News and Developments
M5 Readers: Keep in Mind That Political News, By Nature, May Reflect Sequential Agenda
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October  2009 

 

U.S. economic growth claims are fabricated on more debt spending [10/31/09] "While the White House is celebrating a 3.5% reported growth in GDP last quarter — the first economic growth in a year — they conveniently forget the simple fact that it’s easy to fake economic growth with debt spending. This so-called “growth” was really just the result of the U.S. Treasury flooding the economy with more debt-ridden “stimulus dollars” that will drive the nation even deeper into irreversible debt. That’s not genuine economic growth, it’s just really bad economic planning. ..."  

Iran hands over response to UN-proposed nuclear deal  [10/31/09] "Israel on Thursday blasted the uranium exchange deal with Iran as one that would only delay by one year Tehran's alleged progress toward a nuclear weapon. ..."  

Wars and Genocides of the 20th Century [10/31/09] "160 million people died in wars alone during the 20th century ..."   

Misconduct by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel  [10/30/09] "According to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, ICE agents have blundered badly in their dealings with informants and other sources, covering up crimes and even interfering in a police investigation into whether one informant killed another. At least eight agents have been investigated for improper dealings with informants since ICE was created in 2003, and more than three dozen others have been investigated for other wrongdoing, the records show. The heavily redacted documents detail how one agent failed "to report murders ... to her supervisor" and how another failed "to properly document information received from a confidential source in violation of ICE policy and procedure." In the case involving one informant charged with murdering another, Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana, a smuggling manager for the Juarez cartel, was gunned down this spring in his upscale El Paso neighborhood. El Paso police say ICE delayed its investigation, steering detectives away from the man now charged with arranging the contract hit. ..."   

More speech silencing: Michigan Student Assembly votes gag rule [10/30/09] "Shocked by recent comments seeking to boycott Israel, the MSA voted for a Gag Rule. That Gag Rule outlaws all public comments, uttered by any community member, unless they are pre-certified by an executive board to be "relevant to students" .... Here is the Boycott-Israel resolution that pained MSA so much that they shut down the First Amendment: ..."

Loosening of F.B.I. Rules Stirs Privacy Concerns  [10/30/09] "Relaxing some domestic intelligence-gathering rules. The F.B.I.’s interpretation of those rules was recently made public when it released, in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, its “Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.”; The disclosure of the manual has opened the widest window yet onto how agents have been given greater power in the post-Sept. 11 era. In seeking the revised rules, the bureau said it needed greater flexibility to hunt for would-be terrorists inside the United States. But the manual’s details have alarmed privacy advocates. “It raises fundamental questions about whether a domestic intelligence agency can protect civil liberties if they feel they have a right to collect broad personal information about people they don’t even suspect of wrongdoing,” said Mike German, a former F.B.I. agent who now works for the American Civil Liberties Union...."    

America's Largest Private Companies [10/30/09] "Our list of largest private companies includes only firms with revenue greater than $2 billion. Top Ten: Cargill,Koch Industries, Chrysler, GMAC Financial Services, Bechtel, Mars, HCA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Publix Super Markets, Ernst & Young.  Complete List  Related: Private Companies and the Richest Americans

Dairy farmers tell lawmakers of crisis [10/29/09] "Consumer demand, particularly for cheese, has slipped amid the worldwide economic downturn. But production continued to grow. In September, the price dairy farmers received for 100 pounds of milk was $11.90, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, down from a high of $19.50 in June 2008. The surplus is not easy to eliminate, because dairy cows must be milked -- or slaughtered. With the average cost of producing milk around $18 per 100 pounds, depending on the state, farmers lose money every day. ..."  Related: Farmers' incomes dry up as milk prices plunge about 50%  "Milk prices have plunged by about 50% from the historic highs of last summer, pummeling producers such as Walt Moore, a fourth-generation farmer whose family has worked the rolling fields of southeastern Pennsylvania for nearly a century. "If these prices stay low through 2009, there's going to be a lot of producers that don't make it," Moore says, noting that several nearby dairy operators have already decided to sell their herds and get out of the business. ..."  Note: And Obama just handed Israel's dairy industry a pipeline into American stores: US removes import levy on Israeli milk products   "The United States has removed the import subcharge on dairy products from Israel, following diplomatic efforts exerted by the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Agriculture Ministry. Up to now, most of the world's countries exporting milk products to the United States have been forced to pay a levy protecting local production. The financial damage caused to Israel's farmers due to this tax amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. President Barack Obama was recently asked to solve the problem, and several days ago he signed a presidential memo eliminating the subcharge on exports of dairy products from Israel to the US. The levy has been placed by the US on most of the world's countries exporting to America, but does not include exceptional countries which have trade agreements with the US which prohibit such a levy. Israel has now joined this list of exceptional countries. The exports of dairy products from Israel to the US are constantly on the rise, as there appears to be a high demand for Israeli cheese, yogurt and butter. In 2007, the exports of milk products to the US totaled $6 million. ..."  

UN approves nuclear free resolution [10/29/09] "The United Nations has approved a draft resolution proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran on destruction of nuclear weapons under international supervision. The resolution was ratified at the First Committee of the UN General Assembly despite the opposition of the United States and its allies. ..." 

US drone strikes may break international law: UN [10/29/09] "US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN’s top investigator of such crimes said..."

Secret Documents Reveal AstraZeneca Knowingly Promoted Psych Drugs for Unapproved Use in Children [10/28/09] "Internal documents acquired as part of a series of lawsuits show that pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca planned as early as 2001 to market its antipsychotic drug Seroquel for uses not approved by the FDA. Internal documents acquired as part of a series of lawsuits show that pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca planned as early as 2001 to market its antipsychotic drug Seroquel for uses not approved by the FDA. Under U.S. law, drug makers are prohibited for marketing their drug for any use not approved by the FDA. Doctors are still permitted to prescribe drugs, however, for any use they wish. Seroquel (generic name quetiapine) was approved for the treatment of psychotic disorders in adults in 1997. In 2001, the FDA extended this approval to cover schizophrenia. In 2004, it was approved for use of bipolar mania, and in 2006 it was approved for bipolar disorder. Yet AstraZeneca is now the defendant in thousands of lawsuits claiming, among other allegations, that the company actively marketed the drug for use in children and adolescents, and also sought to market it as a treatment for dementia in the elderly. In some of the retrieved documents, AstraZeneca employees and employees of a consulting firm hired by the company reference plans to “broaden Seroquel use on- and off-label,” specifically mentioning adolescents and people suffering from Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Areas where the company could promote this use are listed, including sales calls and meetings with medical professionals or patient advocacy groups..."   

Illinois: Psychotropic drugs given to nursing home patients without cause [10/28/09] "Frail and vulnerable residents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being dosed with powerful psychotropic drugs, leading to tremors, dangerous lethargy and a higher risk of harmful falls or even death, a Tribune investigation has found. Thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected, many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment, state and federal inspection reports show. Lloyd Berkley, 74, was in a nursing home near Peoria for less than a day before staff members held him down and injected him with a large amount of an antipsychotic drug, according to a state citation. A few hours later he fell, suffering a fatal head injury. One woman was given a psychotropic drug partly because she refused to wear a bra. Nursing home staff administered an antipsychotic medication to an 87-year-old man because he was "easily annoyed." In all, the Tribune identified 1,200 violations at Illinois nursing homes involving psychotropic medications since 2001. Those infractions affected 2,900 patients. The actual numbers are likely far higher because regulators inspect some facilities just once every 15 months, and even then they usually check only a small sample of residents for harm. The Tribune's unprecedented review of more than 40,000 state and federal inspection reports found that nursing homes ranging from "five-star" establishments on the North Shore to run-down facilities in urban neighborhoods have been cited for improperly administering psychotropic drugs. The paper's review took into account violations for "chemical restraint" and "unnecessary drugs" as well as cases involving dosages that exceeded safety standards or falls in which psychotropics possibly played a role. ..."  Note: More from Obama's home state.

Gaddafi: Disarm Israel or let Arabs develop nukes [10/27/09] "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says Arab states, as well as Palestinians, should be allowed to have nuclear weapons, as long as Israel retains its nukes. "If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same," Gaddafi told the British Sky network on Sunday night. "Even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities," the Libyan leader added..." Related: Gaddafi highlights nuclear 'double standards' [10/27/09] "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today said that the Palestinians should be allowed to have nuclear weapons if the world does not act to disarm Israel of its arsenal. Colonel Gaddafi accused the international community of "double standards" because Israel is allowed to maintain a barely-hidden nuclear capability while Iran comes under massive pressure not to develop its own. Denouncing the "double standards" which saw Iran treated differently from Israel, he added: "If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same - even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities. Why not? "Even the state of Palestine, when one day it is established, should have a nuclear capability because the counterpart of such a state, the Israeli state, already has nuclear capabilities. "If we don't want this situation, we'll have to disarm the Israelis from their nuclear weapons and capabilities." 

