september clearinghouse

ron paul - the internet sensation

video: kevin barrett questions amy goodman on building 7

international narcotics agenda behind myanmar instability

cheney to address top secret conservative policy group

gun bill rewrites law to disarm more americans

defense stocks hit new highs

pentagon seeks $190bn war funds

security company death squads timeline

mukasey poised to keep a lid on al-CIAda & wtc coverups

bush nominates 9/11 zionist judge as attorney general

US army awards $921m to general dynamics/lockheed martin for global information grid/future combat systems control grid

gov't moles in 'terror' plot provided the bomb & the training

US sniper 'bait & kill' tactics may be a war crime

do 9/11 conspiracy theories upset you?

video: garofalo on the bushes, bin laden's & the carlyle group

7 cia vets challenge 9/11 commission report

china's surprisingly strong strategic nuclear strike capability

bush, the little voice in hillary’s head

'impeach bush' says crowd at portland town hall

poppy bush's pool boy says, "if every american had to pool-boy for these people for a day, you'd have a revolution on your hands"

mexicans pour into canada from US

'heckuva job brownie' says feds will overreact to next catastophe

serbian army & ohio nat'l guard hold joint military exercise

settlements do not deter 9/11 plaintiffs seeking trials

video: amy goodman (barely) supports a new 9/11 investigation

doctor details 9/11 workers' illnesses

who is msnbc anchor joe scarborough?

video: hillary, walter cronkite & world government

US troops who criticised iraq war strategy killed in baghdad

video: buried 60 minutes interview with paul o'neil

fight looms over mexican trucks

video: teen's dashcam catches cop threatening false charges against him

ron paul poses serious threat to hillary clinton in a general election match up

fred thompson dirt

video: dazed bush forgets what country he's in & what summit he's at

zogby poll: 51% want congressional probe into 9/11 actions by bush & cheney

giuliani documentary being released

a time to serve: the case for national service
(it's not torture, it's pressure. it's not amnesty, it's a guest worker program.
it's not a draft, it's national service.)

portland police seek volunteers for topoff

topoff 4 is the largest terror drill in US history
& it's centered on oregon
from indymedia: TOPOFF 4 (T4) is a federal exercise scheduled for October 15-19 involving local, state, and federal top officials to test decision making and communications, address policy, and conduct an emergency mobilization. This is the fourth exercise held by the Department of Homeland Security.

The City of Portland is recruiting volunteers for two activities during T4. Approximately 600 volunteers are needed to participate in a large scale disaster scenario at Portland International Raceway (PIR) on Tuesday, October 16 to play different roles as disaster victims. The FBI will be conducting background checks on volunteers who are positioned at the large scale event.

There are opportunities to volunteer at other sites that do not require a background check. Individuals interested in participating can find out more specifics by contacting June Vining at 503-823-3937 or jvining@fire.ci.portland.or.us or you may reach her by cell phone at 971-563-9641.

On October 17, East Precinct is hosting a TOPOFF 4 shelter-in-place exercise from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. There is a need for about five to seven volunteers who are interested in participating. Volunteers will be asked to act as victims who must shelter in one place simulating what to do when you must stay at one location during a disaster. Interested parties may contact Marsha Palmer at 503-823-0264 or marsha.palmer@portlandpolice.org.

T4 is the largest exercise in the history of the United States. Oregon is the primary venue site, but T4 is also taking place concurrently in Guam and Arizona in an interrelated exercise. Approximately 175 separate agencies will participate in the Oregon exercise and approximately 5000 players will participate in the Oregon exercise. Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom will participate in the Oregon Exercise and approximately 35 countries will send delegations to Portland to observe the exercise.

thomas friedman: 9/11 is over

from new york times: Not long ago, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a fake news story that began like this:

“At a well-attended rally in front of his new ground zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/11. ‘My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise,’ said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. ‘As president of 9/11, I will usher in a bold new 9/11 for all.’ If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world’s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.”

Like all good satire, the story made me both laugh and cry, because it reflected something so true - how much, since 9/11, we’ve become “The United States of Fighting Terrorism.” Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but there’s no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9/11. We don’t need another president of 9/11. We need a president for 9/12. I will only vote for the 9/12 candidate.

