Officials: Pentagon Probed FinancesThe Defense Department has used a long-standing authority to acquire the personal financial records of American citizens in military-related criminal and other investigations as part of an expansion of the Pentagon's gathering of counterterrorism intelligence at home, officials said yesterday.
"There are certainly types of information and transactions that are valuable to the department when conducting counterintelligence and counterespionage investigations," said Pentagon spokesm... (more)
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Keeping all eyes focused on Iraq while Bush and Israel plot attack on IranEven a cursory review of Bush’s speech shows that the president is less concerned with "security" in Baghdad than he is with plans to attack Iran. Paul Craig Roberts was correct in his article Wednesday when he questioned whether all the hoopla over a surge was just "an orchestrated distraction" to draw attention away from the real war plan. ("Distracting Congress from the Real War Plan")
Apparently, it is.
As Roberts noted, "The US Congress and the media ... (more)
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MI5 braced for fresh 7/7 disclosuresThe 7 July bombers who killed 52 people in terrorist attacks in London in 2005 were once described by Britain's security service as 'clean skins'.
The vivid phrase implied that a gang of homegrown terrorists had come from nowhere, without an intelligence trail. But Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director-general of MI5, is bracing herself for embarrassing revelations on the full extent of what the British intelligence community knew about the bombers, and in particular the ring... (more)
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Woman sues Ottawa over CIA brainwashing at Montreal hospital MONTREAL -- Five decades after unwittingly participating in brainwashing experiments that were funded by the CIA and the federal government, 78-year-old Janine Huard went to Federal Court yesterday to try and persuade a judge she is entitled to compensation.
"They demolished me," Huard told reporters yesterday before her court hearing. "They gave me terrible drugs, electroshocks and made me stay in a bed with a mask over my face listening to recordings for hours."
... (more)
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Guantánamo inmates ‘driven insane’Prisoners held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba are being driven insane by a tightening of conditions and the situation of their indefinite detention without trial, according to lawyers and rights activists involved with the US camp.
The lawyers and activists also doubt whether the Bush administration intends to carry out its stated desire to close the facility.
Protesters around the world plan to mark Thursday’s fifth anniversary of the fir... (more)
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After Negotiating India Nuclear Deal, State Dept. Official Gets Lucractive Job Lobbying For IndiaStephen G. Rademaker, U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control, is leaving the State Department for a lucrative lobbying job at the firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers.
While assistant secretary of state, Rademaker negotiated a controversial deal allowing the United States to sell nuclear technology to India, which is not a member of the important nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Critics argued that the Bush adminis... (more)
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Prison Time For Viewing Porn?Jan. 12, 2007— Sixteen-year-old Matthew Bandy was about as normal a teenager as you could find. He actually liked hanging out with his family.
"He was a happy-go-lucky kid," said his mother, Jeannie Bandy. "Very personable, and big-hearted. I sound like a boastful mom, but I guess the biggest thing is that he could always make me laugh."
"We went on vacations and had a lot of fun together," Matthew said. "I just enjoyed the life I was living. But after I was... (more)
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The woman who was locked up because of her depression One sweltering hot morning in May, Anna McHugh visited her doctor's surgery. Having undergone an intensive cycle of IVF in Australia, where her husband's family is from, she was anxious and depressed. The night before she'd had a heated argument with her husband.
"We'd been trying to have a baby," said the 27-year-old, who lives in Hampstead, London. "When I came back [from Australia] I was pregnant but I didn't know it. That was one of the problems - I had tested too early and t... (more)
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Whitehall moves to create 'superdatabase' A huge Whitehall 'superdatabase' of people's personal details could be created in a bid to improve public services, it was revealed.
The move would mean relaxing regulations that restrict different parts of government from sharing information.
Minsters believe the current rules are overly tough, and changing them could help make the NHS and benefits system more efficient.
Individuals would only have to give their details once rather than handing them... (more)
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Man fuel: Is it in you? Of Savage Imperialism, Pigskin Monopolists, and Intellectual Emasculation"Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses."
- Juvenal Searching for masculine bliss incarnate?
Look no further than NFL football and its myriad machismo delights….
Fierce armor-clad gladiators applying wicked hits, battering each other relentlessly, engaging in bone-jarring collisions, and performing feats of near super-human athleticism….
Provocatively un... (more)
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Texas: Cop Caught with Nearly $1 Million in CashDuring a routine traffic stop on January 6, Georgia State Police troopers discovered a Hidalgo County, Texas sheriff's deputy had been carrying $950,435 in cash -- money the Georgia police promptly seized. Emmanuel Sanchez, 30, had been driving a 2006 Ford F-350 truck while off-duty near Atlanta on Interstate 20.
During the stop, Sanchez showed his badge but consented to a search. When Georgia troopers noticed a duffel bag, Sanchez withdrew permission to search and drug sniffing d... (more)
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Bush vows to 60 Minutes that 'no matter what Congress wants' surge is onIn an interview set to air on this Sunday's 60 Minutes, President George W. Bush vows to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq "no matter what" the Democratic-controlled Congress tries to do.
