lbj on jfk assassination: "it’s all a conspiracy" from huffington post: This month will mark the 46th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A recently declassified oral history by Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, President Kennedy's military aide on the Dallas trip, sheds new light on the critical hours after the shooting. McHugh makes startling claims about Lyndon Johnson's behavior in the wake of the assassination.
The interview with McHugh, originally conducted for the John F. Kennedy Library in 1978, remained closed for 31 years. It was finally declassified in the spring of 2009. I just happened to be working at the Kennedy Library on the day the interview was opened to the public and have used it for the first time in my new book, The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After...
McHugh, like most members of the Kennedy entourage, did not know that Johnson was onboard. They believed that the new president was on his own plane flying back to Washington. If LBJ was on the plane, McHugh wanted to see for himself. Since he had not seen Johnson in the aisle -- and at 6'4" Johnson would be tough to miss -- McHugh assumed that he must then be in the bedroom. When he checked there Johnson was nowhere to be seen. The only place on the plane he had not inspected was the bathroom in the presidential bedroom.
What McHugh claimed to have witnessed next was shocking. "I walked in the toilet, in the powder room, and there he was hiding, with the curtain closed," McHugh recalled. He claimed that LBJ was crying, "They're going to get us all. It's a plot. It's a plot. It's going to get us all.'" According to the General, Johnson "was hysterical, sitting down on the john there alone in this thing."
'puzzlers' reassemble shredded stasi files, bit by bit from latimes: East German documents provide a crucial piece of history, supporters of the project say, but putting them back together could take hundreds of years. A computerized system would help, but it's costly.
uk mercenary simon mann receives presidential pardon from telegraph: British mercenary Simon Mann, who was jailed for 34 years in Equatorial Guinea for plotting to overthrow the Government, has been granted a presidential pardon on humanitarian grounds.
rand lobbies pentagon: start war to save US economy from paul joseph watson & yihan dai: According to reports out of topChinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporationrecently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession. A fierce debate has now ensued in China about who that foreign power may be, with China itself as well as Russia and even Japan suspected to be the targets of aggression. The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets. The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.
'constitution-free zone' within 100 miles from border from raw story: The ACLU says a "Constitution-free zone" exists within 100 miles of the US border, where DHS claims the authority to stop, search and detain anyone for any reason. Nearly two-thirds of the US population lives within 100 miles of the border, according to the ACLU, and the border zone encompasses scores of major metropolitan areas and even entire states.
army can't retry watada for refusal to serve in iraq war from honolulu advertiser: A federal judge ruled late yesterday that the Army cannot retry 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the Kalani High graduate who was the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the war in Iraq, on the main charges against him. Watada was charged with missing his Fort Lewis, Wash., Stryker brigade's deployment and with conduct unbecoming an officer after he refused to board a flight to the Middle East in June 2006. The 30-year-old soldier contended that the war is illegal and that he would be a party to war crimes if he served in Iraq. His first court-martial ended in a mistrial in February 2007. Watada's father, Bob, last night said, "It's obviously good news. It's very good news."
catholics seek support for probe of fort benning school from georgia bulletin: Ten years after a Catholic archbishop in Guatemala was beaten to death for his work on human rights, four Atlanta priests, two sisters, and seven local members of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi are calling on Congress to deepen its investigation of the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation which one of his killers attended. The activists believe the Department of Defense-funded military school based at Fort Benning in Columbus, formerly known as theSchool of the Americas, is linked to human right violators in Latin America who target the poor and clergy who speak up for them. They want Congress to enact a law that would suspend the military school until a commission reports on what tactics former students were taught that violated international law or United States law and hold accountable those who drafted and approved those teaching manuals.
ex-cia man died after hospital heart monitor was turned down from daily mail: A former CIA man died after the volume of an alarm on his hospital heart monitor was turned down, an inquest has heard. American Alan Bel, 60, suffered a heart attack – but medics failed to notice because they were not alerted because they could not hear the alarm. Consultant cardiologist Dr Bernard Clarke told the inquest that ‘on the balance of probabilities’ staff could have saved the 60-year-old if the machine had been working.
