Russian bombers penetrate N. American buffer zone

from mosnews: A new U.S. push for greater Russian military openness collided with Cold War habits last week as Russian long-range bombers flew within 15 miles of U.S. airspace off Alaska, Denver Post website reported.

Fully-armed U.S. fighter jets responded, intercepting the two bombers.

The Russian Tu-95 bombers on a training exercise Thursday penetrated a North American buffer zone, said a statement Friday from Maj. Gen. Brett Cairns, operations chief for Colorado Springs-based North American Aerospace Defense Command.

But the bombers stayed within international airspace.

The U.S. response “was appropriate,” said Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command.

“We have a near-sacred responsibility to protect and defend the United States and Canada against any and all threats. We will not waver in this responsibility,” Keating said.

candidate-veteran attacks bush on Iraq

from ap/yahoo: An Illinois congressional candidate who lost both her legs during combat in Iraq said Saturday that President Bush has no real strategy for securing the war-ravaged nation, just political talk designed to appeal to voters.

"Instead of a plan or a strategy, we get shallow slogans like 'mission accomplished' and 'stay the course,'" former Army Capt. Tammy Duckworth said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "Those slogans are calculated to win an election. But they won't help us accomplish our mission in Iraq." ...

"Well, I didn't cut and run, Mr. President. Like so many others, I proudly fought and sacrificed," Duckworth said. "My helicopter was shot down long after you proclaimed 'mission accomplished.'" ...

Duckworth... also lashed out at the GOP-led Congress for refusing to do its job of holding the Bush administration accountable for its flawed Iraq policy.

"We need a Congress that will ask the tough questions and work together for solutions rather than attacking the patriotism of those who disagree," she said. "It is time to encourage Iraqi leaders to take control of their own county and make the tough choices that will stop the civil war and stabilize the country."

rep resigns over e-mails to teenage page

remember the franklin coverup?

from ap/yahoo: Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.

"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he said in a statement issued by his office...

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence...

Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. The page had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News...

In 2003, Foley faced questions about his sexual orientation as he prepared to run for Sen. Bob Graham's seat. At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents.

According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's office about Foley's e-mails, saying, "This freaked me out." On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word "sick" 13 times.

He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank you card. The boy also said Foley wrote that he e-mailed another page.

"he's such a nice guy," Foley wrote about the other boy. "acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym...whats school like for you this year?"

In other e-mails, Foley wrote, "I am back in Florida now...its nice here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks...how old are you now?" and "how are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well."

DHS missing over 100 laptops

from raw story/fcw: According to the website FCW.com, the Government Accountability Office has found that over 100 Department of Homeland Security laptops are missing and are thought to have been stolen.

The computers, worth more than $300,000, were purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Three computers purchased by the Coast Guard are also missing.

Excerpts from the FCW report follow:

A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that more than 100 laptop computers purchased with cards that the Homeland Security Department issued after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast last year are missing and presumed stolen.

According to GAO, the computers purchased by employees of DHS' Federal Emergency Management Agency had a value of $300,000. More than 20 printers worth $84,000 are also missing and presumed stolen, the report states...

“A weak control environment and breakdowns in key controls” left DHS vulnerable to fraud and abuse, states the report, prepared with the participation of DHS’ Office of the Inspector General.

critical hat trick

Ex-Prez Carter: Bush has brought U.S. "international disgrace"
from kesq: The former president told a crowd of about 300 on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno today that the nation is more sharply divided that it has ever been as a result of Bush's policies.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he says he's deeply embarrassed that the American government now stands convicted around the world as one of the greatest abusers of civil rights. He continued the theme in a dinner speech to 700 at a Democratic fundraiser tonight, saying every past president has been a supporter of human rights, until this one.

Sen. Clinton: 'Incalculable Damage Done to Our Country'
from cns news: The upcoming mid-term election is important because the U.S. is "in a deep hole, and Republicans don't want to quit digging," Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Democratic women in Washington, D.C., on Thursday... "The damage that has already been done to our country in the last six years is incalculable," she said.

"It's going to take an enormous amount of effort to begin to repair and restore American values and to reinstate the kind of shared commitment to common values and common ground that we desperately need," Clinton added. (See Video)

Stone: Bush has set U.S. back 10 years
from ap/yahoo: Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted President Bush Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years." Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of Sept 11...

