from kgw: Court records obtained by KGW suggest the two Oregon men charged in connection with a deadly bank bombing in December often talked about robbing a bank and even practiced a dry-run in Woodburn in 1994. Bruce Turnidge and his son Joshua Turnidge are facing aggravated murder charges for the December 12th blast that killed a police officer, a state trooper and critically injured a police chief. According to a police affidavit, a family friend, Ronald Laughlin, stated that he heard Bruce, Joshua and another family member who has not been charged in the case “speak so often about robbing banks that it became like ‘white noise’. Often, Laughlin said, they’d “discuss methods of robbery including diversions.” Laughlin described the men as Constitutionalists and anti-government.
oregon soldier stole $700k cash from iraqi relief fund from belfast telegraph: Wads of $100 bills mailed from Iraq to Oregon first made investigators suspect that a US Army captain, charged with stealing almost $700,000 (£0.5m) while serving in Iraq, was pilfering from a US government emergency fund. Captain Michael Dung Nguyen was put in charge of the money when he served as civil affairs officer for his battalion between April 2007 and June 2008. The $690,000 came from the Commander's Emergency Response Programme – money put aside so it could be immediately dispensed by US commanders to win Iraqi support by providing humanitarian relief and paying for small construction projects. Capt Nguyen, 28, allegedly made limited and ineffectual efforts to hide the fact he was siphoning off large amounts of money. He mailed bundles of $100 bills back to his home in Oregon and opened bank accounts there and in other areas. His deposits were each for under $10,000 to avoid detection, but often he would make several deposits on the same day. At one point, he had $300,000 in cash in a safe, a federal grand jury in Portland was told.
oregon veteran disabled by iraq's 'agent orange' from oregonian: The soldiers worried about Saddam Hussein loyalists, not the dust. Dust coated the Oregon Army National Guardsmen's combat boots and caked their skin as they protected Halliburton KBR contractors restoring oil flow in Iraq in 2003. Dust poofed from the soldiers' uniforms as they crowded into vans at the end of the day and shared tents at night. When the dust blew onto Spc. Larry Roberta's ready-to-eat meal, he rinsed the chicken patty with his canteen water and ate it. Six months later, doctors discovered the flap into Roberta's stomach had disintegrated. Six years later, the Marine and former police officer can no longer walk to the mailbox or work. Another Oregon soldier, Sgt. Nicholas Thomas, died of complications of leukemia at age 21. Three others have reported lung problems to headquarters. Five more told The Oregonian they suffer chronic coughs, rashes and immune system disorders. The same Oregon Guard soldiers who went into Iraq without adequate body armor or up-armored Humvees face another dubious first: exposure to hexavalent chromium, which greatly increases their risk of cancer and other diseases. It was in the orange and yellow dust spread over half the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant by fleeing Saddam supporters. Scientists call the carcinogen a Trojan horse because the damage may not be immediately obvious. Over time, people can develop different cancers, breathing problems, stomach ulcers or damage to the digestive tract. "This is our Agent Orange," says Scott Ashby, who served in the Oregon Guard.
oregon bill talks of banning pit bulls & euthanizing them from katu: A new bill on pit bulls [940kb PDF] that hasn't even hit the Senate floor yet is already getting a lot of heat from folks on both sides of the issue.
mad scientists from rockefeller still mixing hiv & monkeys from reuters: Scientists have created a strain of the human AIDS virus able to infect and multiply in monkeys in a step toward testing future vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people, according to a new study. This strain of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, was developed by altering a single gene in the human version to allow it to infect a type of monkey called a pig-tailed macaque, the researchers said on Monday. The genetically engineered virus, once injected into this monkey, proliferates almost as much as it does in people, but the animal ultimately suppresses it and the virus does not make it sick, they said. The strain is called simian-tropic HIV-1, or stHIV-1.
wv guard members may have been exposed to toxin in iraq from boston globe: The West Virginia National Guard is trying to track down 130 reservists who were probably exposed to a cancer-causing chemical in 2003 while guarding a water facility in southern Iraq. The move follows similar efforts by the Indiana and Oregon National Guards, whose soldiers were also believed to have been exposed to sodium dichromate. The soldiers were guarding civilians who were repairing the Qarmat Ali plant under the supervision of Houston-based defense contractor KBR. Hundreds of soldiers and civilians are believed to have worked near the chemical, which is used to prevent pipes from rusting but which also greatly increases the risk of cancer and other health problems. The Pentagon and KBR were aware in 2003 that the chemical was piled around the looted facility, and took blood samples from some soldiers and civilians in Iraq to try to determine their level of exposure. But six years later, little effort has been made to systematically alert all those who worked at the plant. "They knew back in 2003 that this stuff was dangerous and they told us it wasn't," said one former West Virginia reservist who asked that his name not be used because he feared it would be detrimental to his military career.
