from bbc: The US Central Intelligence Agency has not found conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported.
Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, cites a secret CIA report based on intelligence such as satellite images.
Correspondents say the alleged document appears to challenge Washington's views regarding Iranian nuclear intentions.
The article says the White House was dismissive about the CIA report.
The US and Europe say Iran is pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme - a charge Iran has strongly denied.
"The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Mr Hersh wrote.
It says the agency based its conclusions on technical intelligence, such as satellite photography and measurements from sensors planted by US and Israeli agents.
The article says: "A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile to it."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino criticised the article, calling it an "error-filled" piece in a "series of inaccuracy-riddled articles about the Bush administration".
"The White House is not going to dignify the work of an author who has viciously degraded our troops, and whose articles consistently rely on outright falsehoods to justify his own radical views," she was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says if the New Yorker article is correct, it would suggest that the CIA is being more cautious than the Bush administration in evaluating whether or not Iran is on its way to building a bomb.
And he says, as with Iraq, it suggests political battles to come over how intelligence is used as a basis for American foreign policy.
from new york times: The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say.
Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving the letters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowing investigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of American military personnel and civilians, officials say.
The F.B.I., the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provoking criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who see them as unjustified intrusions into Americans’ private lives.
from portland indymedia: A large crowd braved the cold and showed up at Pioneer Courthouse Square to protest Bush's announced escalation of the Iraq war this evening. The crowd marched to the Oregonian newspaper's office, chanting and taking over the street for a short time. In spite of delays, motorists showed great support to the protestors by honking and waving. This has not been the typical reaction of Portland drivers to such delays in the past. Perhaps this is reflective of a poll conducted showing that 89% of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq.
It was also unusual to have no noticeable police presence at the event this evening; no storm troopers, no smell of pepper spray in the air, no violation of free speech rights. The demonstrators marched back to PCS, where singing, chanting, percussion music and general camaraderie took place.
click here for more photos & a 20 minute audio clip of some speeches before the march
from burlington free press: Burlington voters on Town Meeting Day will be the first in the country to vote 'yes' or 'no' on reopening the investigation into what happened Sept. 11, 2001.
As of Jan. 4, a local group had gathered 1,240 of the approximately 1,350 signatures (5 percent of registered voters) required to put the question on the ballot, and a member of the group, Burlington attorney Frank Haddleton, expressed confidence Monday that they now have more than enough signatures.
The question would ask the Vermont congressional delegation to "demand a new, thorough, and truly independent forensic investigation" to answer "the many questions" the group says remain about what happened the day planes commandeered by terrorists smashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In September, the council unanimously passed a resolution promising they would honor the Vermont tradition of allowing such questions if they garner enough signatures, "whether or not they like the questions or agree with the petitioners."
Monday, the council agreed unanimously that they wouldn't vote on putting the 9/11 question on the March ballot after City Attorney Joe McNeil said the September resolution had put the council views on record and that the question would be on the ballot if the signatures were submitted by Jan. 25.
The group said in a letter to the council that it doesn't "advance any particular alternative theory" about what happened Sept. 11, 2001, but thinks the day's aftermath, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, are so serious that a new investigation is warranted "to get answers to hundreds of questions raised by independent researchers, members of the intelligence community and family members of 9/11 victims."
The attacks, the letter said, have been cited as justifications for the wars, "wiretapping, the USA PATRIOT Act, torture, indefinite detentions without charges, and the recently passed Military Commission Act that suspends the writ of habeas corpus. We maintain that until the serious, credible questions about 9/11 are addressed, the government has no right to ask us to compromise the Constitution or engage in any new wars again terrorism."
The group's spokesman, local author and musician Marc Estrin, said the ballot item would be the first of its sort in the United States.
"We're all very pleased that the council voted not to interfere and let it go forward if we come up with the signatures," Haddleton said.
pentagon abandons active-duty time limit from ap/yahoo: The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq.