"Do you believe as Commander in Chief you have the authority to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do," 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley asks Bush in the short clip uploaded to the CBS News web site Friday night.
"I think I've got... (more)
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George W. Bush: A Symptom of DiseaseSometimes you look around and wonder how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. America has become the antithesis of everything she purports to be. We are the greatest purveyors of violence the world has ever known; the largest weapons dealers on earth; and death and misery are our principal exports. Everything is for sale here, even men’s tormented souls—at least, those who still possess them.
Our imperial leader, an impish little man with clear sociopathic sympt... (more)
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Soldiers Banned From Talking To Press After Lunch With BushThe pictures were just what the White House wanted: A teary-eyed President Bush presenting the Medal of Honor posthumously to a slain war hero in the East Room, then flying here to join the chow line with camouflage-clad soldiers as some of them prepare to return to Iraq.
There are few places the president could go for an unreservedly enthusiastic reception the day after unveiling his decision to order 21,500 more troops to Iraq. A military base has usually been a reliable backdro... (more)
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The "Surge" Is A Red HerringBush’s “surge” speech is a hoax, but members of Congress and media commentators are discussing the surge as if it were real.
I invite the reader to examine the speech. The “surge” content consists of nonsensical propagandistic statements. The real content of the speech is toward the end where Bush mentions Iran and Syria.
Bush makes it clear that success in Iraq does not depend on the surge. Rather, “Succeeding in Iraq . . . begin... (more)
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White House Refused to Allow Still Photography at Bush Speech NEW YORK The White House broke with tradition Wednesday night and refused to let photojournalists shoot still pictures of the president at the podium after his prime-time address on the Iraq war.
As a result, newspapers and wire services had little choice but to run low-quality frame grabs from the video of the speech. An official handout photo from the White House, which most news outlets rejected, was the only other option. Caught in a bind on deadline, som... (more)
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Iran: The Pale Horse ApproachesSometime in the next several months an announcer will interrupt regularly scheduled programming to introduce the President who, blinking rapidly, will announce a series of air strikes against Iran . That announcement will probably use religious rhetoric that makes a tragic situation even worse.
Iran , Iraq , a wreck. That's how you conjugate war in the Middle East, and Iran is the future tense.
What's worse, the government continues to employ heated theologica... (more)
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Surge and Mirrors: What Bush Really SaidBush's "surge" speech is a hoax, but members of Congress and media commentators are discussing the surge as if it were real.
I invite the reader to examine the speech. The "surge" content consists of nonsensical propagandistic statements. The real content of the speech is toward the end where Bush mentions Iran and Syria.
Bush makes it clear that success in Iraq does not depend on the surge. Rather, "Succeeding in Iraq . . . begins with addressing Iran and Syria."... (more)
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Tehran strongly condemns U.S. raid on Iranian consulateTEHRAN -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the Iraqi and Swiss ambassadors to protest a raid by U.S. troops on an Iranian consulate in Iraq.
U.S. troops stormed the Iranian Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on January 11 and arrested six people. According to the U.S. military, one of the Iranians was freed on Friday.
“The U.S. troops’ action is a violation of international law since the arrested people were working there at t... (more)
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Operation Cannon Fodder: Bush's Grand DelusionSo here's the plan from George W. Bush:
We're going to send some more troops, but not enough to make any kind of substantial difference in the disposal of forces on the ground. The Iraqis are going to run their own military units now, but Americans will "back them up" in an escalatio... (more)
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This jargon disease is choking languageI once received an invitation to lecture at "The University of Excellence". I forget where this particular academy was located - Jordan, I think - but I recall very clearly that the suggested subject of my talk was as incomprehensible to me as it would, no doubt, have been to any audience. Invitation rejected. Only this week I received another request, this time to join "ethics practitioners" to "share evidence-based practices on dealing with current ethical practices" around the world. What on ... (more)
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Culture of War: Source of Human Suffering and DeathThe New Webster Dictionary of the English Language describes culture as education, improvement by mental or physical training, the way of life of a people. The same dictionary describes war as hostility, a contest between nations or within the same nation, a state of violent opposition. And peace is described as tranquility, freedom from war, cessation to hostilities. Whereas peace is characterized by love and respect, war is characterized by hatred and revenge. Whereas peace leads to healing an... (more)
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BS Alert: White Powder Fear Tactics, AgainToday at 5:00 PM EST a massive protest was scheduled to take place at the Florida, Broward County courthouse. I know because I was supposed to be there, but was running late.
The area, however, has suddenly been evacuated and cornered off as news of "white powder inside the court house" has been announced. Forget tear gas, white powder is so much easier. How truly convenient for the Broward sheriff's office that such a stash of threatening powder was foun... (more)
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Shock and oil: Iraq's billions & the White House connection The American company appointed to advise the US government on the economic reconstruction of Iraq has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican Party coffers and has admitted that its own finances are in chaos because of accounting errors and bad management.
BearingPoint is fighting to restore its reputation in the US after falling more than a year behind in reporting its own financial results, prompting legal actions from its creditors and shareholders.
... (more)
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