Fox News successfully argued in court that it had a constitutional right to report lies [10/27/09] "The mainstream media have almost entirely ignored a court case in which lawyers for Fox News argued six years ago that their client has a right under the First Amendment to peddle falsehoods in the guise of news. Nor did THIS BLOG POST of four months ago regarding the matter gain widespread circulation. An excerpt: "On August 18, 2000, journalist Jane Akre won $425,000 in a court ruling where she charged she was pressured by Fox News management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The real information: she found out cows in Florida were being injected with RBGH, a drug designed to make cows produce milk – and, according to FDA-redacted studies, unintentionally designed to make human beings produce cancer. Fox lawyers, under pressure by the Monsanto Corporation (who produced RBGH), rewrote her report over 80 times to make it compatible with the company’s requests. She and her husband, journalist Steve Wilson, refused to air the edited segment. In February 2003, Fox appealed the decision and an appellate court and had it overturned. Fox lawyers argued it was their first amendment right to report false information. In a six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals decided the FCC’s position against news distortion is only a “policy,” not a “law, rule, or regulation.”   Note:  In all fairness, other networks have done the same thing, misleading the public with concocted or twisted stories.

Undeclared plutonium scandal haunts France [10/27/09] "French authorities have discovered enough undeclared plutonium to make five nuclear bombs at a nuclear facility south of the country."

US Chamber of Commerce Bullies ISP's: Shuts off TheYesMen.org and Websites of Hundreds of Other Activist Groups  [10/27/09] "Hundreds of activist organizations had their internet service turned off last night after the US Chamber of Commerce strong-armed an upstream provider, Hurricane Electric, to pull the plug on The Yes Men and May First / People Link, a 400-member-strong organization with a strong commitment to protecting free speech. "This is a blow against free speech, and it demostrates in gory detail the full hypocrisy of the Chamber," said Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men. "The only freedom they care about is the economic freedom of large corporations to operate free of the hassles of science, reality, and democracy."  Note: This ISP, Hurricane Electric, has been in the news this month before.

U.S. Forcibly Deported Islanders And Gassed Their Dogs To Make Way For Diego Garcia Military Base [10/27/09] "In order to convert the sleepy, Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia into a dominating military base, the U.S. forcibly transported its 2,000 Chagossian inhabitants into exile and gassed their dogs. By banning journalists from the area, the U.S. Navy was able to perpetrate this with virtually no press coverage, says David Vine, an assistant professor of anthropology at American University and author of "Island of Shame: the Secret History of the U.S. Military on Diego Garcia(Princeton University Press)."

CA: No Relief Yet for PG&E Customers Who Claim 'Smart Meters' are Causing Rate Hikes [10/27/09] "The hearings were set up by State Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter), who said in late September that his office had been flooded with calls from angry customers in PG&E's Bakersfield service area complaining about skyrocketing electric rates and their new smart meters—which they blame for the rate hikes. Florez, the Senate majority leader, has since called for PG&E to stop the deployment. "People think these meters are fraud meters. They're getting no benefit from these things," Florez said. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) agreed to address the issue last week, but would not order PG&E to suspend its large-scale deployment of new 'smart meters'.

CIA was focused on American journalist Wolf Blitzer in Israel [10/26/09] "WMR has learned from a former top official of the CIA station at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv that in the late 1970s, a young and "impudent" American correspondent for the Jerusalem Post first came to the attention of the CIA because of his attempts to paint the Camp David peace accords between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, brokered by President Jimmy Carter, in a bad light. The correspondent was also seen by the CIA station as being too close to the Israeli intelligence apparatus, mainly because of his simultaneous work on behalf of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), seen by the CIA at the time as a cipher for Israeli intelligence in the United States. The journalist in question was Wolf Blitzer, who is now CNN's top man for its Washington news bureau. The former CIA officer said that in his dealings with Blitzer, the American journalist always showed an air of "arrogance." Blitzer's unique role as both a journalist and a public relations man for AIPAC gave him unique insight into the Israel Lobby in Washington since he was an integral part of it. in a March 24, 1993, article in the Jerusalem Post, Blitzer sounded a warning bell about a member of Congress who had been tapped as George H. W. Bush's new Defense Secretary and seemed to be wavering on support for Israel, especially in light of the Jonathan Pollard spy case. From Blitzer's report we have the following: "A day after Jonathan Jay Pollard was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to spying for Israel, Richard Cheney, then a congressman from Wyoming, and a few other members of the House Intelligence Committee received a high-level classified briefing from the Central Intelligence Agency. Cheney, the new secretary of defence in the Bush administration, emerged from that closed-door session to tell reporters that he did not believe that Pollard was part of any unauthorized Israeli operation. 'I don't think it was a rogue operation,' he said on March 5, 1987. 'I think it was a major, very successful penetration of the U.S. government and our intelligence agencies by the Israeli government.' He said that such behaviour 'doesn't behoove an ally,' adding: 'I don't think we've heard the last of it.'" Blitzer continued on reporting on Cheney's rant against Israel. ""On the one hand," he [Cheney] said, "Israel pleads a special relationship with the United States, and on the other hand, they run a major intelligence operation against us. There isn't much they couldn't get if they asked for it, but they chose not to do it that way, and I think the Israeli government ought to know that some of us are deeply concerned about that kind of conduct.'" Blitzer also noted Cheney's support for U.S. arms sales to Arab countries: "On the sensitive matter of U.S. arms sales to Arab countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, he almost always has voted in favour. And most observers here believe that he will almost certainly follow in the footsteps of his Pentagon predecessors in pushing for additional large-scale weapons transfers to moderate Arab countries." And Blitzer bemoaned the fact that Cheney had not had very much interaction with AIPAC, other Jewish lobbying groups, and Jews in general: "Because he represented a very small state with only a handful of Jews, Cheney did not have to deliver many major addresses on Israel. 'He hasn't thought about the subject too much,' one Capitol Hill source said." Blitzer continues to act as Israel's gatekeeper at CNN, determining what spokespeople will represent the Palestinian and other Arab views on the increasingly propaganda-oriented cable news network.."  Note: Now, that's a report worthy of the "Situation Room", huh, Wolfy?  

UN nuclear inspectors in Iran to visit site  [10/26/09] "A team of UN inspectors arrived today in Iran to visit a recently revealed, though still unfinished, uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom to verify it is for peaceful purposes. The revelation last month by Iran of the facility's existence, known as Fordo, raised international suspicion over the extent and aim of Tehran's nuclear program. But Iran says that by reporting the existence of the site voluntarily to the UN's nuclear watchdog, it "pre-empted a conspiracy" against Tehran by the US and its allies who were hoping to present the site as evidence that Iran was developing its nuclear program in secret. Iran insists its nuclear program serves to generate power and denies allegations it is trying to make nuclear weapons. The delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency is led by Herman Nackaerts, Director of IAEA's Division Of Operations Department Of Safeguards. The inspectors are expected to stay three days in Iran. The Fordo uranium enrichment site, Iran's second, is said to be in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom, inside a heavily guarded, underground facility. It is located about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Qom. Iran says the facility won't be operational for another 18 months. ..."  

UK: The Riddle of Death Fall No.2 [10/26/09] "Police are investigating the suspicious death of a British nuclear expert involved in negotiations with Iran. Timothy Hampton, 47, was found at the bottom of a stairwell in the Vienna International Centre, the United Nations headquarters in the Austrian capital. He is believed to have died instantly after falling 150ft from the 17th floor. Investigators are believed to be looking for links with the death of another UN employee in a fall at the building earlier this year. Mr Hampton, a member of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, was involved in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. UN spokeswoman Anne Thomas said: “I can confirm that a male staff member of the CTBTO was found dead at the bottom of a stairwell in the centre’s E Building. Police are investigating.” ..."  Related: Mystery over British nuclear expert's death plunge at UN HQ "The 47-year-old official, only identified so far as Timothy H, toppled about 120ft from the UN's building in the Austrian capital yesterday. He is believed to have been a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation and was due to take part in the UN-Iran discussions starting today..."  UK: Secret files reveal covert network run by nuclear police   "The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and secret documents, seen by the Guardian, show the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets. The nuclear industry will pay £57m this year to finance the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). The funding comes from the companies which run 17 nuclear plants, including Dounreay in Caithness, Sellafield in Cumbria and Dungeness in Kent. ..."

Senator Harry Reid Admits Israel Has a Nuclear Program [10/26/09]  Graphic of Letter by Senator Reid to a constituent, Oct 14, 2009  Note: 1. Last Spring, Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel refused. 2. The United Nations passed a resolution calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused. 3. The IAEA asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused. 4. Iran's formal notification to the IAEA of the planned construction of the backup fuel-rod facility underscores that Iran is playing by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which Iran has signed. 5. Iran allows IAEA inspections of all its facilities.