The day after President Bush announced his plan for a deeper U.S. military commitment in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the change in reserve policy would have been made anyway because active-duty troops already were getting too little time between their combat tours. britain working "hand in glove" with US over iraq from german press agency/raw story: The British government Thursday welcomed the decision by US President George W Bush to send more troops to Iraq but said the government in London had no plans to increase current troop levels of around 7,200. A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked after a cabinet meeting whether the British leader specifically backed the US decision, said the UK was "working hand in glove" with its coalition partners and the Iraqi government in the conflict. depleted uranium 'killing italian troops' from bbc: Italian soldiers are still dying following exposure to depleted uranium in the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, their relatives say.
Troops who served during the wars in the 1990s believe they have contracted cancer and other serious illnesses from extended exposure to the munitions.
The US says it fired around 40,000 depleted uranium rounds during the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts.
cia gets the go-ahead to take on hizbollah from telegraph: The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to take covert action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora...
It authorises the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to fund anti-Hizbollah groups in Lebanon and pay for activists who support the Siniora government. The secrecy of the finding means that US involvement in the activities is officially deniable.
canadian coins bugged, US security agency says from cbc: Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada, says a branch of the U.S. Department of Defence.
Security experts believe the miniature devices could be used to track the movements of defence industry personnel dealing in sensitive military technology.
from portland indymedia: Emergency Rally to Stop Iraq Escalation - DOWNTOWN PORTLAND ACTION - Stop the GD Iraq War
Pioneer Square at 6:00 PM A 6 square block march through downtown with drums, chants, signs and support from Portland
After the voters, the generals, and the Iraq Study Group all told President Bush to lead us out of Iraq, he is planning an escalation and will send more troops as soon as this month. Congress can block an escalation but it is uncertain if they will. They need to hear from us immediately.
On Thursday night, MoveOn members across the country are organizing Emergency Rallies to Stop Iraq Escalation. We’ll get together and use signs and leaflets to make sure the rest of the community knows about Bush’s outrageous plan.
from raw story: In this clip, Keith Olbermann reviews various Bush Administration plans and slogans that have failed to secure Iraq.
"Before Mr. Bush was elected, he said he was no nation-builder, nation-building was 'wrong for America.' Now, he says, it is 'vital' for America," Olbermann says.
He adds, "[Bush] said he would never have put U.S. troops under foreign control; today, U.S. troops observe Iraqi restrictions."
Olbermann's review, on his MSNBC show, was aired just before President Bush's speech to the nation regarding changes in his Iraq strategy.
from raw story: Appearing on The O'Reilly Factor, retired Lt. Colonel Oliver North, who hosts Fox News Channel's War Stories, said that he doesn't support President Bush's plan to for 20,000 additional ground troops in Iraq.
In this clip, O'Reilly quips that the conservative military analyst, best known for his key role in the Iran-Contra affair, is aligning himself with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi when he claims that Bush's "surge" plan "sounds eerily like Lyndon Johnson’s plan to save Vietnam in the 60s by gradual escalation as a way not to lose."
from guardian: George Bush's public approval ratings hit a new low yesterday as Democratic opposition to his planned US troop increase for Iraq rapidly gained momentum. Even before Mr Bush formally announces a fresh Iraq strategy tonight, Democrats in the new Congress discussed a range of options that include withholding funding for what they call an escalation of the war.
A poll in USA Today showed that approval for Mr Bush's handling of the war has dropped to 26%, a record low. About 61% opposed Mr Bush's proposed 20,000 increase in the number of troops...
The USA Today poll, which interviewed 1,004 people, found that almost half said the US could not achieve its goals in Iraq regardless of how many troops it sent. Eight in 10 said the war had gone worse than the Bush administration had anticipated and 72% said Mr Bush did not have a clear plan for Iraq. Worryingly for the Democrats, however, the poll showed that 66% had no confidence that the party had a clear plan for Iraq either.
Powerful committees in Congress will have their first chance tomorrow to question Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and Robert Gates, Donald Rumsfeld's replacement as defence secretary, about the new plan.
from infowars: The new season of 24, that is to air this coming weekend, is to prepare the American people for the idea of concentration camps, detention centers and the rounding up of people in times of crisis.
The opener depicts an America besieged by mass terrorist attacks and public paranoia, with 11 cities, including New York, Atlanta, San Antonio and L.A., having been attacked in the space of a few weeks.