What does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9/11 - mine included - has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again.

ron paul surpasses $1m in donations in less than a week

from digg: Was $1 million too conservative a figure? Make my day, impress the media, and set all our opponents back on their heels, by shooting past $1 million before Midnight on Sunday, September 30! How high can we go? $1.5 million? Donate here. And from the bottom of my heart: Thank you!

Sincerely, Ron

canadian loonie beats US dollar, first time in 30 years

from canadian press: The loonie rose sharply and held onto its gains on Friday, ending the trading day above the U.S. dollar for the first time in nearly 31 years.

The Canadian dollar finished up two-thirds of a cent at 100.52 cents US continuing its spectacular tear and marking the highest close since Nov. 25, 1976.

The jump has been partly motivated by the U.S. greenback, which has weakened in the face of a credit crisis sparked by the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

kucinich may force cheney impeachment vote

from raw story: Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he is so concerned about what he sees as the Bush administration's push for a war with Iran that he is considering using a parliamentary measure to force the House of Representatives to vote on impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney.

"We're preparing for another war, and they're going to destroy America," the Ohio Democrat said Thursday on the Ed Schultz show. "We have a government in place right now that has to be challenged. I'm seriously thinking about calling a privileged resolution on impeachment of the vice president and forcing a vote on the floor of the House."

A privileged resolution would force the full House to debate about whether to proceed with impeachment, but it remains unclear precisely how, when or whether Kucinich would be able to introduce such a resolution. Privileged measures "may be called up on the floor whenever another measure is not already pending" and the House agrees to consider it, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Privileged measures can include questions of House privileges or resolutions of inquiry, according to the CRS report.

A conservative site set up to push for former President Bill Clinton's impeachment lays out a strategy to bring such a measure to the House floor.

"According to Jerome Zeifman, however, it is possible that such a resolution could be called up for an immediate vote," the Conservative Caucus site observes. "But that option appears to be within the control of the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who took control after last year's Democratic takeover of Congress, maintained that impeachment is "off the table" as recently as this week in an interview with CNN.

Kucinich introduced a resolution calling for Cheney's impeachment this spring. Since then the bill has gained more than a dozen co-sponsors, but it seems to be dying a slow death in the House Judiciary Committee. It's chairman, John Conyers, has stood with Pelosi in refusing to debate the impeachment resolution or bring it to the House floor for a vote.

A Kucinich spokeswoman declined to comment when contacted by Raw Story. An official in the House Parliamentarian's office did not return a call seeking comment.

The following audio clip is from The Ed Schultz Show, broadcast on September 27.

the latest absurd marketing scheme from merck

cervical cancer vaccine for boys?
you can't make this stuff up...
from dr. mercola: School-age boys are now being advised to get vaccinated with Gardasil, Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, according to mainstream media reports. Previously, the vaccine was only recommended for girls.

The new male recommendation is based on the notion that boys could get throat cancer if they have oral sex with an HPV-infected girl.

According to some, however, recommending Gardasil to boys is little more than a scare campaign aimed at gaining market share from teenage boys.

Even the advice to give mandatory Gardasil vaccinations to young girls is simply disease mongering designed to sell vaccines. This is because girls who have HPV do not automatically get cervical cancer.

Girls who have healthy immune systems, and who lead healthy lifestyles, have little risk of developing cervical cancer from HPV. It is only girls who have compromised immune systems that may be vulnerable.

flashbacks: merck mercenaries & texas gov orders hpv vaccine

update: hundreds get sick from gardasil cancer vaccine

iran says cia & US army are 'terrorist organizations'

lawmakers in tehran take a diplomatic offensive against washington
from msnbc/ap: Iran’s parliament on Saturday approved a nonbinding resolution to label the CIA and the U.S. Army “terrorist organizations.” The move is seen as a diplomatic tit-for-tat after the U.S. Senate voted in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

“The aggressor U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency are terrorists and also nurture terror,” said a statement by the 215 lawmakers who signed the resolution at an open session of the Iranian parliament. The session was broadcast live on state-run radio.

