Stop virtual strip-search Body scanners are a virtual strip-search that Americans should not be subjected to. They offer very little security value in return for the cost to our dignity and privacy.
Let's be clear: The body scanners - known as "backscatter" - are X-ray devices that expose us to radiation. And the government has not carefully studied what long-term effects that radiation will have on frequent fliers, or even casual ones.
But of more immediate concern, t... (more)
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Survey indicates Iraqis in despair More than 90 per cent of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained by Al Jazeera.
A survey of 2,000 people by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies found that 95 per cent of respondents believe the security situation has deteriorated since the arrival of US forces.
The findings follow a poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal that found that less than one in four Americans approves... (more)
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KGB influence 'soars under Putin' Pictured: Mr Putin recently toured a new defence intelligence HQ in Moscow
Four out of five political leaders and state administrators in Russia either have been or still are members of the security services, a study suggests.
The unprecedented research implies a huge expansion of KGB-FSB influence in politics and business in recent years.
Many of the officials concerned have been appointed under President Vladimir Putin - ... (more)
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Menezes family lose court battleThe family of Jean Charles de Menezes have lost their High Court battle over a decision not to charge any police officers in connection with his death.
Brazilian Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot by police who mistook him for a suicide bomber on the London Tube last year.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute any of 15 officers probed.
Three senior High Court judges dismissed the family... (more)
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Death Of The Dollar Former wall street broker, Max Keiser, investigates the US economy and reveals how the American officials have maintained the image of a strong dollar since coming off the Gold Standard. We hear from authors and leading economists who claim that central banks have been helping to manipulate the gold markets and keep the prices down.
How will all this unravel? Max looks at the current US debt levels, the shift away from th... (more)
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Big brother is watching: Security cameras keep an eye on schoolHAVERHILL - If a fight or other problem were to happen in a Consentino Middle School hallway, chances are the principal or another school official could see what was happening and respond in seconds. Video surveillance, like you might find at a department store or gas station, has come to Consentino.
Big Brother is watching, and students are aware of what it means to them.
"I found out about it last year," eighth-grader Matthew Tavares said. ... (more)
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John McCain’s War On Blogsohn McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.
Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:
– Commerc ... (more)
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Romano Prodi: Olmert’s Wind-Up Cathy ChattyNot long ago, Ehud Olmert was caught admitting Israel has a hoard of nukes, a well-known enough fact, although generally unspoken in the corporate media. For accidentally speaking the truth, angry voices arose from across the Israeli political spectrum—mostly of one monotonous color—demanding Olmert take a hike for speaking the unspeakable.
Now Olmert was discovered “coaching” Italian prime minister Romano Prodi “on what to say during their joint pre... (more)
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Dumb and Dumber Congress CrittersDown in Texas, they grow them stupid. Not that all Texans are stupid, mind you, just Democrats elected to represent the people.
For instance, when Congressional Quarterly national security editor Jeff Stein interviewed in-coming chairman of the Intelligence Committee, El Paso’s Silvestre Reyes, he asked whether al-CIA-duh, er “al Qaeda,” is a Sunni or Shi’ite organization, the good Representative was flummoxed.
“Predominantly—... (more)
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Gaza border shots 'targeted PM'Hamas says the shooting on the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister at a Gaza border post was an assassination attempt by a rival faction.
Ismail Haniya's convoy came under fire when it was allowed to cross, after being held there for several hours.
A bodyguard was killed and Mr Haniya's son was shot in the face as the fire fight erupted at the Rafah checkpoint.
Border guards allied to President Abbas' Fatah faction, exchanged fire with Mr Haniya... (more)
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Antidepressants a Suicide Risk for Young AdultsWidely used antidepressants double the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults, from around three cases per thousand to seven cases per thousand, according to a huge federal analysis of hundreds of clinical trials. It marks the first time regulators have acknowledged that the drugs can trigger suicidal behavior among patients older than 18.
Officials at the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that the higher risk was found in patients 18 to 25 and that the risk faded amo... (more)
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Bush Approval Rating Hits New Low A new ABC News/Washington Post poll has some dismal numbers for President Bush:
49 percent "strongly disapprove" of his job performance overall, his worst rating ever in that category.
62 percent of Americans "disapprove" of Bush's job performance overall, his second-worst rating in that category.
18 percent "strongly approve."
77 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance.
70 percent "di... (more)
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Mint bans melting coins now worth more as liquid than loot WASHINGTON -- Given rising metal prices, the pennies and nickels in your pocket are worth more melted down than their face value -- and that has the government worried.