"It's a waste of energy away from things that do matter which is poverty, death, disease, the planet itself and fixing things in our own homes rather than fighting wars with others. Mr. Bush has set America back 10 years, maybe more."

outreach

media monarchy has been growing, updating & reaching out. so, i'd like to take a moment to thank some folks like daily scare & the truth will set you free for adding me to their links...

richard grove & 9/11 synchronicity for being gracious & engaging...

alex ansary for plugging media monarchy on outside the box #66 (you should watch the whole show, but jump to 33:50 for the relevant content) ...

and i'd really like to thank daniel at false flag news. you can hear me on his show from wednesday, sept 27 right here (again, you should listen to the entire episode, but jump to 27:45 for my bit) ...

also, take a moment to check out the growing list of video links, (re)search links & syndication feeds on the sidebar...

thanks

jesse ventura questions 9/11 official story

from propaganda matrix: In a sit-down video interview recorded on Monday night, former Minnesota Governor, pro-wrestling star and actor Jesse Ventura told radio host Alex Jones he found it very disturbing in light of what happened on 9/11 that the U.S. government had once planned to "attack certain cities within the United States," as a pretext for war... In this explosive interview Ventura sounds off on a number of controversial subjects and the direction in which America is heading.

real taliban distance themselves from P2OG taliban

from kurt nimmo: Lost in the corporate media fluff surrounding the supposed suicide attempt of Dallas Cowboys’ star receiver Terrell Owens and the sorrows of Anna Nicole Smith, we learn that the fanatical Wahhabi Taliban, wholly artificial creatures groomed in CIA-ISI sponsored madrassas in Pakistan, are “worried about their image” and are attempting to “distance themselves from the suicide bombers,” according to the Herald.

“The number of suicide bombings and roadside booby-trap blasts in Afghanistan has soared by 600% in nine months, triggering fears that the Taliban are copying Iraqi insurgent tactics.” NATO officers and UN officials “say there is no proven link to either Iraqi insurgents or Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and that bomb-making techniques could be picked up from extremist websites.”

In other words, a black op “foreign Taliban” appears to be at work in Afghanistan, busily attempting to discredit the real Taliban, who are making gains against the occupation of their country.

woodward: bush misleads on Iraq

from cbs news: Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year...

According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. "It’s getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces," says Woodward...

Woodward also reports that the president and vice president often meet with Henry Kissinger, who was President Richard Nixon’s secretary of state, as an adviser. Says Woodward, "Now what’s Kissinger’s advice? In Iraq, he declared very simply, ‘Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy.'" Woodward adds. "This is so fascinating. Kissinger’s fighting the Vietnam War again because, in his view, the problem in Vietnam was we lost our will."

terrorist whistleblower dead after poisoning

from ktbs/total411: He claimed he met three of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Shreveport a year before the attacks. Now, that man, Shreveport dentist Dr. David Graham, is dead.

His family says he was poisoned more than two years ago. At the time, Graham was trying to publish a manuscript about meeting three middle easterners in Shreveport, men he feared were plotting to bomb Barksdale Air Force Base. Graham wrote that he warned the FBI. Then after Sept. 11, he saw their pictures among the hijackers.

Before Graham was poisoned, he was supposed to testify at a deportation hearing against a Pakistani man, Jamal Khan, who hosted the men Graham believed to be the hijackers. Graham's brother, Edwin Jones, told us Wednesday night the family believes someone slipped poison into his drink, plunging him into a deadly illness.

7-Eleven drops Venezuela-owned Citgo

from ap/yahoo: 7-Eleven Inc. dropped Venezuela-owned Citgo as its gasoline supplier after more than 20 years as part of a previously announced plan by the convenience store operator to launch its own brand of fuel.

7-Eleven officials said Wednesday that the decision was partly motivated by politics.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-run oil company and 7-Eleven is worried that anti-American comments made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might prompt motorists to fill-up elsewhere.

Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

"Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president," said 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris.

"Certainly Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to stay with Citgo," she added.

hurdles cleared for detainee legislation

from ap/yahoo: Republicans on Wednesday cleared procedural hurdles in the House and Senate on the way to giving President Bush authority to detain, interrogate and try terrorism detainees before military commissions.

House Republicans succeeded on a vote in blocking any Democratic amendments to the legislation. In the Senate, GOP leaders won an agreement from Democrats to debate the bill for less than a dozen hours and then vote on it.

Four Democrats and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania are being given opportunities to offer amendments in the Senate, but all were expected to fall with lawmakers eager to adjourn this weekend to devote the next five weeks to campaigning for re-election...

While bowing to the inevitable, Democrats continued to criticize the bill... Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Congress was acting in "an election-year frenzy" without addressing human rights and constitutional issues raised by the bill.

'tokyo rose' dies at 90

from guardian: Iva Toguri D'Aquino, the American woman popularly known as Tokyo Rose, who was convicted and later cleared of making propaganda radio broadcasts for the Japanese during the second world war, has died, her family said today. She was 90.

Although several US citizens were suspected of aiding the Japanese war effort by appearing in broadcasts intended to demoralize US troops, only D'Aquino was convicted in what became one of the most controversial treason cases in US legal history.

olbermann revokes bush 'free pass'

from raw story: Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown, offered harshly worded commentary in defense of former president Bill Clinton's statements during an interview with Fox News. Olbermann was particularly critical of the Bush Administration's record on securing America.

you can read the full transcript here

British troops suspected of 'guns for cocaine' trade

from scotsman: British soldiers are being investigated for smuggling guns out of Iraq and allegedly exchanging them for cocaine in illicit black market deals.