The hard-line dominated parliament said the two were terrorists, because they were involved in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II, used depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, supported the killings of Palestinians by Israel, bombed and killed Iraqi civilians and tortured terror suspects in prisons.

media monarchy episode043

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode043 - september 28, 2007 download/stream/subscribe

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pacific/1pm eastern and can also be heard on the revere radio network every monday at 2pm pacific/5pm eastern...

plus, you can always get podcasts of previous episodes thanks to radio4all.net

congress & senate kill persians & ammendments

hate bill passes - senate stabs first amendment
from ted pike: By a vote of 60 to 39 this morning, Sens. Kennedy and Smith's hate crimes amendment was attached to the defense authorization act. After three days of virtual silence, several Republican senators spoke against the bill within the two hours of debate. Sen. Lindsey Graham briefly argued that, if passed, the President will veto the hate bill and arms bill together, jeopardizing timely support of our troops...

Remarkably, Sen. Byrd of West Virginia, habitual supporter of the hate bill, voted against it. If only one more pro-hate bill Senator, Democrat or Republican, had been persuaded, either by massive calling during the last week or by impassioned attack of the hate bill on the floor of the Senate, the hate bill would have been destroyed in this Congress.

lieberman-kyl’s iran amendment passes
from thinkprogess: By a vote of 76-22, the Senate passed the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, which threatens to “combat, contain and [stop]” Iran via “military instruments.” Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the amendment “Cheney’s fondest pipe dream” and said it could “read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action.”

UPDATE Before the vote today, changes were made to the original amendment, with paragraphs three and four taken out completely. This paragraph was also added at the end:

“Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated on September 16, 2007 that “I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by the preferable approach. That the one we are using. We always say all options are on the table, but clearly, the diplomatic and economic approach is the one that we are pursuing.”

Read the full marked up amendment here.

UPDATE II: The roll call for the vote is here.

woman's 9/11 survival story questioned

from ap: A nonprofit organization for 9/11 survivors removed its president after questions were raised about her harrowing account of how she survived but lost a loved one in the World Trade Center attack.

Tania Head has said that she was badly burned on the 78th floor of the south tower, that she was saved by a man who died trying to save others, and that a dying man handed her his inscribed wedding ring, which she later returned to his widow.

She also said her husband, or fiance, died in the north tower.

The New York Times reported Thursday that none of her claims had been verified. She has described her 9/11 experiences at speaking engagements and led Tribute WTC Visitor Center tours, and her account has appeared, among other places, on the Web site of the World Trade Center Survivors Network.

alabama city reopening fallout shelters

from ap: In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the nation's most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.

Others would hunker down in college dorms, churches, libraries and research halls that planners hope will bring the community's shelter capacity to 300,000, or space for every man, woman and child in Huntsville and the surrounding county.

Emergency planners in Huntsville - an out-of-the-way city best known as the home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center - say the idea makes sense because radioactive fallout could be scattered for hundreds of miles if terrorists detonated a nuclear bomb.

"If Huntsville is in the blast zone, there's not much we can do. But if it's just fallout... shelters would absorb 90 percent of the radiation," said longtime emergency management planner Kirk Paradise, whose Cold War expertise with fallout shelters led local leaders to renew Huntsville's program.

ron paul & the pbs debate

from paul4prez: The other top tier Republican candidates decided not to address the concerns of African American and Latino voters for a prime time national audience, but Ron Paul never passes up an opportunity to talk about freedom to any audience. Host Tavis Smiley and a distinguished panel of minority journalists asked a wide array of questions, focused more on domestic issues than any of the previous debates were.

All candidates were given equal time to answer the questions, and equal opportunities to go first, a format that CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and ABC would do well to learn from. Empty podiums on the stage represented Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and John McCain, who apparently needed the time to attend fundraisers, while Ron Paul's supporters continued to fuel up his surging campaign with online contributions.

chicago video surveillance gets smarter

from ap: A car circles a high-rise three times. Someone leaves a backpack in a park. Such things go unnoticed in big cities every day. But that could change in Chicago with a new video surveillance system that would recognize such anomalies and alert authorities to take a closer look.