A Fox news broadcast pumps out on street corners and at bus stops from TV screens as the terrified public are urged to report anyone they consider suspicious.
A brown skinned man is refused entry onto a bus as the people around him look at him as if he is some kind of space alien.
Cut to the Oval Office were there is an argument going on between the National Security Advisor and the President's aides about the morality and constitutional implications of using concentration camps/detention centers in America.
The National Security Advisor, who the President's aides are surprised to find is opposed to this, states "These places that you keep building, they are nothing more than concentration camps."
Note how the Security Advisor states that camps are already built and keep being built. She goes on to state that a "revised plan" on behalf of the White House "justifies locking up every American who prays towards Mecca."
As she continues to argue against locking up innocent Americans, the high ranking official played by Peter MacNicol (perhaps the head of Homeland Security, it is unclear from the clip) abruptly stops her and yells "security has its price." The aides, including the Attorney General then attempt to persuade the dubious President that in a "time of war" it is legal to suspend Habeas Corpus.
The second clip features a private conversation between the Security Advisor and MacNicol's character in which he tells her that he has "second guessed" the President by not rescinding an earlier secret order for the National Guard to prepare to set up detention facilities at sports arenas in L.A., Detroit and Philadelphia.
The Security Advisor questions "what happens when innocent people get caught up in this net?" To which MacNicol's character states "Like I said before, security has its price, just get used to it."
Although 24 has routinely depicted scenes of detainee torture, this latest plot-line is the first time that it has broached the issue of the detention of American citizens in a time of crisis.
At a time when legislation such as The Military Commissions Act is setting the precedent for the detention of American citizens, 24 serves as the perfect dose of fear-mongering propaganda to get the people to accept such attacks upon the fabric of freedom and to "just get used to it".
Thus when real attacks are carried out some will not be alarmed to see detention camps being used because they have already witnessed the scenario played out before their very eyes.
Laura Ingraham has previously stated that the average American's love of the show is a referendum for such tough tactics against anyone considered to be with "Al Qaeda" whether they be American citizens or not...
from alex ansary: Alex reports on the recent execution of Saddam, the illusionary concept of time, dualist energy, nature and our realtionship to it, the current conflict with Iran, Pat Robertson's recent predictions of terror, NATO, the EU's expansion to 27 member countries, John Negroponte's change of position, and recent allegations of sex slavery involving the United Nations.
from abc news: The first of up to 20,000 additional U.S. troops will move into Iraq by the end of the month under President Bush's new war plan, a senior defense official said Tuesday. Congressional Democrats scrambled for the best way to challenge an increase they said would simply cause more bloodshed.
Details of a gradual military buildup emerged a day before Bush's planned speech to the nation, in which he is also expected to propose increased economic aid to shore up the shattered country after nearly four years of bloodshed. He is expected to link the troop increase to promised steps by the Iraqi government to build up its own military, ease the country's murderous sectarian tensions, increase reconstruction and enact a plan to distribute oil revenues among the country's religious sects...
Leading the opposition, Sen. Edward Kennedy, a longtime critic, introduced legislation that would deny the president the billions needed to send more troops unless Congress agreed first. It was unclear whether the bill would ever reach the full Senate, but it could serve as a rallying point for critics.
from prison planet: A detention camp in Taylor Texas that currently holds hundreds of rebuffed asylum seekers who legally entered the country, half of which are children swept up in midnight raids, is a potential prime location for the enforced transfer of American citizens during a time of national emergency.
In 2004 the facility was on the verge of being shutdown due to lack of occupancy but new immigration policies, allied to the burgeoning growth of the prison industry and future plans to detain American citizens on masse, have revived the potential scope of the camp, and a new contract to intern 600 individuals was finalized with immigration authorities in December 2005.
"Innocent children should not be jailed and forced to live under traumatizing and dehumanizing conditions," said a statement from Texans United for Families, an organization that recently held a vigil protest at the facility. "It is bad policy and an impractical and inhumane response to a growing refugee crisis. The U.S. should seek alternatives to detention while making sure that it legislates policies that support families and keep them together and out of jail."