Security officials have confirmed that soldiers from the third battalion the Yorkshire Regiment are at the centre of a criminal probe by the Royal Military Police, who are investigating a "guns for drugs" network.

According to a newspaper report, the alleged illegal deals are the latest blow to the British military, coming in the wake of a week when a corporal from the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment admitted he had committed a war crime against an Iraqi civilian.

terror cases expose double standard

from usa today: While the flimsiest of evidence caused U.S. officials to hustle Arar off to Syria, a mountain of suspicion about Luis Posada Carriles' involvement in a long list of terrorist acts has not been enough to wrench him out of this country's grip.

Posada is on the lam from Venezuela, where he was awaiting a retrial of charges that he had a hand in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. The Cuban exile denies involvement in that heinous crime, but former counterterrorism specialist Carter Cornick said Posada was "up to his eyeballs" in the bombing, The New York Times reported last year.

The newspaper also reported that Posada once bragged of masterminding a series of bombings of tourist hotels in Cuba in the 1990s, an admission he later recanted. An Italian tourist died in one of those blasts.

But instead of spiriting Posada off to Venezuela, the Bush administration is holding him in an immigration detention center. Rather than accuse him of being a terrorist, it simply has charged him with entering this country illegally.

Last year, an immigration judge ruled that Posada couldn't be deported to Venezuela or Cuba - countries the Bush administration considers rogue states - because he might be tortured. During an appearance on Telemundo, a Spanish-language TV station, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked whether this decision might affect the world's perception of the Bush administration's worldwide war on terrorism. "We try and intend to apply our standards uniformly, consistently," she said, "but these are issues that have to be decided in the right channels."

In fact, the Bush administration has contradictory standards - one for people who are thought to be enemies of this country, such as Arar, and another for Posada, an accused terrorist, who is the enemy of its enemies.

Russia snubs US, redirects gas flow to Europe

from mosnews:
A plan to give Europe access to a substantial amount of natural gas from the giant Shtokman field originally earmarked for the U.S. market is a direct consequence of U.S. policy toward Russia on WTO membership and sanctions on Russian defense exports, Russian newspapers reported on Monday, Sept. 25.

The apparent change of thinking on Shtokman, which is located in the Barents Sea is linked specifically to recently introduced U.S. sanctions on arms export agency Rosoboronexport and on aircraft maker Sukhoi, as well as U.S. refusal to support Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization, Vedomosti business daily has written.

“The States could not have expected that Moscow would not notice the Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi issues,” the paper quoted an unnamed source close to the administration of President Vladimir Putin as saying, referring to discussion of reorienting future gas exports.

will the next election be hacked?

Fresh disasters at the polls, and new evidence from an industry insider, prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted - by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

from rolling stone: The debacle of the 2000 presidential election made it all too apparent to most Americans that our electoral system is broken. And private-sector entrepreneurs were quick to offer a fix: Touch-screen voting machines, promised the industry and its lobbyists, would make voting as easy and reliable as withdrawing cash from an ATM.

Congress, always ready with funds for needy industries, swiftly authorized $3.9 billion to upgrade the nation's election systems - with much of the money devoted to installing electronic voting machines in each of America's 180,000 precincts.

But as midterm elections approach this November, electronic voting machines are making things worse instead of better. Studies have demonstrated that hackers can easily rig the technology to fix an election - and across the country this year, faulty equipment and lax security have repeatedly undermined election primaries.

In Tarrant County, Texas, electronic machines counted some ballots as many as six times, recording 100,000 more votes than were actually cast. In San Diego, poll workers took machines home for unsupervised "sleepovers" before the vote, leaving the equipment vulnerable to tampering. And in Ohio - where, as I recently reported in "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" [RS 1002], dirty tricks may have cost John Kerry the presidency - a government report uncovered large and unexplained discrepancies in vote totals recorded by machines in Cuyahoga County.

protesters interrupt Senate Gitmo heaing

from rawstory: In this video, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) criticizes activists that stood up in protest at a hearing on the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison. The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering whether detainees will have only limited access to habeas corpus review. At the end of the video, Specter stands up, bangs his gavel, and walks out of the hearing...

US army extends Iraq duty for 4,000

from ap/yahoo: The Army is stretched so thin by the war in
Iraq that it is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months — the second such move since August...

"The Army is coming to the end of its rope in Iraq," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a private research group. "It simply does not have enough active-duty military personnel to sustain the current level of effort." ...

The tour extension affects between 3,500 and 4,000 soldiers in the brigade, officials said. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because the Pentagon had yet to make an announcement.

9/11 truth comes to saturday night live

"Back in the summer of 2001, I wanted to move some money into defense-related and home security stocks, but your brokers talked me out of it. Is that because you and your friends were buying those stocks and wanted to keep the price down?"

