MI5 rebels expose Tube bomb cover-up
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2059046,00.html"MI5 is facing an internal revolt by officers alarmed about intelligence failures and the lack of resources to fight Islamic terrorism."
"To illustrate their concern, agents have leaked more topsecret documents to The Sunday Times because they want a public inquiry into the “missed intelligence” leading up to the July attacks in London."
"They believe ministers have withheld information from the public about what the security services knew about the suspects before the bombing of July 7 and the abortive attacks of July 21."Aware of suspects before the attack? Suspects slipping though their fingers? Do these intelligence "lapeses sound familiar? They should.
- Vox
Ahh, the independance of sovereign elections...
Palestinians face financial collapse: envoy http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060227/wl_nm/mideast_palestinians_dc"The Quartet threatened last month to cut aid to a government led by Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, unless it renounced violence, recognized the Jewish state and abided by interim peace deals."
"(International envoy James) Wolfensohn, who will brief the Quartet on Wednesday about the Palestinian Authority's cash crunch, said it needed $60 million to $80 million next week to begin paying the February salaries of about 140,000 Palestinian workers, including security personnel."...""I know I do not need to tell each of you that the failure to pay salaries may have wide-ranging consequences -- not only for the Palestinian economy but also for security and stability for both the Palestinians and the Israelis," Wolfensohn said."
Army to Pay Halliburton Unit Most Costs Disputed by Audit
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022706R.shtml"The Army said in response to questions on Friday that questionable business practices by the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, had in some cases driven up the company's costs. But in the haste and peril of war, it had largely done as well as could be expected, the Army said, and aside from a few penalties, the government was compelled to reimburse the company for its costs."
"Under the type of contract awarded to the company, "the contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement," (emphasis added by Vox) said Rhonda James, a spokeswoman for the southwestern division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, based in Dallas, where the contract is administered."Gotta love those No-Bid contracts.- Vox
On the Dubai ports deal...
For those of you on the fence.
UAE terminal takeover extends to 21 ports
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060223-051657-4981r
"P&O is the parent company of P&O Ports North America, which leases terminals for the import and export and loading and unloading and security of cargo in 21 ports, 11 on the East Coast, ranging from Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida, and 10 on the Gulf Coast, from Gulfport, Miss., to Corpus Christi, Texas,..."
Paper: Coast Guard Has Port Co. Intel Gaps
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060227/D8G1MIJ00.html
""There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment of the potential" merger," an undated Coast Guard intelligence assessment says."
"The document raised questions about the security of the companies' operations, the backgrounds of all personnel working for the companies, and whether other foreign countries influenced operations that affect security."
Washington told to justify port deal in court
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060224/pl_nm/security_ports_newjersey_dc
""The Port Authority has been deprived of its right to conduct a thorough review of the purchase ... of the identity, qualifications, experience and reputation of the purchasers ... and of the proposed impact that the change may have on the control and ownership," the lawsuit said."
On the "no foreign ownership" issue: A red-herring (those ostriches even entertaining this discussion would be shocked to know truly how much of the US is "owned" and "run" by foreign countries)On the "racism" charge: A red-herring (last time I checked, none of the 9/11 "hijackers" were British, the English gov't didn't launder $$ for the 9/11 "operation", or provide it a homebase.)"But they recognized the Taliban government": SO DID GEORGE BUSH. Then-Texas-Governor George W. Bush even had them over for dinner.- Vox
Why's a Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel on the "No-Fly" List?
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=63406"(Robert) Johnson, who served in the military during the time of the first Gulf War and then came home to serve as northern New York's first board-certified thoracic surgeon and an active member of the community in his hometown of Sackets Harbor, is not a terror suspect. But he is an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq (emphasis added by Vox),..."- Vox
Iranian advisor: We'll strike Dimona in response to U.S. attack
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/687022.html"If the United States launches an attack on Iran, the Islamic republic will retaliate with a military strike on Israel's main nuclear facility.""Dr. Abasi, an advisor to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said Tehran would respond to an American attack with strikes on the Dimona nuclear reactor and other strategic Israeli sites such as the port city of Haifa and the Zakhariya area.""Haifa is also home to a large concentration of chemical factories and oil refineries."
Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.security/index.html
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday."
"The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military."
Skeptic? Defeatist? No. When you don't believe an eff-ing word that comes out of the mouth of anyone in this administration, you're being a REALIST. Now look what you've done.
- Vox
At what point civil war?
