october clearinghouse

gary hart warns iran that 'we provoke provocations'*

nist admits total collapse of twin towers unexplainable*

thom hartmann's hypocrisy for israel*

anti-gay church ordered to pay $10.9 million for funeral protest*

fox news accuses ron paul campaign of using botnets*

dod to carry out 'military missions' during wmd/pandemic*

actor mark ruffalo 'baffled' at collapse of twin towers*

antiwar protests held all over US, no one mentions it*

rumsfeld hit with torture lawsuit while visiting paris*

hillary: we do not conduct torture*

senators want probe on content blocking*

video: bush grilled by irish news in rare interview*

kucinich: is it time to question bush's mental health?*

fbi whistleblower sibel edmonds will now tell all
- and face charges if necessary*

dc air drill, pandemic x's, & spooky weaponry*

hillary learns to 'play along' with drudge*

man tasered for filming warantless police search*

nsa could be accessing your windows pc*

controversial concerns: insider warning?*

new fda facility will be paid for by companies agency regulates*

america's armageddonites*

army awards contract for $477m command & control center by 2010*

dems cave on illegal surveillance*

vicente fox admits plan for single nafta currency*

un ships disrupt israeli satellite tv*

new homeland security plan revealed*

secret service shot at car of agent said protecting ahmadinejad*

stratcom head focused on space-based domains*

video: 9/11 truthers responded to bill maher
(before they crashed the show)*

nutbag hecklers vs bill maher*

video: mike gravel on newshour*

fbi refuses to confirm identities of 4 aircraft used during 9/11*

fbi thought bombs brought down towers on 9/11*

neocon 'freedom’s watch' spends big bucks
to push attack iran agenda*

gold tops $800 for first time since 1980

from ap: Gold barreled above $800 an ounce Wednesday for the first time since 1980 as investors cheered the Federal Reserve's decision to lower its-benchmark interest rate by a quarter point.

The Fed lowered its federal funds rate to 4.50 percent, as the markets widely anticipated. Lower interest rates tend to undermine the dollar and raise the allure of precious metals as an investment alternative. The dollar stumbled to another low against the euro ahead of the Fed's decision on Wednesday, helping drive gold higher...

Gold last topped $800 an ounce in 1980, when prices reached as high as $875 an ounce in January. Adjusted for inflation, an $800 ounce of gold in 1980 would be worth more than $2,000 today.

152 dolphins off iranian coast 'suicided' by US sonar

from abc: The mysterious "mass suicide" of 152 dolphins washed up on Iran's coast over the past month has alarmed environmentalists, with the blame pointed at regional fishing practices.

from gulf news: The mass death of more than 150 Striped Dolphins in southern Iran over the last month could be due to the herd of mammals following a sick dominant male, said a UAE-based marine expert.

from what really happened: Or, more likely, the US Navy is playing with their Super Sonar again, as the described behaviors of the dolphins matches what we saw here in Hawaii during tests of the system.

alleged 3/11 mastermind acquitted

from ap: Three lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings were found guilty of mass murder and other charges Wednesday but four other top suspects were convicted on lesser charges and an accused ringleader was completely acquitted...

Much of the evidence against the men was circumstantial. Bouchar, for instance, had been seen on one of the bombed trains shortly before the attack, but at trial nobody could definitively identify him...

Most of the suspects are young Muslim men of North African origin who allegedly acted out of allegiance to al-Qaida to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, although Spanish investigators say they did so without a direct order or financing from Osama bin Laden's terror network.

gi joe now works for the blue helmets

from sydney morning herald: America's battered international image has claimed a new casualty - the tough-talking comic book patriot GI Joe.

The muscular character was created as a comic strip for US military publications during World War II and has been fighting America's foes ever since.

But in a new film version, due to go into production next year, the all-American will no longer work for a covert US special forces unit.

Paramount Pictures and Hasbro, which makes GI Joe toys, have reportedly discussed the challenges of marketing a film about the US military at a time when the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have sunk America's standing in foreign opinion polls. In a move that has horrified an unlikely alliance of comic book fans and conservative commentators, GI Joe is now to become an acronym for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity", with its star representing a multinational force...