"Exactly. We felt that with the 9/11 terror attacks coming up later in the summer, that sector of the market would probably triple in value... and once again, we were right."

"You knew in advance about 9/11?"

"Basically."

for more info about insider trading & 9/11, check out articles like: mystery of terror insider dealers, suppresed details insider trading cia, & ex-agent had key data. then go watch who killed john o'neill?

proposal to carve up Iraq moves forward

from ap/yahoo: Iraq's feuding ethnic and sectarian groups moved ahead Monday with forming a committee to consider amending the constitution after their leaders agreed to delay any division of the country into autonomous states until 2008.

As legislators formed a 27-member committee to begin talking about amending Iraq's constitution, official observances of Ramadan were punctuated with violence around the country...

flashback: military-industrial complex kingpins...

outside the box #70

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on september 21, 2006.

from alex ansary: Headline news including the statments made by Chavez about Bush being the devil along with Bush's statements about explosives in the buildings. There is also a SNL style skit in the middle of the program about what life could be like in the year 2012.

US deaths in war now exceed 9/11 losses

from msnbc: Now the death toll is 9/11 times two.

U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next.

The latest milestone for a country at war came Friday without commemoration. It came without the precision of knowing who was the 2,974th to die in conflict. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

movies, popcorn and CIA recruiting

from raw story: MSNBC is reporting that the CIA hopes to find recruits by advertising in movie theaters. Movie-goers across the country will see CIA advertisements played along with other previews prior to movie features.

The CIA has recently placed similar recruiting campaign advertisements on the Discovery Channel.

feds seek to block oregon spying case

from ap/yahoo: U.S. Justice Department lawyers filed an appeal Friday aimed at blocking a lawsuit by a former Islamic charity that has challenged a Bush administration secret surveillance program.

U.S. District Judge Garr M. King ruled earlier this month that a lawsuit by the defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation chapter in Ashland could go forward without damaging national security.

But government lawyers argue that state secrets would be revealed if the lawsuit is allowed to proceed.

The case hinges on a classified document that U.S. Treasury officials inadvertently turned over to Al-Haramain lawyers after the charity was declared a global terrorist organization.

The charity's attorneys say the document shows that two U.S. lawyers for Al-Haramain and at least one of its officials were under electronic surveillance in 2004.

Justice Department lawyers have argued the document falls under the "state secrets privilege," allowing a judge to dismiss a lawsuit if it could damage national security by revealing state secrets.

The appeal filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said "the district court is wrongly attempting to create some form of secret adversarial proceedings, and, in doing so, is raising a serious danger of disclosure of important national security information."

Steve Goldberg, a Portland attorney representing the charity, said the appeal could delay the case by a couple of years.

He also said Judge King has been careful in handling security concerns.

"The government keeps insisting that national security will be greatly threatened if we proceed," Goldberg said.

But the judge is "being very sensitive in how the case proceeds to protect the document, so again I think the government's concerns are not justified, given the way the case is being handled," Goldberg said.

Calls to the U.S. attorney's office were not returned.

The National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program has been challenged in other federal courts since The New York Times revealed it last year.

compact with evil

from chris floyd: After George Bush's Rose Garden hissy fit, in which he declared that he would simply stop interrogating suspected terrorists unless he could torture them, John "I Only Flip-Flop On Matters of Deep Principle" McCain and the other so-called "Senate rebels" have capitulated to the unpopular president's petulant demands.

In the universe of moral perversion in which we now live, White House National Security (sic) Adviser Stephen Hadley called the pro-torture, anti-due process agreement between these deeply cynical power-gamesters "a good day for the American people." ...

What we have seen today is no "grand compromise," no "great debate," no "act of principle" and certainly no "preservation" of the Geneva Conventions. What we have seen instead is a small group of rich, cynical, power-hungry old bastards belch forth lies in the service of torture and tyranny. And if you're not angry about that, if you're not "shrill" about that, then by God you are one piss-poor American citizen. You shame every man and woman who have fought and died and marched and worked and dreamed for our freedoms.

emmanuel goldstein: dead or alive?

does emmanuel goldstein exist? ...

bin laden death not confirmed

from news 24: US intelligence agencies "can't confirm" a French newspaper report that al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden died in August in his hideout in Pakistan, a US official said on Saturday.

"I can't confirm that account," said the government official, who spoke to AFP on the condition that neither his name nor his affiliation would be revealed.

The French newspaper l'Est Republicain reported earlier on Saturday that Saudi intelligence had concluded that bin Laden might have succumbed to typhoid fever - at some point between August 23 and September 4 - while hiding in Pakistan.

French President Jacques Chirac said earlier that the newspaper report was "in no way confirmed."

He added that he was "surprised" that the French newspaper l'Est Republicain had published an excerpt from a French secret service note relaying information from Saudi Arabia's intelligence service.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Pakistan has received no information from any foreign government that would corroborate the report.

