miltech: wow, weather wars, haarp, mind control & lasers

pentagon researcher conjures warcraft terror plot
from danger room: The American military and intelligence communities are increasingly worried that would-be bin Ladens might gather in a virtual world, to plan a real-life attack. But the spies haven't given many details, about how it might be done. Now, a Pentagon researcher has laid out how such a terror plot might unfold. The planning ground is World of Warcraft. The main target of this possibly nuclear strike: the White House. There's been no public proof to date of terrorists hatching plots in virtual worlds. But online spaces like World of Warcraft are making some spooks, generals and Congressmen extremely nervous. They imagine terrorists rehearsing attacks in these worlds, just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games. They worry that the massively multiplayer games make it incredibly easy to gather plotters from around the world. But, mostly, virtual worlds are nerve-wracking to spies because they're so hard to monitor. The accounts are pseudonymous. The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans. In a presentation (6.9mb PPT) late last week at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference in Washington, Dr. Dwight Toavs, a professor at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University, gave a bit of a primer on virtual worlds to an audience largely ignorant about what happens in these online spaces. Then he launched into a scenario, to demonstrate how a meatspace plot might be hidden by in-game chatter.

US govt mad scientists geo-engineer atmosphere
from paul joseph watson: U.S. government scientists are bombarding the skies with the acid-rain causing pollutant sulphur dioxide in an attempt to fight global warming by “geo-engineering” the planet, despite the fact that injecting aerosols into the upper atmosphere carries with it a host of both known and unknown dangers. The proposal to disperse sulphur dioxide in an attempt to reflect sunlight was again raised in a London Guardian article this week entitled, Geoengineering: The radical ideas to combat global warming, in which Ken Caldeira, a leading climate scientist based at the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California, promotes the idea of injecting the atmosphere with aerosols.

russia's haarp explored
from danger room: The U.S. military runs a facility, way out in the woods of Alaska, that beams hugely-powerful radio waves into the ionosphere. Depending on who you believe, this High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) installation blasts out these transmissions in order to learn more about the electrically-conductive layer of the atmosphere. Or HAARP is designed to spy on unwitting foes, control the weather, and spew out death rays. In either event, HAARP wasn't the first installation of its kind. The Soviets had their own, high frequency ionospheric research center. It's now abandoned, mostly. But the pictures of the place are very much worth a few clicks.

the army's totally serious mind-control project
from time: Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century. That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone." If this sounds insane, it would have been as recently as a few years ago. But improvements in computing power and a better understanding of how the brain works have scientists busy hunting for the distinctive neural fingerprints that flash through a brain when a person is talking to himself. The Army's initial goal is to capture those brain waves with incredibly sophisticated software that then translates the waves into audible radio messages for other troops in the field. "It'd be radio without a microphone, " says Dr. Elmar Schmeisser, the Army neuroscientist overseeing the program. "Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way."

747-based chemical laser tests begin
from aviation week: Longer duration firings of the high-energy laser on board the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Boeing 747 airborne laser (ABL) are getting underway following the completion of the "first light" initial firing milestone onboard the aircraft in a ground test on Sept. 7. The test, conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., lasted only a "fraction of a second" says a spokesman for Northrop Grumman, the makers of the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). But this was long enough to prove "the laser is ready to demonstrate power output sufficient to destroy a ballistic missile in flight," he adds.

helping ‘people at home’ may become permanent part of active army

in any other country, having the military on the streets would make you a 3rd world police state, but i guess it's not fascism when we do it...

from army times: The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (check out: 9/11 Flight Paths & Stewart Air Base) has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home. Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks. It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas. But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

police state usa: pandemic drills, cog, corruption & surveillance

'vigilant guard' managers put the kaboom in terrorism exercises
from national guard bureau: KaBOOM! Exercise managers for the Vigilant Guard homeland security exercise here added realism Sept. 16 by blowing up balloons filled with explosive gas. KaPOW! They tested the balloons today. Tomorrow the noisemakers will prompt police swat teams to move in on a suspected fake terrorist hideout at a hotel. Along with phony blown up cars, it’s all been fabricated by the National Guard’s civilian exercise managers. Vigilant Guard began here Sept. 12 with a regional tabletop exercise at the Guam Guard’s Joint Forces Headquarters. It continues through this week, culminating with a simulated terrorist attack on the island’s Tumon Beach, which is a popular tourist and vacation spot.

atf missing 418 laptops & 76 guns
from ap: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday (3.4mb PDF), blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping. Thirty-five of the missing handguns, rifles, Tasers and other weapons were stolen, as were 50 laptops, the internal audit found. Two of the stolen weapons were used in crimes. The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found "inadequate" oversight of weapons and laptops resulted in "significant rates of losses" at the ATF.

