official said on Tuesday.

The bin Laden unit, codenamed Alec Station, became less valuable as a separate operation as counterterrorism operations eliminated top al Qaeda operatives and the movement's focus shifted more to regional networks of militants, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the bin Laden unit was disbanded late last year and quoted its first director, author Michael Scheuer ("Imperial Hubris"), as predicting the move would denigrate the CIA's effort to find bin Laden.

Norm Mineta (recently resigned) testimony on Cheney 9/11 stand down/shoot down censored

If Mineta’s testimony is to be taken into account, and there is no apparent reason why it should not be, questions about the timing of events the morning of 9/11 come into focus. Most obvious is, if the standing order given by the Vice President prior to the aircraft hitting the Pentagon was not a shoot down order, then what was it? Perhaps it was the danger of this question, and the danger that Cheney would have had to commit perjury to uphold the timeline reported in the mainstream press, that caused the Vice President to testify to the Commission along with the President in closed session, with no transcript, no witnesses, and no public accountability.

Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's interview.

Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

Florida in cross hairs of US hunt for oil

Cuba's offshore plans rouse debate in US over whether to ease trade restrictions and drilling ban.

Less than 50 miles from Key West, below the waters of the North Cuban Basin, are potentially billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

It's an opportunity Cuba can't pass up. So late last year, Fidel Castro's government started contracting out 59 lots in Cuban waters for exploratory drilling.

That, in turn, has tapped into a gusher of controversy in the United States - especially since in nearby American waters, the federal government maintains a moratorium on any oil drilling.

China, Canada, Spain, and India are among the countries that have snapped up Cuba's lots, while the US oil industry has stood by unhappily, abiding by America's decades-old trade embargo with the communist nation. This comes on top of the industry's frustration with the US offshore drilling moratorium - though legislation passed by the House last week is a controversial first step toward lifting the ban.

Tax dollars to fund study on restricting public data

The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests.

Beginning this month, St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio will analyze recent state laws that place previously available information, such as site plans of power plants, beyond the reach of public inquiries.

Jeffrey Addicott, a professor at the law school, said he will use that research to produce a national "model statute" that state legislatures and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous information "stays out of the hands of the bad guys."

"There's the public's right to know, but how much?" said Addicott, a former legal adviser in the Army's Special Forces.

"There's a strong feeling that the law needs to balance that with the need to protect the well-being of the nation. ... There's too much stuff that's easy to get that shouldn't be," he said.

The federal Freedom of Information Act, which became law 40 years ago this week, has long been a source of tension between the government and the public and news media.

Critics say the research plan overstates the need for secrecy and is likely to give state and federal governments too much discretion to withhold material. "Restricting information (for) security and efficiency and comfort level, that's the good story," says Paul McMasters, a specialist in public information law at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va. "The bad story is that it can also be a great instrument of control. ... To automatically believe that the less known the better is really not rational."

Criminal Charges Filed Against George H.W. Bush (Sr.) in Iceland

A group of ten Icelandic citizens filed yesterday at the Office of the State’s Police Chief criminal charges against George H.W. Bush, former U.S. President, who is expected in Iceland this evening at the invitation of Icelands’s President Olafur R. Grimsson.

The group accuses former President Bush for participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and crimes against internationally protected persons. It demands that former President Bush be detained by the Icelandic authorities and investigation on these charges. Should the investigation conclude that legal proceedings against him are warranted, the group requests that he be tried before an Icelandic court or extradited to an international criminal tribunal which possesses the requisite jurisdiction to deal with his case. Icelandic courts are, under international law, qualified to try individuals suspected of having committed international crimes.

'Shadow' human rights report to accuse United States of violating international human rights treaties

A scathing report submitted to the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee and copied to RAW STORY by a coalition of 142 U.S. non-governmental organizations alleges serious human rights violations by the United States.

The report, which will be delivered to the UN Human Rights Committee July 10, alleges that the US violated the right to life and non-discrimination statutes of international human rights treaties to which the US is a signatory – citing evacuations based on income and property levels in New Orleans after Katrina, alleged abuse at California prisons and the incarceration of children in adult jails.

It also chides the US for capital punishment, which it says “allows for individuals to be sentenced to death, even if they did not kill, intend to kill, or even contemplate that another human being would die as a result of their actions.”