"No government has shared any such information with us so far, which is the normal thing to do under such circumstances," the official, who has close knowledge of intelligence matters, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

A senior official in Pakistan's interior ministry also said: "We have no information about Osama's death."

propaganda architect rove promises october surprise

from propaganda matrix: Bush administration PR guru and master political strategist Karl Rove has "promised" an October surprise that will help the Republicans to win both congressional houses in November. Will this curveball be another helpful Bush campaign endorsement on behalf of Osama Bin Laden or something far worse?

Newsmax columnist Ronald Kessler cites Republican insiders as the source of the leak that Rove intends on pulling a rabbit out of the hat to guarantee another Republican sweep this November.

"Rove is not saying what the October surprise will be", writes Kesser, "asked if he would elaborate and give his thinking about the coming elections, Rove told NewsMax that his take largely parallels what RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman said in a Sept. 5 NewsMax story."

Days before the 2004 presidential election, an Osama Bin Laden videotape gave Bush the six point surge he needed to overtake John Kerry and snatch the White House.

According to a book written by Bill Sammon, Senior White House Correspondent for the Washington Examiner, Bush attributed his 2004 victory over John Kerry in part to a Osama bin Laden videotape released on the eve of the election.

"I thought it was going to help,” Bush decided. “I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush."

Bush's rival John Kerry blamed the Bin Laden tape for his defeat.

Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite went public to call the tape a set up orchestrated by Karl Rove.

Will Rove's promised pre-election surprise be another Bin Laden "don't vote for the Republicans" scam or should we prepare for the "inevitable" terror attack that will provide the false flag provocation to kick-start air strikes on Iran?

In August radio host and documentary film maker Alex Jones, who previously warned that Bin Laden would be used as a patsy to attack the World Trade Center, predicted the likelihood of "bone-shattering terror attacks" unless a gargantuan activist effort was launched to put out the alarm that the government is planning a manufactured war provocation.

Is Rove's October surprise the political assassination, dirty bomb, biological release or terror attack forecast in a 2005 Republican memo, touted to "reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush," and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."

Will the Neo-Fascists again overplay their hand in a desperate lunge to rescue their power monopoly or is Rove's plan infinitely more sophisticated?

major pandemic drills in oregon & west virginia

thanks again to false flag news...

local students to participate in mock disaster
from the intelligencer: Instead of creating the usual widespread devastation, organizers of this year’s mock disaster plan to confine their catastrophe to a local high school...

the event will be one that replicates the inoculation of more than 1,000 people as if there were an outbreak of pandemic influenza. The mock inoculation event will take place at John Marshall High School on Wednesday, Sept. 27... the students at the school will be the patients in the scenario, although they will not be given any actual shots...

The exercise will also feature mock patients arriving at both Reynolds Memorial Hospital and Wetzel Community Hospital in the days prior to the event to test the notification system for public health officials. Additionally, there will be a hazardous materials event on Friday, Sept. 29, to train members of the local HAZMAT team.

curry county preparing for possible avian flu outbreak
from curry pilot: Curry County is planning for what to do if a global disease outbreak reaches the United States or for any other emergency, Public Health Administrator Georganne Greene said at an avian flu seminar this week...

"The next major pandemic is likely to be as bad or worse than the one we had in 1918," she said. That flu spread throughout the world, killing millions...

"Medical supplies will be inadequate, large numbers of deaths will occur," she said. "Count on it."...

Greene said health officials are exercising their plans for a possible pandemic flu and will have a statewide pandemic exercise in October...

"We will have 48 hours to vaccinate everyone in the county," she said. "We are good at doing flu shots. We're real good at flu shots...

"And we are getting more and more funding to respond to an emergency,"... "We know we're going to have a pandemic, but we don't know when."

US threatened to bomb us back to stone age

from cnn: President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan says the United States threatened to bomb his country back to the Stone Age after the 9/11 attacks if he did not help America's war on terror.

Musharraf says the threat was delivered by Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, to Musharraf's intelligence director, the Pakistani leader told CBS-TV's "60 Minutes."

"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,' " Musharraf said in the interview to be shown Sunday on the CBS television network.

Armitage denies threatening to send Pakistan "back to the Stone Age"
from mercury news: President Bush said Friday that he knew of no threat by the United States to attack Pakistan if it didn't ended its support for the Taliban and cooperate in the war on al Qaida following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The first I've heard of this is when I read it in the newspaper today," Bush told a news conference he held with Musharraf following talks between the two leaders at the White House.

Musharraf declined to comment, citing a confidentiality requirement of a deal on his soon-to-be published memoirs...

Armitage denied ever making such a threat in a telephone interview on Thursday with McClatchy Newspapers. "I didn't command any airplanes," he said.

Armitage said he used "strong language" to convey to Ahmed demands for Pakistan's cooperation against al Qaida and the Taliban.