Critics have been following the film's development with growing dismay. Some have suggested the producers may as well have put a blue United Nations peacekeeper's helmet on its star's crew cut head...

Hasbro toned down the figure's army credentials after the Vietnam War but sales soared again amid the patriotic fervour of the first Gulf War.

ron paul on the tonight show with jay leno

from free market news: The reviews are in on GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul’s appearance on the Tonight Show. Posters at LewRockwell.com and DailyPaul.com write that the show was a success for Ron Paul. He was relaxed, humorous and apparently in his element. Jay Leno was prepped, courteous and ipnterested.

From a campaign standpoint, Ron Paul’s appearance on national programs such as the Tonight Show are most important to the campaign which still needs to establish name recognition for Jeffersonian conservative candidate. Fund-raising apparently receives a considerable boost following such appearances.

According to thestressblog.com, the line of people hoping for a ticket to see Ron Paul was the longest “in recent memory.”

related: john lydon salutes ron paul?

mass vaccination drill exceeds expectations

from arizona republic: Chandler Regional Medical Center's flu shot drill Saturday was a hit with residents and considered a success by officials testing the hospital's ability to respond to a bioterror or other mass medical emergency.

Cars began lining up for the free drive-though vaccinations as early as 6 a.m. even though the start time wasn't scheduled until 7:30 a.m., said hospital spokeswoman Kimberly Day.

The clinic included 100 hospital personnel and 60 city employees, including police in full tactical gear who, in a real emergency, likely would be required to maintain order.

"They treated this like it was a real scenario so they dressed up in their gear," Day said.

The hospital administered 1,266 flu vaccine doses through 11 a.m., going beyond the scheduled 1,000 shots planned because of strong demand.

Day said lessons learned were to add more screeners farther back in the line and have hospital staff show up earlier to deal with early birds.

"Otherwise the whole drill went extremely smoothly," she said.

Gilbert Mercy Medical Center will have a similar free drive-though clinic from 8-11 a.m. Nov. 10 but it won't include a police drill.

flashback: 1,000 free flu shots to be given in 3 hours for drill

air force eyes energy shields & microwave bombs

from wired: Energy shields, microwave bombs, and laser-firing gunships - those are just a few of the ideas the Air Force has in mind for its future arsenal.

Susan Thornton, head of the Air Force Research Lab's Directed Energy Directorate, laid out the sci-fi-style vision (1.1mb PDF) at the 33rd Annual Air Armament Symposium, held earlier this month. In it, she touts a high-powered microwave munition, capable of destroying of everything from "WMD Production Facilities" to "Cyber War Targets." The blasts from such a weapon "enables attack[s] on high value electronic targets with minimal collateral damage," Thornton notes, "virtually eliminating high post-conflict reconstruction costs!!!!"

flu lab set to open for 1918 pandemic virus reconstruction

from citizens for legitimate government: Ebola research may resume, pending outcome of appeal...

UW-Madison 's $12.5 million Institute for Influenza Viral Research, nearing completion at University Research Park, will have a collection of safety and security features the university hasn't seen before. Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka plans to study several kinds of flu viruses in the institute - including H5N1, the bird flu virus circulating in Asia, and a reconstructed version of the 1918 flu virus, which killed some 50 million people when it spread worldwide...

Jan Klein, UW-Madison 's biological safety officer, said the university may appeal the NIH 's ruling halting the Ebola work.

why they called it 'the manhattan project'

from new york times: By nature, code names and cover stories are meant to give no indication of the secrets concealed. “Magic” was the name for intelligence gleaned from Japanese ciphers in World War II, and “Overlord” stood for the Allied plan to invade Europe.

Many people assume that the same holds true for the Manhattan Project, in which thousands of experts gathered in the mountains of New Mexico to make the world’s first atom bomb.

Robert S. Norris, a historian of the atomic age, wants to shatter that myth.

In “The Manhattan Project” (Black Dog & Leventhal), published last month, Dr. Norris writes about the Manhattan Project’s Manhattan locations. He says the borough had at least 10 sites, all but one still standing. They include warehouses that held uranium, laboratories that split the atom, and the project’s first headquarters - a skyscraper hidden in plain sight right across from City Hall.