US professor will bring 'hidden history of 9/11' to uw from the record: A U.S. professor who questions the official version of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, will speak next month at the University of Waterloo. Paul Zarembka, economics professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, is editor of The Hidden History of 9/11. He will speak about studies done at UW and the University of Toronto on terrorist attacks in New York City and discuss whether the U.S. government told the truth about the events. Zarembka will speak Nov. 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Arts Lecture Hall 116. Admission is $2. For more information, visit www.waterloo911.ca. Next spring, the UW 9/11 Research Group will hold another talk, which is to include an explosives expert.
naomi wolf: i have 9/11 questions, like any thoughtful citizen does from truthnews: On October 7, 2008, Naomi Wolf was at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena, California to give a talk and sign her new book “Give Me Liberty.” Stewart Howe, of WeAreChangeLA, was on hand and asked Ms. Wolf to give a message to the truth and accountability movement. Ms. Wolf stated that although she has no theory about what happened on 9/11, no question should be off the table in a free society and saluted the movement’s desire to seek truth and accountability. “I live ten blocks from ground zero in Manhattan, and I know that I had questions as a citizen… I think every thoughtful citizen has noticed things that might raised questions,” Wolf commented.
marines & army get ready to wield stun guns from danger room: The Marine Corps has been buying Tasers for years. But the military has only used the stun guns sparingly in the field. Now, all that is set to change, thanks to new training guidelines for the electroshock weapons. What's Arabic for "Don't Tase me, bro"? “We would expect the use of [devices such as the Taser] to grow over time, now that we have this long-term policy in place,” Maj. David Nevers, a tells Marine Corps Times.
pennsylvania mulls audio school bus surveillance from phoenixville news: Bus companies and school districts would be allowed to record audio on school buses under legislation that would modify the state's wiretapping and surveillance law and, supporters say, help deter unruly student behavior. Some buses already use silent video cameras, but questions have arisen about whether recording sound violates the law, which requires the consent of the person being recorded. State Rep. Don Walko, D-Allegheny, said his legislation would allow school boards to authorize audio taping while requiring notification of students and parents and placing signs on buses stating audio taping is taking place... In 2006, state police asked Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. to determine whether Laidlaw Transit Inc. had illegally audio taped students on buses in two districts. Zappala found Laidlaw had no intent to break the law, and said he wouldn't prosecute bus audio taping cases if they followed the requirements now part of Walko's legislation.
fbi paid informant $240k to spy on 'fort dix six' from nypost: Being an informant for the FBI in the Fort Dix terror investigation has paid well, a witness explained to jurors yesterday. John Stermel, an investigator assigned to an FBI counterterrorism task force, spent yesterday morning on the stand detailing the role of informant Mahmoud Omar, who wore a wire for 16 months in the investigation of five men accused of planning to shoot soldiers at the Army base. Defense lawyers say it was Omar who tried to plot an attack - not their clients.
white house pushes for local schools to drug test students from schenectady daily gazette: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is hoping to convince local school districts and educators to randomly drug test students. It's a movement that is sweeping the country and gaining support in many states, and advocates say it provides students a "credible reason to say no to drug use."
doe tests river for contaminants from nuke program from mcclatchy: Workers are collecting samples along the Columbia River in Washington state to test for contaminants linked to past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. "After the sampling we'll know where and what the contaminants are and who or what might be exposed to them," said Jamie Zeisloft, who's leading the testing for the Department of Energy.
military investigates amnesia beams from danger room: A team of scientists from the United States and China announced last week that, for the first time, they had found a means of selectively and safely erasing memories in mice, using the signaling molecule αCaMKII. It's a big step forward, and one that will be of considerable interest to the military, which has devoted efforts to memory manipulation as a means of treating post-traumatic stress disorder. But some military research has moved in another direction entirely. In the 1980s, researchers found that even low-level exposure to a beam of electrons caused rats to forget what had just happened to them (an effect known as retrograde amnesia — the other version, anteretrograde amnesia, is when you can't form new memories). The same effect was also achieved with X-rays. The time factor was not large — it only caused memory loss about the previous four seconds — but the effect was intriguing. One theory was that the amnesia was a result of the brilliant flash experienced when the electron beam struck the retina. And, indeed, it turned out that it is possible to produce amnesia in rodents using a flash of light.
