News and Developments
M5 Readers: Keep in Mind That Political News, By Nature, May Reflect Sequential Agenda
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October  2008 

Somali pirates hijack Turkish ship  [10/31/08 ] "In the latest wave of attacks against foreign ships, Somali pirates have seized a Turkish vessel off the lawless Horn of Africa waters."  They're back!  What happened to the Blackwater vessel and all the other ones that came a couple weeks ago to 'observe' and 'potentially deal with the pirates'?  Oh, yes ... it was a ship belonging to an Israeli businessman loaded with weapons that was at risk then. Related: Somali police chief flees insurgent raid | Massive blasts rock north Somalia | NATO warships heading to Somalia    

British Army interpreter accused of spying for Iran claims he is victim of a CIA conspiracy  [10/31/08 ] "Corporal Daniel James, who worked for top UK commander in Afghanistan General David Richards, was charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act after being passed over for promotion in Afghanistan ... Corp. James said he had been 'set up' by the CIA because the Americans were angry that Gen. Richards sought a peaceful strategy to deal with the Taliban rather than adopting the US approach of attacking the insurgents, Times Online reported. Prosecutor Dennis, however, rejected the claim as 'rubbish'. Corp. James replied by saying, "Anything is possible with the CIA." The revelation about James' alleged spying charges came at a time when Tehran was at loggerheads with London over the imminent release of the only surviving culprit involved in a 1980 terrorist attack on the Iranian Embassy in London."  Related: Brit rejects charges of spying for Iran 

Petraeus takes up Afghan-Pak war  [10/31/08 ] "Petraeus inherits the next big challenge: devising a winning strategy in Afghanistan. He will also have to keep an eye on Pakistan, which is threatened with financial ruin, torn by an Islamic extremist insurgency and armed with nuclear weapons. One of the behind-the-scenes tasks for Petraeus is training Pakistani troops and treating it as a war front. In a sense it is an extension of the war in Afghanistan, now in its eighth year. Washington has already committed to send reinforcements to Afghanistan as US force levels decline in Iraq, to bolster the 70,000 NATO and US troops already there. Both presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, advocate sending more troops to Afghanistan, which they promise to make a priority. There has NEVER been an outside force that has ever been successful in Afghanistan. A total waste of time, resources and lives over stupid shit. Of course, there is the heroin and the oil pipeline." 

Iran's new bases on Oman Sea coast     [10/31/08 ] "Iran plans to build new naval bases along the Sea of Oman coast, east of the Strait of Hormuz to boost its military control over the Persian Gulf."  Note: Of course, the Iranians are just a different 'team' of the so-called "Illuminati" ... another Orion faction, and this act will play into the overall 'script'. Iran will 'provide' the very 'justification' the other Orion 'teams' need to continue their obsessive dramas, trying to jockey for positions in expectation of the arrival of sequentials from the Orion Empire. The same applies to the article below. The Russians are another 'team' in the 'Orion club'.

Russia offers to change global economy     [10/31/08 ] "Russia is to take part in changing the global economic structure saving it from monopolism, says the country's Premier Vladimir Putin." Related: Russian economy 'won't be nationalized' | Russia to continue arms sales to Iran | Lavrov: US can't stop Russia-Iran ties  

UK: terror claims for ID cards are ‘bunkum’ says GCHQ expert    [10/30/08 ] "Gordon Brown’s claims that a national ID card scheme would help prevent terrorist attacks are “absolute bunkum” according to a senior Government security adviser." 

Pharmaceutical Drugs Kill More People Than Ever, Report Finds    [10/30/08 ] " ... 4,824 people were reported killed from pharmaceutical drugs in the first quarter of 2008, a 2.6 fold increase from the previous quarter ..." 

Forensic analyst is challenging AIG's financial disclosures   [10/30/08 ] "The American International Group is rapidly running through $123 billion in emergency lending provided by the Federal Reserve, raising questions about how a company claiming to be solvent in September could have developed such a big hole by October. Some analysts say at least part of the shortfall must have been there all along, hidden by irregular accounting. "You don't just suddenly lose $120 billion overnight," said Donn Vickrey of Gradient Analytics, an independent securities research firm in Scottsdale, Arizona ..."

IMF may need to "print money" as crisis spreads   [10/29/08 ] "The International Monetary Fund may soon lack the money to bail out an ever growing list of countries crumbling across Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, raising concerns that it will have to tap taxpayers in Western countries for a capital infusion or resort to the nuclear option of printing its own money." Related:  Credit card borrowing rises to record levels

Marines, Army Get Ready to Wield Stun Guns   [10/29/08 ] "In the new policy, outlined in Marine administrative message 560/08, officials approve use of the X26E Taser, the most popular law enforcement device sold by Taser International Inc. The weapon fires two probes attached to electrical wires, providing the ability to “tase” someone. Marine officials said the Corps began discussing using the Taser in 2003, and sent its first 122 units to Iraq’s Multi-National Force-West in spring 2004. In the long term, the Taser they are likely to fond most useful is the wireless XREP Taser projectile, which is fired from a standard 12-Gauge shotgun. As we reported last year, this projectile was developed by Taser Inc under an Office of Naval Research (ONR) contract specifically to meet the Marines requirements." 

Mexican officials held for selling intel to drug cartels   [10/29/08 ] "Mexican authorities have been holding 35 officials since July for selling intelligence to drug cartels, for payments of up to 400,000 dollars, the federal prosecutor revealed on Monday."

Every Crisis Becomes a Carnival of Opportunism   [10/29/08 ] "As the financial crisis deepens and widens, a horde of supplicants is converging on the Treasury. Each of them has a story to tell, and although the details differ from one upscale beggar to the next, each one’s tale of woe shares a common theme: help me or systemic risk will bring down the whole economy, with painful losses and injuries to one and all."

First-Ever Layoffs Loom at Postal Service   [10/28/08 ] "Postmaster General John Potter, after reporting losses of $2.3 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, informed the unions that 16,000 craft employees (out of approximately 600,000) are not protected by contractual, seniority-based no-layoff clauses ... The Postal Service is offering early retirement which, based on acceptance rates thus far, will have around 7,000 takers. In early 2009, when the number of early retirees will be known and income can be assessed for the traditionally profitable fourth quarter, there’s a chance that the first layoffs of craft employees may occur."  Related: Auto Sellers Turn Off Lights as Sales Slump, Credit Tightens "The National Automobile Dealers Association estimates 700 new-car dealerships will close this year, up from 430 last year, and taking with them an estimated 37,100 jobs. That is a heavy blow to a key piece of the U.S. economy. The country's 20,700 dealerships accounted for $693 billion in sales last year, or 18% of all retail sales, according to NADA. Dealership wages and salaries make up 13% of the nation's retail payroll ..." The Coming Pink Slip Epidemic

Pentagon Advisors Warn Of Coming International Crisis   [10/28/08 ] "Michael Bayer, chairman of the Defense Business Board and veteran Pentagon consultant announced during a public meeting late last week that the new President should “prepare for a likely first-270-days crisis.” Accordingly, the Defense Business Board says the new administration should set a goal to win Senate confirmation of key Pentagon posts in the first 30 days of the inauguration, in order to have a full team in place to deal with such a contingency, an Inside Defense report reveals."

Microsoft patents web moderator robots   [10/28/08 ] "As the Times Online reports, the corporate behemoth Microsoft is on the verge of unleashing a technology capable of eliminating “green inkers” and conspiracy theorists. “Microsoft has just been awarded a patent for technology designed to automatically detect and remove ‘undesired words or phrases’ from all manner of digital communications, ranging from YouTube broadcasts to internet chat and songs,” writes Mark Harris ..."

How Mossad Controls Our Political Parties   [10/28/08 ] "Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains. There are some who may believe themselves masters of others, and are no less enslaved than they. How has this change come about? - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract ..."

Bush Trying To Pardon Himself   [10/28/08 ]  Video.  Buried in a bill Bush pardons himself from prosecution for war crimes in regard to detainees.

Afghan student gets 20 years for downloading rights information  [10/28/08 ] "A Kabul appeals court has quashed a death sentence imposed on the Afghan student Sayed Pervez Kambaksh for downloading information from the internet on women's rights. The judges ruled however, that the 24-year-old trainee journalist should serve 20 years in jail -- a decision Kambaksh's lawyers insisted was unconstitutional and should be overturned by the country's supreme court ..."  How deep the mind control is, to be sentenced to death or prison for wanting to know, and successfully finding out, something different than what one is being told. Related: Regime we are defending is corrupt from top to bottom  | Afghan minister fails to answer corruption allegations

Both sides of aisle rip MSNBC, Olbermann, for insightful analysis and reporting  [10/28/08 ] "In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election. The cable news channel is "completely out of control," said writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat. Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel."  Related: Joe The Plumber Now GOP Propagandist for Israel

Google will pay a staggering $125 million to settle copyright case  [10/28/08 ] "The Google settlement comes at a key time for the company, and represents a huge win for rights holders, authors, and other intellectual property owners."

Shock and outrage in the region after US raid in Syria  [10/28/08 ] "No matter who it was that US forces killed in Sunday's raid, the commando operation was being regarded in the Arab world as a monstrous incident - so monstrous that the state and government heads of Arab countries initially were dumbfounded, reduced to an incredulous silence for several hours." 

Polling Spots To Be Mobbed By "Thousands And Thousands" Of Lawyers   [10/27/08 ] "With heavy voter turnout expected on Election Day, both parties are amassing thousands and thousands of lawyers to keep an eye on the polls. Senator Barack Obama’s campaign is expected to send at least 5,000 lawyers to Florida alone. The first recruitment e-mail message the campaign sent out nationally received 6,000 responses from lawyers willing to volunteer. Meanwhile, Senator John McCain’s campaign has lined up “Lawyers for McCain” to spread out at polling places in closely contested states as advocates for the ticket. Both campaigns plan to use the lawyers to protect their supporters at the polls, help untangle ballot problems and run to court should litigation be necessary. Given the heated ballot challenges in the 2000 and 2004 elections, getting legal talent on the ground on Election Day is becoming as common a tool for the campaigns as advertising and polling. “Both sides are assembling literally thousands of lawyers at the state level,” said Kenneth Gross, a campaign finance lawyer at Skadden, Arps in Washington who represents both parties. “We’re not talking about Laurence Tribe or David Boies, but there will be no shortage of lawyers looking for any kind of imperfection in the process.” Note: Let me get this straight. They have had years to fix the election system. Bush effectively shuts down the federal election commission and neuters it. The system is just as broken as the rest of the infrastructure. There can be no actual election, as seen decades ago. So, they do this in order to cause the very discord they will use another justification for their fascist system.

Fluoride Added To Children’s Milk In 42 primary schools in Sheffield, UK  [10/27/08 ] "Fluoride is being added to children’s milk in 42 schools throughout the city of Sheffield in the UK, despite the chemical’s proven link to liver and kidney damage, cancer and the lowering of IQ."  And then they complain that their educational system and testing in the UK is in trouble. Can't have it both ways. 

Interpol agent passed information to Beltrán-Leyva cartel in Mexico  [10/27/08 ] "A major drug cartel has infiltrated the Mexican attorney general's office and may have paid a spy inside the U.S. Embassy for details of DEA operations, Mexican prosecutors said Monday. The Drug Enforcement Administration's intelligence chief expressed concern about the alleged spy's claims, but said he couldn't confirm that the Embassy had been infiltrated, and that it was too early to pull out undercover agents for fear their identities may have been compromised."

UK: Mobile Fingerprint Scanners Deployed  [10/27/08 ] "Every police force in the UK is to be equipped with mobile fingerprint scanners - handheld devices that allow police to carry out identity checks on people in the street. The new technology, which ultimately may be able to receive pictures of suspects, is likely to be in widespread use within 18 months. Tens of thousands of sets - as compact as BlackBerry smartphones - are expected to be distributed. The police claim the scheme, called Project Midas, will transform the speed of criminal investigations. A similar, heavier machine has been tested during limited trials with motorway patrols."