Chavez urges US, Russia to denuclearize themselves [10/25/09]  "Venezuela has called for the elimination of all nuclear bombs asking why powers that possess such weapons of mass destruction are not under pressure to disarm ..."  Note: Don't forget Israel.

Drug cartel assassins behead 10 rivals in Mexico [10/25/09] "Drug cartel hit men have beheaded 10 rivals, chopped up their bodies and left them in plastic bags on an isolated road in western Mexico.  ..."  

Stocks slide as railroads, oil lose ground [10/24/09] "Investors dumped stocks and locked in profits Friday after the glow of a week full of strong earnings reports faded. The retreat came as cautious forecasts from railroads caused unease about the economy and a rising dollar pushed prices of commodities lower, which hurt materials and energy stocks...."   

Key information missing from US drug labels-doctors  [10/24/09] "Drug labels in the United States often omit information showing the severity of side effects or that a medicine is not very effective, two doctors said on Wednesday. The result can be a document skewed toward making a medicine seem safer and more effective than it really is, they wrote in a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine..."  

White House to Keep Obama’s ‘Czars’ from Testifying Before Congress [10/23/09] "The White House is not going to allow the president’s newly created “czars” to testify before Congress. White House Counsel Greg Craig has indicated that he will refuse to allow any of the 18 new “czar” positions created by President Obama to testify before Congress, according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. ..."    List Of Obama's Czars    

Pelosi Doublespeak: "It’s not a tax increase; We’re eliminating a tax decrease" [10/23/09] "MARIA BARTIROMO: But- on the tax issue, allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would essentially be tax increase. House Speaker NANCY PELOSI: That wasn’t a tax increase. It is- it is- eliminating a tax- decrease that was there. ..."  

FBI: Mobster 'more powerful than a John Gotti' [10/23/09] "Semion Mogilevich may be the most powerful man you've never heard of. The FBI says Mogilevich, a Russian mobster, has been involved in arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and murder for hire. "He has access to so much, including funding, including other criminal organizations, that he can, with a telephone call and order, affect the global economy," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Peter Kowenhoven. ..."   

U.S. Arrests Hundreds in Raids on Drug Cartel [10/23/09] "Calling it a “significant blow” to the operations of a major Mexican drug cartel, Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday the arrests of 303 people and the seizure of illegal drugs, weapons and millions of dollars over the past two days in a series of coordinated raids in 19 states..."  Note: "See? See? We are good for something after all!! Pay no attention to the economy or those those war crimes charges at the UN!!!" Related:  More than 1,100 feds, LA police conduct gang sweep  "More than 1,100 FBI agents and police officers spread out through South Los Angeles, banging on doors before dawn Thursday in a crackdown against a gang implicated in drug dealing and violent crime, authorities said...."   

Taser Tells Police to Avoid Shooting at Chest [10/22/09] "Stun-gun maker Taser International has started telling police agencies to avoid firing the devices at suspects' chests, explaining that there's an "extremely low" risk of ill effects on the heart and that doing so will make defending lawsuits easier. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company made the recommendation in an Oct. 12 revised training manual, saying it "has less to do with safety and more to do with effective risk management for law enforcement agencies." The manual also includes a lengthy explanation about deaths caused by sudden cardiac arrest. "Should sudden cardiac arrest occur in a scenario involving a Taser discharge to the chest area, it would place the law enforcement agency, the officer, and Taser International in the difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, (the device) could have played," according to the manual. The manual includes a graphic displaying the human body and "preferred target areas." The company recommends firing Tasers anywhere but at the head, neck and chest. The manual says to avoid chest shots "when possible" and "unless legally justified." Taser critics call the company's new recommendation an admission that the devices can cause heart attacks. ..."  Note: Duh ... Duh ... Duh .... stupid sequentials.

Iran, 3 Powers Have Till Friday Next Week to OK Nuclear Deal [10/22/09] "The U.N. nuclear watchdog presented Wednesday a draft deal to Iran and three world powers for approval within two days to reduce Tehran's stockpile of enriched uranium, seen by the West as a nuclear weapons risk. Iran declined to say if it would endorse the plan, which Western diplomats said would require Tehran to send 1.2 tons of its known 1.5-tonne reserve of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France by the end of the year. The material would be converted into fuel for a nuclear medicine facility in Tehran...."  Related: Iran agrees 'in principle' to compromise on nuclear program 

Unemployed Jordanians deceived into donating their organs [10/22/09] "Reliable data on organ trafficking are not available, but Jordanian officials insist the issue is not pressing. Organ trafficking is banned, with penalties of up to five years' jail and a $28,000 fine. In September, 11 Jordanians were extradited by Cairo and charged in Amman with trafficking in human organs, mainly kidneys, and selling them illegally in Egypt for up to $30,000 each. Other suspects are being interrogated and seven more are on the run, police said. In the tiny desert kingdom, official figures suggest that 70 per cent of the population of nearly six million is under the age of 30, and that unemployment is at 14.3 per cent. However, independent estimates put the jobless figure at 30 per cent - more than double the official figure. In 2007, a year in which more than 80 cases of trafficking were uncovered, Jordan created a national commission to promote organ donation in a bid to end illegal trafficking and encourage people to donate their organs. "Traffickers work on commission, preying on poor people to convince them to sell their kidneys and then facilitating their travel to a third country for the operations," said state coroner Momen Hadidi, the commission's rapporteur. "More than 800 people die every year in Jordan in road accidents. We should be encouraging the relatives of these victims to donate the organs of their loved ones. That way we can begin to reduce the demand," he said. According to a recent government study of 130 cases in which kidneys were sold, nearly 80 per cent of "donors" were Palestinians from Baqaa in north-west Amman, the largest refugee camp in the country. Most were under the age of 31, lived in absolute poverty and had no criminal record. The study said operations to remove the kidneys used to take place in Iraq, but since the 2003 US-led invasion, young men are now sent to Egypt, India and Pakistan. ..."      

Scottish Mental Health Tribunal [10/21/09] "It is not always necessary to commit a crime before you are compulsorily detained against your will. If you are considered to be so mentally ill that you require to be kept in hospital, often for a very long period, and to have drugs administered to you without your permission, then you may become the subject of a 'Compulsory Treatment Order'. To borrow the popular term, you may be sectioned. Until recently, it was a sheriff who approved such orders. The name of the sheriff was public knowledge. There was a certain comfort in this knowledge. In October 2005 a new enlightenment was introduced in Scotland, 'a pioneering approach' to mental illness. Instead of a sheriff sitting alone, the tribunal came into being: a three-person panel consisting of a legal person, a medical person, and a lay person. Such was the volume of cases, the weight of mental illness afflicting our society, many such panels were required. A new publicly-funded organisation, the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, with its own executive agency, was set up by the Scottish Government at a cost of almost £10 million a year. The tribunal, in its own words, 'makes decisions, and issues orders, regarding the long-term compulsory care and treatment of people with mental disorders'. It has the status of a judicial body: it is regarded as a court. The new bureaucracy is based in a business park in Hamilton. It employs 84 people and has a chief executive who earns £60,000 a year. It claims to provide 'a responsive, accessible, independent and impartial service'. Its creation is said to have marked 'a fundamental change in the way decisions are made ..... ' The PDF file presents the membership list of the Scottish Mental Health Tribunal (MHT). The mental health tribunal is a quasi-judicial authority which has the power to detain people indefinitely. The members are paid for by the public. The list, once publicised at the MHT's own website but subsequently removed, was leaked as background information to a critical article in the Scottish Review titled "Scotland's secret judges".   Related:  'jesus's face' spotted on the toilet door in Ikea, Glasgow  "The face of 'jesus' has been spotted in a toilet door in a Glasgow branch of Ikea. ..."  Note: Just where the 'jesus' concept belongs - in the toilet. Stupid people who fail to comprehend the visual pattern- detection dynamic of their own brains. Same as seeing a 'picture' in a cloud. Same dumb people, same skimpy genes, same outcome. How did it get on the back of the bathroom door anyway? It wasn't the second coming. It had to be the first.

Wikileaks:  Xe-Blackwater warcrimes case: employee declarations, legal complaint and motions, 2009 [10/21/09] "This ZIP archive, containing motions, declarations and complaints, forms part of a lawsuit filed against the US mercenary firm Blackwater for war crimes, wrongful death, summary execution, and other matters. ..."  

House bill would make changes in Patriot Act [10/21/09] "House Judiciary Committee leaders on Tuesday introduced a bill to place new restrictions on government surveillance and seizures in anti-terrorism investigations, while allowing the Obama administration to continue some tactics used by its predecessor. Three important sections of the USA Patriot Act will expire at year's end, unless Congress continues them in the law designed to prevent a terrorist attack on the homeland. The bill, sponsored by three liberal Democrats, only would renew two of them. The proposal would eliminate the government's authority to spy on a "lone wolf," a non-U.S. citizen suspected of terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group. The Justice Department said the government has never used this authority but wants to keep it available. The other two provisions would continue with modifications. ..." 