It has been the position of this blog that Iraq has been mired in a civil war for quite some time now (see previous post "US Iraq/Soviet Afghanistan", Dec. 4, 2005).But all of this talk now by the mainstream media anticipating a "civil war" makes me wonder: When does a civil war become a civil war? Does it have to be "officially" declared?Sunni's have been killing Shiite's and Shiite's have been killing Sunni's since right after Saddam's government was outsted; when will they call it a "civil war"? When the number of bodies reach a certain number?Just wondering.- Vox
Donald Rumsfeld meets the ghost of Frederick Douglass
http://www.nydailynews.com/01-09-2006/news/ideas_opinions/story/381121p-323624c.html
"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is...maintaining a weekend home on Chesapeake Bay that was originally built and lived in by a singularly notorious slave owner, Edward Covey. The defense secretary's house, a former bed and breakfast, is known locally as Mount Misery."
"The name is well deserved. Edward Covey was not just a slave owner. He was a "Negro breaker," to whom other slave owners handed over rebellious slaves. The most famous slave Covey tried to break was Frederick Douglass,..."
Fascinating.
- Vox
California execution delayed as doctors walk out
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/21/california.execution.ap/index.html..."the anesthesiologists objected that they might have to advise the executioner if the inmate woke up or appeared to suffer pain."
""Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical," the doctors, whose identities were not released, said in a statement. "As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process.""I think this is a very courageous act of conscience by these two physicians. Acts of conscience are very rare these days.- Vox
New links!!
Check out the 2 new links I have added to the right (under "Links").U.S. Census BureauFedStats.gov
Great reference sites. Lots of information for you to use to either prove or disprove points, do your own research, or just peruse for gp, etc.By the way - remember my "Rule of 1,000"? Well, there are nearly 300 million people in the US (according to the US Census Bureau). So what statistical relevance does a poll of 1,000 people really have?- Vox
Another R: New York school has an unusual mission
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NY_HUMAN_RIGHTS_SCHOOL_BAOL-?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=MIDEAST&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT"The School for Human Rights is one of nearly 150 "small" public schools that opened through special initiatives in New York City in the last three years. While it's normal to find human rights discussed in schools (a segment on the Holocaust is a classic lesson) a whole academy built around the concept is rare. This one is being watched carefully by groups such as Amnesty International USA and the Human Rights Education Associates, which have long sought ways to influence educational curricula and were involved in the school's planning."..."On any given day, students in the Brooklyn school tackle topics ranging from colonialism to the United Nations. Administrators look for ways to make the human rights framework apply to more than just class discussions."I believe we need more of these alternative curriculums, to teach what is relevant to keeping our democracy going.- Vox
Pentagon lied to Congress about dangers of anthrax vaccination
http://www.unknownnews.org/0512161207anthrax.html"NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The Pentagon never told Congress about more than 20,000 hospitalizations involving troops who'd taken the anthrax vaccine, despite repeated promises that such cases would be publicly disclosed.""During the Daily Press' investigation of the vaccine and its effects, the newspaper found three cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease -- that the military hadn't reported.""Bewildered and sometimes-angry members of Congress asked how many vets were affected. Pentagon doctors and generals used the cases reported to VAERS -- fewer than 100 hospitalizations or other "serious events" from 1998 to 2000 -- or said the number was so small, it couldn't be detected.""He said that only 69 hospitalizations had been reported to VAERS for the anthrax vaccine from 1998 through 2000..."A colossal cover-up.- Vox
Constitutional over-reach?
Puerto Rico Moves Closer to Smoking Banhttp://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1633024"Though common in the United States, smoking restrictions are still relatively rare and mild farther south."..."But none goes as far as Puerto Rico, which would also ban smoking in cars carrying passengers younger than 13."(emphasis added by Vox)Ban smoking in cars? This is not like making it illegal to not wear a seat belt. I'm no fan of smoking, mind you, but smoking has nothing to do with the safe operation of a vehicle. Maybe it's just me, but this strikes me as a blatant invasion of privacy. The next step is making it illegal to smoke in your own home.What irks me is that I still hear that there is a scientific "debate" over just how harmful second hand smoke is, that it's just a myth (just shows you how powerful the tobacco lobby still is, that they can manipulate science). But if the legislature of Puerto Rico is convinced enough to take this unprecedented step, couldn't they do something else? Something that doesn't infringe on our right to privacy? My feeling is that this is just a test-case; an experiment to see if the gov't can get away with it. It won't be too long before you start hearing about this in the states.- Vox
Something to chew on: Gum gives G.I.s a lift
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/392280p-332514c.html"When you chew the gum, the caffeine is extruded into the saliva and is absorbed right through the tissues in the mouth into the bloodstream," said Dr. Tom Balkin of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.""Dr. Marc Siegel, a Manhattan internist, said he doubts gum that has 100 milligrams of caffeine per stick poses a significant health risk to the troops - especially superfit Special Forces soldiers.
"Caffeine affects the body but these are healthy guys who shouldn't have adverse reactions to that kind of dosage," he said.""Comforting.- Vox
Tough stance, incompetence or...Conspiracy to feed an insurgency?