U.S. Special Forces Attack Inside Syria  [10/27/08 ] (See the attack on Video) "U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression." Related: Syria warns US: an eye for an eye "Syria has warned the United States of retaliatory measures if Washington launches another incursion into the country's territories." |Syrian Foreign Minister Condemns American Raid As Criminal And Terrorist Aggression | Pentagon Panel: Biden Was Right, Prep for 'Crisis'  Bush is trying really hard to create the next 'crisis' ... they can't leave people alone.|Suspected US strike kills up to 20 in Pakistan |US airstrike kills 9 Afghan soldiers at checkpoint

US Threatens To Shut Down Vital Services In Iraq Unless Government Signs Troop Deal  [10/27/08 ] "The U.S. military has warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations and other vital services throughout the country on Jan. 1 if the Iraqi government doesn't agree to a new agreement on the status of U.S. forces or a renewed United Nations mandate for the American mission in Iraq." Related: Iraq Sewage System A $100 Million Failure, US Inspectors Say "A huge American-financed wastewater treatment plant in the desert city of Falluja, which United States troops assaulted twice to root out insurgents in 2004, was supposed to be the centerpiece of an effort to rebuild Iraq, a country smashed by war and neglect, and bring Western standards of sanitation. The project was so poorly conceived that there is no reliable electricity to run pumps and purification tanks, and no money left to connect homes to the main sewer lines, which now run uselessly beneath Falluja’s streets, according to a report by federal investigators to be released Monday." | Iraq says will not be bullied into signing US pact | Iraqi Army Headcount Still Unclear Despite Millions Paid to Private Contractor | Iraq Officials Find Mass Graves Near Syrian Border | Iraqi labor minister escapes suicide car bombing

Devastation in Iraq Is Systematic -- And It's About to Get Much Worse  [10/27/08 ] "Iraq's state of complete disrepair has created a population in steaming discontent .... The Roman historian Tacitus famously put the following lines in the mouth of a British chieftain opposed to imperial Rome: "They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace." 

GAMBIT: Sacrifice American lives in a false-flag nuclear blast  [10/27/08 ] "We were searching for the truth behind rumors of a nuclear weapon to be detonated on U.S. soil. We learned that there was indeed such a project, and that it was created to provide an excuse for the destruction of Iran. It would sacrifice American lives in a false-flag nuclear blast, and it's name was GAMBIT .... Happily enough, Gambit is one of those covert operations that never seems to work. Time and again the Nimmers and their Navy SEAL operatives fumbled the ball. After wasting two Russian-made nukes, they tried twice to steal more from the Air Force by hijacking a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber from Minot Air Base. After that disaster, SEALS traveled overland from some point in the Middle East or Asia to obtain more Russian nukes, and brought back at least two (maybe four) ancient "Atomic Cannon" shells that had been scrapped long ago. We followed this adventure via reversed speech surveillance on key individuals, including Junior ... Last Spring we found that the White House was ready to go with yet another Gambit attempt. This time, false flag nukes would be used in the Middle East instead of on American soil. Mysteriously, the operation was soon postponed. It was originally postponed for a month. This stretched to a second month and then Gambit simply disappeared from view ... "  Related: U.S. Put Nuclear Weapons Platform in orbit in 2006 | Note: Ken Welch is a proponent of reversed speech analysis.

VA report: 2,312,675 U.S. troops on active duty between August 1990 and August 2007, have died?  [10/27/08 ] "The April 2007 Department of Veterans Affairs Report lists the total number of U.S. Gulf War Veterans as 6,838,541, however, it lists the total estimated living Gulf War Veterans as only 4,525,865 - page 7 of the report. How did 2,312,676 U.S. Gulf War Veterans die? However, the official Report states that 74,871 U.S. Soldiers have died (since the first illegal invasion of the Gulf by the U.S.) and more than 1,200,000 soldiers are already classified as disabled ..." The Dept. Vets. report which formally documents details on the U.S. soldiers deaths and disabilities can be found here. PDF   

Republican Fears of an Obama Landslide Victory Unleash Civil War within the Party  [10/27/08 ] "Senior Republicans believe Barack Obama will have more political power than any president in a generation."

Justice Department Pressed by Bush to Contest 200,000 Ohio Voters  [10/27/08 ] "As the 2008 presidential election heads into its final week, the current president threw a political wild card on table late Friday, when he asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the status of 200,000 Ohio voters ... so far, most state and federal courts have rejected the GOP's legal arguments."    How far will an already politicized Justice Department go to assist Republicans win on November 4? 

UN wants world nuclear disarmament     [10/25/08 ] "... UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged nuclear powers to dismantle their atomic arsenals in line with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nuclear-armed states, which include the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China, have yet to fulfill their NPT obligations and abolish their warhead arsenals."  Notice he does not mention Israel as having weapons. 

Iraq's Main Sunni Party Suspends Ties With US Over Raid    [10/25/08 ] "... Iraq's largest Sunni party said Saturday that it has suspended official contacts with American military personnel and civilians after the killing of a man near Fallujah. The Iraqi Islamic Party accused the raid of having a "hidden political motive" in an indication of rising tensions in Anbar province ahead of provincial elections, due to be held by the end of January ..."  Related: Report: Maliki won't sign divisive SOFA "Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki 'will not sign' the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) over fears that it might create division in the country ..."

So When Will Banks Give Loans?    [10/25/08 ] " ... In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans. But this executive was the first insider who’s been indiscreet enough to say it within earshot of a journalist ... "

US confronts Russia with sanctions  [10/25/08 ] "The US has placed its relations with Moscow in jeopardy with its imposition of punitive measures against major Russian companies."  See the LaRouche video below.  Related: Russia defies 'unfair' US arms competition "Russian arms-export giant Rosoboronexport has called recent US sanctions against the company 'a manifestation of unfair competition'." 

U.S. slaps sanctions on Chinese and Russian firms   [10/24/08 ] "The United States has imposed sanctions on firms in China, Russia and Venezuela for alleged sales of weapons or sensitive technology to Iran, North Korean and Syria, according to a State Department document."  Related: LaRouche on World War III and Global Control Video [10:00] | EU honors Chinese dissident; Beijing furious

Campaign Volunteer Faces Charges In Attack Hoax  [10/25/08 ] "A McCain campaign worker who claimed she was the victim of a politically-motivated attack in which she was beaten, kicked and cut, now admits that she made the whole story up." Related:  Ashley Todd Story Pushed By McCain Campaign Aide, Say Reporters  " ... John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson." 2 videos.  Related: McCain and Palin Inciting Violence in North Carolina "So far in October, the GOP running mates have appeared at four campaign rallies here. And in the wake of their visits, a string of election season crimes have occurred around the state involving violence, vandalism, and harassment."

Bush Participates in Briefings at the National Security Agency   [10/24/08 ]   "I want to thank General Alexander for his hospitality to me and the Vice President and Director McConnell. We have been here at NSA, which is on the front line of protecting the American people. Every time I come out here I'm impressed by the caliber of people who work here, the amount of energy that goes into their jobs, and their deep desire to find an enemy and bring them to justice before they hurt us again ..."  Even if we have to create them.

Volcker: U.S. needs more civil engineers and fewer financial engineers   [10/24/08 ] " ... As Volcker observed, public investment in infrastructure -- the physical backbone of the economy, of the nation, really -- declined. That infrastructure is now in a state of disrepair. The nation's schools, hospitals, roads/bridges/mass transit systems/air travel system and even our electric grid are inadequate to meet the nation's current requirements, let alone the requirements of an expanding, vibrant, dynamic, twenty-first century economy ... Volcker's comment touched on an economic truth: it's very hard to grow at capacity if your infrastructure isn't up to standards. The U.S. didn't maintain its infrastructure -- a lot of Ph.D. power went into derivatives and swaps, instead of into building schools, hospitals, and the electric grid -- and as a result the U.S. now has an infrastructure hurdle, to go along with a financial hurdle, standing in the way of the nation's return to economic health. That inadequate infrastructure will artificially depress U.S. GDP growth below capacity until it's repaired .... Volcker underscored that the U.S. must begin the "physical rebuilding of the nation now," and prioritize which parts of the infrastructure are vital to the nation's productive capacity and must be repaired immediately, and which can wait for better times ..."

Stocks fall on belief global recession is at hand   [10/24/08 ] "Wall Street joined stock markets around the world in a huge selloff Friday, sending major market indexes to their lowest levels in more than five years on the belief that a punishing economic recession is at hand."   It has always amazed me how it's a game about nothing. 

Blame game: GOP forms circular firing squad   [10/24/08 ] " With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisers, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering — much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely ... If you really want to see what ‘going negative’ is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we’re starting to see,” said Mark McKinnon, the ad man who left the campaign after McCain wrapped up the GOP primary. “And there’s one common theme: Everyone who wasn’t part of the campaign could have done better.” “The cake is baked,” agreed a former McCain strategist. “We’re entering the finger-pointing and positioning-for-history part of the campaign. It’s every man for himself now.” A circular firing squad is among the most familiar political rituals of a campaign when things aren’t going well. But it is rare for campaign aides to be so openly participating in it well before Election Day." 

McCain and Obama both violating campaign finance laws   [10/24/08 ] " ... The four-page Democratic complaint charges: “The McCain campaign, already a serial violator of the federal campaign finance laws, including the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 popularly known as the McCain-Feingold law, evidently chosen to ignore some of the most fundamental and basic requirements of that law. … [T]he Commission should find reason to believe that the McCain Campaign has violated the [Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971] and the Commission’s rules, and should conduct a prompt investigation ... On Oct. 6, the RNC filed an FEC complaint accusing the Obama campaign of “acceptance of foreign national and excessive contributions.” On Thursday, the RNC expanded its complaint to “donations from unknown sources, and demonstrated lack of oversight or concern for compliance with the law ... It’s ironic that the DNC and Obama campaign would launch a complaint based on information fully disclosed our website — which is completely transparent in disclosing 100 percent of our contributions publicly — while the Obama campaign has refused to do likewise. ”

Medical System Making Money Using Placebo Effect To Generate Cash  [10/24/08 ]  Video

JP Morgan Chase chief Dimon sent death threats   [10/24/08 ] "The US Postal Inspection Service has offered a $100,000 (£62,000) reward for information after Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase bank, was sent death threats. Jamie Dimon and various outlets of his bank – one of America's biggest - were targeted in at least 45 anonymous, typewritten letters which all seem to be from the same source. At least 45 letters, all postmarked in Amarillo, Texas on October 17 and 18, were sent to Chase bank offices in nine US cities as well as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Thrift Supervision in Dallas and the Federal Home Loan Bank in Atlanta ..."

Blackwater sends warship to Gulf of Aden   [10/24/08 ] "BLACKWATER Worldwide — the US private military contractor embroiled in controversy over its actions in Iraq — has sent a private sector warship equipped with helicopters to the Gulf of Aden, and is offering its services to ship owners concerned with Somali piracy. The vessel, McArthur, is described as a multipurpose unit designed to support military and law-enforcement training, peace-keeping and stability operations. The ship and its helicopters have the ability to patrol a commercial vessel’s route, thereby avoiding the need to hire security contractors to ride on board ..."  Related: Israeli revealed as owner of South Sudan bound weapons ship  "Registration documents gathered by BBC included the confirmation that the ship hijacked by Somalia pirates belonged to an investor residing in Israel, and not a Ukrainian ship ..."

Gold Market Dis-Information Specialists Ply Their Trade   [10/24/08 ] "Tim Gardiner, president and CEO, Mitsui & Co. Precious Metals Inc. appeared on Canada’s Business News Network [BNN] and – in a ridiculous attempt to explain the recent demolishing of the gold price - made the claim that demand for gold was down and, “the only reason for physical shortages of gold products at retail was ‘logistical’ and due to a shortage of ‘blanks’ from which the coins are stamped”.

ACLU highlights 'Constitution-Free Zone' 100 miles from border   [10/24/08 ] "The ACLU says a "Constitution-free zone" exists within 100 miles of the US border, where DHS claims the authority to stop, search and detain anyone for any reason. Nearly two-thirds of the US population lives within 100 miles of the border, according to the ACLU, and the border zone encompasses scores of major metropolitan areas and even entire states.  See Video interview  [4:23] with someone who was stopped.