minot b52s deployed to guam take part in exercise from minot daily news: B-52 aircrews from Minot Air Force Base deployed to Guam recently finished a flying exercise this month over the Pacific Alaska Range Complex. The exercise tested their ability to defend against air threats. A 10-day joint exercise, Red Flag-Alaska 09-1, also included B-52s from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, and F-16 Fighting Falcons from Kunsan Air Base in the Republic of Korea and Eielson AFB near Fairbanks, Alaska. KC-135s for air refueling from McConnell AFB, Kan., also participated, according to the 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs at Eielson AFB.
pakistan to US: call off the killer drones from danger room: Since the start of August, U.S. drones have struck targets in Pakistan at least 19 times. The latest attack, one of the deadliest ever, killed 20. Now, Pakistani officials say they've had enough of the robot planes, and are demanding that America call off its killer drones "immediately." "The drone attacks have negative repercussions when the Pakistani government tries to get the support of the people in the tribal area,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq tells the New York Times. "They are not helping meet the objectives of the war on terror... Such attacks [a]re a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and should be stopped immediately," the ministry added, in a statement. The American military stepped up its unmanned aerial vehicle assaults on Pakistan, in part because of local government complaints over manned attacks on militant camps inside the country. Local media reports say that 301 civilians have been killed this year in American strikes, both conventional and robotic.
witness: police did not warn de menezes before opening fire from guardian: Jean Charles de Menezes was not warned before he was shot dead by police, three witnesses told an inquest today. The claim contradicts the police account that the innocent Brazilian was warned before being shot. Ralph Livock and his girlfriend Rachel Wilson were sitting in a tube carriage opposite the 27-year-old Brazilian, the inquest heard. Nicholas Hilliard QC, counsel to the inquest, asked him if he heard the police shout a warning. "Absolutely not," Livock replied. "And I remember that specifically because one of the conversations that Rachel and I had afterwards was that we had no idea whether they were police, whether they were terrorists, whether they were somebody else. We just had no idea."
is the taliban stockpiling opium? and if so, why? from time: If international drug- and law-enforcement officials are right, the Taliban might be hiding up to $3.2 billion worth of opium inside Afghanistan, potentially causing huge complications for NATO's decision this month to attack Afghanistan's opium laboratories and smuggling networks. If it exists, the drug stockpile would also have a major bearing on Afghan officials' tentative peace talks with the Taliban, which are favored by U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus and both U.S. presidential candidates.
lockerbie bomber applies for bail from asd: The man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, has applied to be released on bail, pending his appeal. Arguments are due to be heard in the High Court in Edinburgh next Thursday. Earlier this month his lawyer announced that the Libyan was suffering from advanced prostate cancer. Megrahi is serving a minimum of 27 years in Greenock prison for the bombing, which killed 270 people. He has so far served seven years. The 56-year-old is appealing against his 2001 conviction and the length of his sentence.
ex-italian prez: provocateur riots then 'beat the shit out of protesters' from paul joseph watson: Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga has offered a solution to the Italian government in dealing with widespread demonstrations by students and teachers over a cut in state funding of education - use agent provocateurs to start riots and then have the police "beat the shit out of the protesters". Cossiga, former Italian President, Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior, and one of the founders of the Operation GLADIOcovert intelligence unit, encouraged Silvio Berlusconi and current Minister of the Interior Robert Maroni to "do what I did when I was Minister of the Interior," namely infiltrate what so far have been relatively peaceful demonstrations, radicalize them, start riots, then engender public support for a heavy-handed police response.
microsoft patents web moderator robots from cryptogon: This is a real time Ministry of Truth tool that can change content as it’s moving over the web. Filters are great, as long as individuals are in control of them. For example, I don’t want to ever see any stories that contain the words McCain, Obama, Biden or Palin on Reddit. These stories waste my time. I use filtering software that prevents that useless stuff from even appearing on my screen. The danger is that these types of tools could be implemented at the service provider level. Oh no no no. Not good. The Aussies are getting a taste of this now. This Microsoft tool, rather than blocking material outright, sanitizes it midstream.