The Infowars team recently visited the facility and were promptly told to leave the premises before having their names taken, but not before they were able to get footage of the camp "playground" where some of the children were playing behind giant mesh barbed wire. The children were kept indoors throughout the taping and were only allowed out when the film crew left to eat lunch.
One local said that other residents of the town were completely oblivious to the fact that the camp even existed, never mind its function and purpose.
Suspicions will undoubtedly be cast as to whether the facility in Tyler is part of a wider agenda to set up a network of internment camps that will be used to forcibly detain American citizens under emergency provisions. The pretext for this was set in the summer of 2004, when thousands of protesters in New York for the Republican National Convention were forcibly detained, some for over 24 hours, without charge in an asbestos infested disused bus facility known as Pier 57, or "Guantanamo on the Hudson" as other labeled it.
During the Iran Contra hearings in the 80's, previously classified information came to light about Continuity of Government (CoG) procedures in times of national crisis. The masterminds behind these programs were Oliver North, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and the Rex-84 'readiness exercise' discussed the plan to round up immigrants and detain them in internment camps in the context of uncontrolled population movements across the Mexican border.
The real agenda was to use the cover of rounding up immigrants and illegal aliens as a smokescreen for targeting political dissidents and American citizens. From 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.
Since 9/11 shadow government and CoG programs that were outlined in Rex-84 have been activated, including mass warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. The internment camp program is being readied for execution following the announcement on January 24th that Halliburton subsidiary KBR (formerly Brown and Root) had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps.
A much discussed and circulated report, the Pentagon's Civilian Inmate Labor Program, has recently been updated and the revision details a "template for developing agreements" between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations."
The pretext given for which the camps would be used as reported by the New York Times was stated as, "an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space."
Following the news first given wide attention by this website, that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency, the Alternet website put together an alarming report that collated all the latest information on plans to initiate internment of political subversives and Muslims after the next major terror attack in the U.S.
The article highlighted the disturbing comments of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who encouraged torture supporting Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to target, "Fifth Columnists" Americans who show disloyalty and sympathize with "the enemy," whoever that enemy may be.
Respected author Peter Dale Scott speculated that the "detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law."
Daniel Ellsberg, former Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense, called the plan, "preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters. They've already done this on a smaller scale, with the 'special registration' detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo."
One of the last acts of Congress before Christmas was to send President Bush a bill that establishes a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to preserve Japanese POW internment camps in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Is this really in the name of historical interest or does it dovetail with programs on the books to intern hundreds of thousands of dissidents in a time of crisis?
boston may install 'gunshot-detection system' from boston globe: Boston city councilors, law enforcement officials, and community leaders are pressing City Hall to come up with $1.5 million to buy a promising acoustic gunshot-detection system... Similar gunshot-detection systems are already being used by police in a number of US cities in addition to Chicago, including Minneapolis; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Gary, Ind.; Charleston, S.C.; and Rochester, N.Y.
UN investigated over 300 for sex abuse from newsday: The United Nations has investigated more than 300 members of U.N. peacekeeping missions for alleged sexual exploitation and abuse during the past three years and more than half were fired or sent home, according to a senior U.N. official.
new passport rules to take effect from burlington free press: In 2 1/2 weeks, air travelers to and from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean will need a passport to cross the U.S. border.... In the spring, all U.S citizens applying for a passport will receive an electronic version that's embedded with a "smart" chip designed to thwart forgery.
from bbc: US stun gun maker Taser is unveiling a sleeker version of its controversial weapon aimed at safety and fashion conscious members of the public.
Available in pink, blue, silver and black, the gun fits into a handbag like a mobile phone. It will be launched at a Las Vegas electronics fair on Monday.
Taser guns temporarily incapacitate a target with up to 50,000 volts.
Critics have linked their use to dozens of deaths, but Taser says they save lives by reducing the use of firearms.
The gun has however been at the centre of fresh controversy this weekend over the death of a man in Florida after police used a Taser to subdue him.
Its use by police in the UK has also sparked debate. Late last year a man in the north of the country died three days after being shot with a Taser.
from reuters: The Army said on Friday that it will apologize to the families of deceased and wounded officers that it mistakenly encouraged to re-enlist via letters sent out in late December.