oklahoma firefighters team up with wmd unit for drill
from kten: Wednesday in Ardmore, The National Guard's 63rd Weapons Of Mass Destruction Team out of Norman, paired up with local emergency responders to conduct a mock drill. The drill involved a chemical release in The Ardmore Convention Center with a large group of people inside. KTEN's Hailee Holliday reports.


burlington participates in pandemic experiment
from wcax: Burlington is one of nine test markets in the country taking part in a flu pandemic preparation exercise. The experiment will focus on prevention - like hand washing - and what to do in case of an outbreak. Health authorities say preparing is crucial because it's not a question of if we will have another major flu outbreak, but when.

drive-through clinic offers booster shots targeting hepatitis a
from buffalo news: There were no burgers or fries at this drive-through. This weekend, hepatitis A booster shots are being given out drive-through style at the Amherst Highway Garage. On Saturday, hundreds of people rolled down their windows and pulled up their sleeves to receive the booster shot in their arms — without leaving their cars. “We’ve had minivans with entire families pull up and single cars, too,” said Daniel Neaverth, Erie County deputy commissioner of emergency medical services. By 3 p. m., more than 300 people had participated... The idea was to administer the shots in the most efficient way possible. But it also served as an exercise in giving out mass doses of a vaccine in the event of a pandemic outbreak or a biological attack. Neaverth said Erie County is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “City Readiness Initiative.” Participants are encouraged to develop new ways to administer medicines to the masses.

military aircraft to conduct training exercises over washdc
from wtop: If you see and hear military aircraft overhead Wednesday and Thursday, it's just an exercise. The North American Aerospace Defense Command starts conducting a two-day exercise in the D.C. area Wednesday. The exercise, a series of training flights, is designed to hone NORAD's intercept and identification operations. Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard helicopters will participate in the exercise. The training flights were occur during late night and early morning hours. In the event of inclement weather, NORAD will run the exercise on the next clear day until the exercise has been completed.

nation inadequately prepared for severe pandemic
from govtech: States are making significant progress toward safeguarding their citizens against an influenza pandemic, but the nation as a whole remains inadequately prepared for a severe pandemic outbreak according to a new report by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center). The report, Pandemic Preparedness in the States: An Assessment of Progress and Opportunity (412kb PDF), presents an overall appraisal of the current level of pandemic preparedness in the states and offers recommendations for improvement in five areas. "Even though this issue largely has fallen off the public's radar, states recognize that successfully managing a pandemic outbreak requires a sustained effort to combat the threat in all sectors of the economy and in society as a whole," said Chris Logan, program director of the NGA Center's Homeland Security and Technology Division. "The conclusions of this report serve a vital national service: they demonstrate both the extent of our readiness as well as the gaps in our current preparedness."

neocon think tank says US still lacks good continuity plan
from aei: Seven years is a long time, but the enormity and depravity of the acts are fresh. Nonetheless, one would think that seven years is enough time for even a slow-moving political system to create basic insurance to prevent the kind of chaos and injury to the American constitutional system that would come with another, more successful, attack on official Washington. Never mind. In one of the more shameworthy lapses in our dysfunctional government, especially in Congress, nothing constructive has been done to protect our elections, our legislative branch, our presidential succession process or our Supreme Court from the consequences of the kind of terrorist attack that every expert we have believes is quite likely to occur in the future... The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 has no relevance to the challenges and potential disasters of 2008 and beyond... We are approaching an inauguration that will be historic in many ways--and also the single most vulnerable day for our constitutional system. The plans to ensure that the worst-case scenario there will not turn into an even worse scenario for the country and its future? Zero. Happy seventh anniversary.

mass surveillance plan fast-tracked by the nypd
from antifascist calling: Last month Antifascist Calling reported on a scheme by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to encircle Manhattan with thousands of surveillance cameras and sensors that would photograph all vehicles entering the city. Information captured by this intrusive system would be stored in a huge database for an undisclosed period of time. That plan is now moving forward with a vengeance.