Customs and Border Patrol, a component of DHS, was authorized by Congress to operate within a "reasonable" distance of the border, and that distance has been set at 100 miles in regulations governing CBP, the ACLU says. The authorization has been in place for decades, but complaints about abuses of the extended border zone began to ramp up as CBP was expanded and folded into DHS after 9/11 .... ACLU affiliates around the country have fielded dozens of calls from people claiming they were harassed by border agents, and the group believes there are untold numbers of other victims who are afraid to come forward. No lawsuits have yet been filed against DHS or CBP, but the ACLU says its attorneys in border states are preparing cases. "Part of what we're trying to do is to draw our own line in the sand here and say this has to stop," Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, said Wednesday. "We cannot determine two-thirds of America as a Constitution free zone." DHS 33 "interior checkpoints" that are monitored by the border patrol, according to a 2005 Government Accountability Office report. The ACLU assumes more checkpoints have been established since then, and group affiliates have complained about checkpoints as far as 93 miles from the border ... " Related:  Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone" 

Richard Clarke: "Bin Laden to attempt to influence the 2008 U.S. election"   [10/23/08 ] "Former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke told CNN yesterday that Osama Bin Laden would attempt to influence the 2008 U.S. election with a terrorist attack or the release of a video tape, an October surprise to replicate that of 2004 when Bin Laden swung the election for Bush."  Bullshit.  Osama Bin Laden has been dead a number of years now. Much of the world knows the CIA and US gov't is behind everything that happens.

Lehman Brothers executives served with subpoenas   [10/23/08 ] "A dozen past and present Lehman Brothers executives are reported to have been subpoenaed in connection with three grand jury investigations into the company’s bankruptcy. The criminal investigations centre on whether the senior Lehman Brothers executives had sought to mislead the markets by making claims about the brokerage’s financial health that they knew to be false ..."  Related: UK: Thousands of hedge funds on brink of failure "Emmanuel Roman, of GLG Partners, said 25pc-30pc of the world’s 8,000 hedge funds would disappear "in a Darwinian process", either going bust or deciding meagre profits are not worth their efforts. "This will go down in the history books as one of the greatest fiascos of banking in 100 years," said Mr Roman, who with Noam Gottesman, co-runs GLG, a former division of Lehman Brothers Holdings with assets of $24bn (£14.8bn). "There need to be some scapegoats, and the regulators are going to go hunt people. That will be good in the long run." 

McCain's Brother "Joe" Calls 911 To Complain About Traffic, Curses At Operator   [10/23/08 ] "The 911 call came into the City of Alexandria on Oct. 21st That's creating some buzz because it appears to come from Joe (the plumber) McCain, John McCain's brother." Operator: “911, state your emergency.” Caller: “It’s not an emergency but, do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic’s coming the other way?” Operator: “Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic?” Caller: “Fuck you.”  More  "When the emergency operator called back, she was greeted with, “Hi this is Joe McCain. I can’t take this message now because I’m involved in a very (inaudible) important political project… I hope on Nov. 4th we have elected John.”

FDA Conspired with Chemical Industry to Declare Bisphenol-A Harmless   [10/23/08 ] "The FDA has been caught red-handed conspiring with the chemical industry to conclude that Bisphenol-A, the plastics chemical, is harmless to human health. As revealed by the Environmental Working Group (see below), the FDA based its evaluation of BPA on a report authored by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group that represents chemical companies and plastics..." 

Elections USA: Do They Matter?   [10/23/08 ] "Legions of people opt out of voting in the U.S. But they are not civic slackers. They’re on to something. Whether disinterested or disgusted, they are casting a vote of no confidence in the electoral system. And it is entirely justified. The real point of elections is to get enough people voting to legitimize the authority of politicians. Then, they can drag us into wars, bail out bankers in the middle of an economic meltdown, and “earmark” tax dollars to their biggest donors. It happens at every level of government, from City Hall to the White House. Just as riot is the language of the unheard, abstention has become the vote of the unrepresented. In a debate on voter apathy, blogger Bud Wood put it this way: “It just doesn’t make much difference who or what gets into office. The results are more of the same.”

Greenspan in 'Shocked Disbelief,' Admits Errors   [10/23/08 ] "Grilled by lawmakers examining the causes of the financial crisis, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan Thursday admitted some mistakes in assumptions about deregulation while rejecting the idea that he is personally responsible for what he termed a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami." ... The "flaw" in the assumptions he had over four decades, Greenspan said, was that lending institutions themselves were best able to protect the interest of their shareholders ..."  Greenspan opposed regulation of specific security instruments which caused the meltdown, kept interest rates too low, too long, helping to create the housing price bubble, and failed to move against signs of trouble, especially in the face of a warning from a Fed colleague about predatory sub-prime mortgage lending practices, and mysteriously failed to 'see' the freefall in housing prices. Also on the hot seat in Congress today was SEC chairman Cox, who asked for authority regulate that which he should have regulated, albeit three years too late. See NBC News Video [22:12] about the Congressional grilling session.  Related: The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Financial Crisis | Ron Paul Hits Out At “Arrogant” Greenspan   

Mentally Unstable Soldiers Redeployed to Iraq   [10/23/08 ] "Two weeks before his second deployment to Iraq last September, Army Specialist Michael DeVlieger broke down. After an 11-day hospitalization, DeVlieger was given a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, three psychiatric prescriptions -- and deployment orders. "Eighteen hours after he got out of the hospital, he deployed to Iraq," DeVlieger's wife, Christine DeVlieger, recalled. He left for Iraq despite Pentagon policy requiring that service members establish three months of "stability without significant symptoms" before deploying. More than 600,000 Americans have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychological trauma is cumulative," explained Dr. Paul Ragan, a former Navy psychiatrist who is an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. More deployments can mean more mental stress, and for some, more mental illnesses, he said. Army surveys show that for those soldiers deployed once, the rate of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder is 12 percent. For those deployed three or more times, the rate is 27 percent. "People who have psychiatric symptoms, actively symptomatic with PTSD or depression, are being sent back to the very situation that caused their PTSD and depression," Ragan said ...." (4 page article)

Bloomberg Wins Fight To Run For Third Term   [10/23/08 ] "Arguing that New York needs his financial skill to guide it through the crisis on Wall Street, Mayor Michael Bloomberg persuaded City Council to amend the term-limits law Thursday so that the billionaire independent can run for re-election next year. By a 29-22 vote, the council agreed to allow officeholders three consecutive four-year terms. Existing law limits them to two terms, and Bloomberg's second is up at the end of 2009. Bloomberg founded the financial news service that bears his name and is worth an estimated $20 billion ... The move now faces a Constitutional challenge in federal court in Manhattan, where a group of teachers sued the mayor and city council on Wednesday, contending that it was unconstitutional to change term limits without letting voters decide the issue. Bloomberg's success at passing the term-limit proposal comes after several high-profile failures for the 66-year-old mayor."

Wall Street Layoffs Could Surge Past 200,000   [10/23/08 ] "The fallout from this year's global credit crisis has claimed jobs on all corners of Wall Street, from hedge fund managers to floor traders and beyond. More than 110,000 have lost their jobs so far this year, and some industry experts forecast it could come close to 200,000 before the year is over."

Deal Foiled for 100,000 Black Market Russian-made AK-47s destined for Iraq   [10/22/08 ] "In a hidden corner of Rome's busy Fiumicino Airport, police dug quietly through a traveler's checked baggage, looking for smuggled drugs. What they found instead was a catalogue of weapons, a clue to something bigger. Their discovery led anti-Mafia investigators down a months-long trail of telephone and e-mail intercepts, into the midst of a huge black-market transaction, as Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into the bloodbath of Iraq. As the secretive, USD 40 million deal neared completion, Italian authorities moved in, making arrests and breaking it up. But key questions remain unanswered. For one thing, The Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the deal, apparently without the knowledge of the US Baghdad command - a departure from the usual pattern of US-overseen arms purchases. Why these officials resorted to "black" channels and where the weapons were headed is unclear." 

FDA Extortion Racket: Supplement Companies Threatened with Arrest if They Don’t Pay Up  [10/22/08 ] "Natural News has learned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is running a criminal extortion racket designed to drain cash from health supplement companies and shift it into the pockets of top FDA contractors."

Bahrain questions US war on terror  [10/22/08 ] "Bahrain's prime minister says the war on terror advocated by the White House has bolstered violence and terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq."  Related: UK officials slam US 'war on terror'   "Two British counter terrorism officials have warned the US of undermining civil liberties with the 'war on terror' approach it has adopted. I hope the next American president "would stop using the phrase 'war on terror," said the former head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency, Dame Stella Rimington, according to an International Herald Tribune report. There had been a 'huge overreaction' to the September 11, 2001 attacks, added the former head of MI-5. Meanwhile, Britain's top prosecutor, Sir Ken MacDonald criticized the US 'Guantanamo model,' and said it leads to severe violations of defendants' rights." 

Pact May Open US Troops to Iraqi Prosecution  [10/22/08 ] "Iraq would have the right to prosecute American troops and Pentagon contractors accused of major, premeditated crimes committed outside U.S. bases and when they were not on duty, under a draft security pact governing military operations here, Iraqi officials said Wednesday. The draft also calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities by the end of June and withdraw from Iraq entirely by Dec. 31, 2011, unless the Baghdad government asks them to stay. The draft must be ratified by the Iraqi parliament before the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year. But the most contentious portion of the agreement is a compromise formula over who has the right to prosecute American troops and contractors for crimes allegedly committed on Iraqi soil. The U.S. had demanded exclusive jurisdiction. But the Iraqis insisted on a role in trying Americans as an affirmation of sovereignty. The draft may draw objections from U.S. lawmakers, whose support is not legally required but is considered essential to the eventual success of any deal, according to the officials. However, the negotiating teams have decided they cannot improve on the proposal and have sent it to higher-ups for a political decision as time runs out on both the Bush administration and the U.N. mandate. (Dec 31, 2008) Without an agreement soon, the officials said Tuesday that the two sides will have to begin look more seriously at alternatives that include extending the U.N. authority, which is fraught with complications. A military official said top Pentagon leaders are not entirely happy with the legal immunity compromise as written in the draft. Officials have said repeatedly, however, that the administration "can live with" the proposed deal."  Related:US clings to legal immunity in Iraq  [10/22/08 ] "The latest draft of the US-sought Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq still envisages immunity from legal prosecution for Americans." | Iran: 'SOFA stands in way of powerful Iraq'    

US places sanctions on major Iran bank    [10/22/08 ] "The US Treasury Department has blacklisted the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), alleging that it funds a nuclear weapons program." 

Argentina Makes Grab for Pensions  [10/22/08 ] "Argentina proposed to nationalize its private pension system, a move that would provide cash to meet debt payments and avoid a default."

US, Israel keep tight rein on reporters    [10/22/08 ] "A report by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) exposes the US and Israel as violators of press freedoms in conflict zones. The media group report on Wednesday gave America the unattractive standing of 119th place for its lack of respect toward press freedoms outside US territory in its annual ranking of over 160 countries. It was ranked 111th in the previous RSF annual report. Israel was 149th on the list for press freedoms beyond its frontiers, compared to its 2007 rank of 103rd. One of the many Israeli crimes to suppress freedom of the press is its killing of reporters. Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed in April by a shell packed with darts fired from an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip." 

Israel's booming high-tech industry as a 'branch' of the Mossad  [10/22/08 ] "These accusations come from journalist and writer James Bamford, whose new book, "The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America" (Doubleday), came out this week in the United States ... Israeli companies and others are important software and technology suppliers for not only the American telephony companies, but for the NSA itself. Bamford claims that 80 percent of all American telephone transmissions are conducted by means of the Israeli companies' technology, know-how and accessibility ... Bamford does not provide any backing for this thesis; he only points to a circumstantial relationship. The Israeli companies were largely established by graduates of 8200, and therefore he says they are connected by their umbilical cords to Israeli intelligence, and their CEOs and boards of directors include senior Shin Bet officials like Arik Nir or former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy (Nir is the CEO of Athlone Global Security, a hedge fund that has invested inter alia in PerSay Voice Biometrics, and Ephraim Halevy is a member of the Athlone Advisory Board)." Related: Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan killed in Jordan

Majority of States Now in Recession  [10/21/08 ] "What started out as a housing problem in a few states has now exploded into a full-fledged recession with a majority of states now in or dangerously close to recession."  Related: Monthly job losses cut across 41 states

ACLU Demands Information on U.S. Military Domestic Operations   [10/21/08 ]  "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding information from the government on U.S. Northern Command's (NORTHCOM) deployment of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Combat Brigade Team (BCT) on U.S. soil for "civil unrest" and "crowd control" duties."