The Mysterious Death Of An Enron Exec (not Ken Lay)

It may be the biggest outstanding mystery in the Enron story: the death of Cliff Baxter, a former top Enron executive. He'd just agreed to testify to Congress in the Enron case. A congressional source tells CBS News that Baxter wasn't a target in the probe, he was to provide evidence against others.

But on the morning of January 25, 2002, he was found in his car - shot dead.

Marine To Return Service Medal To Bush In Protest

Yet another one...

Sgt. Matthew Bee is a decorated Akron Marine who spent seven months in Hadeetha, serving with the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines Weapons Company based in Brook Park.

Bee received six medals of commendation, but one of them he will give back to President George W. Bush, calling the medal political, NewsChannel5 reported.

The medal is the War on Terrorism service medal, and Bee calls it "eye candy" from Bush.

Navy Airman Joseph W. DuRocher

Air Force Vet Dave Patterson

Le Monde diplomatique: "9/11 - an Inside Job?"

Major coverage by Daily Kos of Le Monde's review of available information...a must read.

Rough English translation

SETI Makes Alien Contact?

According to Dr. Steven Greer, yes, SETI has received multiple extraterrestrial signals. This news he says, is confirmed by senior employees within the SETI program.

This is what Greer had to say at a recent Exopolitics Conference:

"We have confirmation - and I'm not going to give the name yet because we are trying to coax this guy out of the closet - but one of the senior people in the SETI project, which is the Carl Sagan Search for Extraterrestrial project, has confirmed to the Disclosure Project that they have received multiple extraterrestrial signals," Greer said, "but that now they are getting external human, probably NRO or NSA jamming of those signals and they are getting very frustrated. "

Are Dick Cheney's Money Managers Betting on Bad News?

Kiplinger's May 2006 - Vice President Cheney's financial advisers are apparently betting on a rise in inflation and interest rates and on a decline in the value of the dollar against foreign currencies. That's the conclusion we draw after scouring the financial disclosure form released by Cheney this week.

Recent Navy Patents made available for Licensing

U.S. Patent No. 11/444,812: ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP) DEVICE FOR VEHICLE IMMOBILIZATION.

U.S. Patent No. 11/141,604: PRODUCTION OF INFRARED RADIATION AT ANY WAVELENGTH.

U.S. Patent No. 11/447,518: COMBINATION REALTIME BIOMETRIC CAMERA AND RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG AS A SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION OF PERSONNEL IN AN AUTOMOBILE.

Grand theft Mexico

The election race south of the US border is officially too close to call. Now, where have we heard that before?

As in Florida in 2000, and as in Ohio in 2004, the exit polls show the voters voted for the progressive candidate. The race is "officially" too close to call. But they will call it - after they steal it.

Reuters reports that, as of 8pm eastern time, as voting concluded in Mexico, exit polls showed Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the "leftwing" party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) leading in exit polls over Felipe Calderón of the ruling conservative National Action party (PAN).

We've said again and again: exit polls tell us how voters say they voted, but the voters can't tell pollsters whether their vote will be counted. In Mexico, counting the vote is an art, not a science - and Calderón's ruling crew is very artful indeed. The PAN-controlled official electoral commission, not surprisingly, has announced that the presidential tally is too close to call.

Calderón's election is openly supported by the Bush administration.

Yemen to seek nuclear power

Yemen's president says he will seek to produce nuclear energy for civilian use as he registered his candidacy for a new term.

Ali Abdullah Saleh was quoted by the official Saba news agency as saying: "My future tasks include the huge development file... and that of the energy production required to meet growing needs, including producing electricity through nuclear energy."

Speaking last month during the standoff between Iran and Western nations over Tehran's nuclear programme, Salah had defended "the right of Arab countries to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes".
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This move makes no logical sense if you consider the fact that Yemen, as of 2003, produced more electricity than it consumed. The numbers are from the CIA's World Factbook: Production, 3.848 billion kWh; Consumption, 2.827 billion kWh. The only reason - if those numbers are even close to accurate - that this posturing has transpired to throw more grease on the wheels of slipping US credibility in the current US nuclear standoff with Iran and North Korea.

Yemen acquits 19 men in al-Qaeda linked trial

The Council on Foreign Relations considers Yemen a "haven of terrorism"

The US State Department has reissued a travel warning regarding Yemen