Atom bomb testing blamed for more cancers [10/21/09] "Radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb testing decades ago is responsible for more fatal cancer in Americans than previously estimated, a research group says. The Radiation and Public Health Project said its research indicates many more Americans have died or will die of cancer due to exposure to fallout from atomic bomb testing between the 1940s and 1960s than the 15,000 figure the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in 2002. However, the group said it could not determine an exact number of testing-related cancer deaths. The organization, which announced its research during a Tuesday news conference, said it based its findings on an analysis of 85,000 baby teeth from people born during the 1950s and 1960s in the St. Louis area.

Bail revoked for former N.Y. police chief [10/21/09] "A federal judge sent former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to jail Tuesday after prosecutors said he was trying to influence potential jurors."

Opinion: Climate Treaty Will Create World Government Dictatorship, Distribute Wealth From Developed Countries to 3rd World Nations [10/21/09] "The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations will hold their 15th conference on climate change through December 7-18th. At the conference, globalists like Obama will sign the ‘Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty’ that will replace the Kyoto treaty that is set to expire in 2012. ..."  Note: Many are worried about Obama signing away national sovereignty, but in truth, it is not his to give away.

Unlike Obama, Americans Reject European Model [10/20/09] "An interesting paradox. Last year, America elected a president who, in attitudes and policies, is closer to the elites of Western Europe than any of his predecessors. Yet in the nine months that he has been in office, ordinary Americans have been moving away from those attitudes and policies and have increasingly embraced positions that over the years have made Americans distinctive from those in other advanced Western democracies. Barack Obama's European tendencies aren't not in doubt. His policies on government spending, taxation, health care and carbon emissions would all tend to bring America in line with European norms, to a far greater degree than any other president of the last 40 years and probably any president ever. ..."   

False Premise: Human Life is Sacred [10/19/09] "To believe this, one really has to ignore just about every aspect of human life. If human life is so sacred, why not protest avoidable poverty, tens of thousands of unnecessary infant deaths due to lack of water purification that costs pennies? Why not work to support anti-malaria measures that would save milliions of sacred human lives? Why not work to end war or to protect children from environmental contaminants that kill thousands every year? Why not oppose capital punishment that kills innocents or long prison sentences for victimless crimes? ..."  Note: Quite a leap for "Psychology Today"! Actually, NO 'life' is 'sacred' ... at least it's a start.

Flashback:  "Scientists prove that 'race' does not exist" [10/19/09] "The idea of race is not reflected in a person's genes, Brazilian researchers said on Monday, confirming what scientists have long said - that race has no meaning genetically. The researchers looked at one of the most racially mixed populations in the world for their study, which found there was no way to look at someone's genes and determine his or her race. Brazilians include people of European, African and Indian, or Amerindian, descent. "There is wide agreement among anthropologists and human geneticists that, from a biological standpoint, human races do not exist," Sergio Pena and colleagues wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Races exist as social constructs," they said. They found 10 gene variations that could reliably tell people apart genetically, but the differences did not have anything to do with physical characteristics such as skin or hair colour. Maternal DNA suggested that even "white" people had, on average, 33 percent of genes that were of Amerindian ancestry and 28 percent African. ..."  Related: Researchers Prove No Genetic Basis to Race   

Dissenting voices to be silenced as liberal Russian TV channels come under state control [10/19/09] "Campaigners accused the Kremlin today of killing off the last vestiges of independent television in Russia, after it emerged that the two remaining private TV channels would come under state control next year. REN TV and St Petersburg's Fifth Channel, which are sometimes critical of the authorities, have until now been Russia's last semi-independent private TV stations. ..."  

Commentary: Why 'Terrorists' Never Have Gotten Hold of a Nuke and Why the Taliban Won't Be First [10/18/09]  By Keith Thompson. "In April of this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern that Pakistan's safeguards were insufficient to deny terrorists "the keys to nuclear arsenal." Now, six months of scrutiny the wiser, she says, "We have confidence in the Pakistani government and military's control over nuclear weapons." A Taliban strategist might counter: Who had more safeguards and government and military control than the Soviets? Look at what happened there. Yes, he'll find 87,000 websites with "evidence" of lost "suitcases" and other loose Russian nukes. Yet all of the intelligence analysts and nuclear proliferation experts I've interviewed in research for my books give the notion of missing Russian nuclear weapons no more credibility than the details of Barack Obama's birth in Kenya. True, after the Iron Curtain fell, hundreds upon hundreds of nuclear weapons were transported from the outlying republics on ancient coal-powered trains and Russian trucks that stall every other kilometer. For all the nukes to have made it home safe and sound seems an unprecedented logistical feat. On top of that, the Russians are famous for tripping over their own red tape. Except when it comes to a nuclear warhead. Losing one would be tantamount to NASA forgetting where they parked one of the Space Shuttles. The same holds true in all nations with nuclear weapons. So here's a more realistic Pakistan bad-case scenario: The Taliban defies tremendous odds and breaches a Pakistani nuclear facility replete with a warhead. Without its short-range ballistic missile, launcher and codes, the warhead is of as much use to them as a car engine without a chassis, wheels and gas. And these items aren't readily available, especially with the Taliban suddenly surrounded by heavily-armored weapons and tactical specialists, far as the eye can see, locked and loaded, and champing at the bit ..."   

Turkish TV Drama Shows Israeli Soldiers Brutally Killing Children, Exacerbating Rift Between Nations [10/18/09] "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday complained to Turkey over a new television drama airing there that depicts Israel Defense Forces soldiers as brutal murderers. Lieberman instructed staff at the Foreign Ministry to protest in the face of their Turkish counterparts. He stressed that airing this type of show reflects a grave level of incitement against Israel - and with government approval. The show, called Ayrilik, features a love story that develops between the lead characters during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media reports. However, a partial episode available on YouTube depicts multiple images of the IDF brutalizing the Palestinian population by shooting children in the chest and kicking elderly people on the ground, among other things. ..."    

Court: Monsanto guilty of false claims about product safety [10/17/09] "France's highest court has ruled that US agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as "biodegradable" and claimed it "left the soil clean". The company was fined 15,000 euros (£13,800; $22,400). It has yet to comment on the judgment. Roundup is the world's best-selling herbicide. Monsanto also sells crops genetically-engineered to be tolerant to Roundup. French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" by the European Union...."   

Britain must publish US intelligence on torture, court rules [10/17/09] "The British Government must publish US intelligence material about the torture allegedly suffered by Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, the High Court has ruled. ..."  

Obama loosens missile technology controls to China [10/17/09] "President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development. The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. ..."  Note: 'One has to wonder what the "quid pro quo" here was. China has been very nervous recently about its dollar holdings, and given the current sorry state of US currency, who can blame them? Was this move made to cause them not to dump dollar holdings in the short term?'

Rape case to force US defence firms into the open [10/16/09] "Senate passes measure prompted by case of woman prevented from suing over alleged rape by Halliburton/KBR colleagues. US defence firms are to be barred from lucrative government contracts if they refuse to allow employees access to the courts, after a woman working for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq was prevented from taking legal action over an alleged gang rape by fellow workers. Al Franken, the Senate's newest member, has won an amendment to the defence appropriations bill prompted by the case of Jamie Leigh Jones. She alleges that she was drugged and raped by seven American contractors in Baghdad in 2005. Jones, who was employed by KBR, which was fighting oil fires, says that a pattern of subsequent behaviour by the firm, including allegedly locking her in a container under armed guard and losing forensic evidence, amounts to a cover-up. Halliburton/KBR used a clause in her contract requiring disputes to be settled by arbitration to block legal action – a policy which, her lawyer says, has encouraged assaults by creating a climate of impunity. ..."   

Economics and the Drug War [10/15/09] "It is becoming ever more apparent that the war on drugs has been lost. Doomed to fail from the moment of its inception, the war the U.S. government has been waging has not been against drugs, but against people and the laws of economics. The results have been violence, corruption, and a militarized society ......"   

Judge Shuts Public Access To Blackwater Hearings [10/15/09] "A federal judge on Wednesday shut down public access to pretrial hearings in the prosecution of five Blackwater security guards for allegedly killing Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. The hearings will delve into whether government investigators were tainted by statements the guards gave shortly after the shootings on Sept. 16, 2007, that killed 14 unarmed civilians. The guards gave the statements during a preliminary State Department inquiry, under a limited grant of immunity from prosecution, meaning the statements could not be used in the subsequent investigation that resulted in criminal charges. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said he wants to shield witnesses and potential jurors from pretrial publicity. In court on Wednesday, Urbina rejected a request by The Washington Post to open the proceedings, saying the rights of the five guards to a fair trial outweighed the public's interest in attending the proceedings. According to a Post account of the brief session Wednesday, the judge also said he was concerned because the hearings will involve grand jury information, which is secret. The hearings are expected to last through Oct. 16. ..."   