He recalled telling Ahmed that "history begins today" and "you're either with us or against us."

torturous hypocrisy

Bush bashes Syria, but had innocent man tortured there
from americablog: [Bush's] audacity is amazing. He railed against Syria at the U.N. the same day after we learn that the U.S. conspired with Canada to send an innocent man to Syria to be tortured... This is another reason why Bush has no credibility. Bush liked Syria when they were a tool for our torturers. But now Syria is evil because, among other reasons, they torture their prisoners. Oh that's right. We do too.

police errors led to man's torture
from alertnet/reuters: Canadian police wrongly identified an Ottawa software engineer as an Islamic extremist, prompting U.S. agents to deport him to Syria, where he was tortured, an official inquiry concluded on Monday.

Maher Arar, who holds Canadian and Syrian nationality, was arrested in New York in September 2002 and accused of being an al-Qaeda member... he was repeatedly tortured in the year he spent in Damascus jails, and the inquiry agreed that he had been tortured. He was freed in 2003.

terror suspect tortured - and was likely innocent
from editor and publisher: In fact, said the judge who led the probe, all the signs point to the fact Arar was innocent.

pentagon: able danger couldn't stop 9/11

from ap/yahoo: A Pentagon report rejects the idea that intelligence gathered by a secret military unit could have been used to stop the Sept. 11 hijackings.

The Pentagon inspector general's office said Thursday that a review of records from the unit, known as Able Danger, found no evidence it had identified ringleader Mohamed Atta or any other terrorist who participated in the 2001 attacks.

The report was ordered following the assertion last year that the unit had identified four of the 19 hijackers in 2000. That claim was made by a former intelligence officer who worked on Able Danger, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and by Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.

Weldon, R-Pa., has said the unit used data-mining to link Atta and three other hijackers to al-Qaida more than a year before the attacks.

The 71-page report, blacked out in parts, also rejected Weldon's claim that the unit wanted information given to the FBI but that Pentagon lawyers would not allow it.

The report acknowledged that one Able Danger member alleged he was prohibited from providing a chart to the FBI in 2000 by a senior Special Operations commander. But, the report said, "the senior official did not recall the incident and we are persuaded that the chart would have been of minimal value to the FBI."

The Pentagon had said some employees recall seeing an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist before the attacks. The report said those accounts "varied significantly" and witnesses were inconsistent at times in their statements.

Last year, the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks dispensed with the issue by calling it "not historically significant."

ISI pulling strings of al-Qaeda

from 9/11 blogger: A defendant in a major British terror trial has revealed in his testimony that the Pakistani ISI "played a role in training Islamic militants". The ISI then threatened his family. This is what happens when a real trial occurs. This is why Bush wants secret trials for this "enemy combatants". If doesn't have them, the truth might actually come out.

from la times: A major terrorism trial here was interrupted Tuesday when a defendant accused Pakistan's intelligence service of threatening his relatives in the South Asian nation after he testified that the spy agency played a role in training Islamic militants...

"The ISI has had words with my family in Pakistan regarding what I have been saying" about the agency, Khyam, 24, said on the stand Monday. "I think they are worried I might end up revealing more about them, and right now the priority has to be the safety of my family there."

"I am not going to discuss anything related to the ISI anymore or my evidence," he said.

Despite longtime allegations that Pakistani agents have trained Islamic militants and protected fugitive Al Qaeda leaders, Khyam's testimony provided a rare account in a Western courtroom about the ISI's role in militant training camps. His accusation also raised concerns that Pakistani intelligence officials might be seeking to disrupt a significant prosecution of alleged Islamic extremism in Europe.

papers show bush allies' inside access

from apnews/myway: Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed.

The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need not be disclosed because the information was privileged and might reveal how Bush and his staff get private advice, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

UN-terrified, part 1

Iran's Ahmadinejad: 'Can't we just be friends?'
from us news: In what might be construed as a charm offensive–at least an effort to lay out a less confrontational tone before Americans–Ahmadinejad asked, "Can't we just be friends?" He added, "We are in favor of dialogue … but under fair conditions."

At U.N., Chavez Calls Bush 'The Devil'
from breit bart: "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush's address Tuesday. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world."

The leftist leader, who has joined Iran in opposing U.S. influence, accused Washington of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world."

"We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head," he said.

Bush, Iran Leader Spar Over Nuke Standoff
from ap/my way news: President Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparred over Tehran's disputed nuclear program but managed to avoid a personal encounter as the 61st General Assembly got under way in the shadow of a military coup in Thailand.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stayed on message during an emotional farewell address Tuesday, appealing to the world to unite against human rights abuses, religious divisions, brutal conflicts and an unjust world economy.

killing the fourth: bush blames your cellphone

from kurt nimmo: If we are to believe the scripted jabber of the unitary decider, killing the Fourth Amendment is modernization at work.