“It was supersecret,” Dr. Norris said in an interview. “At least 5,000 people were coming and going to work, knowing only enough to get the job done.”

Manhattan was central, according to Dr. Norris, because it had everything: lots of military units, piers for the import of precious ores, top physicists who had fled Europe and ranks of workers eager to aid the war effort. It even had spies who managed to steal some of the project’s top secrets.

declassified: US spying could top $50b

from jason rhyne: The tab for US non-military spying in 2007 is a whopping $43.5 billion, according to figures released today
(35kb PDF) by National Director of Intelligence Mike McConnell.

Disclosure of that amount marks the first time in nine years that funds budgeted for national intelligence activities have been publicly aired, and comes amid mounting pressure from Congress and the Sept. 11 commission to make the practice routine.

A more complete budget figure for US spying is actually even higher, according to sources cited in the Washington Post, who told the paper that if still-classified totals for military-based programs were factored in, that number would reach $50 billion.

martin sheen questions official 9/11 story

from paul joseph watson: Actor Martin Sheen questioned the official 9/11 story, as well as the collapse of Building 7 and Larry Silverstein's "pull it" comment during an anti-war march this past weekend in Los Angeles, saying that recent revelations about the attacks had caused him to have doubts.

Sheen was interviewed by We Are Change L.A. along with fellow actor Mark Ruffalo during an event hosted by the ANSWER Coalition at which around 20,000 people attended.

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Martin Sheen, star of blockbuster films like Apocalypse Now and hit series The West Wing, follows in the footsteps of his son Charlie Sheen, who publicly spoke of his doubts about the official 9/11 story back in March 2006.

Martin Sheen said that he was dubious about questioning the official story until his son introduced him to new information about the anomalies of what happened on that day.

bomb iran, say insane americans in new poll

from raw story: Despite President Bush's perpetually abysmal approval ratings, it appears his increasingly hostile rhetoric against Iran has drummed up enough fear of a "nuclear holocaust" or a World War III that a majority of Americans are in favor of a US strike against the country aimed a curtailing its apparent nuclear ambitions, a new poll shows.

The Zogby International survey shows 52 percent of Americans would support a strike on Iran, while 53 percent expect President Bush to launch such an attack before the end of his second term. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is voters' No. 1 choice to deal with Iran, with 21 percent saying they would like to see her take on Tehran from the White House. Republican Rudy Giuliani was voters' second choice, with 15 percent.

hersh: US & israel support pkk

from press tv: PKK Kurdish rebel group and its sister organization, PEJAK, have been receiving support from the US and Israel, an American journalist claims.

"In the past months, Israel and the United States have been working together in support of PKK and its Iranian offshoot PEJAK, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon," said Pulitzer Prize-winning, Seymour Hersh.

gap vows action after child labor report

from ap: Clothing retailer Gap Inc. said Sunday that it will convene all of its Indian suppliers to "forcefully reiterate" its prohibition on child labor after a British newspaper found children as young as 10 making Gap clothes at a sweatshop in New Delhi.

The Observer newspaper quoted the children as saying they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families in Indian states such as Bihar and West Bengal and would not be allowed to leave until they had repaid that fee.

Some, working as long as 16 hours a day to hand-sew clothing, said they were not being paid because their employer said they were still trainees.

dhs strikes deal with new york on driver's licenses

from newsday: The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver's licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.

New York is the fourth state to reach such an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The issue is pressing for border states, where new and tighter rules are soon to go into effect for crossings.

The deal comes about one month after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a plan whereby illegal immigrants with a valid foreign passport could obtain a license.

Saturday's agreement with the Homeland Security Department will create a three-tier license system in New York. It is the largest state to sign on so far to the government's post-Sept. 11 effort to make identification cards more secure.