About 75 families of deceased officers and 200 families of wounded officers received such letters sent to more than 5,100 officers between December 26 and 28, the Army said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, the database used to address those letters contained names of officers who were killed in action or wounded," the Army said. "Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters."
from times online: Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.
The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.
from new york times: It seemed like a perfect formula for good publicity: A national sweepstakes would award a $25,000 United States savings bond to the first American baby born in 2007, courtesy of the toy chain Toys “R” Us and its Babies “R” Us division.
Instead, after disqualifying a Chinese-American baby girl born in New York Downtown Hospital at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s, the toy company finds itself caught in the glare of the immigration debate, stumbling over the nation’s new demographic realities.
The baby girl, Yuki Lin, was an American citizen from the second the ball dropped in Times Square, where the Toys “R” Us flagship store draws thousands of shoppers from around the world. But like 6 out of 10 babies born in the city — including at least two others born in Brooklyn about the same moment — she has immigrant parents. And according to the contest’s fine print, the chain decided, she was ruled out because her mother was not a legal resident.
The first baby of the year is usually a one-day story. But Albert H. Wang, a corporate lawyer who read about Yuki Lin’s lost chance on the Web site of the Chinese-language newspaper The World Journal, was outraged enough to start an e-mail campaign that is enlisting the ire of prominent Chinese-Americans like the president of the Asian American Business Development Center and officers of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Their criticism, and threats of a media campaign against the company, come just a month after the chain opened its first store in China, in Shanghai.
“They want business from China,” said Mr. Wang, 39, adding that most of the chain’s toys are made by Chinese workers in China. “But when it comes to this Chinese-American U.S. citizen, she was deprived of $25,000 intended to be used for her college education, because of who her parents are.”
democrats take control of congress from ap/my way: In a day of ceremony and historic change, Rep. Nancy Pelosi became the nation's first female House speaker on Thursday as Democrats eagerly took control of Congress for the final two years of President Bush's term.
"The Democrats are back," rejoiced Pelosi, and she immediately set the rank-and-file to work passing tougher ethics rules.
NORAD identified the rocket as an SL-4 that had been used to launch a French space telescope in December, and Kelly said U.S. spacewatchers knew the rocket was coming down.
cafferty blasts the mccain doctrine from crooks & liars: In [Wednesday] night's 7:00 question, Jack cut through the "surge" spin (aka the McCain Doctrine) and muses aloud about when the insanity will end...
"President Bush is expected to call for sending as many as 40,000 additional troops to Vietnam — I mean Iraq — next week. Escalating the war is now being called a surge. Stay the course has been relabeled. It's the new way forward. We did this in Vietnam, remember? The U.S. kept sending troops over there which only led to more people dying."
bush shuffles the neocon deck from kurt nimmo: In an all too predictable game of musical chairs, the Bush neocons have decided to shuffle John Negroponte, the butcher of Honduras and member in good standing at the Council on Foreign Relations, off to the State Department to work under Condi, drop Zalmay Khalilzad, the PNAC flunky, into fill the space vacated by the unconfirmable John Bolton at the United Nations, and spin former admiral Mike McConnell, a director at Booz Allen Hamilton, where the neocon “World War Four” James Woolsey runs shop, into the top spook position as national intelligence director.
W pushes envelope on US spying from ny daily news: President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.
The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.
That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.
from ap/my way: Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Thursday dismissed the chief of the country's nuclear weapons program because of security breakdowns at the Los Alamos, N.M., laboratory and other facilities.
Bodman said the nuclear agency under Brooks, a former ambassador and arms control negotiator, had not adequately fixed security problems. "I have decided it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," Bodman said.
Brooks told agency workers in a statement, "This is not a decision that I would have preferred ... (but) I accept the decision and you need to do likewise."
He characterized the demand for his resignation as "based on the principle of accountability that should govern all public service." ...
When it was learned that Brooks did not inform his superiors for eight months about the computer theft of data on 1,500 employees, Rep. Joe Barton last year sought Brooks' immediate dismissal.
"His departure is long overdue," Barton, R-Texas, said Thursday.
from kurt nimmo: Is John “Keating Five” McCain sincerely clueless? Or is he simply a politician playing a cynical numbers game with Iraq and thus eventually condemning to certain death more troops that should be here at home, protecting our borders?