new york offers 'enhanced' rfid driver’s licenses
from times union: Starting Tuesday, New Yorkers will be able to buy new driver's licenses containing a radio chip that will let them travel between the U.S. and Canada or Mexico without a passport. The new Enhanced Drivers License, which will cost an additional $30 on top of the standard $50 license fee, also will allow those on boats or ships to travel to Bermuda and Caribbean nations without a passport. Starting in June, federal law will dictate that passports or other proof of citizenship - or an enhanced license - will be needed to visit neighboring countries, including Canada and Mexico. "This is an opportunity for individuals, at their option, to get through the borders more quickly," said Ken Brown, a spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

mukasey's justice dept codifies cointelpro into fbi 'ground rules'
from 9/11 blogger: Every once in a while, the Washington Post actually prints something of note. Yesterday, they published this article, Rule Changes Would Give FBI Agents Extensive New Powers. Previously, the FBI was required to have a case before they started screwing around with you. Under Mukasey's "New Rules", we now have a situation ripe for abuse. The Justice Department is currently working out the wording for placing "undisclosed participants" in organizations... Just in time for the November elections.

lieberman wins: youtube bans videos that incite violence
from washington post: The video-sharing service YouTube is banning submissions that involve "inciting others to violence," following criticism from Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) that the site was too open to terrorist groups disseminating militant propaganda. The company earlier this year removed some of the videos that Lieberman targeted, many of which were marked with the logos of al-Qaeda and affiliated groups. But the company refused to take down most of the videos on the senator's list, saying they did not violate the Web site's guidelines against graphic violence or hate speech. Now that videos inciting others to violence are banned, more videos by the terrorist groups in question may be removed. "YouTube reviews its content guidelines a few times a year, and we take the community's input seriously," YouTube spokesman Ricardo Reyes said. "The senator made some good points."

military industrial complex 2.0
from information clearinghouse: Seven years into George W. Bush's Global War on Terror, the Pentagon is embroiled in two big wars, a potentially explosive war of words with Tehran, and numerous smaller conflicts – and it is leaning ever more heavily on private military contractors to get by. Once upon a time, soldiers did more than pick up a gun. They picked up trash. They cut hair and delivered mail. They fixed airplanes and inflated truck tires. Not anymore. All of those tasks are now the responsibility of private military corporations. In the service of the Pentagon, their employees also man computers, write software code, create integrating systems, train technicians, manufacture and service high-tech weapons, market munitions, and interpret satellite images. People in ties or heels, not berets or fatigues, today translate documents, collect intelligence, interpret for soldiers and interrogators, approve contracts, draft reports to Congress, and provide oversight for other private contractors. They also fill prescriptions, fit prosthetics, and arrange for physical therapy and psychiatric care. Top to bottom, the Pentagon's war machine is no longer just driven by, but staffed by, corporations.

photo ticket cameras to track drivers nationwide
from the newspaper: Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients. Redflex explained the company's latest developments in an August 7 meeting with Homestead, Florida officials.

smile for the cameras
from willamette week: Portland Public Schools is giving the bus company that schleps around students $18,000 to buy 20 digital cameras to monitor rider behavior on district buses. The school board OK’d the expenditure at its Sept. 15 meeting on top of the district’s $58 million contract with Laidlaw Transit, now doing business as First Student. Andy Leibenguth, of the district’s transportation office, says no incident precipitated the camera purchase. The district isn’t targeting a specific route; it plans to rotate the cameras, which will supplement the 15 cameras First Student already uses.

cops catch 'special agent from the US illuminati'

from ap: t wasn't the preferred way to enter the Knoxville Museum of Art, but Richard Anthony Smith told police he was on a mission. The 25-year-old Knoxville man called 911 from his cell phone before dawn Wednesday saying he was trapped in an air conditioning duct leading from the museum roof, Knoxville police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said. Police and firefighters reached the roof, found a rope and cable and followed them to a vent shaft. Peering inside, they spotted Smith about 45 feet down. "Mission failed," he told them.

Hoisted up and read his rights, Smith told police he was a "special agent from the United States Illuminati, badge number 0931" and had rappelled onto the museum from a helicopter, a police report said.

He said he was following orders to "defuse and confiscate" a Soviet-made nuclear warhead, specifically a "MERV6SS-22AN" warhead, according to the report. The bomb supposedly was hidden in a blue, plastic cow sculpture in the museum basement, he said.

However, Smith told officers his "agency" called while he was in air-vent limbo to say it made a mistake and the bomb might be in a Memphis museum instead.