Spitzer, who has faced much criticism on the issue, said the deal means New York "will usher in the most secure licensing system in the nation."

outside the box #125

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on october 25, 2007.

from alex ansary: Tonight Alex focused on some afterthoughts to his experience at Topoff 4. Then he covers the wildfires in Southern California, along with a disturbing report on the vulnerability of the grain distribution system in the United States. Potential consequences of a food crisis is discussed. A new preparedness group is attempting to form in Portland, Oregon.

and here's the latest episode of "outside the box" on we the people radio network from october 27, 2007 with guest chris damitio discussing preparedness. stream: m3u & ram or download: hour1 & hour2

poll: bullshit is most important issue for 2008 voters

poll: bullshit is most important issue for 2008 voters

sec sees 'rampant' insider trading on wall street

from reuters: A senior Securities and Exchange Commission official said on Thursday insider trading appeared to be "rampant" among Wall Street professionals and the agency has formed a working group to focus on it.

"I believe we're going to see more insider trading cases," Linda Chatman Thomsen, the SEC's enforcement director, told reporters on the sidelines of a securities fraud conference.

"I am disappointed in the number of cases we are seeing by people who make an abundant livelihood in the market that they are sort of abusing by insider trading," Thomsen said, referring to cases already brought against professionals this year.

Insider trading "appears to be rampant" among Wall Street securities professionals, she added.

Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general with the Justice Department's criminal division, echoed Thomsen's sentiment and said: "The number of insider trading cases don't seem to be going away."

memos show giuliani's ignorance of terrorism pre-9/11

from raw story: MSNBC reports that Rudy Giuliani's claim that he's the only candidate who foresaw the danger posed by al Qaeda before 9/11 has now been refuted by a leaked document. In Giuliani's 9/11 Commission testimony, Giuliani admits he didn't comprehend the threat. The core of Giuliani's candidacy is his 9/11 experience, but that is now called into question.

human race will 'split into two different species'

from daily mail: The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.

fema apologozes for fake 'news conference'

from msnbc: On Tuesday, FEMA held what was called a "news briefing" on the California fires, but the questions asked did not come from reporters. They were asked instead by FEMA staffers...

Apparently, the FEMA briefing was called with little lead-time and reporters didn't get there fast enough. Instead of acknowledging that reporters were not there they apparently pretended and even used the typical practice of calling a "last question."

The briefer, FEMA's Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson, did not indicate that the questions were coming from staff who were in essence playing reporters. Six questions were asked and the phrasing and subject matter were not typical for a news briefing give and take.

Senior administration officials are looking into the matter and suggest the "intentions were good," but acknowledge that was not an appropriate "tactic."

The suggestion is that so many media questions had been coming in to FEMA and the briefing was a way to get information out. But instead of transparency, a senior FEMA official appears to have faked it.


update: update: fema faker fuckin' fired
from thinkprogess: Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that former FEMA director of external affairs John “Pat” Philbin had resigned his position, only to be rewarded with a promotion. Today, Philbin was set to become the director of public affairs for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. But the DNI’s office has since backed away from its offer, putting out a statement this afternoon that reads:

We can confirm that Mr. Philbin is not, nor is he scheduled to be, the director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

CNN reported that, as of this morning, the DNI’s office had said Philbin’s appointment was still going forward. Now, the DNI’s office has reconsidered in the wake of increasing anger about the hiring.

george carlin on 9/11 truth

from moogman5: George Carlin appeared today at BORDERS bookstore in downtown Manhattan, NYC (just a few blocks away from the WTC site / Ground Zero)... I just had to get his comment on the 9/11 Inside Job Issue.

media monarchy episode047

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode047 - october 26, 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

'endgame: blueprint for global enslavement'

from paul joseph watson: The waiting is over, the anticipation can now finally be realized - Alex Jones' End Game is here and its arrival heralds a new salvo in the infowar, a fresh new insight into understanding what the long term plans of the elite really are and why the future destiny of humanity could be won or lost within our lifetimes.

Endgame is the culmination of years of research into the documented historical record of why the rulers of the world are maniacally obsessed with controlling, dominating and enslaving humanity, wielding ferocious power for power's sake, centralizing authority into a ruthless world government system, and ultimately enacting their "final solution" of global population reduction.

sanctions, protests, shills & bill

oil rises to record $91 a barrel on iran sanctions
from bloomberg: Crude oil rose to a record above $91 a barrel in New York on an unexpected drop in U.S. stockpiles and concern that supply from the Middle East may be disrupted... Inventories last week fell 5.29 million barrels to the lowest since January, the U.S. Energy Department said. New U.S. sanctions against Iran, warnings of a Turkish assault on Kurdish militants in Iraq and a falling dollar helped push prices higher.