McCain told General John Abizaid he didn’t understand why the United States cannot “control” al-Anbar province and was flummoxed the general would suggest the “mission” is to train Iraqis to fight the “insurgency,” actually a popular resistance against both occupation by foreign troops and their hand-picked Iraqi proxy.
McCain expressed frustration that said “insurgents” have taken back al-Anbar, thus demonstrating you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, or at least teach him a bit of history and the inevitability of defeat for those who invade and attempt to occupy, as the French lost Vietnam at Diem Bien Phu and the British lost Afghanistan at the Gandamak pass. In Iraq, the Brits were unable to contain continual uprisings against occupation, even though they used mustard gas, a weapon favored by Winston Churchill for the likes of “uncivilized” tribes. John McCain, the Manchurian candidate for president in 2008, does not even seem vaguely aware of such historical realities:
But forget al-Anbar, the Pentagon can’t even “secure” Baghdad, and will be unlikely to do so even if they send another 20,000, 30,000, or even 100,000 troops into the neocon constructed meat grinder.
Next, we are told, Bush will announce a smaller number than McCain has in mind—15,000 troops, not 20,000. “Instead of a surge, it is a bump,” an anonymous person in Condi’s State Department told McClatchy Newspapers, thus reducing, to a niggling degree, the severity of “sacrifice” (when neocons and one-world types start in talking about sacrifice, it is time to head for the hills)...
Admittedly, Bush may not know what he is doing from one moment to the next, as he is a former drunk and drug abuser, and thus a mental graveyard, but his coterie of neocons most certainly know what they are doing - coming up with excuses to send more troops into Iraq, not to win that which cannot be won, as another basket case, McCain, would have us believe, but rather to see through “mission accomplished,” the destruction and balkanization of Iraq. It’s a work in progress, with horrifying results. For instance, last weekend, a series of car bombings killed more than 70 people in Shia neighborhoods in the hours after Saddam Hussein was lynched by a gaggle of puppets installed by the neocons.
“Americans are a patient lot and likely will give Bush the time and backing he needs to take another shot at getting a U.S. policy in Iraq that works,” a scribbler over at the Associated Press avers. “And the new Democratically led Congress, which convenes on Jan. 4, probably won‘t block the commander in chief if he decides to briefly increase troop levels.”
In other words, the American people can be expected to do nothing, or nothing effective, to put an end to the carnage, never mind the increasing flights of flag-draped coffins off-loaded at Dover Air Force Base. Of course, most Americans, many unable to find Iraq on a map, don’t know a thing about the 650,000 plus Iraqis slaughtered, and even if they did a whole lot of them wouldn’t care...
Of course, we can’t expect Democrats—now taking up their places in the Great Corporate and Special Interest Whorehouse on the Potomac—to consider such nuances, as some of them, for instance Silvestre Reyes, the incoming chairman of the House of Representatives’ Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, can’t be bothered to tell crucial differences between the Sunni and Shia.
Neocons, naturally, know the difference, and that’s why they do the things they do.
from playtoh: George Carlin has never been afraid of being politically incorrect, but in this piece he lays the big picture on the line. Clocking in at just over 13 minutes, he has to get the award for the quickest introduction to the real world ever. As in feudal days, it seems that the jester is the only one left allowed to speak the truth openly.
from 9/11 blogger: In the third hour of her January 2nd radio show, Randi Rhodes discussed Bush senior's recent odd behavior - referencing the Warren commission report and JFK conspiracy theories during his speech at Ford's memorial. Randi drew comparisons to his recent breakdown while giving a speech regarding his son Jeb. She questions whether his recent strange behavior is due to a forthcoming wave of questions by the incoming democratic majority. Amongst this segment Randi quite bluntly questions the collapses of the twin towers as well as WTC7.
Let's hope that Randi will continue to voice her concerns over what really happened on 9/11, and that her voice won't fall on deaf ears with the incoming democratic majority. Check out the first segment - about 12 minutes - in the MP3 linked above.