North Korea 'preparing to launch more missiles' [10/15/09] "North Korea may be preparing to launch more short-range missiles, one day after it fired five off its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency has said. ..."    

The Anglo-US Drive into Eurasia and the Demonization of Russia: Reframing the History of World War II  [10/15/09] "As tensions mount between the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on one side and Moscow and its allies on another, the history of the Second World War is being re-framed to demonize Russia, the legal successor state and largest former constituent republic (pars pro toto) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). In 2009, the U.S.S.R. and the Nazi government of Germany started being portrayed as the two forces that ignited the Second World War. The historicity behind such a narrative is incorrect and nothing can be further from the truth in regards to Moscow. The security of the European core of the Soviet Union was the main objective of the Kremlin as well as the recovery of lost territory. The Soviet government was also aware of war plans against the Soviet Union. Adolph Hitler thought Britain would join Germany in war against the Soviets, even until the latter part of the Second World War. This discourse in itself is part of a broader roadmap to control Eurasia through the encirclement of any rival powers, such as Russia and China. To understand the geo-politics and strategic nature of the encirclement of Russia and China by the U.S. and NATO, as well as the Eurasian alliance being formed by Moscow and Beijing as a counter-measure, one must look at the historic Anglo-American drive to cripple and contain any power in Eurasia. Geography is the basis of the social evolution of traditional power, whether in feudal societies or in industrial societies. For example the property ownership of the landed class, which originally was the nobility, gave rise to the factory system. The rise of financial power is somewhat different, but yet it is also tied to geography. ..."  Note:   

Russia: We’ll Nuke ‘Aggressors’ First [10/15/09] "Russia is weighing changes to its military doctrine that would allow for a “preventive” nuclear strike against its enemies — even those armed only with conventional weapons. The news comes just as American diplomats are trying to get Russia to cut down its nuclear stockpile, and put the squeeze on Iran’s suspect nuclear program..."  Related: [July 2009] Pentagon Kills Russian Nuclear Strike Plan |  [May 2009] Will Obama Give Up America’s Nuke First Strike?  "it’s still official U.S. policy that America reserves the right to drop the first Bomb in an atomic war ... would a policy of no first use help the U.S. today? It might have a similar calming effect on Russia (and the specific refusal to declare might have an agitating effect) ... But the authors of a recent report to the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States seem to remain persuaded by the same arguments that convinced some of them decades before. A policy of no first use, they write, “would be unsettling to some U.S. allies” — which strikes me as code for Poland and other East European countries that have been invaded frequently in the past. The authors add that such a policy “would also undermine the potential contribution of nuclear weapons to the deterrence of attack by biological weapons.”... As an addendum, one of the central critics of no first use — Paul Nitze, who authored the rebuttal in the New York Times to McNamara, Kennan, Bundy, and Smith — floated an interesting variation on the argument in the late 1950s. What if, he asked, the international community banned the first use of nuclear weapons on someone else’s territory? In other words, what if you were only allowed to use weapons on your own territory? ... He would later abandon this idea, perhaps because of all the weird game theory issues it would create. Under such a policy, for example, one’s adversary would have an incentive to start an attack by heading directly for your cities. And fallout 
wouldn’t stay within the launching nation’s borders. And there’s another issue that seems particularly ironic today. The country he talked about as the most likely beneficiary was an American ally that shared a large desolate border with the Soviet Union and that, he thought, might benefit from having nuclear weapons to fire on its own land to knock by the Sovets. What was that nation? Iran.  |

Russia resisting sanctions against Iran [10/15/09] by Dahr Jamail and Jason Coppola.  "After meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow believed that such threats would not persuade Iran to comply and that negotiations should continue to be pursued. ..."   

Secret Deal Between Wall Street and Washington Shines a Harsh Light on Federal Housing Agency  [10/14/09] "While the Federal Trade Commission was receiving gut-wrenching documentation of predatory lending abuses at a unit of Citigroup, the Federal agency mandated to level the playing field for low income homeowners, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was quietly awarding 19,968 mortgages of homeowners in distress to Citigroup to dispose of as it saw fit. HUD legally became Citigroup’s joint venture partner in at least two of the deals, retaining a minority interest. On March 6, 2001, the FTC brought suit against Citigroup, CitiFinancial Credit Company and two firms it had acquired (Associates First Capital Corporation and Associates Corporation of North America) charging them with engaging in deceptive and illegal lending practices. ..."   

Sick and Wrong: How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it  [10/14/09] By Mike Taibbi, Rolling Stone. "Let's start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world. It's become a black leprosy eating away at the American experiment — a bureaucracy so insipid and mean and illogical that even our darkest criminal minds wouldn't be equal to dreaming it up on purpose. ... The system doesn't work for anyone. It cheats patients and leaves them to die, denies insurance to 47 million Americans, forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims, and systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation. Even as a mechanism for delivering bonuses to insurance-company fat cats, it's a miserable failure: Greedy insurance bosses who spent a generation denying preventive care to patients now see their profits sapped by millions of customers who enter the system only when they're sick with incurably expensive illnesses. ... The cost of all of this to society, in illness and death and lost productivity and a soaring federal deficit and plain old anxiety and anger, is incalculable — and that's the good news. The bad news is our failed health care system won't get fixed, because it exists entirely within the confines of yet another failed system: the political entity known as the United States of America. ... Just as we have a medical system that is not really designed to care for the sick, we have a government that is not equipped to fix actual crises. What our government is good at is something else entirely: effecting the appearance of action, while leaving the actual reform behind in a diabolical labyrinth of ingenious legislative maneuvers ..."   

The Audacity of Greed: How Private Health Insurers Just Blew Their Cover By Robert Reich [10/14/09] "... Now’s the time for Senate Finance Committee and the White House to say to the insurance industry: You want to play hardball? Okay. We’ll play it, too. You didn’t want a public insurance option. That was one of your conditions for supporting the bill. You wanted gigantic profits from having thirty million new paying customers and the market to yourself. We agreed because we wanted your support and were afraid of the negative ads and hurricane of opposition you could finance. But you’re even greedier than we imagined. And now you’ve demonstrated that greed to the American people. They don’t want to turn over even more of their hard-earned money to you. So, insurance companies, we’ve got news for you. We’re going to make sure Americans have the freedom to choose a public insurance option that’s cheaper and better, and you’re going to have to work hard to keep them your customers ..."  

Obama Administration Accused Again of Concealing Bush-Era Crimes [10/14/09] "Obama promised to usher in a new era of government transparency when he was sworn into office nine months ago. On January 21, Obama signed an executive order instructing all federal agencies and departments to "adopt a presumption in favor" of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and promised to make the federal government more transparent. "The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed or because of speculative or abstract fears," Obama's order said. "In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public." But since that time, the Obama administration has sought to conceal information in several high-profile court cases, in an effort that civil libertarians say amounts to covering up crimes committed by the Bush administration ..."     

Mafia, violent criminals turn to Medicare fraud [10/13/09] "Lured by easier money and shorter prison sentences, Mafia figures and other violent criminals are increasingly moving into Medicare fraud and spilling blood over what was once a white-collar crime. Around the nation, federal investigators have been threatened, an informant's body was found riddled with bullets, and a woman was discovered dead in a pharmacy under investigation, her throat slit with a piece of broken toilet seat. For criminals, Medicare schemes offer a greater payoff and carry much shorter prison sentences than offenses such as drug trafficking or robbery. "We've seen more people that used to be involved in (dealing) drugs are switching over to health care fraud because it's not as dangerous . ..."    

Genocide forgotten: Armenians horrified by treaty with Turkey [10/13/09] "A new trade deal is set to gloss over the murder of 1.5 million people. In the autumn of 1915, an Austrian engineer called Litzmayer, who was helping build the Constantinople-Baghdad railway, saw what he thought was a large Turkish army heading for Mesopotamia. But as the crowd came closer, he realised it was a huge caravan of women, moving forward under the supervision of soldiers. The 40,000 or so women were all Armenians, separated from their men – most of whom had already had their throats cut by Turkish gendarmerie – and deported on a genocidal death march during which up to 1.5 million Armenians died. .... Every year, new evidence emerges about this mass ethnic cleansing, the first holocaust of the last century; and every year, Turkey denies that it ever committed genocide. Yet on Saturday – to the horror of millions of descendants of Armenian survivors – the President of Armenia, Serg Sarkissian, plans to agree to a protocol with Turkey to re-open diplomatic relations, which should allow for new trade concessions and oil interests. And he proposes to do this without honouring his most important promise to Armenians abroad – to demand that Turkey admit it carried out the Armenian genocide in 1915 ..."   