fbi: anthrax hoaxes from california man still in mail from ap: A California man suspected of mailing more than 120 hoax anthrax letters to media outlets was interviewed previously by the FBI after one similar mailing in 2007, but he was not charged. Marc M. Keyser, 66, was interviewed by the FBI in January 2007 for allegedly sending a package containing a small aerosol can labeled "Anthrax," along with a compact disc, to the Sacramento News and Review newspaper, according a criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court.
new bio lab on texas island worries environmentalists & locals from nytimes: Much of the University of Texas medical school on this island suffered flood damage during Hurricane Ike, except for one gleaming new building, a national biological defense laboratory that will soon house some of the most deadly diseases in the world. How a laboratory where scientists plan to study viruses like Ebola and Marburg ended up on a barrier island where hurricanes regularly wreak havoc puzzles some environmentalists and community leaders. “It’s crazy, in my mind,” said Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer in Houston. “I just find an amazing willingness among the people on the Texas coast to accept risks that a lot of people in the country would not accept.” Officials at the laboratory and at the National Institutes of Health, which along with the university is helping to pay for the $174 million building, say it can withstand any storm the Atlantic hurls at it.
gm stops 401(k) payments from buffalo business: In yet another sign of its financial trouble, General Motors Corp. will halt matching payments to all employees’ 401(k) savings plans. The temporary suspension, which would affect all 1,340 employees at GM’s engine plant in the Town of Tonawanda and the automaker’s entire U.S. workforce, would take effect Nov. 1. The action, which a spokeswoman said is aimed at conserving cash, comes in the face of continued declining auto sales.
from bbc: Scottish police had information that might have changed the outcome of the Lockerbie bombing trial, a BBC TV programme has learned. The information could have affected the credibility of key evidence, but was not passed to the defence team. Libyan national Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is serving life for killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing. A prosecution witness had seen a picture linking al-Megrahi to the bombing before he identified him.
The film will be based on a book by Juval Aviv, the former Israeli secret agent and a top investigator for Pan American during the Lockerbie inquiry.
According to the Scotland on Sunday website, Flight 103 which will hit the market on Jan. 24th, 2008, accuses the Iranian and American secret services of involvement in the incident.
The former Mossad agent has negotiated the film rights with a number of high-profile Hollywood directors including the acclaimed Steven Spielberg, who had hired him as a consultant in 2005 for his award-winning film Munich.
Lockerbie is a town located in south-western Scotland, which is internationally known as the wreckage site of the Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed on Dec. 21, 1988 as a result of a terrorist bombing.
In 1991 Libyan intelligence agent, Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was charged with planting the bomb and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Jan. 2001.
Steven Spielberg is a prize-winning American filmmaker, who is famous for international box office hits such as Jaws, E.T, and Jurassic Park.
'the maltese double cross'
from hemar enterprises: Investigation into the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Produced back in 1994, this film raises serious questions about what really happened. do you know the truth about lockerbie? from robert fisk: After writing about the "ravers" who regularly turn up at lectures to claim that President Bush/the CIA/the Pentagon/Mossad etc perpetrated the crimes against humanity of 11 September, I received a letter this week from Marion Irvine, who feared that members of her family run the risk of being just such "ravers" and "voices heard in the wilderness". Far from it.
For Mrs Irvine was writing about Lockerbie, and, like her, I believe there are many dark and sinister corners to this atrocity. I'm not at all certain that the CIA did not have a scam drugs heist on board and I am not at all sure that the diminutive Libyan agent Megrahi – ultimately convicted on the evidence of the memory of a Maltese tailor – really arranged to plant the bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988.
lockerbie lawyers demand secret foreign evidence from reuters: Lawyers for a Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing demanded access on Thursday to evidence from an unnamed foreign state which they believe could undermine the case against him...
Media reports had suggested the missing document, which has never been shown to the defense, was supplied to the prosecution by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and its disclosure could help clear Megrahi, serving a life sentence in a Scottish jail.
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from huffington post: This month will mark the 46th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A recently declassified oral history by Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, President Kennedy's military aide on the Dallas trip, sheds new light on the critical hours after the shooting. McHugh makes startling claims about Lyndon Johnson's behavior in the wake of the assassination.