Police charged Smith with aggravated robbery. He was being held on $2,000 bond at the Knox County Jail. Authorities said he did not have a lawyer. "Fortunately he was able to reach his cell phone," DeBusk said, "or he may not have been found for quite some time."

gwot: wv natl guard, nuke discipline, provocation & suicide

west virginia national guard mobilized
from ap: An Army National Guard squadron based in West Virginia is being deployed. But Captain James Bowen says the specific destination for the 150th Armored Reconnaissance Squadron is yet to be determined. Some of the unit's 570 soldiers are from Ohio. Bowen says around December 1st, the squadron based in Brushfork, West Virginia, will be sent to Fort Pickett in Virginia, then to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. After that, he says the guard members will head to Fort Irwin in California until they're sent overseas. This would be the 150th's second mobilization in the past four years.

generals to be disciplined over nukes
from dod buzz: Defense Secretary Robert Gates will announce a range of punishments for at least five general officers and possibly several colonels for lapses connected with the nation's nuclear weapons, sources tell DoD Buzz. The announcements are expected on Tuessday next week... Gates had to intervene personally and ordered Donald's review after sensitive nuclear parts were sent mistakenly to Taiwan and a B-52 bomber flew across the country carrying six armed nuclear cruise missiles. Last week, a panel of august experts led by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger said they had been surprised by the erosion of controls over nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War and recommended that Air Force Space Command be folded into a new Air Force Strategic Command and urged a range of other measures to ensure airmen dealing with nukes "feel they are part of an important mission."

cia chief: we 'tickle' terrorists, with missiles
from danger room: The CIA doesn't just attack terrorists, to take them out. Sometimes, the spy agency strikes, to "tickle" enemies into reacting, CIA chief Michael Hayden told the annual Air Force Association conference earlier today. "Today, we routinely use kinetic force [bombs-and-bullets attacks] not just for its own effect, but to create a response that will allow us to collect more intelligence. We use military operations to excite the enemy, prompting him to respond," Hayden said. "We create and benefit from a highly virtuous cycle: Operations generate opportunities to learn more about the enemy, the intelligence gained creates opportunities for follow-on operations, and so on."

expert: al-qaeda is in league with US
from russia today: In a video released Monday Al Qaeda leaders slammed Teheran accusing Iran of giving way to the US, by allowing it invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Some experts believe the terrorist organization is trying to undermine support for Iran amidst continued speculation about possible military operations against it, by the United States. In a 90 minute video shown on Al Jazeera TV channel, Al Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri doubted the Iranian Government’s anti-American stance and claimed Teheran was in alliance with ‘the Crusade’ against Muslim nations. “This statement is absolutely in tune with the interests of the USA,” said Aleksandr Yakuba, head of CrossMediaCommunications analytical department, to RBK daily website. Yakuba believes Al Qaeda’s goals in Iran coincide with those of the American administration. A weakened Teheran will help the organisation boost its control in some Iraqi territories, where Iran currently has influence. There’s also the issue of a religious divide. “Al Qaeda are Salafists, ‘purist Muslims’ who consider Shiites heretics,” he said, claiming that Shiite-controlled governments in both Iraq and Iran are thwarting the organisation’s efforts in the region.

16 US troops commit suicide in iraq
from press tv: Sixteen US troops from the a unit of the Airborne Division have committed suicide inside a military base in Iraq, security sources say. Iraqi security sources have revealed that 21 US troops had committed suicide inside a former Iraqi air force base 27 days ago, Fars News Agency reported on Monday. According to the sources, the 21 troops were treated in a hospital but only five soldiers have survived and they are in a critical condition. Security officials said they used potent narcotics to kill themselves. The troops' motivations for suicide are not known but according to Iraqi sources the servicemen belonged to a unit of the US Airborne Division that was behind the massacre of several Iraqi families-- mostly women and children - in northern Baghdad, said Ali al-Baghdadi an Iraqi security official. The suicides took place in the soldiers' dormitory after the dinner time. "The bodies of the US troops became misshapen such a way that they looked like 5000-year mummies," said a witness. According to Iraqi officials' estimates, some 600 US troops, including senior officers, have committed suicide in Iraq since the invasion of the country in 2003. Half of the suicide attempts have been successful.

US embassy in yemen attacked, 16 killed

attack against embassy blamed on al-CIAda

from danger room: "A car bomb and rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen has killed at least 16 people, including civilians and Yemeni security guards," the AP reports. "Yemen has long been viewed as a haven for jihadists," the Times notes. "It became a special concern for the United States in 2000, after Al Qaeda operatives rammed the U.S.S. Cole in Aden harbor, on Yemen’s southern coast, killing 17 American sailors." The paper adds, "The U.S. compound has also been the scene of occasional political violence in previous years, including a large demonstration against the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, in which two Yemenis were fatally shot and dozens injured." In April, the State Department "ordered all non-essential diplomatic staff to leave the country after an attack on the embassy claimed by al-Qaeda," Al-Jazeera observes. "A residential compound used by U.S. oil workers in [the capital city of] Sanaa had also come under attack from rockets at that time."