On Thursday, the city and IBM Corp. are announcing the initial phase of what officials say could be the most advanced video security network in any U.S. city. The City of Broad Shoulders is getting eyes in the back of its head.

"Chicago is really light years ahead of any metropolitan area in the U.S. now," said Sam Docknevich, who heads video-surveillance consulting for IBM.

nbc: US may have let bin laden slip away again

from raw story: A US spy plane picked up some "tantalizing" clues last month indicating where terror leader Osama bin Laden or his deputy might be hiding, but intelligence officials were unable to move quickly enough to capture or kill the al Qaeda mastermind, NBC News reported Thursday.

"The sighting came in the rugged mountain passes of Tora Bora," NBC correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reported on the Today Show.

An unmanned spy plane spotted a large security contingent similar in size to one that would guard bin Laden or his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, although intelligence officials were unable to positively identify either of the top terrorists.

The intelligence gathered launched the largest military operation in Afghanistan in five years, Miklaszewski reported. Some intelligence and military officials "believed there was a high probability" bin Laden or Zawahiri were there, despite the lack of a positive ID.

US forces spent three days and nights pounding the al Qaeda hideout, killing 19 al Qaeda and Taliban officials, but missing bin Laden. Some officials told NBC that the mission was not swift enough to capture or kill America's No. 1 enemy in the war on terror.

"They were just too slow, too cumbersome, too risk averse," Mike Sheehan, an NBC terrorism analyst said. "And again we've missed him."

The following video is from NBC's Today Show, broadcast on September 27.

msnbc: ron paul has become 'an internet sensation'

from raw story: MSNBC's David Shuster marvelled on Tuesday that anti-war libertarian Rep. Ron Paul "has managed to develop a huge fan base online ... especially among college students" in his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

There are almost 30,000 Ron Paul videos on YouTube, and Paul has more than 64,000 friends on MySpace. Many articles about Paul on Raw Story have received unusually high numbers of hits at story-recommending sites like Digg and Reddit, as well. (For example, Ron Paul: Republicans need Reagan's courage, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson invites Ron Paul to give 'freedom tutorial', and Ron Paul teams up with Dem candidate to end war.)

"I can't explain it," Paul told Shuster. "I'm bewildered but surprised and pleased as anybody else. But all I can say is maybe the message of liberty is very popular with young people."

read your own homeland security travel dossier

from unsecure flight: The Department of Homeland Security already knows everything about your travel. Now, for the first time, The Identity Project makes it easy for you to request the unclassified parts of the dossier that the DHS has complied on you.

Warning: You can only request records on behalf of yourself or others with their written explicit permission. There are severe penalties for making requests for records on someone else without their knowledge.

Are you prepared to find out for yourself the outrageous amount of personal information Homeland Security has been vacuuming-up on you? This is how to do it:

1. Download and fill-in the following two documents:
(right-click links below and select "Download Linked File..." or "Save Linked File As..."

Privacy Act Records Request
(28kb Word doc)

Privacy Act Release Form
(24kb Word doc)

No reason need be given for the request. Costs may be charged for photocopying or printing your dossier, but not for the search itself.

2. Sign and date them both. They do not have to be notarized.

3. Make and keep copies of the signed request and all correspondence.

4. Mail them – either by first class mail or (better yet) by registered mail – to the address found on the upper left-hand corner of each of the documents you downloaded. Sending your request via registered mail helps you to prove that they were sent if you have to appeal because your request was not responded to.

Q. When will I get my dossier?
A. OMB guidelines say that Homeland Security "should" acknowledge your request within 10 business days and provide access to the records within 30 days.

Q. What will my dossier contain?
A. The unclassified records you can expect to get will include PNRs, APIS Data; and Secondary Search Records.

Q. What if Homeland Security doesn't send me my dossier?
A. The courts have authority to enjoin an agency from withholding the documents and to order them produced.

Q. Where can I read more?
A. Don't Spy On Us has an excellent example of what a travel record can contain. The compendium of what this information means is here
(4.6mb PDF). The very best resource on obtaining government records of all kinds is EPIC's book "Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws 2004".