Court Filing Suggests Manufactured Terror Threat in Bush’s 2002 State of the Union   [10/21/08 ] "A new court filing by the lawyers for Lakhdar Boumediene and five other Guantanamo detainees suggests that the Bush administration ordered the Bosnian government to arrest and hold the men after an exhaustive Bosnian investigation had found them innocent of any terrorism related activity and had ordered their release, in order to use them as props in Bush’s January 2002 State of the Union speech."

Brain Scans Being Used To Judge Guilt In Criminal Cases  [10/21/08 ] Video " CNN’s Liz Neisloss reports on a controversial new forensics technology being used for crime solving in India. A woman was convicted of murder based on the results of a brain scan

The End of Food: Investigating a Global Crisis  PDF "Respected author and journalist who specializes in energy issues and politics turns his attention to the global food industry — and argues that the industrialization of agriculture is an economic model on its last legs."  from Acres, USA magazine, Oct 2008 

CIA’s Robert Baer knows guy who ‘cashed out’ day before 9/11     [10/21/08 ] "On 9/11 prior knowledge, and perhaps a clue towards the put options on the day of 9/11: “I know the guy that went into his broker in San Diego and said ‘cash me out, it’s going down tomorrow.’” He then went on to say that this man’s “brother worked in the White House ... According to former CIA officer Robert Baer, a high-ranking CIA official tells a reporter off-the-record that, “when the dust finally clears, Americans will see that September 11 was a triumph for the intelligence community, not a failure.” It is unclear why the CIA officer thinks this and the reporter who tells Baer this story is not named. However, Baer comments that if that is what the CIA thinks, “I'm scared to death of what lies ahead.” "Andreas von Bülow, former German Minister for Research and Technology and a long-time member of German parliament, suggests in an interview that the CIA could have been behind the 9/11 attacks. He states: “Whoever wants to understand the CIA’s methods, has to deal with its main task of covert operations: Below the level of war, and outside international law, foreign states are to be influenced by inciting insurrections or terrorist attacks, usually combined with drugs and weapons trade, and money laundering.… Since, however, it must not under any circumstances come out that there is an intelligence agency behind it, all traces are erased, with tremendous deployment of resources. I have the impression that this kind of intelligence agency spends 90 percent of its time this way: creating false leads. So that if anyone suspects the collaboration of the agencies, he is accused of paranoia. The truth often comes out only years later.” [DER TAGESSPIEGEL (BERLIN), 1/13/2002] In an example of covering tracks, Ephraim Halevy, head of Israel’s Mossad from 1998 until 2002, claims, “Not one big success of the Mossad has ever been made public” (see February 5, 2003). [CBS NEWS, 2/5/2003]"   Related: Alex Jones Interview with Robert Baer  (Video) 10:53 

Summits Will Address Financial Crisis, but Divide Looms Between U.S. and EU  [10/20/08 ] "A planned international summit on the financial crisis is turning into a debate over the future shape of capitalism, with European leaders favoring greater international

ElBaradei: Iran is nowhere near nukes    [10/20/08 ] "UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei disputes Western claims about Iran, saying the country is far from developing nuclear weapons. In response to fears that Iran aims to develop an atomic bomb, ElBaradei said the country does not have the needed nuclear material to build one. "They as I just recently mentioned still don't even have the nuclear material, the low-enriched uranium, to develop one nuclear weapon," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said in a Monday address at London City Hall. Elbaradei's remarks come as the US, Israel and their European allies allege that Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), seeks nuclear weaponry." 

ILO: 20 million more jobless in 2009    [10/20/08 ] "International Labor Organization expects 20 million more people lose jobs by the end of 2009, amid the worst financial crisis since the 1930s."  Related: Homeless numbers 'alarming'

Arson, Suicide, and Murder Mark the Economic Crisis, and We're Not Hearing About it   [10/20/08 ] "Violent reactions are bubbling up across the country to new economic realities."  Related: Financial Crisis Suicide Numbers Mounting 

W.Va. voters say machines are switching votes: In six cases, Democratic votes flipped to GOP   [10/20/08 ] "This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain"."

Markets hold breath as $360bn Lehman swaps unwind   [10/19/08 ] "Lehman Brothers' complex network of derivatives will be settled on Wednesday October 22 .... The Bank of England and the Federal Reserve in America have said they will keep their special liquidity windows open late on Tuesday night to allow the contracts to settle .... We’re in unchartered waters here and it may all prove an anti-climax,” said a senior City banker on Friday, “but everyone will be watching the situation and wondering what’s going to happen." ... City bankers say that Lehman also holds a portfolio of CDS’s written to protect against other institutions defaulting and these, too, could get caught up in Tuesday’s action. “This will arguably be the biggest cash-exchange day and somebody will fail,” one analyst warned last week ..."     On October 22nd, the Sun moves into Scorpio.

How Wall Street's Scam Artists Turned Home Mortgages Into Economic WMDs  [10/19/08 ] "The titans of high finance are trying desperately to shift blame for the crisis onto others, but this dead cat lies squarely on their doorstep ... The alphabet soup of exotic investments that represent the immediate cause of the banking mess is so complex that many of those "innovative" financiers responsible for bringing the global economy to the brink of collapse are now making a fortune in consulting fees explaining just what the hell it is that they created. According to the Financial Times, Robert Reoch, the London banker who may be responsible for creating the first of the now-infamous debt-based securities, is now "swamped by investors who want to extricate themselves from derivatives-linked messes, or simply to understand the products that came out of the past few years of intense financial innovation." The Washington Post reported that Joe Cassano, the financial products manager "whose complex investments led to (AIG's) near collapse," is raking in $1 million per month in consulting fees from the ailing financial giant to help sort out the toxic sludge on (and off) the bank's books ..."

Colin Powell (who lied to the world about WMD) endorses Obama      [10/19/08 ] "George Bush's former secretary of state backs Democratic candidate in move seen as huge blow to John McCain."  No, it isn't. McCain is enough of a huge blow to himself, just as it is.

TSA agent steals $200K worth of gear, resells it on eBay     [10/19/08 ] "The TSA reached a mind-boggling new low in customer service this week when it was revealed that one agent had single-handedly absconded with over $200,000 worth of travelers' belongings, primarily cameras and laptops, and proceeded to unload his booty on eBay. His latest haul: A near-$50,000 camera that an HBO employee had been traveling with. The culprit is one Pythias Brown, a New Jersey resident who worked in the TSA department at Newark Liberty Airport. Finally busted, police discovered an inventory of 66 cameras, 31 laptops, assorted jewelry, and more when they searched his home. How'd he finally get caught? Brown snagged a camera belonging to CNN, and they found it for sale on eBay, where Brown had been converting the gear into cash ....."

"Iraq War Appears Over in Most Provinces, Pentagon Data Show"     [10/18/08 ] "The war has effectively come to an end in 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, where a relatively limited number of U.S. casualties has been recorded since the start of the year, according to a CNSNews.com analysis of Pentagon data ..."

North Korea awaits 'major message'     [10/18/08 ] "North Korea has ordered its overseas diplomats to be prepared for an "important announcement" that may be related to the health of its leader Kim Jong-il, according to a Japanese newspaper. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported, quoting several unidentified sources familiar with North Korean issues, that Pyongyang had told diplomats around the world to refrain from travelling until the announcement had been made. The sources suggested that the message could be related to Kim's health or the communist nation's relations with South Korea. Yomiuri Shimbun said the announcement was expected in a few days. Kim's failure to appear at North Korea's 60th anniversary parade on September 9 sparked widespread conjecture that he was ill or even dead ..."  Related: (Update) [10/20/08 ] South says no sign of special North Korea broadcast 

OPEC may 'substantially' cut output in response to oil price decline   [10/18/08 ] "OPEC President Chakib Khelil says member states will be forced to considerably cut their oil output at an emergency meeting in Vienna."   Note: The U.S. had a choice in the 1970's to extricate itself from the Middle East oil dependency ... but the U.S. wasn't run by people capable of critical thought, only the same greedy bastards that we have today. 

Iraq holds massive anti-US rally   [10/18/08 ] "Iraqi demonstrators have staged massive anti-US rallies in Baghdad to protest the controversial US-proposed security deal."   This is going south pretty quickly for the U.S., with regard to their SOFA.  Related: 'US assassinates SOFA opponents' | Iraq: SOFA must be discussed with neighbors  | 'US using debts to blackmail Iraq'

Muqtada al-Sadr urges rejection of US-Iraqi pact   [10/18/08 ] "Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on Iraq's parliament to reject a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would extend the presence of American forces in Iraq. Al-Sadr's message was read Saturday by his aide Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammadawi as tens of thousands of his followers rallied against the accord in Baghdad. The mass public show of opposition comes as U.S. and Iraqi leaders face a Dec. 31 deadline to reach agreement on the deal,which would replace an expiring U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and the Bush administration have hammered out a draft agreement after months of bitter negotiations. But al-Maliki has said he wants Iraqi parliament to sign off on the deal and Iraq's pre-eminent cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has said any accord must have national consensus."

Top GOP Fund-Raiser Tied to Iraq Fuel Contract  [10/16/08 ] "The Democratic chairman of a House investigative committee presented documents to the Pentagon on Thursday charging that a top Republican fund-raiser, Harry Sargeant III, made tens of millions of dollars in profits over the last four years because his contracting company vastly overcharged for deliveries of fuel to American air bases in Iraq ... the latest claims of impropriety by the company, presented by Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, go much further. Mr. Waxman uses e-mail messages, company documents, Pentagon reports and other information to make the case that Mr. Sargeant repeatedly received contracts to deliver the fuel even though his company was not the lowest bidder."

Explosion targets gas pipeline in western Canada   [10/16/08 ] "Police said Thursday a bomb blast damaged a natural gas pipeline in western Canada, and they were investigating if the explosion and an earlier one were linked to a threatening letter. Sgt. Tim Shields said the blast occurred overnight near the border between Alberta and British Columbia. It left a crater in the ground and damaged _ but did not rupture _ the pipeline, he said. There was no claim of responsibility for either explosion, but police believe they may be related to a letter sent to local media outlets that demanded oil and gas projects be shut down. "We will no longer negotiate with terrorists, which you are as you keep endangering our families with crazy expansion of deadly gas wells in our home lands," said the anonymous letter, parts of which were published by the Dawson Creek Daily News. The letter did not make specific threats. Some critics fear the gas, which contains hydrogen sulfide and can be fatal if inhaled, poses a danger to communities near the pipelines."

Calls For New Global Financial Order Increase     [10/16/08 ] "EU and US to hold summit on “Bretton Woods II” as Morgan’s Mack calls for new global body. Morgan Stanley Chief Executive John Mack has also called for a new global body to oversee the financial crisis, warning that it is like nothing he’s ever seen before. The calls echo those of elite figures such as CFR member Jeffrey Garten and Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who have both recently called for a “new global monetary authority”, a de-facto global financial dictatorship, operating across borders and forcing nations and corporations to register and adhere to strict monitoring and regulations."

FactChecking Debate No. 3 [10/16/08 ]  "Sorting out fact and fiction in the presidential candidates' final debate."

The REAL McCain [10/16/08 ] 19 videos about McCain will play automatically in sequence.  "The REAL McCain series exposes how Senator McCain is not a "straight-talking" politician. This series has received millions of views and motivated thousands to act. Related: The Real McCain website

Wave Of McCain Robocalls Reported, Some May Violate State Law  [10/16/08 ] "The McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee launched a massive robocall campaign on Thursday designed to alarm voters about Barack Obama's past association with former radical Bill Ayers. The committee may be violating state law in the process. The call begins: "Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC," before telling recipients that they "need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home, and killed Americans." More remarkable than the message (coming after a presidential debate in which John McCain said he didn't care about a "washed up terrorist") is the reach of the campaign itself. Reports came from Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, West Virginia, Maine and even Georgia. Several readers in Minnesota also reported receiving the call, which could be a violation of that state's laws."

Opec calls emergency meeting to tackle "oil price slide" [10/16/08 ]  They haven't made enough money yet.

Japan dismisses US bank bail-out as 'insufficient' [10/16/08 ] The Yakuza mob are not happy campers.

UK: National tests for 14-year-olds are scrapped after marking chaos [10/16/08 ] The one-size fits all sequential approach in UK "somehow" doesn't fit the actual predisposition of real people.  Related: 47% of pupils in schools across England achieved basic target grades  They can't dumb down the population and then expect different results. Dumb as a box of rocks.