bush: yemen bombing 'a reminder we are at war'
from raw replay: President Bush commented about attacks at the US Embassy in Yemen. Bush made the remarks while meeting with General Petraeus in Washington. This video is from MSNBC’s News Live, broadcast September 17, 2008.

economoney meltdown

nobel-winning stiglitz: crisis as bad or worse as great depression
from steve watson: Two time Nobel-prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz has warned that the current financial crisis will continue for at least another eighteen months and in many ways represents a worse situation than the one faced by Americans during the great depression of the 1930s. “You can paper things over for a while but eventually you have to face reality.”

gold soars over 8%
from reuters: U.S. gold futures rose 8 percent on Wednesday, soaring above $840 an ounce as investors poured into the gold market as a safe haven amid heavy losses in stocks and ongoing financial turmoil, traders said. The U.S. gold contract for December delivery was up $58.70, or 7.5 percent, at $839.20 an ounce at 11:55 a.m. EDT on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The session high was $843.60.

soros compares mishandling of current crisis to great depression

from paul joseph watson: Billionaire investor George Soros has slammed US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for behaving in the same manner as bankers in the 1930’s and mishandling a financial crisis that threatens a repeat of the Great Depression. Soros told BBC Newsnight that the world was merely at the beginning of a financial storm and warned, “We mustn’t allow the financial system to collapse as it did in the 1930s.” Referring to Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, Soros stated, “The way Paulson is handling the situation is reminiscent of the way the bankers handled it in the 1930s.” ... Soros, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, is ranked by Forbes as the 99th richest person in the world with a net worth of around $9 billion.

wall st privatises US government: be very afraid

fed to give aig $85b loan & take 80% stake
from iht: Acting to avert a possible financial crisis worldwide, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board reversed course Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the U.S. government an ownership stake in the troubled insurance giant American International Group. The decision, announced by the Fed only two weeks after the Treasury Department took over the quasi-government mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank's history.

fed pumps $70b into financial system
from ap: Urgently trying to keep cash flowing amid a Wall Street meltdown, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday pumped another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease credit stresses. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's action came in two operations in which $50 billion and then another regularly scheduled $20 billion were injected in temporary reserves. The maneuver takes place as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his central bank colleagues prepare to meet to decide their next move on interest rates and conduct a fresh assessment of the country's financial and economic troubles.

run on the bank? americans could lose their deposits
from paul joseph watson: You know things are bad when Yahoo.com, the most trafficked website in the world and usually a purveyor of mindless celebrity gossip, cooking tips and dating advice, features a top story about how Americans could lose their bank deposits following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. For the Internet giant to prominently report that there is already a “slow motion run on banks” is indeed a landmark event, and precludes even the most ignorant American from claiming they were not forewarned about the unfolding economic catastrophe. The article points out that although the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantees individual accounts up to $100,000, the FDIC fund only has about $50 billion to “insure” about $1 trillion in assets across the nation’s financial institutions. When Americans realize the fact that banks are “going to run out of money”, the article nonchalantly states, a run on the banks will accelerate.

does financial doom mean 'mad max' world?
from chris cope: Apparently the economy blew up over the weekend. Again. Like those 1960s Christmas lights that fire officials are always urging our grandparents to throw away, the stupid thing caught fire while no one was looking and now the holiday season is ruined. And by "holiday season," what I really mean is, "every stock market in the world."... We've got no money, we can't escape. It's all set to go horribly "Mad Max" at any moment. Pretty soon we'll start turning on each other like cable news hosts. I'm eyeing neighborhood cats as potential sources of food and furry winter socks.


wall st in worst loss since 9/11
from nytimes: In another unnerving day for Wall Street, investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001, and government officials raced to prevent the financial crisis from spreading. Trading opened sharply down Monday morning, and the mood later turned even gloomier, despite efforts by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., in separate appearances at the White House, to reassure markets that Wall Street’s deepening problems would not weaken an already anemic economy.

and then the rest of the terrible news from the last week or so...
US stocks drop, s&p500 sinks most since 9/11*
greenspan: this is the worst economy i’ve ever seen*
unemployment rate jumps to 5yr high*
global financial catastrophe*
US financial system in serious trouble*
fdic shuts down silver state bank of nevada*
mccain's son served on failed silver state bank's board until july*
ny will let aig borrow $20b from its own subsidiaries*
an aig accident could dwarf lehman's*
goldman sachs net plunges 70%*
financial elite deciding lehman’s fate during emergency meetings in new york*
lehman heads toward brink as barclays ends talks*
treasury confirms fannie, freddie takeover*
treasury seizes fannie & freddie to bolster housing market*
london stock exchange trading derailed by computer crash on frenzied day*
how an internet time warp blindsided united airlines*
fed holds emergency meeting on market developments*

daily show: the notorious aig
from truthdig: Whither Lehman Brothers? Et tu, Merrill Lynch? What’s going on on Wall Street? Jon Stewart breaks down the financial meltdown on Tuesday night’s edition of “The Daily Show”—complete with ’80s monster movie allusions.

