DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Coalition naval forces in the Persian Gulf are on watch for possible terror threats to oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Western naval officials said Friday.
A British navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said a threat from al-Qaida last month to target gulf oil terminals had resulted in stepped-up security and vigilance at Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura terminal, as well as ... (more)
This morning on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) whether he agreed with the growing number of prominent conservatives who think Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign.
Boehner said that “Rumsfeld is the best thing that’s happened to the Pentagon in 25 years.” He told Stephanopoulos the buck should stop nowhere. “Let’s not take the problems in Iraq, the tough fight that we&r... (more)
Tony Blair's most trusted military commander yesterday branded as 'cuckoo' the way Britain's overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan.
The remarkable rebuke by General the Lord Guthrie came in an Observer interview, his first since quitting as Chief of the Defence Staff five years ago, in which he made an impassioned plea for more troops, new equipment and more funds for a 'very, very' over-committed army.
The decision by Guthrie, an experienced W... (more)
Police chiefs have urged ministers to criminalise flag-burning in a move to crack down on extremist protesters.
Scotland Yard has submitted the idea to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, alongside proposals to ban demonstrators from covering their faces. Police are also asking for greater powers to arrest protesters seeking to inflame tensions under the package drawn up by Britain's most senior Muslim officer.
On a bleak winter's February day, Anne Margaret White, mother of three small children, was admitted to one of the world's great teaching hospitals, St Thomas's, in London. She was thirty-one years old and suffering from post-partum depression, which effects a number of women after giving birth.
Three months later, Anne emerged from the hospital physically and mentally so changed her father thought she was "a zombie".
The transformation had been achieved by a psychia... (more)
The testosterone-fueled American male may be losing his punch.
Over the past two decades, levels of the sex hormone in U.S. men have been falling steadily, a new study finds.
For example, average total testosterone levels in men aged 65 to 69 fell from 503 nanograms/decileter (ng/dL) in 1988 to 423 ng/dL in 2003.
The reasons for this trend are unclear, said researchers at the New England Research Institutes in Waterdown, Mass. They noted that neith... (more)
Who controls the food controls the people.
"It is in the biological sciences that the most exciting possibilities suggest themselves... I will only speculate on a few among these possibilities which might have great effects on human life.
"I have already referred to the possibility of quite new sources of food and I need not enlarge on that further.
". . . hormones, those internal chemical secretions which so largely regulate the operations of the human body. The artificial use of hormones has already been shown to have profound effects on the behaviour of animals. . . might have similar effects on man. . .
". . . might be a drug, which... removed the urgency of sexual desire, and so reproduced in humanity the status of workers in a beehive.
"To produce effects of these kinds there must be a master and the master must be above and not subject to the procedure he is enforcing on his subjects."
- Excerpt From "The Next Million Years", (1952) by Charles Galton Darwin, grandson of evolutionist Charles R. Darwin
Reports of ‘Vegemite police’ confiscating the popular toast spread at United States borders proves the Government’s proposed new rules for natural health products would cause ridiculous problems for completely safe products.
The New Zealand Health Trust, a consumer group campaigning against the proposal to regulate natural health products under an Australian regime, says that the rules already in place in the US and Europe show how crazy the regulators have becom... (more)
Are America's children over-medicated with "psychotropic" drugs?
That's the view of state Sen. Nancy Schaefer, R-Turnerville, who has made it an issue in her re-election campaign.
Schaefer is running to keep her seat in the 50th District, which covers all or part of six mountain counties in Georgia's northeast corner. She has been criticized by some people, including her opponent, Democrat Carol Jackson, for attending an event that has ties to the Church of Scientol... (more)
In November 2004, during the second battle of Fallujah, an American uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) - a robot plane - located a mortar battery that had been hampering the US operation to retake the town.The mortar's position was logged by the UAV's operator, who was sitting at his desk in Nellis Air Force base near Las Vegas, thousands of miles away. Using the internet, the operator contacted the operator of another armed UAV at a desk in central command ("Centcom") - a safe area away from the the... (more)
Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who is barred from entering the United States, delivered his acceptance speech for the Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award in a pre-recorded videotape. This is a transcript of his speech, which was viewed at the award ceremony hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies on Oct. 18, 2006 in Wash
Bowing to anti-immigration hardliners in the House, President Bush today held a White House ceremony celebrating the signing of the “Secure Fence Act.” Bush told reporters, “The bill authorizes the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing along our southern border.”
Bush is right, the bill does “authorize” the constrution of a new fence. But that doesn&rsq... (more)
NEW YORK A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of "rape and murder" and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were "blatantly sadistic."
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said te... (more)
For the first time since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, active-duty members of the military are publicly appealing members of Congress to end the U.S. occupation, RAW STORY has learned.
Under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act (DOD directive 7050.6), active-duty military, National Guard, and Reservists can send a protected communication to a member of Congress regarding any subject without reprisal.
Earlier this week, 65 military service members and National Gu... (more)
THE US has refused to investigate allegations David Hicks was sexually abused while in American custody, documents reveal. And the Australian Government has not sought to have its officials independently investigate the sexual abuse claims or other allegations of mistreatment raised by Mr Hicks, his family and his lawyers.
A diplomatic cable marked "secret/sensitive" shows the Australian Government last November asked the US to respond to allegations made by Mr Hicks's father, Ter... (more)
In yet another egregious executive-power grab, President Bush asserted his right last week via signing statement to ignore a Congressional mandate that the next FEMA Director ha... (more)
During my professional lifetime, liberals and the left-wing have focused on failures and misdeeds of the private sector, while libertarians and conservatives have focused on the failures and misdeeds of the public sector or government. It turns out that both sides are right.
The Enron case and the other accounting scandals of this new century are testimony to misdeeds driven by private sector greed, just as the unjustifiable war in Iraq is testimony to the abusive behavior... (more)
The FBI has released more documents connected to Maine peace groups, leading local activists to say they have been targeted for surveillance for opposing the government.
Last January, a single e-mail from a Canadian anarchist group that had been circulated by Maine peace activists was released by the government in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Maine Civil Liberties Union.
Now more e-mails discussing plans for anti-war demonstrations ... (more)
Are we now officially out of our minds? On Tuesday, General George W. Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Zalmay Khalilzad, our ambassador to Iraq, gave a joint press conference in Baghdad that was all for home consumption. By home, I mean Washington DC. I mean Indiana. I mean Texas. Baghdad's Green Zone was essentially a stage set for a political ... (more)
Washington - There are at least 70 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who will face a trial before a US military commission in the next few years, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Trials are not expected to begin until 2007 under President George W Bush's Military Commission Act approved by Congress earlier this year, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
There are about 450 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. About a dozen have already been charged wi... (more)
The government begins issuing a new identification card tomorrow, the kickoff of a multiyear effort to provide all government workers and many contractors with a "smart card" that can be used to verify their identity when they enter a building or log onto computer networks.
In addition to showing a person's name and agency, an electronic chip in the card will contain personal data, such as images from two fingerprints, a special identification number and digital certificates that ... (more)
A MAN HAS BEEN dropped in the clink in China for three years for supposedly causing trouble by posting a pro-rights essay online.
According to news.com, Li Jianping, a 40 year old and student participant in China's infamous Tiananmen Square 1989 demonstrations, was nabbed for posting an essay published on overseas Chinese websites in 2003. He'd been accused of "inciting subversion of state power," and found guilty.
If implanting employees with RFID chips violates practical HR policies, and rolling out eagle-eyed drones to monitor defensive behaviors seems a bit too intrusive, researchers at the University of Texas in... (more)