Theft of the 2008 Election   Video 6:51  [10/16/08 ] "BBC Newsnight journalist Greg Palast goes on the trail of the missing votes from Colorado to New Mexico to Michigan. Broadcast on BBC Newsnight UK and America."

McCain calls Kennedy Assassination an "Intervention" During Debate    [10/16/08 ] "...he said - intervention, then mumbled and changed it to tragedy."    Kind of makes you wonder, by this point whether. they're going to kill Obama.

Russia braces for wave of Georgian terrorism    [10/16/08 ] "Russian police are preparing to thwart plans by Georgian terrorists to unleash attacks in major Russian cities in retaliation against Moscow's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a Russian daily said on Thursday."  Related: Int. talks on Russia-Georgia ' war' suspended, to resume 18 Nov

Researchers Swindle Russian Defense Ministry    [10/15/08 ] "The Russian Interior Ministry department of economic security has uncovered the embezzlement of 9 million rubles from the Defense Ministry through the use of falsified contracts. A criminal case has been initiated for the violation of article 159, part 4, of the Criminal Code (“Fraud”), the department’s press service reports. The contracts were made between the federal state unitary enterprise 26th Central Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Association for the Business Cooperative of Specialists of the same institute. The director of the association has been arrested." 

The 56 Trillion Dollar Deficit | Bill Maher Interviews Fmr. Comptroller General David Walker   [10/15/08 ] 6 min Video "The US has over 40 Trillion in debt "off the balance sheet". The real deficit is $55 Trillion; $480,000 per household."  This goes up $2-3 trillion per year.  Related:  U.S. mood plummets as crisis deepens  Note: “Uncle Sam, for all his righteous indignation, is, in fact, the father of all deceptive accounting. The government has arranged its budgeting to keep the great bulk of its liabilities off the books and out of sight. The real liability facing our government is $70 trillion.” Forbes, 9-29-2008  

UK: Unemployment to hit three million 'within a year'    [10/15/08 ] "Unemployment could hit three million by the end of next year to levels not seen since John Major was in power as Britain battles recession, it was warned today." Unemployment in the UK is rising faster than it has in 17 years.

Justifiable homicides at highest in more than a decade    [10/15/08 ] "The number of justifiable homicides committed by police and private citizens has been rising in the past two years to their highest levels in more than a decade, reflecting a shoot-first philosophy in dealing with crime, say law enforcement analysts."

"Melbourne Airport scanners to bombard traveler genitals with X-rays"  [10/14/08 ]  "Transport security authorities are trialing the new "X-ray backscatter" body scanner, which has been described by critics as a "virtual strip search".  Related: Australia $10bn jolt to boost economy | Australian dollar collapses

Keith Olbermann: McCain's wishful counting    Video  [10/14/08 ] "The McCain campaign's announcement that "attendance at a Virginia rally reached 25,000" flies in the face of the physical capacity of the venue (16,000) and the fire marshall's estimate (12,000). Countdown's Keith Olbermann explores this, and more, in "McCain in the Membrane".  Related: Olbermann: McCain, suspend your campaign Video [10/14/08 ]

UK Minister Gives Warning Of Potential Terrorism To Prompt Passage of Terrorism Bill    [10/14/08 ] "Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy, said there was a "huge" threat from extremists as the House of Lords continued debating the Counter Terrorism Bill. Lord West said: "There is another great plot building up again and we are monitoring this..." Note: Bullshit, Lord West. After all, you twit, you are the counter-terrorism minister, so you have to justify your pathetic job. If there is 'terrorism' in the UK ... it's UK Military Intel that's orchestrating it. Somehow, it just doesn't dawn on these people that after almost a decade, what they do and say is as 'transparent as glass' to a great many people, with the same ploy being played in the US and many other countries over a period of time. Related: (Update) Terror plot probe remark 'reckless'  There is no 'terror plot' 

Played Like a Fool: Campaign Manager Cashes in on McCain's Cold War Mentality    [10/14/08 ] "John McCain's advisers have advanced Putin's imperial ambitions and made good money on the side."

McCain Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort    [10/14/08 ] "William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime."   So, John McCain, whatcha gonna say now?  Pot calling the kettle black? In a related story: Ayers and the McCain-G. Gordon Liddy Symbiosis  I love seeing this jerk get hoisted by his own petard.

McCain was not tortured, POW guard claims    [10/14/08 ] "The Republican US presidential candidate John McCain was not tortured during his captivity in North Vietnam, the chief prison guard of the jail in which he was held has claimed. In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Nguyen Tien Tran acknowledged that conditions in the prison were "tough, though not inhuman". But, he added: "We never tortured McCain. On the contrary, we saved his life, curing him with extremely valuable medicines that at times were not available to our own wounded." However, recommending McCain for a medal after the war, his former cellmate, the much-decorated Colonel George Day, said the admiral's son had forced his interrogators to "drug him and torture him to get any cooperation", according to a letter in the US National Archives cited earlier this year by the Washington Post. Day said McCain suffered "torturous abuse". Tran told Corriere that McCain was sent to hospital the day after he was brought to Hanoi and stayed there for a month. "I never lost him from sight. I was frightened a doctor or nurse might do him harm." Tran dismissed as "absolutely impossible" perhaps the most famous story from McCain's autobiography: that one Christmas, a guard traced a cross in the mud in front of him. "My men were all communists and atheists," he said. As to why McCain, then 36, left North Vietnam with prematurely grey hair, Tran denied it was because of mistreatment. "It's that in prison you think too much."

Palin Rally: "Kill Him" Yelled Again [10/14/08 ] "Via Politico, The Scranton Times reports another threat against Barack Obama at a Sarah Palin rally Tuesday: Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin. Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly. One man screamed "kill him!" At previous rallies, McCain-Palin supporters have shouted "Kill Him!" as well as "Treason!" "Terrorist!" and "Off With His Head!" The latest violent call came on the same day that Brave New Films has come out with a compilation of these moments, urging supporters to "tell John McCain to end the politics of hate."  Related:  Former McCain Supporter: McCain "Unleashing the Monster of American Prejudice" "Lifelong Republican Frank Schaeffer says McCain is "deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate."  Unhinged is certainly the case.

McCain : "People call me a "terrorist" at Obama rallies, too"  Video  [10/14/08 ] No, they don't. What a putz. McCain's IQ is alleged to be 138 ... if he's playing with defunct mental data and a delusional reality ... it might as well be zero. 

Violence Soars: Mexico Signals It's Had Enough of America's War on Drugs    [10/14/08 ] "The U.S.-financed War on Drugs has had savage results in Mexico, and now its president wants to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin possession."

Financial Crisis Suicide Numbers Mounting    [10/14/08 ] "Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation's financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full ..... With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year. "A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They're losing their homes, they're going into foreclosure, they've lost their jobs," said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida's Lee County."

Bush critic Paul Krugman wins economics Nobel    [10/13/08 ] "Paul Krugman, whose relentless criticism of the Bush administration includes opposition to the $700 billion financial bailout, won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for his work on international trade patterns. The Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist is the best-known American economist to win the prize in decades. The Nobel committee commended Krugman's work on global trade, beginning with a 10-page paper in 1979 that knit together two fields of study, helping foster a better understanding of why countries produce similar products and why people move from the small towns to cities ..."

Blatant Banker Manipulation Of Gold Prices    [10/13/08 ] "Despite the dramatic fall in gold prices from Friday's high of around $930 an ounce to today's current low of $830, sales of actual physical gold continues to trade for anything up to $300 over spot price, proving again that official COMEX gold future numbers are completely divorced from reality and banker manipulation is rife. Panic buying of physical gold has gripped Europe as consumers fear their savings accounts are no longer safe in light of numerous bank failures, prompting dealers to run dry on gold bullion which in turn is driving up premiums." Related: Why Is Gold Dropping When It Should Be Rising 

Haider Denounced “Banking Mafia” Before Death [10/13/08 ] "Comments made just two weeks before dying in a suspicious single car accident.' Video Translation: "JH: …what we need is the protection before these ruinous (financial) products. Because the banks are a single gigantic mafia, which has poisoned the whole world with these products (Haider was referring to worthless derivatives). By transporting all that, so to say, out from America, and today nobody want to be responsible. The large gentlemen are surely not punished. Yes, this is the point. Opponent #2: this is not _THE_ banks, surely are some… JH: All are into this, all are into this. Well, if I look for myself, the German banks, the country banks, the Landesbanken in Germany, all. Opponent #1: this is… JH: In Austria is the big Raiffeisenbank onto it, thus we have a fairly big chunk, then Bank Austia… (Opponents at the table protest, further inaudible) JH: The whole thing will be delivered onto the little man, because he will loose jobs, he will loose also income. Opponent #1: well, _THIS_ is exactly, what one is not allowed to do (say) now." Related: Austrian far-Right leader Joerg Haider killed in crash | Sudden death of Haider may hasten merger of far-right parties in Austria | Mossad spied on far-right Austrian 

RNC eyes $5M bailout for GOP senators  [10/13/08 ] "With party strategists fearing a bloodbath at the polls, GOP officials are shifting to triage mode, determining who can be saved and where to best spend their money ... GOP sources emphasized they would not be diverting money from John McCain, who they promised would continue to enjoy a steady stream of ads from the party’s independent expenditure arm. The party raised a record $66 million last month."

Parties Jockey for Advantage on Economic Aid  [10/13/08 ] "House Republicans and Democrats pushed dueling economic stimulus measures Monday as evidence mounted that the financial meltdown is dominating the presidential race and House and Senate campaigns."  

US Summons Only Super Elite Bankers To A Meeting     [10/13/08 ] "The Bush administration summoned executives from leading banks to a meeting in Washington Monday afternoon to work out details of the $700 billion plan. And, as they say in Chicago, "If you are not at the table, you are on the menu."  Related: U.S. Treasury Said to Invest in Nine Major U.S. Banks (Update 2) "The Bush administration will announce a plan to rescue frozen credit markets that includes spending about half of a total of $250 billion for preferred shares of nine major banks, people briefed on the matter said. The companies are Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp., and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the people said. One of the people also said Merrill Lynch & Co. will receive an investment."  

"Our Lizards are Better than Their Lizards"    [10/13/08 ] An amusing quote from The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Donald Rumsfeld: "The Psychological Patterns Are Wearing Off..."    [10/13/08 ] "Shocking excerpts of confidential recordings recently released under the Freedom of Information Act feature former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talking with top military analysts about how a flagging Neo-Con political agenda could be successfully restored with the aid of another terrorist attack on America. The tape also includes a conversation where Rumsfeld and the military analysts agree on the possible necessity of installing a brutal dictator in Iraq to oversee U.S. interests."

McCain's latest: "We've got him right where we want him!"    [10/13/08 ] "“The national media has written us off. Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.”   What it really is: "We've got them just where they want us". What a putz.

McCain: "The Economy Has Hurt Us A Little Bit"    [10/12/08 ] "Republican John McCain vowed Sunday to "whip" Democratic rival Barack Obama's ass when the two presidential candidates meet Wednesday in their final televised debate. "We're a couple points down, OK, nationally, but we're right in this game," McCain said to cheers. "The economy has hurt us a little bit in the last week or two, but in the last few days we've seen it come back up because they want experience, they want knowledge and they want vision. We'll give that to America."  This guy is delusional, irrational and not playing with a full deck. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic."  Related: (video) The Conservatives Jump Ship

White House Won’t Extend Jobless Benefits, Says People Should "Just Find A Job"    [10/11/08 ] "During today’s press briefing, White House press secretary Dana Perino suggested the Bush administration would oppose any effort to extend jobless benefits — a stance the White House has taken before. She explained their position by saying, “we want people to be able to return to the workplace as soon as possible.” The suggestion was that extending benefits somehow prevents people from returning to work. She concluded by saying that “the best way to help” the economy and unemployed people is for unemployed people to simply “get back to work.” It is both insulting and naive to suggest that people aren’t working because jobless benefits are somehow too generous and they’re too lazy to look for work again."   This sounds like something from the Onion satire site ... but sadly, it isn't.

Concern in G.O.P. After Rough Week for McCain  [10/11/08 ] "..... Mr. McCain’s advisers said they remained confident of victory ...."  Only if the election is fixed, in which case there will be an insurrection in the U.S. Related:Swing states illegally purge voters

'Hockey Mom' Palin Booed -- At Hockey Game    [10/11/08 ] "Sarah Palin, in her much-ballyhooed appearance dropping the puck at the Philly Flyers' opener, was greeted by "resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd." Of course, Fox Sports was more "balanced," observing on its site, "The crowd reacted with a mixture of cheers and boos at her appearance." See video.