Former President triumphs Warren Commission at Ford's funeral; Are the Bush's breaking down? from prison planet: During his speech at yesterday's funeral service for Gerald Ford, former President George H.W. Bush bashed JFK "conspiracy theorists" and defended the Warren Commission report, another odd public outburst indicative of a crime family whose decades of misdeeds may finally be catching up with them.
"After a deluded gunman assassinated President Kennedy, our nation turned to Gerald Ford and a select handful of others to make sense of that madness," said Bush. "And the conspiracy theorists can say what they will, but the Warren Commission report will always have the final definitive say on this tragic matter. Why? Because Jerry Ford put his name on it and Jerry Ford’s word was always good."
The only thing Ford was good for was running defense for criminals when he pardoned the remorseless Richard Nixon and others after Watergate, allowing larcenous felons to walk free and leaving the legacy in place that it's OK to break the law if you are the President, a form of absolutism that has been keenly inherited by the current crop of crooks, including Dick Cheney who praised Ford for 'allowing the nation to heal' by protecting a cadre of organized crime gangsters.
Of course, all of this had nothing to do with liberals or conservatives, bricklayers or office clerks," writes Kurt Nimmo, "It had to do with breaking the law, with “dirty tricks,” snooping on political opponents, sabotaging Democratic presidential candidates, going after Daniel Ellsberg for the public service he provided by bringing the Pentagon Papers to light, ordering the FBI to investigate CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr, discussing the possibility of having newspaper columnist Jack Anderson assassinated, and other crimes (evading taxes, accepting illicit campaign contributions, ordering secret bombings, and harassing opponents with executive agencies, wiretaps, and break-ins), all of it culminating in Watergate."
There's no doubt that Ford, not unlike Saddam Hussein who died days after, knew where the bodies were buried and Bush was simply eulogizing his noble service in sweeping the JFK assassination under the rug, shielding Poppy himself from serious questions about his own involvement in events at Dealy Plaza.
As Wayne Madsen comments, "The elder Bush cannot really remember where he was on November 22, 1963. He later claimed he was in Tyler, Texas although there is evidence that he was checked into the Dallas Sheraton Hotel that day. Mr. Bush, the conspiracy theorists will continue to say what they will until you start telling the truth about Zapata, de Mohrenshildt, Mongoose, New Orleans, and JM/WAVE."
Bush senior's outburst marks the second time in the same amount of months that he has felt the need to publicly attack those who would normally be relegated to the fringes of political discourse by big media consensus.
During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News in November, George Bush Sr slammed Internet bloggers for creating an adversarial and ugly climate, echoing the rhetoric of fellow Neo-Cons and the White House itself in trashing the reputation of the world wide web and the political blogosphere.
The fact that Bush is being pressured into bad mouthing so-called "conspiracy theorists" and bloggers proves that the chorus of dissent is beginning to make these cretins lose some sleep at night.
The Bush family as a whole is starting to exhibit some seriously offbeat behavior that suggests their decades of underhand chicanery, murders, cover-ups and scams are finally beginning to catch up with them.
Last month Bush senior burst into tears during a speech at his son Jeb's leadership forum. Jeb Bush himself recently declared that he had "no future" in politics. George W. Bush's obvious deteriorating mental acumen, characterized by a consistent supply of "Bushisms," has led several commentators to conclude that the current President is in the early stages of pre-senile dementia. The Bush daughters' behavior doesn't seem to be maturing with age either after U.S. Embassy officials strongly urged them to cut short last month's escapade in Argentina.
Are the Bush's breaking down? Is the fact that the President is less popular than Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Satan combined finally starting to provoke pangs of conscience amongst the notorious crime family?
from ap/breit bart: In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in "mass killing" late in 2007.
"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."
Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.
Robertson said God also told him that the U.S. only feigns friendship with Israel and that U.S. policies are pushing Israel toward "national suicide."
Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli- controlled land to the Palestinians.
The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election. Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. He also predicted Bush's victory for a second term in 2005.
"I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss."
In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America's coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring's heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.
from prison planet: A new piece of legislation set to be re-introduced in Congress by the Democrats under the guise of anti-bullying would reprimand schoolchildren for verbal criticism of their peers in any context, including sexual orientation, religion or simply expression of an opposing idea. The bill echoes federal hate crime legislation about to be debated as Congress enters its first session tomorrow.