U.S. Mint officials said Wednesday they were putting into place rules prohibiting the melting down of 1-cent and 5-cent coins, with a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for people convicted of violating the rule.
Because of the prevailing prices of metals, the cost of p... (more)
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Torture Is at the Heart of America's War on Terror After thousands of years of practice, you might have imagined that every possible means of inflicting pain had already been devised. But you should never underestimate the human capacity for invention. United States interrogators, we now discover, have found a new way of destroying a human being.
Last week, defence lawyers acting for Jose Padilla, a US citizen detained as an "enemy combatant", released a video showing a mission fraught with deadly risk - taking him to the ... (more)
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Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's TearsThe true horror of what President Bush--and the Republican-led 109th Congress--have done to all of us American citizens by authorizing torture in our names came clear during a talk I was giving on impeachment to a group organized by the New Jersey chapter of Progressive Democrats of America. I had been reciting the growing list of Bush crimes against the Constitution and the laws of the land and had gotten to the issue of torture. At that point Bruce Tornari, a large guy... (more)
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Analysts: Dollar collapse would result in 'amero'Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.
The reconstructed M3 data – the broadest measure of money – published on econometrician Gary Kuever's website, NowAndFutures.com, shows M3 increased at a rate of 11 percent in May, compared to 9 percent when the Federal Reserve quit publishing M3 data ea... (more)
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US staying the course for Big Oil in IraqWashington at large and President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in particular may apply every contortionist trick in the geopolitical book to save their skins in Iraq - and the reasons are not entirely political.
In addition to the recently released report by the Iraq Study Group, any other Washington establishment report - Pentagon, State Department, think-tanks - considered by the White House cannot deviate from much of the ISG. There can be no firm timeline for a... (more)
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UK 'plot' terror charge droppedA Pakistani judge has ruled there is not enough evidence to try a key suspect in an alleged airline bomb plot on terrorism charges.
He has moved the case of Rashid Rauf, a Briton, from an anti-terrorism court to a regular court, where he faces lesser charges such as forgery.
Pakistan has presented Mr Rauf as one of the ringleaders behind the alleged plan to blow up flights out of London.
The British authorities say they foiled it with Pakistan's hel... (more)
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Alleged Liquid Bomb Plot Credibility CrumblesThe alleged ringleader of a much vaunted plot to blow up multiple transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives has been cleared of terrorism charges and of being a member of any terrorist group, rendering August's terror scare another hyped creation of government scare mongering.
In every single major terror bust or terror alert we have proven the evidence to be flawed and the charges to be cooked up nonsense aimed at prolonging the illusion that terror cel... (more)
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Suspicious baby deaths 'feed stem-cells market'NEW-BORN babies who died in suspicious circumstances in the Ukraine are being used as a source for stem cells, a campaign group has claimed.
The group has passed on video footage it believes will back up its long-held suspicions to the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is investigating the claims.
The National Ukrainian Federation of Multiple-child Families triggered international attention when it suggested last year that organs and possibly live babies w... (more)
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Iraq as a Living HellThe situation in Iraq has reached such a point of degradation and danger that I've been unable to return to report -- as I did from 2003 to 2005 -- from the front lines of daily life. Instead, in these last months, I have found myself in a supportive role, facilitating the work of some of my former sources, who remain in their own war-torn land, to tell their hair-raising tales of the new Iraq. While relying on my Iraqi colleagues to report the news, which we then publish at Inter Press Service<... (more)
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UK Government Proposals Approve Human/Animal Embryo HybridsLONDON, United Kingdom, December 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - British researchers would be permitted to create human/animal embryo hybrids using test tube technology, under sweeping new proposals to be introduced by government health officials this week, the Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.
Known as "chimeras", the embryos would be produced by combining human and animal genetic material within a laboratory setting--the North East England Stem Cell Institut... (more)
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Diana: The 18 missing witnesses in £4m inquiryEIGHTEEN key witnesses have been ignored by the £4million Lord Stevens inquiry into the death of Princess Diana.
Their evidence to French police had raised several questions about the fatal crash in Paris.
But detectives working on the three-year inquiry – which will publish its findings tomorrow – didn’t interview them to gather fresh testimony.
The revelations come after the Daily Express revealed disturbing allegations from ... (more)
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Iran: Israel 'will end like USSR' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told a conference in Tehran questioning the Holocaust that Israel's days are numbered.
"Just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear," he said to the applause of the participants.
The two-day conference provoked widespread international outrage.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the forum and British Prime Minister Tony Blair called it "shocking beyond b... (more)
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