Financial Crisis: Gordon Brown demands £20 bn 'British money' from Iceland   [10/11/08 ] "Gordon Brown has issued a public threat to Iceland, demanding the return of up to £20 billion belonging to British savers, companies and local councils. The Prime Minister said Britain would seize the assets of Icelandic companies and take “further action against the authorities” over the collapse of the island’s banks. The diplomatic row, which has echoes of the Cod Wars of the 1970s, erupted after it emerged that more than 100 local authorities have deposits in Iceland. They stand to lose a total of more than £1 billion. British companies are said to have as much as £12 billion in the failed banks and individual savers more than £6 billion. Unless the Icelandic government agrees to return the cash, British taxpayers will have to foot the bill to bail out local councils and other public bodies. This would come through increases in council tax or Treasury funds. It would mean the Government spending more public money because of the financial crisis after staking £500 billion in an attempt to rescue British banks. Mr Brown told the BBC: “We are freezing the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK where we can. We will take further action against the Icelandic authorities wherever that is necessary to recover the money.” 

McCain: ‘As President, I’m going to end these abuses [of power] whatever it takes.'   [10/10/08 ] ""As a Senator, I’ve seen the corrupt ways of Washington and wasteful spending and other abuses of power, and its corruption. We now have former members of Congress residing in federal prison. That’s how bad it’s gotten. As President, I’m going to end these abuses whatever it takes." Note: McCain’s statement is ironic, considering his running mate was cited just last night by an official state investigation for unethically and unlawfully abusing her power. Noting that McCain was previously admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for his involvement in the Keating scandal, Steve Benen reports. The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election. Related: McCain picked Palin knowing of the abuse of power allegations "Yglesias recalls : The very first time I ever heard Sarah Palin’s name floated as a potential VP was on Morning Joe. Andrea Mitchell immediately responded that Palin was the subject of an active abuse of power investigation, so she was out. Everyone seemed to agree with that, and the conversation moved on. Sounded sensible enough to me. But within days she was John McCain’s choice."  Note: Is it just me? There's could be something really 'politically convenient' on how this is unfolding ... or perhaps it is just Pluto moving shortly into Capricorn ... 

Sarah Palin investigation cites unlawful abuse of power   [10/10/08 ] "Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain's Republican ticket. Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report by a bipartisan panel that investigated the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain ... Palin and McCain's supporters had hoped the inquiry's finding would be delayed until after the presidential election to spare her any embarrassment ...."  Golly gee, betcha she's screwed now. Related: 12 New Revelations About Sarah Palin

McCain Repeats Attacks   [10/09/08 ]  "Loud cheers from 4,000 people gathered at a sports complex near Milwaukee greeted McCain's attacks on Obama  .... "He's a terrorist!" a man in the audience screamed without making clear to whom he was referring."  Note: What if one of these 4000 people McCain has whipped up into a frenzy shoots Obama? McCain incites man to murder. He is then complicit. McCain is inciting violence and behavior which mirrors his own instability and anger ... thousands of red-neck idiots resonate with McCain, and they're just as dangerous as he is. McCain, according to recent Bush era definitions ... is a terrorist himself. Related: Former McCain Strategist Warns Against "Angry Mob" "John Weaver, John McCain's former top strategist, says the Republican candidate is making both a moral and a a tactical mistake by letting abusive hecklers have free rein at rallies ... One of Washington's longest serving political hands, David Gergen, expressed bewilderment and fright over the vitriol coming from McCain-Palin rallies, saying that the anger of the crowds could lead to violence .... There is a free-floating sort of whipping-around anger that could really lead to some violence. And I think we're not far from that ... the remark came hours after John McCain and Sarah Palin held a rally in Wisconsin that saw attendees pleading with them to go on the attack against Barack Obama over his past associations and "socialistic" behavior. Earlier in the week crowd members at other McCain-Palin events have screamed out that Obama is a terrorist, has committed treason, and should be killed." | Note: Watch this video, McCain Agrees Obama a "Hooligan," Palin Incites Crowd to see how McCain whips up a crowd with his insanity. The people in the crowd are ... sadly .. dumber than a box of rocks ... and darker than shit. See this video  Strongsville, Ohio: The Place That Evolution Forgot These people are SO STUPID! 

Body-Flags, Voice-Flags and Attitude-Flags Which Reveal Palin's Personality    [10/10/08 ]  " ... Sarah Palin has mastered one fundamental requirement of a Republican president: she can smile and look you directly in the eye while telling an outrageous lie. At least when John McCain lies, his body screams his discomfort by putting on an eye-catching display of twitches, phony smiles and robot moves. McCain's body language is so strange that it's easily observable; he appears to be operated by a puppeteer who is a couple of triple-espressos over the line. That's a good thing, though. We'd much rather have a presidential candidate who reads like a comic book when he's lying than one who conceals those whoppers under a grin and a wink. Sarah Palin belts out her deceptions and distractions with a radiant confidence we usually only see in sociopaths and infomercial pitch-persons. The last public figure we saw who could grin and lie with that kind of sunny confidence was O. J. Simpson ...." 

During Frantic Trading CNBC Reporter Finds Toupee On Exchange Floor    [10/10/08 ] Video "CNBC reporter Rick Santelli picked up a toupee on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade during one of the most eye-popping days of trading in history. As stock prices plummeted and volatility soared, Santelli said that people were losing not only their shirts, but also their hair. Adding insult to injury for the owner of the apparently denuded head, Erin Burnett adds, "Wow, it has a bad part-line, too." 

'US assassinates SOFA opponents'    [10/10/08 ]  "Iraq's Sadr bloc has said that the US assassinates Iraqi political figures who oppose signing the controversial SOFA with Washington." 

Pakistan seeks US funding to avoid bankruptcy    [10/09/08 ]  "Pakistan has dispatched its top finance officials on a mission to raise billions of dollars from its closest allies in a last ditch bid to stave off bankruptcy. Saudi Arabia and the conservative Arab monarchs have signaled their willingness to divert part of their sovereign wealth funds to shore up Pakistan. Gulf support will come at a price with the Emirates determined ensure its own food security by buying up huge tracts of Sindh and Punjab provinces. Islamabad will be expected to grant blanket exemptions on exports from its farms to the Gulf in return – an unpopular move when 25 per cent inflation has forced the poor to assemble in huge crowds for government subsidized wheat ..."

UK: Speed cameras that follow you for 30 miles   [10/09/08 ]  "A new generation of speed cameras that can track drivers for up to 30 miles and cannot be dodged are being tested by police. The devices stop motorists evading a ticket by braking suddenly before a camera and then speeding up immediately afterwards. The new cameras could cover whole areas of cities or suburban housing estates, guarding any number of entry and exit points ..."

NSA agents admit spying on Americans' private calls   [10/09/08 ]  "The Bush administration has repeatedly defended its warrantless surveillance of Americans as being directed only against "people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations." Now two intercept operators who worked for the National Security Agency at Fort Gordon in Georgia have come forward to tell ABC News that isn't true ..."

U.S. Security Firm Indicted for Fraud in Afghanistan   [10/09/08 ]  "The company, called U.S. Protection and Investigation, is accused of getting paid "inflated" amounts for its work on behalf of USAID. U.S. Department of Justice officials announced Friday that a private security company contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and four of its executives and employees have been charged with conspiracy, major fraud and wire fraud in connection with alleged efforts to interfere with U.S. military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan."

Report Identifies 30 Countries That Have Directly or Indirectly Armed Sudan  [10/09/08 ] "The report divides the countries into two categories: direct providers and producers. Twelve countries, including China, India, Kenya, Iran and Russia, by their own admission, ship arms directly to Sudan. In many of these cases, the countries' claims were backed up by media reports of arms transfers or military cooperation agreements. Twenty-four other countries - among them the United States, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom - are identified as producers, based on Sudan's claims that their arms ended up in Sudan. Some of the producer nations deny the transfers and the report finds that "it is likely that these countries did not directly sell weapons to Sudan but that the weapons were transferred by a third country" or that the government of Sudan "sees political advantage in over or underreporting arms transfers from particular countries." "Much attention has rightfully been paid to China's role in fueling the commission of atrocities in Darfur, given that it is the largest exporter of small arms to Sudan," said Apple, "but it is obvious that China is only one cog in the deadly machine of mass atrocities in Darfur, and the steady stream of arms from all over the world serves to grease the mechanism." By its own reports, Sudan imported weapons worth $76.3 million since 2004, not including fighter jets and combat aircraft. Yet, according to the reports of other countries, only $19.3 million worth of arms were sold to Sudan in this time period, suggesting that countries consistently underreport their exports to Sudan ..."

Worldwide Demand for Oil and Gas Drops   [10/09/08 ] "Economic growth means less demand for oil and gas overseas, and at home. The cost of a barrel of crude oil is now under $90, down 40 percent from a record high of $147 a barrel in July." 

Data-Mining for Terrorists Not 'Feasible,' DHS-Funded Study Finds  [10/09/08 ]  "The government should not be building predictive data-mining programs systems that attempt to figure out who among millions is a terrorist, a privacy and terrorism commission funded by Homeland Security reported Tuesday. The commission found that the technology would not work and the inevitable mistakes would be un-American. The committee, created by the National Research Council in 2005, also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of technology designed to decide from afar whether a person had terrorist intents, saying false positives could quickly lead to privacy invasions. "Automated identification of terrorists through data mining (or any other known methodology) is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts," the report found. "Even in well-managed programs, such tools are likely to return significant rates of false positives, especially if the tools are highly automated." The 376-page report -- entitled "Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists" -- comes as a rebuke to the Bush administration's attempts to use high-tech surveillance and data-sifting tools to prevent another terrorist attack inside the United States ...."  Trolling through people who want to fly on airlines is equally as stupid. 

Bush Admin Considering Ownership Stakes In Banks  [10/08/08 ]  "The Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in a number of U.S. banks as one option it might use to deal with a serious credit crisis, an administration official said Wednesday." So, basically, they want to nationalize banks.

Florida: Grave Voting Problems One Month Before Presidential Election  [10/08/08 ]  "A month of primary recounts in the election battleground of Palm Beach County, Florida, has twice flipped the winner in a local judicial race and revealed grave problems in the county's election infrastructure, including thousands of misplaced ballots and vote tabulation machines that are literally unable to produce the same results twice."

Pelosi says "$150B economic stimulus plan needed  [10/08/08 ]  "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that a $150 billion economic stimulus plan is needed now because of the faltering economy and she may call the House into session after the election to pass it. Pelosi told reporters that the stock market meltdown, which has caused an estimated $2 trillion loss from pension funds, was a factor in her recommendation for a second stimulus bill. The first relief plan sent out $600-$1,200 tax rebate checks to most individuals and couples this year. The House did pass a $61 billion economic aid proposal last month before lawmakers left Capitol Hill ahead of the Nov. 4 election. But a similar plan failed to pass the Senate. President Bush had promised a veto anyway."  Why bring it up at all, if it would always be dead before it gets out the gate?  An incarnational experience playing a disingenuous bitch can't be fun.

 Georgian military aggression was a mistake – Sarkozy  [ 10/08/08 ]  "French President Nicolas Sarkozy has condemned the “Georgian aggression” in South Ossetia. It’s the first statement of its kind by a Western European leader, although Sarkozy also criticised the scale of Russia’s response." 

US: 15 States Face Budget Shortfalls  [ 10/07/08 ] "Map. Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, as of Sept 26, 2008" 

 Lehman Brothers Exec roasted by Congress over multimillion-dollar pay   [ 10/07/08 ]   Video 'Your company is bankrupt, you keep $480m. Is that fair?' 

 Ron Paul's reaction to the passage of the bailout  Video [ 10/06/08 ]  "Texas Congressman Ron Paul has warned that the amended bailout legislation that passed Congress on Friday is not only far worse than the original bill but is also unconstitutional. Paul speaking just minutes after leaving the floor of the House on Friday, explained that the tax portion of the bill was written by the Senate, when under the Constitution only the House can originate tax bills. 