Please let us know that you have made a request and let us know your results.

The American society under surveillance by its own government is less inclined to exercise its First Amendment rights and dissent. This truly makes our "Homeland" less secure. Please support our efforts at The Identity Project and our parent organization The First Amendment Project.

the drug nexus

how the 'war on drugs' brought communism to US
from freedom in our time: Alan and Stephne Roos of Bothell, Washington are victims of Communism. The couple - a butcher and dental assistant, respectively - lost their automobiles to the officially sanctioned form of theft called 'asset forfeiture' because their 24-year-old son Thomas has used them to conduct drug transactions.

Neither Alan nor Stephne has been charged with a crime of any kind. Under the Communist premises of the "War on Drugs," it isn't necessary to be convicted of a crime in order to lose one's property, since the State is empowered to seize anything its agents wish to steal, at any time they wish to do so, as long as some "drug nexus" can be established to justify the theft.

missouri police chief promises not to oppose marijuana decriminalization initiative
from drug war chronicle: A pending marijuana decriminalization effort in Joplin, MO revealed the city's police chief to be a pretty decent guy. This is a textbook example of how a professional public servant regards the democratic process:

"Somebody is going to say, 'you're the chief ... you ought to oppose this thing,'" he said. "Somebody else will say 'you are the chief of police and supposed to be protecting our constitutional rights.' My argument is, 'yep ... you are right.'" [Joplin Globe]

It's such a simple concept, yet it is so often abandoned by law enforcement agencies when citizens work to reform marijuana policy. There's something very creepy about police lobbying to protect their own obscene drug war powers, and it's refreshing to hear a veteran police chief speak in defense of democracy.

marijuana smoker arrested every 38 seconds in US
from information liberation: Police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. This is the largest total number of annual arrests for pot ever recorded by the FBI. Marijuana arrests now comprise nearly 44 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds in America.

violent crackdown launched in myanmar

from ap: Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on demonstrators Wednesday, and witnesses said police beat & dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks. The government said at least one person was killed, while dissident groups & media reported up to eight dead.

The military junta's announcement on state radio and television was the first acknowledgment of the use of force against protesters and its first admission of bloodshed after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations against the government.

The United States and the European Union condemned the attacks and called on the military rulers to open a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to a joint statement on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The U.N. Security Council planned to hold closed consultations on Myanmar later Wednesday, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dispatched a special envoy to the region.

cheney mulled israeli strike on iran

from reuters: Vice President Dick Cheney had at one point considered asking Israel to launch limited missile strikes at an Iranian nuclear site to provoke a retaliation, Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday.

The news comes amid reports that Israel launched an air strike against Syria this month over a suspected nuclear site.

Citing two unidentified sources, Newsweek said former Cheney Middle East adviser David Wurmser told a small group several months ago that Cheney was considering asking Israel to strike the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz.

A military response by Iran could give Washington an excuse to then launch airstrikes of its own, Newsweek said.

Wurmser's wife, Meyrav Wurmser of the neoconservative Hudson Institute think tank, told Newsweek the claims were untrue.

Wurmser left Cheney's office last month, the magazine reported. The steady departure of neoconservative hawks from the administration has also helped tilt the balance against war, it said.

Washington has been pursuing diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to alter its nuclear program. It has refused to take military options off the table, even U.S. resources are taxed by having 169,000 troops in Iraq.

Although some intelligence sources say Iran is years away from nuclear capability, Israel believes that military action may be necessary as early as 2008, Newsweek said.

Israel has declined to comment on the reported air strike, while Syria has denied receiving North Korean nuclear aid and said it could retaliate for the September 6 violation of its territory.

bush quietly advising hillary

from examiner: President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president.

In an interview for the new book “The Evangelical President,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said Bush has “been urging candidates: ‘Don’t get yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.’ ”

from what really happened: These gestures sound very conciliatory, but mask the real reason that Bush appears to be helping Clinton: it's to insure the continuation of the massive cover ups that run from Iran-Contra to Mena, from Eugene Hasenfus to the "neutralization" of Vince Foster to 9/11.