“In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Bush urged Congress to ‘modernize’ the nation’s electronic surveillance laws,” reports CNS News. “Bush says the NSA wiretapping/surveillance program allows the U.S. to ‘quickly monitor terrorist communications between someone overseas and someone in America,’ and he says it has helped prevent attacks on U.S. soil.”

In other words, members of “al-Qaeda” are so imbecilic they routinely declaim their evil plans over the telephone, through email, and probably by way of carrier pigeon, if we are to believe Bush, that is to say his neocon coterie of Straussian fascists.

second secret study surfaces at FCC

from huffington post: Another Federal Communications Commission study on the negative impacts of media consolidation came to light Monday after being buried at the agency for at least two years - the second suppressed FCC ownership study to surface in as many weeks.

It's clear that FCC's top brass are willing to deep-six any research that contradicts the media industry's pro-consolidation claims...

A copy of the study is available here.

Although the study would have been the fifth of its kind since the 1996 Act - which lifted national radio ownership caps - it was never released, and no subsequent studies on the topic have been conducted. It only became public after a copy was leaked to the office of Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Last week, Jonathan Rintels reported here that Boxer also uncovered a buried federal study that showed media consolidation is harmful to local news reporting...

Upon seeing the results, senior managers at the FCC ordered that "every last piece" of that study be destroyed, according to the Associated Press.

Thai military launches coup against PM

from ap/yahoo: The Thai military launched a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday night, circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king.

An announcement on Thai television declared that a "Council of Administrative Reform" with King Bhumibol Adulyadej as head of state had seized power in Bangkok and nearby provinces without any resistance.

At least 14 tanks surrounded Government House, Thaksin's office. Thaksin was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly and declared a state of emergency via a government-owned TV station.

A convoy of four tanks rigged with loudspeakers and sirens rolled through a busy commercial district warning people to get off the street for their own safety.

A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin had used the military to take over power from the prime minister.

Thaksin has faced calls to step down amid allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

military orders suggest Iran attack

from newsmax: Two recent orders by the American military have led some observers to conclude that the U.S. is preparing for an attack on Iran.

One order was a "Prepare to Deploy" command sent to a submarine, an Aegis-class cruiser, two minesweepers and two mine hunters, telling the ships’ commanders to be ready to move by Oct. 1.

The other was a request from the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) for a fresh look at long-standing U.S. plans to blockade two Iranian oil ports on the Persian Gulf.

The orders created a buzz within the military because there are few places in the world where minesweepers could be significant – chief among them, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, where about 40 percent of the world’s oil passes each day.

"Coupled with the CNO’s request for a blockade review, a deployment of minesweepers to the west coast of Iran would seem to suggest that a much discussed – but until now largely theoretical – prospect has become real: that the U.S. may be preparing for war with Iran," according to a special report in Time magazine.

spy agencies outsourcing to fill key jobs

from la times: At the National Counterterrorism Center - the agency created two years ago to prevent another attack like Sept. 11 — more than half of the employees are not U.S. government analysts or terrorism experts. Instead, they are outside contractors...

Some of the work being outsourced is extremely sensitive. Abraxas Corp., a private company in McLean, Va., founded by a group of CIA veterans, devises "covers," or false identities, for an elite group of overseas case officers, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the arrangement.

Contractors also are turning up in increasing numbers in clandestine facilities around the world. At the CIA station in Islamabad, Pakistan, as many as three-quarters of those on hand since the Sept. 11 attacks have been contractors...

ten 'journalists' on US government payroll

from online journal: During the Mercosur summit in Argentina, WJAN-TV South Florida reporter, Manuel Cao, asked Cuban President Fidel Castro why his government didn't allow a prominent doctor and dissident to leave the country. Quick as lightning, Castro shot back, "Who pays you?"

Now we find that Cao's paymaster was the US government: he received $10,400 in payments so far this year. Cao is one among 10 South Florida journalists to have been found accepting money in exchange for touting propaganda intended to undermine the Cuban government via Radio and TV Marti (both bankrolled by the US government to the tune of $37 million to broadcast anti-Cuban propaganda from the States onto Cuban soil).

The news mercenaries' covert employer was exposed by documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Three were fired from El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister paper of the Miami Herald: columnist Pablo Alfonso, staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio and freelancer Olga Connor.

big brother is shouting at you

from daily mail: Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.

The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning:
'We are watching you'.

olbermann: bush 'covering his own backside'

from raw story: Keith Olbermann's Friday broadcast on MSNBC featured a long look at the President's contentious Rose Garden press conference on Friday, dubbing it the "Roast Garden," and then pondered whether Bush's urgency to redefine the Geneva Convention had more to do with "covering his own backside" than anything else.