U.S. Risks Reporter's Life to Strike Tough Posehttp://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32147"According to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials delayed the scheduled release of six female prisoners whom they knew had already been found innocent because of the kidnappers' demand for their release. Then they refused to speed up the review of the files of the five remaining female prisoners, in violation of a policy of giving priority to females in the review of detainee files for release.""Had the normal policy been followed, it is very likely that all the women held by the United States would have been released by now (emphasis added by Vox). By delaying the releases of female detainees to strike a tough anti-terrorism pose, the administration has increased the risk to Jill Carroll's life."This pattern of mistakes and mis-steps in Iraq (remember "Yet another version of the Koran desecration story" (aka "oops, I accidentally pissed on your Koran"), posted Tuesday, May 17, 2005) should make us wonder if they're truly trying to stop the insurgency at all or intentionally fanning it's flames.- Vox
US Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021406D.shtml"Washington - The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years."
"New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government."..."We need to remember the primary reason that incentives are given," said Johnnie M. Burton, director of the federal Minerals Management Service. "It's not to make more money, necessarily. It's to make more oil, more gas, because production of fuel for our nation is essential to our economy and essential to our people."What BS. With all their record-breaking profits, do you think these oil companies would give something back?Wonder why you don't hear about Hugo Chavez and Venzuela's giving oil assistance to certain US communities? Because it would cause people to start questioning things, like: Why are these US-based oil company's profits so high? Is that profit built into the cost of oil? If this wacko Socialist Hugo Chavez can sell oil at lower cost to the consumer, why can't "our own" oil companies do the same?- Vox
Notable Quotables
http://www.theexperiment.org/quotes.php"It is an anomaly that information, the one thing most necessary to our survival as choosers of our own way, should be a commodity subject to the same merchandising rules as chewing gum, while armament, a secondary instrument of liberty, is a government concern. A man is not free if he cannot see where he is going, even if he has a gun to help him get there"
- A.J. Liebling"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan"Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
- Flannery O'Connor
- Vox
From Sen. Russ Feingold
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020806A.shtml..."The President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program."
"How is that worthy of applause? Since when do we celebrate our commander in chief for violating our most basic freedoms, and misleading the American people in the process? When did we start to stand up and cheer for breaking the law? In that moment at the State of the Union, I felt ashamed."..."We need answers. Because no one, not the President, not the Attorney General, and not any of their defenders in this body, has been able to explain why it is necessary to break the law to defend against terrorism. And I think that's because they can't explain it."
"Instead, this administration reacts to anyone who questions this illegal program by saying that those of us who demand the truth and stand up for our rights and freedoms have a pre-9/11 view of the world."
"In fact, the President has a pre-1776 view of the world."Russ gets it right more times than not. Feingold in '08.- Vox
Bush's Social Security Sleight of Hand
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020701865.html"Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put privatization costs in the budget. But this year, with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday."..."On page 321 of the budget proposal, you see the privatization costs: $24.182 billion in fiscal 2010, $57.429 billion in fiscal 2011 and another $630.533 billion for the five years after that, for a seven-year total of $712.144 billion."This is interesting in that there has been no recent debate on Social Security reform and private accounts. But it looks the foundation for the change is now in place, like it or not.One thing I know is: PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY IS A BAD IDEA.- Vox
Ex-U.N. Inspector: Decision Already Made To Attack Iran
More from Scott Ritter.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11812.htm"Ritter also predicted the military strategy for war with Iran. First, American forces will bomb Iran. If Iranians don't overthrow the current government, as Bush hopes they will, Iran will probably attack Israel. Then, Ritter said, the United States will drop a nuclear bomb on Iran."Sounds pretty far out, I know. But Scott Ritter has a track record, so he shouldn't be dismissed.- Vox
Gonzales Apparently Lied to Congress over Wiretapping
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/pages/28/index.htm"In Gonzales’s confirmation hearings several months ago, Gonzales advised Feingold, "It is not the policy or the agenda of this President to authorize actions that would be in circumvention of our criminal statutes," according to the letter, released to Atlanta Progressive News today. The conversation was in response to a direct line of questioning of Gonzales by Feingold over Gonzales's views on the ability of the President to approve illegal wiretapping, and more broadly, disregard Congressional laws either actively or through lack of enforcement.
Recently, however, it has come to light that the President has indeed, to quote Mr. Gonzales, "had the policy and the agenda of authorizing actions that would be in circumvention of our criminal statutes.""
"But there’s more. Gonzales also specifically promised Feingold and the US Senate, to notify Congress if the President makes such a decision "as soon as I reasonably can, yes, Sir.""
Addiction update, in case you missed it...
What George Bush said:Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.What George Bush didn't mean:"One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally."..."This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.Like any king , the man has NO RESPECT for his subjects.- Vox