holt wants anthrax commission - modeled on 9/11 commission from nj courier-post: A New Jersey congressman wants to set up a congressional commission to investigate the anthrax attacks of 2001. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., has introduced legislation that would also probe the federal government's reaction to and investigation of the anthrax scare. The commission he proposes would be similar to the independent panel that probed the 9/11 attacks in New York and suburban Washington.
cnn/cfr gupta will reportedly turn down surgeon general post from thinkprogress: Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, will reportedly not leave his television career to become Surgeon General. “Gupta, who had been the leading candidate for the post, withdrew his name even as President Obama hosted a health care summit at the White House. Gupta did not attend.” He encountered criticism for “his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko” and for having a cozy relationship with drug companies. On the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky floats Howard Dean as a possible replacement... "Sanjay Gupta was under serious consideration for the job of surgeon general," an administration official told CNN. "He has removed himself from consideration to focus more on his medical career and his family. We know he will continue to serve and educate the public through his work with media and in the medical arena."
from danger room: KBR, the defense services giant, and its subcontractors have been repeatedly accused of using slave labor in Iraq. But despite the lawsuits, and despite the Congressional hearings, KBR and its business partners keep getting busted for treating its workers like little more than chattel. The latest: "About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work," McClatchy reports. "Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to [former Halliburton subsidiary] KBR... hired the men, who are from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh."
update: iraqi police surround ’slave labor’ camp from raw replay: CNN’s Michael Ware reports that Iraqi police have surrounded a ’slave labor camp’ where over 1000 workers are being held in a warehouse. This video is from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast Dec. 5, 2008.
related: suit claims halliburton & kbr sickened base from air force times: A Georgia man has filed a lawsuit against contractor KBR and its former parent company, Halliburton, saying the companies exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there. Joshua Eller, who worked as a civilian computer-aided drafting technician with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, said military personnel, contractors and third-country nationals may have been sickened by contamination at the largest U.S. installation in Iraq, home to more than 30,000 service members, Defense Department civilians and contractors.
the big apple's eyeing you from nypost: They're watching you. The NYPD's plan to have 5,000 cameras trained on every sidewalk crack south of Canal Street has begun in a space-age hub that will be operating by the end of the month. The "Ring of Steel" command center - which will keep 24-hour watch on high-profile targets like the World Trade Center site, the Stock Exchange and the Brooklyn Bridge - is on the 28th floor of a nondescript building at 55 Broadway. Modeled after a highly touted network in London, the $89 million Lower Manhattan Security Initiative will fight crime and terrorism by blanketing the 1.7 square miles with 500 cameras. The feds will pick up $70 million of the cost. Police intend to be using 2,000 cameras by 2009 and 3,000 by 2011. They also hope to tap into images from an additional 2,000 private cameras.
fbi finds most terrorism threat reports baseless from reuters: The FBI tracked about 108,000 potential terrorism threats or suspicious incidents from mid-2004 to November 2007, but most were found groundless, a Justice Department review found on Friday. The department's office of inspector general gave the figure in an audit of the FBI's terrorism case-tracking system, called Guardian, launched in 2002 after the September 11 attacks. "The FBI determined that the overwhelming majority of the threat information documented in Guardian had no nexus to terrorism. However, as a result of information reported in Guardian the FBI initiated over 600 criminal and terrorism-related investigations from October 2006 to December 2007," the inspector general's report said. The report did not discuss the result of the investigations. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Threat and Suspicious Incident Tracking System, Audit Report 09-02, November 2008 (1.3mb PDF)
kbr to provide power during emergencies from upi: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has contracted KBR to provide power during emergency or disaster situations. U.S. company KBR was awarded a $75 million deal from the Army Corps or Engineers for disaster relief services. Under the contract, KBR will supply emergency power for the Western region of the United States in case of a natural or manmade disaster. KBR officials say during an emergency situation they will provide labor, transportation and equipment, among other services, to support power requirements for designated critical public facilities. "This award allows KBR the opportunity to expand our capabilities portfolio in the government and infrastructure business to include emergency response, an area of growth due to recent natural disasters," Bruce Stanski, KBR government and infrastructure president, said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in this new area and are committed to providing the premier services the Army Corps has come to expect of KBR."