my bank is about to fail. how about yours?

washington mutual tumbles 30%
from reuters: Washington Mutual Inc (WM.N) shares sank 30 percent to a 17-year low and the perceived risk of its debt soared on worries the largest U.S. savings and loan will not find a buyer or raise enough capital to combat soaring mortgage losses. The stock closed down 98 cents at $2.32 on the New York Stock Exchange, and are down 44 percent in the last two days. It fell earlier to $2.30, the lowest since January 1991, according to Reuters data. Analysts attributed the decline in part to anxiety that potential buyers might walk away because of a pending accounting rule requiring they value the assets of targets at market prices, and perhaps the need to raise capital.

video: who's going to buy wamu?

jp morgan in talks to acquire washington mutual
from reuters: JPMorgan Chase & Co is in advanced discussions to acquire Washington Mutual Inc, a source familiar with the discussions said on Friday. "They are in advanced talks," the source told Reuters. The source said the sensitive talks had been going on for some time and JPMorgan had conducted a lot of due diligence into Washington Mutual. Thursday's downgrade of Washington Mutual by Moody's Investors Service helped advance the discussions between the two companies, the source said. Washington Mutual spokesman Brad Russell did not immediately return a call seeking comment and JPMorgan spokeswoman Tasha Pelio declined to comment.

video: banks in crisis: washington mutual rating lowered

bank failures
from lew rockwell: As the fraudulent fractional-reserve banks go down, the FDIC "insurance" fund is running out. WaMu will more than empty it. I assume the Treasury will make good on its guarantees, with depreciating dollars, but there is no telling about timing. Bush could close the banks - various executive orders give him the cover - and could impose a waiting period on withdrawing "insured" deposits. It's tough to know what to do, but I'd be sure to have some cash and gold outside the banking system and in your own control. Professor Joe Salerno has argued, against the fractional reservists, that the FDIC has in effect given us 100% reserves, or, rather, led people to act as if we had honest banking. Seldom did people worry about their bank's soundness. We are about to find out how well fractional reserves work in the absence of the FDIC. It will still exist, but people will not believe it, and there will be bank runs galore. Act now so you are not stymied by that. And to understand sound money and sound banking, as veresus fractional reserves and central banking, see this great book.

update: wamu appears headed for sale
from ap: Ailing bank Washington Mutual Inc. appeared headed toward a sale Wednesday after a major investor removed a potential stumbling block and nervous banking regulators began approaching the most logical buyers. The New York Times, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, said an auction of the bank was already under way, and The Wall Street Journal reported Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. expressed interest in a takeover. WaMu, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all declined to comment.

9/11: russian tv, italian truth, ventura, mckinney & osama

US citizens demand truth on 9/11
from russia today: Seven years after the 9/11 tragedy in New York, there are many people who say they don't trust the official version of events. The U.S. government denies all conspiracy theories but skeptics say there are still more questions than answers.


russian poll: 84% say truth about 9/11 being deliberately hidden
from steve watson: A new poll from a major Russian news outlet reveals that 84% believe that the truth behind the 9/11 attacks is being deliberately hidden by the U.S. government. At time of writing, the poll on the Russia Today website indicates that only 16% of readers feel that the 9/11 Commission report represents the full extent of the evidence as to who carried out the attacks over seven years ago. The 84% figure mirrors almost exactly that of similar polls conducted in 2006 and 2004.

russia state tv discussion on 9/11 following 'zero' broadcast
from 9/11 blogger: YouTube links for Friday evening's historic telecast on Russia state TV Channel One have been posted, and the discussion following the telecast of "ZERO: An Investigation into 9/11" begins halfway through Part 11 - anybody working on an English translation of this?

medvedev likens georgia attack to 9/11
from afp: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today likened Georgian military action against its breakaway province of South Ossetia to the September 11 attacks on the United States... "Almost immediately after these events it occured to me that for Russia, August 8, 2008 was almost like September 11, 2001 in the United States," Medvedev told a high-profile group of Western foreign policy experts in Moscow... "There were many useful lessons from 9/11 in the United States. I would like the world to draw its own lessons from what happened" in August, the Russian leader said, adding: "The world changed."