 Former Deputy Finance Minister to face final charges   [ 10/06/08 ]  "Russian prosecutors have filed final charges against former Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak. The charges were filed on Friday. Along with the embezzlement charges, Storchak has been accused of abuse of office, according to the newspaper Gazeta." 

 Pound and Euro Sink in European Bank Crisis  [ 10/06/08 ]  "....Asian stocks and U.S. index futures fell as deteriorating credit markets prompted European governments to pledge bailouts for troubled banks. The euro slumped to a 13-month low ..." Related: Every country for itself as European unity collapses | London plunges as banks pump billions into market |Calls For Global Summit To Rebuild Financial System | Amid Financial Crisis, Belgians Go on Strike | Panic engulfs global markets 

 A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America  [ 10/06/08 ]  "America has become a pretty discouraging place. Americans, for the most part, will never know what happened to them, because they no longer have a free and responsible press ..."  

 War and the Financial Crisis: Global Research's Top 100 Stories   [ 10/06/08 ] 

 George W. Bush: Torturing Democracy in So Many Ways  [ 10/06/08 ]  "If you need a reminder of the reasons to celebrate the approaching end of George W. Bush’s tenure as president of the United States, search no further than Torturing Democracy. This powerful, damning documentary will air on selected PBS television stations this month, among them WNET-Channel 13 in New York City. The entire film also will be available online for viewing at www.torturingdemocracy.org starting Oct. 10. This compelling example of video story-telling recounts in merciless detail the steps the Bush Administration took on a road to torture, beginning less than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The compelling narrative outlines how Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their attorneys, among them White House counsel and later Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, shredded the U.S. Constitution and international, military and U.S. law all in the name of supposedly protecting this country. It’s like a train wreck: You cannot look away even though you are horrified and appalled ..."  Related: Klein: Bush admin creates crises to 'enrich themselves and their friends' | The Result of President Bush’s Fear-Mongering  

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out "Crowd Control"  [10/08/08 ] By Naomi Wolf   

 Germany to allow domestic military deployment [ 10/06/08 ]  "Germany's governing coalition partners want to change the constitution to allow for military deployment within the country if needed to combat terrorism, officials said Monday. The proposal would allow use of the military only if police are overwhelmed and cannot properly respond to a situation themselves. "It is not to be used generally, but only in very specific cases," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Daniela-Alexandra Pietsch said."

 Saudi Arabia hosts Taliban peace talks   [ 10/06/08 ]   "Saudi Arabia has hosted groundbreaking peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban representatives in Mecca, sources reveal." Yeah, that'll work. So many analogies leap into mind.

 Obama responds to "terrorist buddy" mud with documentary about Keating scandal [ 10/06/08 ]  but he won't talk about McCain's treason when he was a prisoner in Vietnam, or that McCain caused the Forrestal disaster, killing 135 people, or all the historical evidence of McCains psychological instability, along with his militaristic penchant and desire to exceed his father's power status as a dictator. Neither did Rolling Stone magazine in its recent spread on McCain ... which portrayed McCain as a 'life victim', trying to generate 'sympathy' for McCain, who in reality is a psychopathic dictator in waiting.

 6 presidential candidates on the ballot  [ 10/06/08 ]  in enough states to win enough electoral votes to win the election: Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, Chuck Baldwin, Obama and McCain.  Video  Related: U.S. election a big turn-off for many Americans  "With U.S. election day – November 4 – rapidly approaching and election fever sweeping the country, there are still some Americans who seem to be less than enthusiastic." 

 Ultimate 9/11 'Truth' Showdown: Rollings Stone vs. David Ray Griffin  [ 10/06/08 ]  Two writers lock horns over the accuracy of Griffin's recent book, 9/11 Contradictions.

 JP Morgan ‘brought down’ Lehman Brothers  [ 10/05/08 ]  "JP Morgan has been accused by its Wall Street rivals of dealing the final hammer blow that forced Lehman Brothers into collapse in a sensational claim that threatens to spark a colossal legal battle. The giant American bank is alleged to have frozen $17 billion (£9.6 billion) of cash and securities belonging to Lehman on the Friday night before its failure. According to Lehman’s biggest creditors, this was what precipitated the liquidity crisis that embroiled the firm, forcing it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the morning of Monday, September 15. The allegations have been raised in a filing at the bankruptcy court in New York, lodged late last week. Lehman’s biggest creditors include almost every big firm on Wall Street, most of Europe’s heavyweight banks and insurance companies as well as a slew of Japanese and Chinese institutions that are owed several hundred billion dollars." 

 Body Politics: What McCain's Smirks, Tics And Jaw-Clenches Really Mean [ 10/03/08 ]  "The McCain Smirk: The Mouth Of Contempt, The McCain Jaw-Clench: The Painful Art Of Biting Back Anger, Mouth-Talk Vs. Body-Talk .."  Related: A List of McCain's Nastiest Moments 

 French FM evokes Israeli strike on Iran   [ 10/05/08 ] "French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says Israel would strike Iran, under the pretext that the country is seeking nuclear bombs."  Related:  Iran slams French OK for Israeli strike | Israel laying its yellow brick road to Iran war | Iran would fight fire with fire | US still interested in Tehran mission

 Israel threatens Lebanon with destruction  "A senior Israeli military commander has threatened Lebanon with harsh destruction despite a crushing defeat the regime faced last summer."  Related: Berri: Israel hindering Lebanon's unity | 'Paper tiger Israel can't fight Hezbollah' | Bush vows to back Lebanon independence           

 VP Debate Moderator: "Palin Blew Me Off"   "On "Meet the Press" (Video) Sunday morning, vice presidential debate moderator Gwen Ifill said Palin "more than ignored" some of her questions -- she "blew me off." She added that Palin decided to "give a stump speech" instead of a debate, and that there's "little a moderator can do" to stop that."  [ 10/05/08 ] I noticed that. 

 Report: Karzai’s Brother Linked to Afghan Heroin Trade   "When Afghan security forces found an enormous cache of heroin hidden beneath concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar in 2004, the local Afghan commander quickly impounded the truck and notified his boss. Before long, the commander, Habibullah Jan, received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs, Mr. Jan later told American investigators, according to notes from the debriefing obtained by The New York Times. He said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the truck. Two years later, American and Afghan counternarcotics forces stopped another truck, this time near Kabul, finding more than 110 pounds of heroin. Soon after the seizure, United States investigators told other American officials that they had discovered links between the drug shipment and a bodyguard believed to be an intermediary for Ahmed Wali Karzai, according to a participant in the briefing. The assertions about the involvement of the president’s brother in the incidents were never investigated, according to American and Afghan officials, even though allegations that he has benefited from narcotics trafficking have circulated widely in Afghanistan."   Related: British commander says war in Afghanistan cannot be won [ 10/05/08 ]

 "McCain Continues To Fade Into Incoherence And Irrelevance"  ("Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain" - OpEd) " .... So how can a desperate G.O.P. save itself? As McCain continues to fade into incoherence and irrelevance, the last hope is that he’ll come up with some new game-changing stunt to match his initial pick of Palin or his ill-fated campaign “suspension.” Until Thursday night, more than a few Republicans were fantasizing that his final Hail Mary pass would be to ditch Palin so she can “spend more time” with her ever-growing family. But the debate reminded Republicans once again that it’s Palin, not McCain, who is their last hope for victory. You have to wonder how long it will be before they plead with him to think of his health, get out of the way and pull the ultimate stunt of flipping the ticket. Palin, we can be certain, wouldn’t even blink." [ 10/04/08 ] Related: Clinton Calls McCain "Mimic" Of Bush

 Peter Mandelson warns of European banking battle (UK) " Peter Mandelson has warned European nations not to try to 'get out of jail free' by unilaterally guaranteeing all deposits in their banks. The new Business Secretary sent out his alert in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph after moves by Ireland and Greece to underwrite all savings — which have infuriated other countries including Britain. ..." [ 10/04/08 ] Related: Financial crisis risks new wave of economic nationalism | European leaders agree to £12bn rescue package 

 Pakistan’s foreign reserves crisis deepens     " Pakistan’s foreign reserve crisis deepened further Saturday as the central bank said it had lost around $700 million in just a week. The State Bank of Pakistan’s net foreign reserves fell to around $8.1 billion against $8.8 billion, the bank said ..." [ 10/04/08 ] 

Bill Maher Show Videos 10/3/08: New Rules,  Sarah Palin and God | Palin is Bush in Drag Comedy

 Jewish terrorism threatens Israel   "One of Israel's leading left-wing academics tells The Telegraph the future of the Israeli state is threatened as much by Jewish terrorism as it is by Palestinian militancy." [ 10/03/08 ] 

 Lost Logic in the UK: 'Meat should be rationed to four portions a week' to 'beat climate change'  What a bunch of stupid people to believe one fallacy and promulgate another. Stupid is as stupid does.  

 Bailout bill loops  " .... Some loopholes exist. It's possible for a bank to buy $100 billion of bad debt--perhaps in the form of subprime mortgages that are becoming quickly worthless-- declare bankruptcy, and sell it to the Treasury Department for $120 billion, or $200 billion. In other words, although the Treasury Department is supposed to look out for the best interests of taxpayers, there's no law forbidding such profits in the case of firms involved in bankruptcy, receivership, or mergers .... Section 115 of the law says that the administration can, after notifying Congress and waiting 15 days, purchase and hold $700 billion of assets "at any one time." (It can buy and hold $350 billion without waiting.) This, too, is a potential loophole. It permits the Treasury Department to buy up, say, $700 billion in 2008, sell those assets off gradually over the next year at a (probable) loss, and repeat the same process in 2009. Losses to taxpayers, in other words, could exceed $700 billion. Although the Treasury Department is instructed to try to avoid losses, the text of the law does not forbid that scenario ..." [ 10/03/08 ]  Related: Gangsters Now Demanding that Europe pay 440 Billion dollars to Bailout Continent

 Feds: Broadcom co-founder's private jet used to carry drugs "....Federal agents have seized a private jet belonging to Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, claiming it was used to carry drugs. According to court documents, the FBI took the plane in July at Orange County's John Wayne Airport and contend Nicholas used it to transport drugs to various locations across the globe for further distribution. Nicholas has pleaded not guilty to charges in two separate indictments. One detailed the drug accusations and the other accused Nicholas of conspiracy, securities fraud and other violations relating to stock options backdating while he led the computer chip company. Nicholas' attorneys have filed papers to get the jet back. A judge is scheduled to hear the motion Monday .... By cutting a deal before being indicted, Samueli avoided a full airing of possible charges against him – as well as the possibility of going to prison. Some critics have said his settlement amounts to a slap on the wrist. By playing hard ball, Nicholas could face more hard time. Prosecutors said the combined charges in the securities case alone could result in a maximum possible sentence of 340 years in prison, although it's unlikely he would get that sentence a first-time criminal offender. Nicholas and Samueli, each worth an estimated $2.3 billion according to Forbes magazine, have bottomless bank accounts to fight their cases. They also both hired experienced trial teams"  [ 10/03/08 ]  Related Background Material:  Video shows Broadcom billionaire doing drugs "...Prosecutors say surveillance videos of Henry T. Nicholas III show how the Newport Coast billionaire continued to use drugs long after he knew he was under investigation by federal authorities ..." | Broadcom billionaire charged with distributing 'ecstasy' to prostitutes, others | Broadcom billionaires take different legal paths  Of course, the drug ecstasy is a favorite of Israeli dealers. | Broadcom's Samueli pleads guilty    ".... He is expected to pay $12 million, plus a $250,000 fine, for false statement about stock options backdating. Henry Samueli, co-founder of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., pleaded guilty Monday to one count of lying to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about his role in the backdating of employee stock option grants. Under a plea agreement with the government, Samueli is expected to be sentenced to five years probation. The agreement calls for him to pay $12 million to the U.S. Treasury and be fined $250,000 ..... Two federal criminal cases against Henry T. Nicholas III, the other Broadcom co-founder, are pending. One case involves the stock option backdating; the other is a drug distribution case. Henry Samueli was not implicated in the drug case. He was named an un-indicted co-conspirator in the backdating case ..."   