Just as in 1993 when Bill Clinton - from literally out of nowhere - received the Democratic party's nomination (courtesy of some interesting moves by Bush Sr.), Bush Jr. has to hand off the presidency to someone who won't blow the cover on the terrible abuses of power and outright deceptions which have been been perpetrated against the American people under the presidencies of Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr.

'ron paul girl'

from post chronicle: Well, another day, another girl stripping for her favorite presidential candidate. Ron Paul Girl, however, is a bit different.

While Obama girl, Giuliani Girls and that HotforHil chick made music videos for their fav presidential candidates, Ron Paul Girl made a different video.

fcc fines comcast for airing fake news

from raw story: Cable giant Comcast violated the law by broadcasting video news releases without identifying them as sponsored programming, the Federal Communications Commission announced today. The ruling came in response to a complaint from Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy, a media watchdog group focusing on VNRs.

"In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL), we find that Comcast Corporation (Comcast), which operates an affiliated regional cable network, CN8, is apparently liable for a forfeiture in the amount of four thousand dollars ($4,000) for violating Section 76.1615 of the Commission’s rules," the FCC ruled (word doc link).

The FCC ruling continued, "This rule generally requires cable operators engaged in origination cablecasting to make sponsorship identification announcements when presenting matter in return for money, service, or other valuable consideration. We find that Comcast cablecast portions of a video news release (VNR) produced on behalf of 'Nelson’s Rescue Sleep' without also airing required sponsorship identification announcements."

"We're pleased to see the FCC is finally waking up to the issue of fake news," said Craig Aaron, communications director of Free Press. "But the fine levied against Comcast is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Video news releases dressed up as real news were uncovered at more than 100 stations. We hope the FCC will soon fine those stations and issue clear guidelines to end the epidemic of fake news once and for all."

flashback: korporate koin

ahmadinejad questions 9/11 & the holocaust

from ap: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance at Columbia University, whose president accused the hard-line leader of behaving like "a petty and cruel dictator."

Ahmadinejad smiled at first but appeared increasingly agitated, decrying the "insults" and "unfriendly treatment." Columbia President Lee Bollinger and audience members took him to task over Iran's human-rights record and foreign policy, as well as Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.

"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said, to loud applause...

He reiterated his desire to visit ground zero to express sympathy with the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, but then appeared to question whether al-Qaida was responsible.

"Why did this happen? What caused it? What conditions led to it?" he said. "Who truly was involved? Who was really involved and put it all together?"

hillary wouldn't pull out of iraq during her 1st term

from raw story: The leading Democratic contender for the presidency was asked whether she'd pull out all troops from Iraq in her first term.

She declined.

"You know, I'm not going to get into hypotheticals and make pledges, because I don't know what I'm going to inherit," Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, according to the New York Times:

"I don't know and neither do any of us know what will be the situation in the region. How much more aggressive will Iran have become? What will be happening in the Middle East?

How much more of an influence will the chaos in Iraq have in terms of what's going on in the greater region?...

Will we have pushed Al Qaeda in Iraq out of their stronghold with our new partnership with some of the tribal sheikhs or will they have regrouped and retrenched? I don't know and I think it's not appropriate to be speculating."

Clinton is in a bind over her stance on the war - on the one hand, she has to appease those who support liberal activist groups like MoveOn.org - and on the other, she must court a broader electorate...

The following video is from ABC's This Week, broadcast on September 23.

iraq: video shows blackwater overreacted

official: 'on the tape, there was nobody
shooting at the blackwater guards'
from abc: The shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis and wounding of 12 more, allegedly by private security contractors working for Blackwater USA, has become a case of "he says, she says" in Iraq.

Blackwater claims that the convoy of U.S. embassy officials they were escorting in western Baghdad came under attack, and they returned fire at insurgents.

The Iraqi government says Blackwater opened fire without provocation, shooting randomly at civilians in a state of uncontrolled panic. And now the Iraqis say they have a videotape, shot from a nearby police station, proving their version of the story is true.