The bill outlines a $300 million dollar federal program to target bullies who harass other kids about their sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
However, the language of the legislation is so loosely defined that it could punish kids for simply verbally disagreeing with another student about so-called "alternative lifestyles."
The bill defines harassment as, "conduct, including verbal conduct, that creates, or would create, a hostile environment by substantially interfering with a student's educational benefits, opportunities, or performance, or with a student's physical or psychological well-being."
Harassment would be taken to include, "any distinguishing characteristic of an individual, including actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression, family composition or circumstance, or economic circumstance."
Targeting young children for the words they say and the behavior they exhibit is a reflection of a control freak society gone overboard. In a recent article we highlighted several cases where kindergarten kids as young as five were having sexual harassment "offences" placed on file for pinching another child's bottom.
How toddlers and extremely young children can engage in "sexual harassment" when they don't even know what sex is nor have any sexual feelings matters not to County officials across the country who are following these nightmare socialist style policies by the book.
All of these measures are aimed at getting kids in the system from a very early age and training them that obedient docility is the only conduct that will be tolerated. Perfect automatons for the state who will grow up to accept the mandate that all free speech is offensive to somebody and should therefore be highly regulated.
The anti-bullying legislation dovetails a similarly reinvigorated federal hate crimes law that according to commentators could lead "directly to an end of free speech."
"The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act" criminalizes any public criticism of homosexuality, transvestites, witches pedophiles, satanists and others who lead self-professed alternative lifestyles, defining any disagreement and debate with these groups as "hate crime." The bill also classifies "sexist words" used by men during intercourse as "rape," and greases the skids for the criminalizing criticism of the Jewish political lobby in Washington - along with a whole raft of other twilight zone regulations.
Decrees of political correctness and the doctrines of liberal mind control have swamped Europe to the point where Christian ministers are being arrested for reading Bible passages. It is also an illegal offence in Britain to criticize homosexuality.
In November 2002 BBC presenter Robin Page was arrested for saying in a speech a month earlier that the farming community should have the same rights as Muslims, homosexuals and vegetarians. Police traveled from 200 miles away to question Page, before detaining him in a prison cell with dried feces on the wall and later charging him with incitement to racial hatred - simply for stating farmers should have the same rights!
In 2001, Gloucestershire Police set up 'Operation Napkin' in which senior police officers were sent to 'ethnic restaurants' to eat four-course dinners and at the same time listen out for "racist hate speech." Arrests were made as a result of the program.
Just last month a 14-year-old school girl was arrested in Manchester for making a "racist comment," after she refused to work with a group of Asians during a science tutorial because none of them spoke English.
Reports of "hate crime raids" where PC subversives are rounded up like terrorists by police are commonplace.
from telegraph: Britons flying to America could have their credit card and email accounts inspected by the United States authorities following a deal struck by Brussels and Washington.
By using a credit card to book a flight, passengers face having other transactions on the card inspected by the American authorities. Providing an email address to an airline could also lead to scrutiny of other messages sent or received on that account.
The extent of the demands were disclosed in "undertakings" given by the US Department of Homeland Security to the European Union and published by the Department for Transport after a Freedom of Information request.
About four million Britons travel to America each year and the released document shows that the US has demanded access to far more data than previously realised.
from ap/yahoo: Another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster. These are among Americans' grim predictions for the United States in 2007.
Only a minority of people think the U.S. will go to war with Iran or North Korea over those countries' nuclear ambitions. An overwhelming majority of those surveyed think Congress will raise the federal minimum wage. One-third see hope for a cure to cancer.
Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of a terrorist attack. An identical percentage thinks it likely that a biological or nuclear weapon will be unleashed somewhere else in the world.
Seventy percent of people in the U.S. predict a major natural disaster in the country and an equal percentage expects worsening global warming. Also, 29 percent think it likely that the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq.
Among other predictions for the U.S. in 2007:
_35 percent predict the military draft will be reinstated.
_35 percent predict a cure for cancer will be found.
_25 percent anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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from bbc: The US Central Intelligence Agency has not found conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported.