 Bush 2000 = Palin 2008    "On MSNBC, Countdown aired a video compilation showing the similarity in rhetoric between George W. Bush in 2000 and Sarah Palin in 2008. Keith Olbermann reported that “the people around [Palin] — the top-level campaign staffers crafting her message of change and reform — are almost all from the inner-circle of the same Bush campaigns and administration from which she offers that change.” He concluded, “Small surprise then that even in the very act of claiming her background, her experience qualify her to offer us that change from Bush, she does so sounding almost exactly like Bush.” Progressive Accountability put together its own Bush-Palin video compilation earlier today. Check it out here.  [ 10/03/08 ] Related:  Palin Says She Will Seek Some Authority Over Legislative And Judicial Branches  During the vice presidential debate last night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that she agreed with Vice President Cheney’s belief that there is “a lot of flexibility” in the Office of the Vice President and that she was “thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president.”  It was funny, watching Palin accuse Biden of being like Bush ... she is closer to the Bush model than Biden.

 Taliban leader urged to join Afghan gov't by Karzai    "Afghan President Hamid Karzai has invited Mullah Omar, the leader of Taliban, to return to Afghanistan and join the government."   Well, are they still going to exclaim they're 'going after the Taliban' in Afghanistan? What now, especially with all the political rhetoric about 'the Taliban' as a 'reason' to be there ... it's really about opium and oil ... but they can't come out and admit it. What they will do now is probably take out Karzai ... the usual pattern, because the U.S. 'has to have' a 'reason' to 'be there.'  Update: Taliban Rejects Karzai Call for Talks [ 10/04/08 ]  Mullah Omar has no reason to sit down and negotiate with Karzai.  The US and NATO leadership couldn't have bungled this any worse than if they had done it deliberately.  

 US threatens to steal Iraq oil money if documents not signed    "Washington has threatened to seize Iraqi assets and oil money if Baghdad rejects a controversial US-proposed security pact, Iraq says. Upon arrival in Iraq from Washington, President Jalal Talabani told reporters that he is concerned over Washington threats. "Washington threatened to use any means to seize Iraqi assets if we do not support the security pact," Marsadiraq quoted Talabani as saying. The deal has been severely criticized by prominent Iraqi political and religious figures, who say it would undermine the country's national sovereignty. In late August, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to denounce the agreement. The security deal will allow permanent American bases in the country and will grant US personnel immunity from prosecution inside the bases. The Americans, however, would be liable for prosecution outside their bases. As controversy surrounds the proposed pact, the US may not be able to convince Iraq to sign the agreement. On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and parliament declared that any deal should take Iraqi interests into consideration. Maliki warned that US pressure would only create a political discord inside the Middle Eastern country and threaten the democratically- elected government." [ 10/03/08 ]  That's extortion and theft, par for the current US administration. But, they're stealing money right and left already from Iraq: US seizes ‘$5bn of Saddam’s assets' "Washington has seized $5 billion as blood money for the ouster of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi security official has revealed."

 Cheney petitions court to block Addington deposition    "On the eve of the first scheduled deposition in CREW, et al. v. Cheney, et al., Vice President Cheney and the other defendants filed an emergency petition for a writ of mandamus with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, and was filed here in an attempt to make the D.C. Circuit Court intrude directly into the district court litigation by demanding that the district court judge vacate her discovery orders. This would eliminate the possibility of garnering evidence on White House policies on complying with record keeping obligations under the Presidential Records Act. The petition is based on a claim that the discovery authorized by the district court raises serious separation of powers concerns merely because the deponent is David Addington."  [ 10/02/08 ]  Addington is the one who crafted the 'signing statements' for Bush, amongst other things. He's guilty of treason himself. Related: Judge Upholds DHS FOIA On White House Abramoff Records "In a series of rulings on September 30, 2008, Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that the Secret Service had not conducted an adequate search for records relating to White House visits of Jack Abramoff and his associates in two consolidated lawsuits." 

 Ventura Details Upcoming Conspiracy TV Show    "Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has elaborated on an announcement that he is to host a new TV show investigating conspiracies, revealing that he will broach the subject of the 9/11 attacks. Ventura told listeners of the nationally syndicated Alex Jones show that the TruTV series he is working on will look into 9/11 and ask questions surrounding the stonewalling of the truth concerning the attacks."  [ 10/02/08 ]  Note: Tru-TV will be broadcast on Court TV channel. Look for announcements on that channel.

 Blog Analyzes Palin-Biden Debate [ 10/02/08 ]   What a dog and pony show. An interesting commentary done while watching the show.  Related: Transcript

Video: Paulson Admits They're Bailing Out Foreign Companies and Interests  [ 10/02/08 ] Related Videos: Australian PM Rudd urges US to pass bailout plan | Royal Bank Of Scotland - To Get Billions In Us Bailout

 People Line Up to Buy Gold in Britain  [ 10/02/08 ]  "London's two leading bullion dealers, ATS Bullion and Baird & Co, have reported a rush of interest from savers, many of whom have hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of savings they want to convert into the precious metal. At least two customers have invested the entire proceeds from selling their houses into gold, each buying up more than £500,000-worth of gold bars, according to one dealer ..."

 One of the real reasons for this bailout  Video. Note: Shanghai, Britain, China, Germany, etc, get reimbursed for losses, or they'll overtly do something the US would not like, and that would literally bring it down right away.  Blackmail money ... Bush screwed them, and they want to be covered for their losses or else! All these countries own Treasury Bonds which they could demand payment on, bankrupting the US right away. Of course, there are other reasons for the 'chain' of bailouts ... there is never only one reason for anything, in planetary politics.  [ 10/02/08 ] Related: The Scam That Over-Valued Bank Assets (original title: "Bailout Fraud")

 McCain and the POW Cover-up    "Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. This is an expanded version, with primary documents attached, of a story that appears in the October 6, 2008 issue of The Nation." 

 Expert: Iran strike would cause ’serious depression’    "A former CIA agent and expert on Iran offered a grim assessment on Tuesday of American options in dealing with that nation, saying that “sanctions have failed,” surgical strikes will lead to unacceptable retaliation against US interests, but a conventional war and invasion would “look like World War III.”  [ 10/02/08 ]

 McCain’s Last Hope Is A False Flag Operation   "With just 31 days left until the presidential election, attention has turned to the widely anticipated “October surprise.” There is only one man that can now prevent Barack Obama from becoming the next President of the United States - and it isn’t John McCain." It isn't OBL, either, since he's dead. [ 10/02/08 ] Related: October Surprise Possibilities

 Blackwater Machine Gun Found in Raid on Iraqi Insurgents   "An M4 machine gun sent to Iraq by the Blackwater private security firm somehow disappeared from the company’s storage facility in Baghdad and was later discovered during a US military operation, apparently against suspected insurgents, people familiar with the situation have told ABC News."  [ 10/02/08 ]

 West moves in support of Israeli nukes   "The West seeks to protect Israel from nuclear inspections after a major initiative to place Tel Aviv's nuclear activities on the IAEA agenda."  [ 10/01/08 ]

 The 10 big news stories the mainstream media ignored   "How many Iraqis have died, NAFTA on Steroids, InfraGard Guards Itself , ILEA: Training Ground for Illegal Wars, Seizing Protest , Radicals=Terrorists , Slavery’s Runner-Up, Bush Changes the Rules, Soldiers Speak Out, APA Helps CIA Torture, and 15 more stories. "  [ 10/01/08 ]

 Georgia Unleashed Conflict in South Ossetia, EC Official Said   "Head of the European Commission Directorate General for External Relations Eneko Landaburu has agreed that Georgia unleashed the conflict in South Ossetia, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the EU Nikolay Kobrinets told RIA Novosti Tuesday." [ 10/01/08 ]

 Bayer Pesticide Chemicals Linked to Devastating Collapse of Honeybee Populations    "German government researchers have concluded that a bestselling Bayer pesticide is responsible for the recent massive die-off of honeybees across the country’s Baden-Württemberg region. In response, the government has banned an entire family of pesticides, fueling accusations that pesticides may be responsible for the current worldwide epidemic of honeybee die-offs ..." [ 10/01/08 ] 

 International Criminal Court To Tackle Impunity   "The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the most significant feat in international law in decades, Liechtenstein told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate today, noting that the body’s legacy will be measured by its moves to address the issue of impunity. .... the Foreign Minister drew attention to the Genocide Convention, adopted by the Assembly six decades ago and which the ICC has jurisdiction over. “The Convention was born out of the desire to prevent recurrence of genocide, yet it failed to achieve this purpose on several occasions thereafter.... The Foreign Minister said efforts must continue to be made to ensure that the concept of the “responsibility to protect” is better understood and applied in practice. It “is a narrow concept that is limited to clearly defined cases of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity .... "Impunity arises from a failure by States to meet their obligations to investigate violations; to take appropriate measures in respect of the perpetrators, particularly in the area of justice, by ensuring that those suspected of criminal responsibility are prosecuted, tried and duly punished; to provide victims with effective remedies and to ensure that they receive reparation for the injuries suffered; to ensure the inalienable right to know the truth about violations; and to take other necessary steps to prevent a recurrence of violations." " [ 10/01/08 ]  In other words, like those who executed the 911 event.

 US manufacturing index plunges to 43.5%    The US is far from a 'production' economy. It's a consumer economy. So, they must be talking about production that supports the military industrial complex. [ 10/01/08 ]

 Sarah Palin: She's a master of the non-answer   "I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the non-answer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do." [ 10/01/08 ]

 Alberto Gonzales and other Republicans 'could' face criminal charges in US   "The US Department of Justice has appointed a prosecutor to investigate potential criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, and other ex-Bush administration officials and Republicans in Congress."  [ 10/01/08 ]

 Pakistan formally accuses the U.S. of terrorism   "Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has termed the US incursions into the country’s tribal belt as an ‘act of terrorism’. A joint session of the parliament would be called soon to discuss the issue, Gilani told reporters at the Prime Minister House on Wednesday. In the past month, US forces have carried out seven missile strikes by pilotless drones and a commando raid on the Pakistani side of the border. Washington’s recent unilateral strikes inside Pakistan have triggered sovereignty debates within the corridors of the parliament in Islamabad."  The US/UK/ISRAEL block is the major source and root of terrorism, planet wide, and a significant number of people and governments on the planet knows this. [ 10/01/08 ]  Related: Pakistan spy chief sacked to please United States?  Speculation is rife that the US is behind a massive shake up at Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. [ 10/01/08 ]

 Syria suspicious of Saudi silence    "Saudi Arabia's silence over the Sept 30 Damascus bombing leaves the Arab state under a cloud of suspicion according to Syrian daily, Al-Watan."  [ 10/01/08 ]

 Former CIA executive pleads guilty to defrauding government   "Prosecutors said Kyle Dustin Foggo, along with convicted Congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, helped steer an estimated $100 million in contracts to San Diego-area firms run by Foggo's old roommate. The former No. 3 official at the CIA pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding the government, closing an investigation that linked the nation's preeminent spy service to the corruption scandal involving former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The deal also involved major concessions from prosecutors, who allowed Foggo to admit guilt to a single fraud charge, wiping out 27 additional counts that included money laundering and conspiracy. Foggo, 53, faces up to 20 years in custody and a $250,000 fine, but prosecutors indicated that they would recommend he serve no more than 37 months." [ 10/01/08 ]     

 Bush Had No Plan to 'Catch Bin Laden' after 9/11   "New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11."  And that's a surprise?" [ 10/01/08 ]     

 American Embassy in Belgium is Evacuated   "The U.S. Embassy in Brussels was temporarily evacuated on Sunday after Belgium police received a phone call about a bomb on the premises." [ 10/01/08 ]     

 1,157 Arrested in California Immigration Sweep   "U.S. Customs and Immigration (ICE) concluded an immigration sweep in three of California's urban centers on Saturday. During the three-week operation ICE agents arrested 1,157 individuals in the LA, San Diego and San Francisco areas. The LA Times reports that a spokesperson for ICE says that of those arrested, 595 had outstanding deportation orders and 346 had prior criminal convictions. The operation targeted individuals who had ignored deportation orders or returned to the United States after being deported." [ 10/01/08 ]     

 Bush signs $600 billion stopgap bill   "US President George W. Bush signs a government expenditures bill topping 600 billion dollars after his economic relief plan fails." [ 10/01/08 ]  

 Israel irked by IAEA move on its nukes   "An initiative by Iran and Arab League member states to put the Israeli regime's nuclear activities under scrutiny has irked Tel Aviv. " [ 10/01/08 ]  

  "According to research produced by MAPLight.org, House members who voted "yes" on the proposed bailout package received 54 percent more money from banks and securities than members who voted "no"." [ 10/01/08 ]