'bloodied' protester gets in 'criminal' condi's face
from toronto star: An anti-war protester waved blood-coloured hands in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's face at a congressional hearing yesterday and shouted "war criminal!" before being pushed away and detained by police. "The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!" yelled protester Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz of the Code Pink organization.


elvis costello shames himself by shilling for hillary
from reuters: Led by crooner Elvis Costello, supporters of presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton rose to their feet and cheered on Thursday night, the eve of the 60th birthday of the Democrat who aims to become the first woman U.S. president. Costello, who sang "Happy Birthday Mrs. President" and delivered raucous versions of hit songs including "Pump it Up," was joined by actor-comedian Billy Crystal, former President Bill Clinton and several members of New York's Congressional delegation.

bill clinton trades blows with 9/11 truthers

from steve watson: For the second time in as many months a public appearance by former president Bill Clinton has been interrupted by 9/11 truth activists. According to an AP report, Clinton, appearing at the State Theater in downtown Minneapolis as part of a Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, was interrupted by a group of protesters campaigning for a new investigation into the 9/11 attacks.

update: the full-length version of
we are change vs. bill clinton
from blacklisted news: Bill Clinton confronted on Bilderberg, Bohemian Grove, 9/11 and other topics as he tries to debate truthers but ends up biting off more than he can chew and is clearly embarrased and shamed.

The full version of the video that the news networks didn’t want you to see!

grim reaper visits with the marines at georgia college

from bill fisher: Walking past the buildings of GCSU on an overcast, cool morning on a Thursday in September, a Marine Recruitment booth was spotted near "the Fountain," a common meeting area and major campus thoroughfare... Within two hours a cloak was donated, a scythe fabricated and the Grim Reaper began a conversation with the young recruiter.

Grim Reaper: "Good morning."

Marine Recruiter: "I wish my buddies were here."

GR: "I do not question your heroism. You have made a great sacrifice for our nation, you have given yourself for a purpose greater than yourself. You are an American Hero."

MR: "Mm hm."

GR: "The architects of this illegal and immoral war in Iraq are responsible for the rapes, mutilations, dehumanization and deaths of tens of thousands of men, women and children... Iraqis, coalition forces, and American servicemen and servicewomen. The Administration in Washington has summoned me. That is why I am here today. That is who I am here for."

MR: "O.K."

GR: "Thank you." (Hand shake)

As a crowd gathered, a few students wandered close to him and said "fuck you." ... A young man was heard saying "It's un-American! Those soldiers are fighting and dying so he can stand there and do that!"

The Reaper thought "they are not dying for my right to free speech, if that's what he means by 'do that.' I feel no threat by Al-Qaeda to my right to be here, peaceably, passively. I am much more threatened by the hostility I hear in your voice, and from the policeman eyeing me as he circles in closer. But if these Marines are sacrificing themselves for my right to stand here, then it is my responsibility to honor them by standing here."

house passes thoughtcrime prevention bill

from rogue government: The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals.

Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.

cheney nods off during meeting on california wildfires

from cbs13: Vice President Dick Cheney was caught on tape and caught off guard during a meeting with President Bush. A news crew was taping a cabinet meeting at the White House as the president was giving a briefing on the California wildfires. The news crew caught Cheney as he appeared to be nodding off. Perhaps even the vice president needs a power nap once in awhile.

'i don't want to know' what americans believe about 9/11

from raw story: A 2006 poll about the causes the causes of 9/11 - which indicated that more than a third of Americans suspect government involvement in the tragedies - is too "frightening" for MSNBC's Tucker Carlson to even think about.

Discussing the booting of a 9/11 Truth heckler from the audience of last week's edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, Carlson brought up the year-old Scripps Howard/Ohio University survey to underscore how "almost unbelievable" it was that so many people bought into conspiracy theories.

When the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, a guest on the show, mentioned that he received frequent emails from individuals accusing the mainstream media of hiding the truth about Sept. 11...