US secret service officer arrested in hooker sting from wikinews: A United StatesSecret Service officer has been arrested in Washington, D.C. after allegedly soliciting a prostitute for sex. The prostitute turned out to be an undercover D.C. police officer. The Secret Service officer was using his official Secret Service patrol car, which was marked, and was also in full uniform at the time of the arrest. The unnamed Secret Service officer, a sergeant, was arrested after allegedly agreeing to pay the undercover police officer US$20 to receive oral sex. After agreeing on a price, the undercover officer told the Secret Service officer to drive around the corner, where the sex act would take place. When he stopped his car, he was arrested by police officers.
spitzer won't face charges for scandal from washington post: Former New York governor Eliot L. Spitzer will not face criminal charges for his role in a prostitution scandal that drove him from office this year, prosecutors announced yesterday. [nov6] Investigators for the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service uncovered no evidence that Spitzer had misused public or campaign money to pay women employed by the Emperors Club VIP, a high-priced New York prostitution ring.
byrd steps down as chair of appropriations committee from thinkprogress: Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced today [nov7] that he will voluntarily step down as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Jan. 6. Byrd, who is the longest-serving senator in American history, said in a statement that he made the decision “only after much personal soul searching, and after being sure of the substantial Democratic pickup of seats in the Senate. I am now confident that stepping aside as chairman will not adversely impact my home state of West Virginia,” he said. Democrats had been hoping that Byrd would “step aside voluntarily” due concerns that he was “not up to the immense challenges he would face in that job.” Byrd will be replaced by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
newspapers seek gov't documents in anthrax inquiry from ap: Two newspapers asked a federal judge Wednesday to make public several documents relating to a former Army scientist who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks and later exonerated. The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times want the government's search warrants and supporting documents involving Stephen Hatfill, who was eventually cleared in the anthrax attacks and was awarded $5.8 million in a lawsuit accusing the Justice Department of violating his privacy. Normally, search warrants would be sealed for a person who has not been charged or indicted, lawyers said. But the public has a right to know why investigators wanted to search Hatfill's home and on what basis the courts agreed to allow those searches, the newspapers argued in U.S. District Court. "The public has a right to know why he was targeted," said Jeanette Melendez Bead, lawyer for the newspapers.
new rule kicks patriot act foes 'right in the teeth' from raw story: The Bush administration has been planning since last spring to issue a final burst of federal regulations just before leaving office. It was recently announced that over 90 new regulations would be finalized before November 22 - 60 days prior to the end of Bush's term - making them difficult, though not impossible, for President Obama to reverse. Although many of the regulations have to do with energy and the environment, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow noted on Tuesday that there's also "one that'll kick opponents of the Patriot Act right in the teeth."
"Tragically, as the men were being transported to Iraq, a car containing twelve of the men was stopped by members of the Ansar al-Sunna Army, an insurgent group," the Washington lawfirm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll writes. "The 12 men in the car were taken hostage and executed by the insurgents. The executions were filmed and posted on the Internet. The Inspector General for the United States Department of Defense investigated and confirmed the facts related to the fate of the 12 men, which led to increased enforcement of anti-trafficking measures by the United States."
from boston globe: US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill. "These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood," said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. "They were sick."
"Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated" while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of the Indiana National Guard. Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the lead contractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentially lethal carcinogen. Specialists say even short-term exposure to the chemical can cause cancer, depress an individual’s immune system, attack the liver, and cause other ailments.
from ap: A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health. flashback: cancer drugs found in tap water
related: kbr water in iraq makes troops sick from ap: Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says. A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
‘highly likely’ bush saw torture tapes from thinkprogress: Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and State Department counterterrorism official, told The Bill Press Show this morning that it was “highly likely” President Bush had viewed the videotapes of the 2002 interrogations that were later destroyed:
Bill Press: You said that you believe President Bush actually saw one of these videos?
US covering up kbr rape case from press tv: A former employee of the US' Halliburton/KBR construction firm has accused Washington of covering up her rape by colleagues in Iraq. Jamie Leigh Jones, 22, was gang raped by her co-workers two years ago at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, a heavily guarded area in central Baghdad, where US officials live and work, ABC reported.
flashback: 'the soundtrack of the boys shrieking' from common dreams: Leading investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has told the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that videotapes were made of young boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison. The Bush administration is holding videotapes of these acts, said Hersh... "The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," Hersh told the group, adding that there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher."
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an attack from harvard law on the escalating 9/11 truth movement: 'cognitive infiltration' of 9/11 conspiracy groups* 
drugwar: 