"On the tape, there was nobody shooting at the Blackwater guards," said Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy minister of interior for intelligence, who has seen the videotape. "I believe they overreacted."

The Blackwater shootings have become a major source of friction between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

unknowing residents to take part in terror drill

city testing way to quickly distribute antibiotics

from wcvb: About 23,000 Boston residents are weeks away from taking part in a bioterror drill, and many probably don't even know it.

Health officials plan to have mail carriers deliver tiny white cardboard boxes to the doorsteps and mailboxes of thousands of residents in the city's West Roxbury and South End neighborhoods on Sunday, Sept. 23.

"Anytime you are talking about a release of anthrax in the city, you are talking about pretty much a worst case scenario where you need to get medications to people as quickly as possible," said John Jacob of the Boston Public Health Commission.

The empty boxes will be used to simulate how quickly antibiotics could be delivered to residents in the event of a bioterror attack.

"No one knows the streets, knows the deliveries, knows where the houses are and the sequence they are set up in better than letter carriers do," said Bob Cannon of the U.S. Postal Service.

In the event of a real emergency when the antibiotics are highly coveted, the mail carriers will have a police escort.

"There is no emergency whatsoever. This is just a test, and this is a way for us to figure out if this particular delivery option is a good fit for Boston," Jacob said.

If it were a real emergency, each box would hold 20 pills.

black ops: conspiracy & 9/11

from clyde wilson: Our late friend Murray Rothbard used to point out to those who scoffed at "conspiracy theories" that history is indeed full of real conspiracies, and that often conspiracy provides a more satisfactory explanation for an event than the "lone nut theory" that is popular with government spokespersons.

The continuing drumbeat of speculation that 9/11 may have been a U.S. government "black ops" mission, a charge coming from what seems to be a respectable minority of seemingly informed observers, tells us much about the sad condition of the American polity.

I am inclined to think that none of us can possibly have enough information to know the full truth about 9/11. We will not have such information for years, very possibly never. Why, we still don’t know the full truth about the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations. In my always humble opinion, the incompetence demonstrated by our rulers before, during, and after 9/11 would be alone enough to bring down any government, without the need for revelations of complicity – if we had a responsible democratic regime.

outside the box #119 & 120

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on september 20, 2007.

from alex ansary: Once we begin to see the big lies, we begin to see the lies everywhere. What truth exists beyond the so called truth of the shadow government? What are the causes and conditions that exist behind the illusionary symptoms?

These questions drive the theme behind tonight's edition of Outside the Box featuring a wide variety of film clips that fuller illustrate my point. (i.e. Apocalypto, Network, They Live, The Neverending Story, The Wizard of OZ, and Bill Hicks).

Truth is a relative and subjective idea which seems to find each individual, society, or culture in different ways. We are engaged in multiple cycles at the moment and change is one thing that appears to be a reality. This edition of OTB encourages a wider perspective that can see beyond the systems of control.

outside the box #120 (bonus 2012 episode)

here is a bonus episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on september 20, 2007.

from alex ansary: How do you survive 2012? That is the title of Patrick Geryl's book which we discussed during this bonus production of Outside the Box. This is part of a series of interviews I am conducting on the subject of 2012 featuring a wide variety of viewpoints. Patrick focuses more on the astronomy involved with 2012, including his prediction of a pole shift. He believes that shift will end up covering nearly all of North and South America in water where only a small percentage of the population survives. The concept of the great flood in the Old Testament is discussed. For more views on 2012, keep watching Outside The Box.

iran & israel face off over nuclear weapons

from spacewar: Iran called for UN inspectors to be dispatched to verify whether Israel has nuclear weapons, in a heated showdown with the Jewish state at a meeting of the UN atomic agency Friday.

The face-off between the two nations came as Arab states condemned Israel for hiding an atomic arsenal, at a general conference of the 144-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the conference that IAEA inspectors should be sent "to Israel to verify who is telling the truth."

Israel neither confirms nor denies it has nuclear weapons, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had hinted in a German television interview in December 2006 that Israel did in fact have the bomb.