"That's so evil," he continued, "how could you still live in this country if you believe that?"

Responding to a suggestion that cynical Americans were "ready to believe just about anything negative" about their government, Carlson proposed that those individuals might want to skip the country.

"If you have a population that stupid and reckless and they're in charge of the government, maybe it is time to leave the country," he said. "I don't even want to think it through it any more. This is why we never do this topic on the show. It just upsets me too much. I don't want to know these kind of facts about America."

The following video is from MSNBC's TUCKER, broadcast on October 22, 2007

thumbscanning for lunch in oregon

from fox: A new finger scanning system aimed at speeding up the lunch line at an Oregon middle school is raising security concerns.

Instead of swiping an ID card or entering a pin number, students at Stayton Middle School press their thumb on an infrared scanner and are matched with their lunch account, according to the Statesman Journal.

Some parents and privacy advocates are complaining about the new biometric technology, worrying their child's identity could be stolen and that the government will be able to access their kid's fingerprints.

"It's the 'Big Brother' theory," Jann Carson, the associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Portland, told the newspaper. "The last thing we should do is teach parents and their young children to be casual about turning over personal data, like a fingerprint, just for the sake of speeding up a lunch line."

School officials claim the system is safe and does not keep a record of the fingerprint.

"It's a string, not a fingerprint," Jack Adams, the superintendent of the North Santiam School District told the Statesman Journal. "It's three mathematical pieces of information taken from a student's finger. It's stored on the school computer and can't be used in any other way."

neocon podhoretz tells audience to 'shut up'

from paul joseph watson: Arch-Neo Con Norman Podhoretz's book reading at a recent Barnes and Noble appearance in New York turned into a hostile affair after he told the audience that Iran should be bombed because "We were attacked by Islamofascists on 9/11," before being bombarded with accusatory questions and eventually telling the crowd to "shut up".

Rudy Giuliani's foreign policy advisor was subject to walkouts by individuals disgusted at the fact that Podhoretz openly called for air strikes on Iran, labeling Podhoretz a "fascist" who would have blood on his hands.

Asked whether there should be a fresh investigation into 9/11, Podhoretz simply dismissed the suggestion as "paranoia" and refused to answer the question.

why is the cia suppressing jfk files?

from lisa pease: As Jefferson Morley reports in the Huffington Post:

"Lawyers for the Central Intelligence Agency faced pointed questions in a federal court hearing Monday morning about the agency's efforts to block disclosure of long-secret records about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy."

Morley filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the CIA for failing to disclose records about a CIA officer named George Joannides. Joannides was responsible for running the DRE, an anti-Castro CIA front group that had extensive interactions with Lee Harvey Oswald in the months leading up to the assassination of President Kennedy.

The CIA has consistently refused to release Joannides' records, even though they are mandated to by the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Act.

What's at stake here matters greatly to all historians. If the government can simply choose which records to release, and which to withhold, they can pervert and deliberately misshape history to serve their purposes.

In this particular case, the CIA appears hellbent on undoing the will of the people. The JFK Act came into being due to an enormous outcry from the public when they learned, at the end of Oliver Stone's film JFK, that many records relating to the assassination were still classified.

Congress passed what became known as "The JFK Act," which mandated the creation of a board to declassify records and, if necessary, seek out new and pertinent records and make them public.

The Board, officially named the Assassination Records and Review Board, put Joannides on the JFK assassination story map when it declassified five personnel reports of his in 1998. In addition, researchers learned that it was Joannides who had helped shut down an early investigation of the CIA's possible involvement in the assassination...

If the CIA was involved in the Kennedy assassination, wouldn't that change entirely our understanding of events from that time forth, and wouldn't that call into question much of the reporting on the case, and the credibility of the media from that time forward?...

Even anti-conspiracy authors Gerald Posner and Vincent Bugliosi have sided with the law, calling for the documents to be released.

If our government can simply choose which laws to support and which to break, is it really our government anymore?

related: 'oswald's ghost'

from american experience: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963 left a psychic wound on America that is with us still today. Few Americans then or now accept that a lone, inconsequential gunman could bring down a president and alter history.