At a Friday press conference, an animated President Bush tells reporters that the U.S. program to interrogate terrorist suspects will not continue unless Congress creates new legal definitions for Common Article 3 or the Geneva Conventions -- a move that has alarmed some GOP senators and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Bush also devoted his Saturday radio address to the issue.

major problems at polls feared

...now, of course, what the washington post fails to mention in the following article is the corporate interest behind these machines: diebold, e.s.s. & sequoia...

from washington post: An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.

In the Nov. 7 election, more than 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting machines, and a third of all precincts this year are using the technology for the first time. The changes are part of a national wave, prompted by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 and numerous revisions of state laws, that led to the replacement of outdated voting machines with computer-based electronic machines, along with centralized databases of registered voters and other steps to refine the administration of elections.

we are giving away our elections to fraudulent & hackable machines. for more info, check out the recent princeton research & the fabulous bev harris of black box voting...

Syria says US behind attack on own embassy

from all headline news: Senior Syrian government officials have accused the US of being behind Tuesday's assault on its own embassy in downtown Damascus.

A Baath party official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told WorldNetDaily, "We in the government are 100 percent sure America was behind this attack, which is not the same as other attacks by Islamic groups."

He explained, "Only the Americans can succeed in carrying out an attack just 200 meters from President [Bashar] Assad's residence in the most heavily guarded section of Syria."

The official charged that Washington had orchestrated the attack to "prove Syria is filled with terrorists and to put us in a weak position" in order to extract political concessions. Following the attack, Bush administration officials said they hoped the incident had convinced Damascus of the dangers of Islamic terror and the need to cooperate with the West against the phenomenon.

The US and several of its European allies have repeatedly demanded over the years that Damascus close down the local offices and training camps of several organizations hostile to Israel and the West.

The identities of those who attacked the US embassy Tuesday have not been revealed. Three of the gunmen were killed by Syrian guards during the assault. A fourth was reportedly captured.

update: 'fourth US embassy attacker' dies

outside the box #69

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on september 14, 2006.

on this week's episode, alex discusses the militarization of the police with paul richmond and shows clips from the film 'urban warrior'.

boston drills on 9/17 to simulate 'dirty bomb'

thanks once again to false flag news...

from boston globe: Less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, one of the largest antiterror drills ever in New England will test how public safety officials deal with some of their worst fears -- all at the same time.

The nightmare scenario starts with an explosion in a basement lab in Everett, jumps to a threat to the liquefied natural gas facility in Everett, and mushrooms to multiple explosions, one involving a radioactive "dirty bomb," inside the CambridgeSide Galleria mall, according to a memo obtained by the Globe yesterday.

Finally, as patrons flee the mall, at least one improvised explosive device is found at the nearby Lechmere MBTA station, according to the memo outlining Operation Poseidon, scheduled for the morning of Sunday, Sept. 17.

The drill, which will soon be announced to minimize public alarm, ends with a fictional 25 dead and 150 wounded.

US report on Iran 'dishonest'

from npr: A recent House of Representatives committee report on Iran's nuclear capability is "outrageous and dishonest" in trying to make a case that Tehran's program is geared toward making weapons, a senior official of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has said.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday outside a 35-nation board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says the report is false in saying Iran is making weapons-grade uranium at an experimental enrichment site, when it has in fact produced material only in small quantities that is far below the level that can be used in nuclear arms.

muslims deplore pope speech, want apology

from reuters canada: Muslims deplored on Friday remarks on Islam by Pope Benedict and many of them said the Catholic leader should apologize in person to dispel the impression that he had joined a campaign against their religion.

In a speech in Germany on Tuesday, the Pope appeared to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that the early Muslims spread their religion by violence.

"The Pope of the Vatican joins in the Zionist-American alliance against Islam," said the leading Moroccan daily Attajdid, the main Islamist newspaper in the kingdom.

"We demand that he apologizes personally, and not through (Vatican) sources, to all Muslims for such a wrong interpretation," said Beirut-based Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the world's top Shi'ite Muslim clerics.

The Pope on Tuesday repeated criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The Pope, who used the terms "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, added "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."

vote 'none of the above'

here's a great letter to the editor in the statesmen-journal. it's from a few weeks ago & it reminds me of what jello biafra used to talk about...

"It is time for a new candidate for all of the elections held. The new candidate should be "none of the above." If none of the above wins the majority of the votes, the incumbent shall stay in office until a new election is held. The previous candidates will not be allowed to run for the position they failed to win the majority of votes in.

The elected officials we have in office now have lost touch with reality and our previous mistakes. Vietnam, we were saving the country from communism. Didn't work, did it? Our forced guest-worker program (slavery) didn't work, and we still have not solved the problems it created over 100 years later.

We need people to run for office that want to solve our problems at home, not the world's problems. If Iran and North Korea want to build a nuclear bomb, they will. Just send them a note based on the old Cold War mutually-assured destruction principle; it worked.

It's time to get our noses out of other countries' business and adhere to the principle that if those people want to change their government, it is their right to do it; not ours."

-- Leonard W. Zinda, Salem