Report: US considers phone companies ‘arm of government’ [10/13/09] "The US government doesn't have to reveal information about phone companies that may have spied illegally on Americans because those phone companies are an "arm of the government," the US Justice Department argued in a recent court case ..." Related: The Blob that Passed Telecom Immunity  " ... There’s actually stuff in the government’s motion for an emergency stay that I find much more interesting. For example, the language attempting to protect agency discussions with Congress describe Congress as a mere appendage to the executive branch which did not, in 2008, have its own distinct Constitutional interest in legislation concerning matters in which the executive branch had been found to have flouted duly passed laws. ..."   

The missing: Each year, 275,000 Britons disappear [10/13/09] "Odd place, Britain. Every day, 13 million CCTV cameras track our movements. We're PIN-numbered, databased, credit-rated, nannied, Neighbourhood Watched, Facebooked, emailed and GPS-ed. You wouldn't think any of us could slip away unnoticed. But we do, in ever-increasing quantities. An Independent on Sunday investigation has established that the numbers of Britons who disappear each year is now at record levels. ..."   

Multi-national military maneuver canceled due to US outcry [10/12/09] "A joint military exercise that Israel, the US, NATO, Turkey and Italy were scheduled to conduct this week, was taken off the table because of American disappointment with Ankara's decision to withdraw from the maneuver due to Israel's planned participation, Israeli defense officials said Sunday. Turkey informed Israel of the cancellation of the Anatolian Eagle exercise last week, saying this was because the planes that Israel was going to send likely bombed Hamas targets during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. ..."  Note: Of course, the US has absolutely no difficulty going ahead with military exercises with countries - like Israel - whose military regularly commits war crimes.

Alan Grayson Explains The Best Policy For Afghanistan: Just Leave People Alone  [10/11/09] "Grayson was one of the 32 members of Congress who stood up on June 16 and said "NO!" to more war funding. It's more than a promise; it's something he did. ..."   Note: Nevertheless, Grayson comes off as an abrasive, annoying individual, as correct as he may be about this issue.

Telephone Company Is Arm of Government, Feds Admit in Spy Suit [10/10/09] "The Department of Justice has finally admitted it in court papers: The nation’s telecom companies are an arm of the government — at least when it comes to secret spying. Fortunately, a judge says that relationship isn’t enough to squash a rights group’s open records request for communications between the nation’s telecoms and the feds. ..."  

Chavez nuclear gag riles the US  [10/09/09] "While the rest of the world scrambles to build missile defence shields, and the diplomatic community rushes to emergency meetings at the United Nations, Hugo Chavez is taking a splendidly relaxed view of Iran’s latest nuclear ambitions. The Venezuelan President has once more managed to upset his American counterparts, this time by using a televised Cabinet meeting to crack knockabout jokes about helping Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to develop weapons of mass destruction. Welcoming his late-arriving Minister for Mining, Rodolfo Sanz, to Tuesday’s gathering, which was being broadcast live on state television, Mr Chavez shuffled some papers and cheerfully inquired: “How’s the uranium for Iran? For the atomic bomb?” ..."    

Trans Texas Corridor is declared dead -- again [10/09/09] "The Texas Department of Transportation has formally pulled the plug on the Trans Texas Corridor, a hotly contested plan to build toll roads, rail lines and utilities across the state, officials said...."  

Falk: The PA betrayed its own people [10/09/09] "On Friday, September 4, the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) submitted 28,000 petition signatures as a supplement to the 52,000 signatures submitted on June 26 calling for a citywide referendum on the creation of a local, independent commission to investigate  ..."  Note: Abbas has lost all credibility by caving to Israel and the US on this. No wonder certain sources have mentioned that he is no longer welcome in Ramallah. Arafat also betrayed the PA.  It's a habit, and 1.5 million Palestinians didn't catch onto it.

Saudis ask for aid if world cuts dependence on oil [10/09/09] "There are plenty of needy countries at the U.N. climate talks in Bangkok that make the case they need financial assistance to adapt to the impacts of global warming. Then there are the Saudis. Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign during these and other negotiations — demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels. That campaign comes despite an International Energy Agency report released this week showing that OPEC revenues would still increase $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 — a fourfold increase compared to the period from 1985 to 2007 — if countries agree to significantly slash emissions and thereby cut their use of oil. That is the limit most countries agree is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The head of the Saudi delegation Mohammad S. Al Sabban dismissed the IEA figures as “biased” and said OPEC's own calculations showed that Saudi Arabia would lose $19 billion a year starting in 2012 under a new climate pact. The region would lose much more, he said. ..."  Note: Ha! Fat chance of that.

Justice Officials Refuse To Take Oath Before Intelligence Briefing [10/09/09] "A House intelligence committee meeting was abruptly terminated when Justice Department officials refused to be sworn in before briefing the lawmakers. The officials had been expected to brief the committee Wednesday on the department's review of an internal CIA report on the 2001 shootdown of a plane over Peru that was carrying American missionaries. Two of the passengers were killed. Officials are routinely sworn in before giving testimony at formal congressional hearings, but the meeting was billed as an informal briefing – which normally does not require taking an oath. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Justice employees "have previously briefed committee staff on this matter and were prepared to provide a similar informal briefing to committee members." "We are unaware of any precedent for Department officials providing informal briefings to be placed under oath," she said. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., the top Republican on the committee, questioned Wednesday why the Justice officials refused to be sworn in. "Why is Attorney General Eric Holder afraid of having Justice Department employees be required to tell the truth?" Hoekstra said. Hoekstra said Justice's refusal to brief under oath is part of a "disturbing pattern that has emerged of the Obama administration refusing or finding reasons to refuse to share information with Congress." Both the House and the Senate intelligence committees have advanced legislation that would require more intelligence disclosures to Congress, though the details of the bills differ. The Obama administration has threatened to veto the House legislation if it is passed. Hoekstra has raised concerns about the CIA's handling of the Peru incident, saying the classified CIA report identified the names of personnel who misled Congress and obstructed a Justice Department investigation into whether criminal charges should have been filed in the case. The Justice Department in 2005 decided against filing charges. ..."   

CIGNA Employee Flips Off Mother Of Dead Girl Denied Transplant [10/09/09] "... Hilda and Krikor Sarkisyan went to CIGNA's Philadelphia headquarters, along with supporters from the California Nurses Association, to confront the CEO Edward Hanway over the death of her 17-year-old child. In 2007, Nataline Sarkisyan was denied a liver transplant by the company, on the grounds that the operation was "too experimental" to be covered. Nine days later it changed its mind, in response to protests outside its office. It was too late: Nataline died hours later. "CIGNA killed my daughter," Nataline's mother Hilda told security. "I want an apology." Sarkisyan was not able to speak to Hanway; a communications specialist talked to her instead. After their conversation, employees heckled the group from a balcony; one man gave them the finger. CIGNA called the police and had the family and their friends escorted from the building. ... The Sarkisyan family's wrongful-death suit was thrown out of court because of a 1987 Supreme Court ruling that shields employer-paid health care plans from damages over their coverage decisions. The Sarkisyans say the law needs to be changed to allow people to sue health insurers for these kinds of decisions. "If you don't sue, you can't make changes," Hilda Sarkisyan said. "It's not about the money. It's about the principle. They are just going to keep denying people care if we don't stop them ..."     

FBI-Stung Terrorist Targeted Dallas Office Tower where CIA Agent/County Republican Party Chairman Works, CIA Cocaine and 9/11 Ties [10/09/09] "A whole lot of Dallas lawyers are going to work today in a building that’s making national news. Fountain Place, 1445 Ross Ave., in downtown Dallas was reportedly the scene of an attempted terrorist attack foiled by undercover FBI agents on Thursday. According to The Dallas Morning News, a man was arrested after he parked a vehicle — packed with fake explosives supplied by the FBI as part of a sting operation — in the underground parking garage of the building. The building is home to the Dallas offices of two large firms, Hunton & Williams, which employs about 120 lawyers, and Bracewell & Guiliani, which employees about 50 lawyers. “It is certainly a wake-up call,” says Sandy Brown, managing partner of the Dallas office of Bracewell. “We’re going to have a briefing this afternoon with the building. And after that the FBI is coming over here to meet with one or two representatives of each tenant. And then we’ll have an officewide meeting, all hands on deck kind of thing, after that ..."   

Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Ask Senate to Postpone Bernanke Confirmation [10/08/09] "Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) have asked Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to postpone the confirmation of Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Paul and Grayson want the Fed to open itself up to public scrutiny before the Senate confirms Bernanke. "We are writing to ask you postpone the confirmation of Ben Bernanke until the Federal Reserve releases documentation that will allow the public and the Senate to have a full understanding of the commitments that the Federal Reserve has made on our behalf," the letter says ..."  Note: Grayson is Jewish, aligned with a faction apparently displeased with the Obama administration. Why they appear to be 'attacking' is uncertain. It's a dog and pony show. Related:  Lieberman Wants Czar Hearings, Mulling Legislation  "Hey, so guess who is mulling new legislation to solve the alleged problem of Obama’s “czars”? Joe Lieberman! He may even hold hearings on the czars, as the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Since this will confer legitimacy on an attack that has mostly emanated from Glenn Beck and the hothouse right, it could prompt an “I told you so” chorus from those who argued that Lieberman should be stripped of his committee slots. Leslie Phillips, a spokesperson for Lieberman’s committee, confirms by email that Lieberman’s legislation is “in the early conceptual stage.” She also said a hearing is in the works, with its schedule up the air until the committee can nail down witnesses. Lieberman signaled his intentions last week, but his comments passed unnoticed, and they’re newly relevant in light of the fact that Russ Feingold drew new attention to the issue by launching hearings yesterday. In fairness, we don’t know what Lieberman’s goals are; his spokesperson declined to clarify. Still, the fact that Lieberman is mulling hearings at all is likely to provoke objections. Yesterday, the White House made a strong case to Feingold that the czar criticism has zero merit, and his hearing yesterday ended up supporting that assessment. ..."  

Hardin, Montana May be Staging Area for United Nations Civilian Police [10/08/09] Video [1:26] "Captain Mike Hilton may have been the public relations stooge decoy to focus people off Civilian Police, International. Civilian Police International (CPI) is a joint venture between MPRI, AGS, Wackenhut and Kellogg Brown and Root that “was created specifically to bring new discipline, new efficiencies and new responsiveness to the [International Police Task Force] IPTF program.” The United Nations’ International Police Task Force was established in 1995 to carry out programs of police assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  CPI was formed in January 2004 to handle a contract to support the U.S. State Department in international law enforcement and criminal justice programs. This initial contract was awarded in February of 2004 and was worth $1.6 billion.  Specifically, CPI recruits former, experienced law officials of a variety of sorts, and trains them for State Department funded training operations in cooperation with UN CIVPOL (Civilian Police) programs directed to recent and emerging police and security forces around the world. They have been active in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. CPI, along with DynCorp and Pacific Architects and Engineers / Homeland Security Corporation, recently received a contract from the State Department to fulfill the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs requirement to work with civilian police and law enforcement programs in support of international peacekeeping missions. They will be working with the Civilian Police and Rule of Law office to “recruit, select, train, equip, deploy and support the officers and experts” involved in CIVPOL programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Haiti, Liberia, East Timor, Serbia & Montenegro and Sudan. .." More on CPI. Note: See below:

Related:  APF Leader Exposed As Career Criminal As Hardin Patrols Labeled Unconstitutional  [10/05/09] "The mystery surrounding the paramilitary force patrolling the streets of a town in Montana deepened last night after American Police Force founder “Captain”  Michael Hilton was exposed as a career criminal and a convicted fraudster who has operated under numerous different aliases ... Hilton, who was born in the south-eastern European country Montenegro, is a “convicted felon with a number of aliases, a string of legal judgments against him, two bankruptcies and a decades-long reputation for deals gone bad,” according to an Associated Press report. Hilton was sentenced to 6 years in jail in 1993 for “Such schemes you cannot believe,” according to Joseph Carella, an Orange County, Calif. doctor, namely a dozen counts of grand theft. Hilton has defrauded numerous different individuals to the tune of $1.1 million dollars over the past 20 years. “Fraud cases include luring investors into a fake real estate development project, convincing a couple to give him a silver statue worth $100,000 dollars, and pocketing construction funds,” reports KURL 8 News. Carella expressed his shock that authorities had even entertained Hilton’s proposal to have his paramilitary outfit take over the newly built detention camp while allowing his men to patrol the town. “I didn’t even sleep last night because of the memories that it conjured up, he’s the reason I had to go bankrupt. I lost my practice, I had some mental issues because of this. He was using up other people’s money, mainly mine, and other people, like a Ponzi scheme,” said Carella." .... Livingstone State Representative Robert Ebinger told KURL 8 that APF may have violated article 2 section 33 of the Montana Constitution Titled Importation of Armed Persons, which states, “No armed person or persons or body of men shall be brought into the state for the presentation of the peace or the suppression of domestic violence unless the application of the legislature or of the governor when the legislature cannot be convened.” | Exposed: American Police Force Is A Blackwater Front Group  [10/04/09] "American Police Force, the paramilitary unit patrolling a small town in Montana, has been exposed as being a front group for the disgraced private military contractor Blackwater, now called “Xe”. ..."  Note: I knew it. It's their style. Related:  'American Police Force' Spokeswoman Breaks Down During Press Conference [10/04/09] "A sobbing spokeswoman for the secretive company, APF, occupying the Hardin jail welcomed an investigation by Montana’s attorney general Friday and expressed concerns for her own safety amid rumors about her company. Becky Shay, in a 45-minute, wide-ranging press conference during which she occasionally broke into tears, said the California-based American Police Force welcomed an information request made Thursday by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock. ..."  Video Clip  | Investigation Could Sink American Police Force [10/3/09] "The investigation was prompted by the revelation yesterday that APF founder "Captain" Michael Hilton is a career criminal and a convicted fraudster who has operated under no less than 17 different aliases. Hilton, a native of Montenegro, was sentenced to 6 years in jail in 1993 for “Such schemes you cannot believe,” according to Joseph Carella, an Orange County, Calif. doctor, namely a dozen counts of grand theft. Hilton has defrauded numerous different individuals to the tune of $1.1 million dollars over the past 20 years ..." Hardin, Montana town officials hornswoggled by 'American Police Force' [10/2/09] "This is an update on the story of the American Police Force arriving in Hardin, Montana last week with three blackened out Mercedes Benz SUV’s emblazoned with “Hardin Police Department” on their side doors. Hardin is a neighboring town with similar problems to the ones we have been enduring in Terry, Montana. People have been moving out of this area with few promises for employment opportunities. Cattle ranching and tourism are about the only viable ways to make a living and everyone in the area is connected to that enterprise in one way or the other. Therefore Miodrag A. Dokovich aka Michael Hilton of the American Police Force (APF) seemed like a savior sent to rescue this part of Eastern Montana from its doom of gloom. ..."  Note: Tell me this isn't CIA/Xe/Mossad connected ... Miodrag A. Dokovich ....

Canada:  Feds consider letting police conduct random DUI tests [10/07/09] "The federal Justice Department is considering a new law to randomly force drivers to take roadside breath tests, regardless of whether police suspect they have been drinking, Canwest News Service has learned. Random breath testing, if adopted, would replace Canada's 40-year-old legislation on impaired driving, which dictates that police can only administer breathalyzer tests if they have a reasonable suspicion of drunk driving. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson publicly raised the prospect of random testing recently at the annual gathering of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "He has his justice officials putting together the legal parameters," said MADD chief executive officer Andrew Murie. Nicholson, when asked by Canwest News Service whether he is considering a new law on random testing, said: "We are looking at all options in that regard." But he would not elaborate, saying that he currently has a packed slate of anti-crime legislation that is winding its way through Parliament. ..."   

USA: 500,000 children a year have serious reactions to pharmaceuticals [10/07/09] "More than half a million U.S. children yearly have bad reactions or side effects from widely used medicines that require medical treatment and sometimes hospitalization, new research shows. Children younger than age 5 are most commonly affected. Penicillin and other prescription antibiotics are among drugs causing the most problems, including rashes, stomachaches, and diarrhea. Parents should pay close attention when their children are started on medicines since “first-time medication exposures may reveal an allergic reaction,” said lead author Florence Bourgeois, a pediatrician with Children’s Hospital in Boston. Doctors also should tell parents about possible symptoms for a new medication, she said. The study, which appears in October’s issue of the journal Pediatrics, is based on national statistics on patients’ visits to clinics and emergency rooms between 1995 and 2005. The number of children treated for bad drug reactions each year was mostly stable during that time, averaging 585,922 a year ..."   

US military indoctrinating Pakistani officers [10/07/09] "The United States has reportedly established a secret military training camp just a few kilometres away from Islamabad. It is believed the camp is closely associated with private US defence contractor, DynCorp, which has made no statement on the issue. ..."      

UK: Embarrassment for MoD as anti-leak guide gets leaked on to the internet [10/06/09] "The Ministry of Defence was left embarrassed tonight after its internal guide to preventing leaks appeared on the internet. The Defence Manual of Security sets out tactics for preventing Chinese and Russian intelligence services from using blackmail or hi-tech gadgets to obtain sensitive information. It also describes methods of countering the threat from 'subversive or terrorist organisations' and investigative journalists....The three-volume, 560,000-word guide - marked 'Restricted' - was released on the Wikileaks website, which campaigns for freedom of information. But the MoD insisted the publication did not pose 'significant security concerns' because it dates from 2001 ..."   

