Flood walls in New Orleans were ‘structurally flawed’Concrete flood walls that were supposed to protect New Orleans were not overwhelmed by high waters during Hurricane Katrina as federal officials have claimed, but ruptured because they were structurally flawed, according to Louisiana scientists.
From the mud splattered on buildings still standing near to the flood walls and the results of a computer simulation of the storm - known as a “hindcast” - a team from the Hurricane Center at Louisiana State University in Baton... (more)
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In 1 year, Halliburton's stock doubles as troop deaths doubleSince the beginning of the Iraq war, Halliburton, the Texas energy giant once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has seen its stock price more than triple in value. When the U.S invaded Iraq in March of 2003, Halliburton's stock was selling for $20 per share. The stock price at the close of market activity on Monday was $66.
In the last 12 months, the total number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq almost doubled as Hall... (more)
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SAS in secret war against Iranian agentsTWO SAS soldiers rescued last week after being arrested by Iraqi police and handed over to a militia were engaged in a “secret war” against insurgents bringing sophisticated bombs into the country from Iran.
The men had left their base near the southern Iraqi city of Basra to carry out reconnaissance and supply a second patrol with “more tools and fire power”, said a source with knowledge of their activities.
They had been in Basra for seven ... (more)
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National Security Agency gets fix on Internet usersInternet users hoping to protect their privacy by using anti-virus software, Web anonymizers, false identities and disabled cookies on their computer's Web browser have something new to worry about – a patent filed by the National Security Agency (NSA) for technology that will identify the physical location of any Web surfer.
Patent 6,947,978, granted this week, describes a process based on latency, or time lag between computers exchanging data, of "numerous" known locations... (more)
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Cameras watch, nudge thugs: More eyes in the sky may come to a neighborhood near youResidents love them for the way they protect their streets. Cops say they help push dope dealers away.
Crime-spotting cameras have been used since June in four Cincinnati neighborhoods, drawing rave reviews from residents and giving police a new tool to make arrests.
Now, Cincinnati City Council is considering buying 117 more to start putting 16 more neighborhoods on video.
"The technology is just so good," said Lt. Col. James Whalen, who was District... (more)
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Product tracking RFID technology comes of age in Canadian marketplaceMARKHAM, Ont. - Tiny wireless transistors are working themselves up the food chain.
Better known as RFID (radio frequency identification device), the information-laden chips, as small as a pinhead, will soon be tracking food shipments from the farm to the grocery checkout counter.
A new Canadian RFID Centre, located in the Markham, Ont., IBM Solution Delivery Centre, is unique in Canada.
There, Canadian food producers, manufacturers, distributors and ... (more)
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US army plans to bulk-buy anthraxTHE US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.
A series of contracts have been uncovered that relate to the US army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. They ask companies to tender for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax, and for equipment to produce significant volumes of other biological agents.... (more)
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Nuke attack drug contracts up for grabs: Feds to tap drug makers for stockpiles against radiation poisoningNEW YORK (CNN/Money) - As Americans brace themselves against Hurricane Rita, the second huge hurricane in one month, the government is preparing to spend some serious money on another potential threat: nuclear attack.
As part of Project Bioshield, the Department of Health and Human Services has been allocated $5.6 billion to build up the Strategic National Stockpile with drugs, vaccines and therapies to prepare for the threat of terrorist attacks. About $1 billion of this budget h... (more)
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US Northern Command and Hurricane RitaThere are indications that the Bush Administration is preparing to enact far-reaching emergency procedures in response to Hurricane Rita, which could potentially lead the country into a situation of Martial Law.
Following his visit to Texas on September 23, President Bush traveled together with DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to The Peterson Air Force Base, at the headquarters of US Northern Command in Colorado Springs.
He spent the night of September 23 at Colorad... (more)
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Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by KatrinaIt may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphi... (more)
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Bush plea for cash to rebuild Iraq raises $600 An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.
The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prospe... (more)
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US troops use 250,000 bullets for every rebel killedUS forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.
A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine.<... (more)
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So what were two undercover British soldiers up to in Basra?An Iraqi judge yesterday issued arrest warrants for two British soldiers, presumed to be SAS men, whose detention by Iraqi police and subsequent rescue by British forces in Basra last week has thrown an unprecedented spotlight on Britain's role in Iraq.