former syrian minister: 9/11 an inside job
from jerusalem post: The Syrian government daily Teshreen marked the seventh anniversary of 9/11 this week in a unique fashion: by publishing an article by Syria's former information minister blaming US intelligence agencies for the attacks. According to Mahdi Dakhlallah, in a piece that appeared Wednesday, the intelligence agencies were behind the September 11, 2001 attacks to provide a pretext for a preplanned US plan to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. "These plans were ready and prepared [in advance] - and all that was needed was to find a pretext to begin their immediate implementation," wrote Dakhlallah, in a piece of which excerpts were translated by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute.

mexico & US find no links since 9/11
from ap: Mexico says it has arrested 12 people on terrorism charges in the years since the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S., but an official said none were linked to Muslim extremist groups like al-Qaida nor were any planning to strike in the United States. Officials from both nations say there hasn't been any sign of the southern U.S. border becoming an entry point for terrorists, as had been feared after the suicide jetliner hijackings that struck New York and Washington.

ventura says govt not telling 9/11 story
from east valley tribune: Jesse Ventura, the former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler, accompanied a state senator to Arizona’s 9/11 Memorial on Thursday to press his claims that the government isn’t telling the truth about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “I think it’s growing and growing with the population that more and more of us are questioning what happened that day, and we’re also looking to find out if the truth was withheld from us,” Ventura said. “And the more you study it, the more difficult for me it becomes to believe what my government told me.”

related video: jesse ventura body slams '9/11 conspiracy debunkers' for 30 minutes!

cynthia mckinney at 9/11 1st responders event
from run cynthia run: Cynthia McKinney, Green Party Presidential candidate, talks at a benefit for 9/11 First Responders. A disproportionate number of First Responders are ill as a result of the toxic conditions at the 9/11 site. The Gov't does not acknowledge the toxic conditions nor is it offering significant support to the First Responders or their survivors. One key to changing that is a House Bill HR 3543 providing such resources. Cynthia McKinney supports such legislation and would go beyond that.


video: nyc 9/11 ballot initiative press conference celebrating 30k signatures w/ les jamison & frank morales

here's 2 w/ dr pepper, 3 w/ cynthia mckinney & 4 w/ chris burke

decade worth of messages, interviews from osama leaked to web
from wikinews: Ten years of messages and interviews with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden have been leaked. Translated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the documents were posted on a blog Friday.

download: cia-fbis-bin-laden-statments-1994-2004.pdf (1.7mb PDF)

Posted to Secrecy News blog on September 12, and copied to similar sites including Wikileaks.org, the ten years of messages span from 1994-2004. The packet, issued in 2004, is nearly 300 pages, and labeled "official use only". It was translated by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a division of the CIA, and includes interviews with bin Laden from various news agencies and also includes messages he sent directly to the United States.

One message includes bin Laden's denial of having anything to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.

"Following the latest explosions in the United States, some Americans are pointing the finger at me, but I deny that because I have not done it. The United States has always accused me of these incidents which have been caused by its enemies. Reiterating once again, I say that I have not done it, and the perpetrators have carried this out because of their own interest," said bin Laden on September 16, 2001, just five days after the attacks.

terrorism fear could create psychosomatic epidemic, feds warn
from threat level: Americans' fear of a terrorism could create a mass outbreak of a psychosomatic illness - even in the absence of any real attack - creating a fake epidemic that could overwhelm hospitals attempting to treat real victims. Adding to the confusion, the symptoms of a mass pyschogenic illness look much like symptoms of an anthrax attack, avian flu outbreak or chemical attack.

At least that's what the feds warned hospitals in a nonpublic 2006 communique recently published by the government sunshine site Wikileaks... In fact, the feds suggest that there's already been a totally terrorism-fear-created illness in California where no one was actually sick from an attack. In that case, a man walked into a California bank in October 2003, sprayed an aerosol can into the air and then left. Employees and customers became ill, though investigators found there were no biological or chemical agents in the air. (Note: proof of this incident is attributed to a November 2003 FBI report that is also considered too sensitive for the public's eyes.)...

And perhaps most seriously, after the deadly sarin gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995, some 5,000 people went the hospital -- claiming to have symptoms, despite the attack's rather small radius. Twelve people were killed by the gas and 54 others sustained serious injuries.

The analysis recommended that the government and health system educate people about chemical and biological attacks so they can recognize real symptoms, as well as quickly isolating both real and psychosomatic victims in the case of an attack or perceived attack.