North Korea to Return to Talks [10/06/09] "North Korea announced on Tuesday it could return to six-party talks on dismantling its nuclear arms programme, depending on the success of prior bilateral negotiations with the US. If the authoritarian state does return to the six-party framework, it will be a striking volte-face for Kim Jong-il, whose officials pulled out in April and repeatedly vowed never to return. Still, engineering a summit between Mr Kim and the US would secure North Korea a major diplomatic coup ... "   

FTC: Bloggers Must Disclose Payments For Reviews -- Or Pay Big [10/06/09] "The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results. The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren't typical  ... The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit. Testimonials have to spell out what consumers should expect to experience with their products. Previously, companies had just included disclaimers when results were out of the ordinary – such as a large weight loss – noting that the experience was not typical for all customers. Testimonial advertisements can be effective for consumers since they show others talking about their experiences, giving hope to the consumer that they'll have that experience too. But they are misleading to consumers if they don't disclose what they should truly expect to experience, the commission said. For bloggers, the FTC stopped short of specifying how they must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be "clear and conspicuous," no matter what form it will take. Bloggers have long praised or panned products and services online. But what some consumers might not know is that many companies pay reviewers for their write-ups or give them free products such as toys or computers or trips to Disneyland. In contrast, at traditional journalism outlets, products borrowed for reviews generally have to be returned."    

Nervous US retailers brace for critical holiday season [10/05/09] "Approaching a holiday shopping season critical to economic recovery, US retailers are bracing for a difficult period with credit still tight and consumer caution lingering. Many early projections suggests retail spending in the final two months of 2009 -- a season that accounts for a large proportion of sales and profits -- will be flat or lower ..."

U.S. base makes Chinese nervous [10/05/09] "Government paper claims American facility targets Russian, Iran, others. China is becoming concerned by the increased presence of the United States in Afghanistan and is complaining about the U.S. lease renewal at the Manas Air Base in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, suggesting that these activities are part of an overall containment effort against China. The complaint comes at the same time Chinese officials have expressed alarm over what they view as a growing alliance between the U.S. and India, which they perceive as designed to alter the Asian strategic balance in what Beijing always has regarded as its sphere of influence. According to security analysts, the Chinese perceive the recent efforts by the U.S. in Central and South Asia as intended to force the Chinese to move troops away from the East where Beijing thinks the U.S. wants to increase its presence ..."   

Valerie Jarrett: Obama Was Told Olympics Trip Could Have Clinched Chicago's Bid [10/04/09] "Leaders of the Windy City's campaign to secure the 2016 Summer Games had done some nose-counting and were convinced that the International Olympic Committee might well anoint Chicago as host, according to White House officials interviewed Saturday. "The intelligence that we had from the U.S. Olympic Committee and Chicago bid team was that it was very close and therefore well worth our efforts," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House advisor. "The message was that . . . a personal appeal from the president would make a huge difference." In the end, Obama's whirlwind appearance before the IOC proved a disappointment. Chicago lost out to Rio de Janeiro, finishing last among the four finalists. Since the defeat, the White House has defended the trip as a worthy investment of the president's time. But Obama and his advisors were not sold on the idea until just a few days before Air Force One took off for Copenhagen. Earlier, the president had agreed to engage in some quiet lobbying. Working from the White House, he placed calls to half a dozen influential people, including IOC President Jacques Rogge. It quickly became clear that other heads of state were doing the same thing -- especially the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. ..."   

Texas Pentacostal televangelist Benny Hinn refused entry to Britain [10/04/09] "An American Christian preacher has been turned away from Britain, leaving thousands of people stranded at an evangelical rally in London this weekend. Benny Hinn, from Texas, who draws large crowds to his Pentecostal revival rallies, was turned back at Stansted airport under new rules on visiting ministers of religion. They were left disappointed after Border Agency officials turned him back when he landed with his private jet because he had failed to obtain a “letter of sponsorship” from a church. .... Hinn has visited before without any problem but the Home Office has changed the rules for ministers of religion. He fell foul of tier five of the new points-based system for all visitors to Britain, which came into effect last November. One of the aims of the new rules was to combat extremism and prevent teachers of religious hate entering the country. A Border Agency spokesman said: “Under the UK’s tough new points-based system, religious workers must obtain a valid certificate of sponsorship prior to arriving in the UK. These rules are designed to make sure that a legitimate sponsor is linked to each application to enter the UK for work purposes. “These rules are applied objectively and clearly set out for travellers. People who arrive without the required documentation can be refused entry to the UK.” ..."  Note: Ya Yah!

Thousands to march on Rome in protest at Berlusconi’s press clampdown [10/04/09] "Thousands of protesters are expected to march through Rome today to defend press freedom and demand answers from Silvio Berlusconi about his conduct ... Dario Fo, the Nobel prize-winning playwright, and Roberto Saviano, the author of the Mafia exposé Gomorrah, will lead the demonstration, which is expected to attract 300 coachloads of protesters from across Italy. Mr Berlusconi has refused to answer questions, published every day for the past six months by La Repubblica newspaper, about his relationship with a teenage model. He is suing the publication for defamation. ... Mr Berlusconi owns Mediaset, which controls Italy’s three main commercial channels, and, as Prime Minister, has direct influence over RAI, the public broadcaster. His Fininvest holding company also controls Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the country’s biggest magazine publisher ... “There is an absurd, almost unprecedented situation in a democracy, where the Prime Minister tries to suppress what’s left of the free press by restraining publication and broadcasts about his own conduct.” ..."   

Italian lawyers seek jail for CIA agents [10/04/09] "Public prosecutors in Italy have urged a court in Milan to jail 26 Americans for the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in a 2003 CIA operation. The Italian lawyers are seeking sentences of between 10 and 13 years for the US agents. They also want 13 years for the former head of Italy’s secret service, Nicolo Pollari. The trial is the most high profile case in Europe to challenge the extra-judicial transfers also known as ‘renditions. It centres on the abduction of the Muslim Cleric Abu Omar, who was snatched off the streets of Milan in 2003 and secretly flown to Egypt for interrogation. He says he was tortured and held until 2007 without charge. The US has refused to extradite any of the Americans. None of them are at the trial. The last Bush administration admitted using Rendition as part of its so called ‘War on Terror.‘.."    

US relinquishes control of the internet [10/3/09] "Icann ends agreement with the US government...After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system."   

Conservatives Revel In Obama's Olympic Bid Failure [10/2/09] "Chicago's failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics in the first round of voting caps a week of conservative attacks against President Obama for personally stumping on his home city's behalf. How the International Olympic Committee's rejection of the Windy City's bid affects the politics surrounding Obama's trip to Copenhagen remains to be seen. But in the immediate aftermath, it has provided ample fodder for Republicans to further accuse the president of having wasted his time, skirted his responsibilities, and acted as a crony for some of his big-moneyed donors ..."  Note: We do too! For the first time, the events would be held in South America, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Related: See IOC Anti-Chicago video clip. 

Axelrod: We got robbed on Olympics because of “politics” [10/2/09] "Here we have David Axelrod, attempting to recover from the dumbest political gaffe of the administration by blaming the very international politics Barack Obama tried to exploit ..."  Note: No, you were not selected because the USA has a dishonest administration and Chicago is full of incompetent thugs.

Breakthrough: Iran Agrees To Ship Most Of Its Uranium To Russia [10/2/09] "Iran agreed on Thursday in talks with the United States and other major powers to open its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant near Qum to international inspection in the next two weeks and to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium outside Iran to be turned into fuel for a small reactor that produces medical isotopes, senior American and other Western officials said. ... Iran’s agreement in principle to export most of its enriched uranium for processing — if it happens — would represent a major accomplishment for the West, reducing Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon quickly and buying more time for negotiations to bear fruit."  Note: Brilliant move. We could expect an Israeli attack on Iran any time.

49 indicted for bribery, racketeering schemes on a crazy Lucchese mob day [10/2/09] "Forty-nine people, including top gangsters and three mobsters working as city building inspectors, were indicted Thursday in two separate bribery and racketeering schemes. The Manhattan district attorney's office charged 29 people, including three ranking members of the Lucchese crime family and the mob-tied building inspectors, with soliciting bribes to overlook violations or speed up permits. Prosecutors said acting Lucchese capo Anthony Croce, 76, and gangsters Joseph DiNapoli, 74, and Matthew Madonna, 73, were key players in a far-flung operation that pulled in some $400 million from gambling, loansharking, gun trafficking and extortion. The ring passed around more than $120,000 in construction bribes, prosecutors said, adding that investigators tapped 64 telephones and bugged a restaurant in a two-year probe with the NYPD and the Department of Investigation ..."