Early yesterday a flurry of rockets was fired at buildings occupied by British troops, but police said the only injuries were suffered by an Iraqi family in a house hit by one missile. Tensions aroused by last week's clashes remain... (more)
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Bill Would Permit DNA Collection From All Those ArrestedSuspects arrested or detained by federal authorities could be forced to provide samples of their DNA that would be recorded in a central database under a provision of a Senate bill to expand government collection of personal data.
The controversial measure was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and is supported by the White House, but has not gone to the floor for a vote. It goes beyond current law, which allows federal authorities to collect and record samples o... (more)
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Girl arrested over Bollocks to Blair shirtPolice arrested a 20-year-old gamekeeper for wearing a “Bollocks to Blair” T-shirt at a game fair last weekend
A girl was arrested for wearing her “Bollocks to Blair” T-shirt at the Midlands Game Fair last weekend. Charlotte Denis, 20, a gamekeeper from Gloucestershire, was stopped by police as she left the Countryside Alliance stand because of the “offensive” slogan.
Shocked and dismayed to be made a public spectacle, Denis tried... (more)
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Major Victory For Firearms Owners And Freedom In LouisianaThe United States District Court for the Eastern District in Louisiana today sided with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and issued a restraining order to bar further gun confiscations from peaceable and law-abiding victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
“This is a significant victory for freedom and for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The court’s ruling is instant relief for the victims who now have an effective means of defending themselves from the robbe... (more)
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Taser defends giving stock options to policeTaser International gave potentially lucrative stock options to six police officers from 2001 to 2003, most of whom promoted Taser's stun guns and, in some cases, urged their cities to buy them.
Court documents released this week show that officers in Arizona, California, Washington, Texas, and Canada received thousands of company stock options, some only weeks after urging police commanders or city officials to purchase Tasers.
All but one of the six officers are n... (more)
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U.S. Court Hears Chinese Media’s Role in TortureHARTFORD, Conn. – On a sunny Thursday morning in a packed federal courtroom, the audience heard how the state-owned media in China has furthered a campaign of torture against Falun Gong adherents in China.
Zhao Zhizhen, a CCP official and the former Director of Wuhan TV Station in China was served with a summons in July 2004 when he was visiting New Haven. The lawsuit was filed by Falun Gong practitioners under the Torture Victim Protection Act a statute passed by Congress i... (more)
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Journalist With Laptop Treated as Terrorist On London UndergroundLONDON COPS seem to be picking up people at random, accusing them of being terrorists and taking their electronic goods into custody.
David Mery, who among other things is an IT reviewer and who we know pretty well, was waiting for his girlfriend with his laptop in his rucksack in Southwark tube station. The next thing he knew he was surrounded by uniformed cops, cuffed and his rucksack checked for devices.
Police found a "nice laptop" in the bag which they confisca... (more)
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The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fightersThe US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq "feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the insurgency flames, they only comprise only about 4 to 10 percent of the estima... (more)
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Credit card companies can keep data ID theft secretCredit card companies don't have to notify customers their personal information has been stolen, a California Judge ruled today.
The Rothken law firm in Marin County, Ca had brought a class action suit on behalf of cardholders and merchants against CardSystems Solutions, Visa and MasterCard following a high profile data ID heist in June. [PDF, 200kb]
The suit accused the defendents of violating California state law by failing to notify them that personal data ha... (more)
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Senior Polish Politician Compares Russia to Nazi RegimeThe man who may be Poland’s next prime minister accused Russia on Friday of using methods even the Nazis would eschew in inciting assaults on Polish diplomats in Moscow.
Conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s comparison of Russia with Hitler’s Germany seemed likely to further strain ties already tested by the former Soviet ally’s integration into the West.
“What Russia has done recently is surprising and unusually drastic —- I can&rsqu... (more)
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Iran ready to notify uranium enrichment: DiplomatLONDON, September 24 (IranMania) - Iran warned that it was ready to submit a note informing the UN atomic watchdog that it will begin enriching uranium if a resolution against its atomic program is adopted, a diplomat said.
"Iran is to notify the IAEA in writing about beginning uranium enrichment, and also cease applying a protocol for wider UN inspections, if the resolution is actually adopted" by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a diplomat close ... (more)
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Could scientists de-intensify storms?Project Storm Fury was a futile attempt in the 1960's to stop hurricanes. The idea was reborn last year after four hurricanes rocked the Florida coast. Now with the aftermath of Katrina and the onset of Rita, scientists are even more in tune with such a possibility.
"If there was someway we could de-intensify these storms, we could reduce the risk in terms of death, we could reduce the amount of damage that would be done by hurricanes. So the idea was being driven by economics, an... (more)
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