The July 5, 2006, analysis entitled Fear of Terrorist Attack Could Trigger Mass Psychogenic Illness (47kb PDF) from the the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center is not classified. Instead it is labeled For Official Use Only (FOUO) -- a designation that allows the data to be shared with people without clearances, but away from the public eye. Such material is usually not available through government sunshine requests.

hackers block qaeda’s 9/11 anniversary terror tape
from hindustan times: Hackers prevented Al Qaeda from releasing a videotape to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Al Qaeda has traditionally issued a video or audiotape by either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri, the terror network’s two leaders, to mark their massive terrorist attack on the US. As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media unit, had indicated earlier this week that it would post such a videotape on September 11. As-Sahab had banner images on the internet showing a silhouetted head with a question mark and the words, “Wait 11 September”. The US-based intelligence group IntelCenter had speculated the video would be a message from Osama or Zawahiri with a recording of the last will and testament of Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders of the 9/11 attackers. Sources close to US intelligence said, “Hackers knocked out Al Qaeda’s online means of communication, thus preventing them from posting anything to commemorate the anniversary.” Western intelligence suspects two hackers who have targeted Islamicist sites before were responsible: Aaron Weisburd from Internet Haganah and Rusty Shackleford from the web group My Pet Jawa.

related: al-qaida's propaganda sites smacked down

barry jennings, key witness to wtc7 explosions, dead at 53

UPDATED SEPT 17 4:05 PM CST
NYC Housing Authority spokesman Howard Marder has now officially confirmed that Barry Jennings indeed passed away approximately a month ago after several days in the hospital, matching confirmations from several other employees at the Housing Authority. Marder commented that Jennings was a great man, well liked by everyone at the Housing Authority, and that he would be missed. No other details were available.

from aaron dykes: Barry Jennings, a key 9/11 eyewitness who was an emergency coordinator for the New York Housing Authority, has passed away at age 53 from circumstances not yet disclosed. A spokesperson for the Housing Authority has now confirmed his death, after weeks of rumors circulating online, but refused to give any further details.

This office has not yet been able to contact anyone in the Jennings family and the official cause of death is not yet known, but online comments have reported the date of death as August 19, 2008.

It is very unusual that a prominent — and controversial– 9/11 witness would die only days before the release of NIST’s report on WTC7 and shortly after a firestorm erupted over his testimony that he heard explosions inside the building prior to collapse of either tower and that there were dead bodies in the building’s blown-out lobby.

The BBC aired The Third Tower in July in attempt to debunk Barry Jennings’ account– which is both contradictory and damaging to the official 9/11 story– by making issue over whether or not he said he “saw” dead bodies in the lobby.

Yet Jennings own statement in an exclusive interview with Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas– which has not been denied– was: “The fire fighter who took us down kept saying, ‘Don’t look down.’ And I said, ‘Why.’ And we were stepping over people– you know, you can feel when you’re stepping over people.”

Now the release of Jason Bermas’ Fabled Enemies is giving further exposure to Jennings’ controversial account. The film features a full interview with Barry Jennings, as well as the statements he and Michael Hess, who was also trapped with him inside WTC7, made to news media on the day of the attacks.

Barry Jennings reiterated in the exclusive interview his confusion over the explanation for WTC7’s collapse– given that he clearly heard explosions inside the building:

“I’m just confused about one thing, and one thing only– why World Trade Center 7 went down in the first place. I’m very confused about that. I know what I heard– I heard explosions. The explanation I got was it was the fuel-oil tank. I’m an old boiler guy– if it was a fuel-oil tank, it would have been one side of the building.”

That interview was not released until June 2008 at the request of Mr. Jennings, who had received numerous threats to his job and asked that it be left out of Loose Change: Final Cut because of those threats.

Jennings statements have lit fire to questions about what really caused the sudden collapse of WTC7 just as NIST had hoped the release of their report would quash widespread beliefs that the building was brought down by controlled demolition.

News of Jennings’ death comes on the heels of losing another 9/11 hero and eyewitness– Kenny Johannemann, who reportedly committed suicide 12 days before the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Johannemann is credited with saving at least one man’s life on 9/11 and was also a witness to explosions in the towers.

NIST’s report, as well as that of the 9/11 Commission (which did not even mention WTC7), completely ignored statements from the building leaseholder Larry Silverstein as well as numerous police, fire fighters and other eyewitnesses who have testified that they were warned about the building’s collapse and told to get back. One rescue worker even heard a countdown for the building’s implosion.

Unfortunately, Barry Jennings, whose testimony was ignored by the 9/11 Commission, can no longer raise questions personally about his experience inside WTC7, but his account will remain on the record and available in-full on the Fabled Enemies DVD so that what he witnessed about 9/11 cannot be ignored.

flashback: 9/11: wtc7, barry jennings, nist leak & bbc hit piece