In that breach, a culture of conspiracy has arisen that points to sinister forces at work in the shadows. Drawing upon rarely seen archival footage and interviews with key participants, Oswald's Ghost takes a fresh look at Kennedy's assassination, the public's reaction to the tragedy, and the government investigations that instead of calming fears lead to a widespread loss of trust in the institutions that govern our society.

state dept can’t account for $1b paid to dyncorp

question: how much was spent on establishing a prostitution and slave ring in bosnia?

from nytimes: A pair of new reports have delivered sharply critical judgments about the State Department’s performance in overseeing work done by the private companies that the government relies on increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out delicate security work and other missions.

A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraq assails the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA, according to people who have been briefed on the report. In addition to Blackwater, the State Department’s two other security contractors in Iraq are DynCorp International and Triple Canopy.

At the same time, a government audit expected to be released Tuesday says that records documenting the work of DynCorp, the State Department’s largest contractor, are in such disarray that the department cannot say “specifically what it received” for most of the $1.2 billion it has paid the company since 2004 to train the police officers in Iraq.

china testing space weapons

from ap: A Chinese submarine will send test signals that could change the course of a satellite when China launches its first moon orbiter, as part of the country's effort to develop space war technology, a human rights watchdog said Tuesday.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said two survey ships are deployed in the South Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean to send signals to maneuver the lunar exploration satellite, expected to be launched Wednesday. At the same time, a nuclear-powered submarine will send simulated signals to the satellite as a test, it said in a statement.

Once the satellite-maneuvering technology matures, the group said, China would have the know-how to destroy other satellites in space in wartime...

China shocked the world in January by firing a missile at an old weather satellite without notifying anyone in advance, showing off its anti-satellite weaponry and its ability to shoot down satellites without being immediately noticed.

nj to deploy largest number of nat'l guard since wwii

from axcessnews: New Jersey voters are puzzled, they were under the impression that the Bush administration was going to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq beginning in December, but now over half of New Jersey's National Guard are to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan next year - the largest number since World War II...

Three thousand New Jersey National Guardsmen received their orders this weekend, which amounts to a full brigade...


Governor Corzine is expected to give details on the state's National Guard deployment this afternoon...

corzine blasts troop deployment: it's an 'overuse'
from ap: New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine says an impending large deployment of state National Guard troops represents an overuse of the citizen soldiers that undermines their purpose...

"The fact that we continue to have the kind of overuse of our National Guard is just a mistake," said Corzine, who voted against the Iraq war when he was a U.S. senator.

Corzine called the soldiers "incredible patriots" who will "show up and serve with honor and go forward."

But he noted the deployments are "very harsh on the families" and said their continued use in the war hampers the National Guard.

"I think it is undermining of the basic purpose of the National Guard, which is to protect local and state elements and floods and fires and whatever problems that we can have," Corzine said, "and reduces our ability and it strains us on equipment." ...

Corzine said that "reflects, I think, a mismanagement of how we have prosecuted the war."

purported bin laden tape tells insurgents to unite

from voa: An audio recording purportedly from Al-Qaida terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden calls on insurgents in Iraq to unite.

The Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera Monday broadcast what it said was a new recording from the fugitive terrorist leader. The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately confirmed...

Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are believed to be hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States has offered a $25 million reward for the capture of each man.

halting hurricanes with directed energy

from blacklisted news/telegraph uk: Scientists have made a breakthrough in man's desire to control the forces of nature – unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina.

The damage done to New Orleans in 2005 has spurred two rival teams of climate experts, in America and Israel, to redouble their efforts to enable people to play God with the weather.

Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds... Satellites could also heat the cloud tops by beaming microwaves from space.

from technocrat: Man made attempts at controlling the weather have been going on for years, with some public success, some failure. The Chinese in particular have done large scale weather modification and it is a standard part of their normal scientific cycle now, with them claiming they will insure that the Beijing Olympics have clear good weather. New research is looking to go even beyond cloud seeding and possibly having the ability to weaken hurricanes or actually steer them away from heavily built up areas using a combination of atmospheric sprays and large scale atmospheric heating.