Soltanieh's comments came after Israeli ambassador Israel Michaeli told the conference that Arab speakers' assertions that Olmert had said Israel had nuclear weapons were "lies".

news on the march

colorado checkpoint takes blood & saliva samples
from denver post: The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office was apologizing Monday after a weekend effort to help a research group led to complaints about what appeared to be a DUI checkpoint - but wasn't.

Sheriff's officials who participated in the stops now acknowledge that the nonprofit organization requesting voluntary DUI and drug tests from drivers was overly persistent, according to complaints...

"I think it's very dangerous," said Sequeira, a Boulder radio personality on Latino issues. "Sometimes at checkpoints, unfortunate things happen. I don't think they're authorized to do what they're doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol."

The research is part of a nationwide study partly financed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

dhs sponsors martial law exercise for kids
from rogue government: The Department of Homeland Security is currently sponsoring an event in Huntsville, AL where children have the opportunity to participate in a mock martial law oriented disaster exercise. The event called the Be Ready Camp is being held in two sessions as part of the government’s National Preparedness Month initiative. Run under the guise of disaster preparedness, the Be Ready Camp is a program clearly designed to indoctrinate the youth of our country into the culture of fear and hysteria that the government has surrounded us with since the attacks of 9/11. This program is also designed to desensitize children in order for them to accept and serve the future government control grid that will surround them when they become adults.

the weird russian mind-control research
behind a homeland security contract
from wired: The future of U.S. anti-terrorism technology could lie near the end of a Moscow subway line in a circular dungeon-like room with a single door and no windows. Here, at the Psychotechnology Research Institute, human subjects submit to experiments aimed at manipulating their subconscious minds...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone to many strange places in its search for ways to identify terrorists before they attack, but perhaps none stranger than this lab on the outskirts of Russia's capital. The institute has for years served as the center of an obscure field of human behavior study -- dubbed psychoecology -- that traces it roots back to Soviet-era mind control research.

dan rather: 'democracy cannot survive'

from raw story: Former CBS anchor Dan Rather recently filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, saying they made him a "scapegoat" when he was fired for a September 2004 story on 60 Minutes about President Bush's unsatisfactory service in the Texas Air National Guard...

But he added, "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news."

media monarchy episode042

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode042 - september 21, 2007 download/stream/subscribe

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pacific/1pm eastern and can also be heard on the revere radio network every monday at 2pm pacific/5pm eastern...

plus, you can always get podcasts of previous episodes thanks to radio4all.net

analyst: mystery trades were profit scam for fearmongers

from paul joseph watson: A financial analyst has slammed the so-called "Bin Laden trades" as part of a fearmongering scam that was used to chill confidence in the markets and enable insiders to reap huge profits after stocks plunged earlier this week.

As we reported last month, an anonymous investor placed a bet of 245,000 put options on an index of Europe's top 50 stocks falling by a third to a half before September 21st. In addition, unusual options were placed betting on a big drop in the S&P 500.

This led many to speculate that the trader was exploiting foreknowledge of a new 9/11 or another imminent catastrophe that would send markets tumbling.

However, market analyst Clif Droke of SilverSeek.com has slammed the trades as being part of a "summer of fear," a scare tactic used by insiders to profit from consequential dips in stocks as the credit crunch sunk its teeth in.

"These high-profile 'mystery' trades were just some of the fear tactics used by several independent and mainstream media outlets to conjure up images of another 9/11-type terrorist episode. Indeed, Halloween was early in coming this year for many...

I predict the promoters of this particular fear campaign will simply put their hands in their pockets, walk away and whistle a rousing rendition of “Dixie,” all the while conveniently forgetting they ever made such dire predictions in the first place. Their mission was accomplished: they convinced millions of everyday investors and observers to hit the panic button and run for cover while they, the fear promoters, profited immensely on the very fear they engendered."

The fact that the massive put options were placed is not in doubt. Dow Jones Financial News confirmed the trades in their August 16th article, 'Mystery trader bets market will crash by a third'.

But was this part of a broader strategy to chill confidence in the markets and make a more widespread profit after stocks dipped following the Northern Rock bank crisis at the end of last week before the Fed cut interest rates?