Interview w/ Matt McCormick of 'Buzz One Four'

'Buzz One Four' is the forthcoming documentary film from Portland-based filmmaker Matt McCormick that tells the tale of the "ill-fated flight of a Cold War Air Force B-52 bomber loaded with two thermonuclear bombs that crashed approximately 100 miles from Washington DC in 1964..." Media Monarchy takes a quick look at the politically personal reasons behind the making of this important film. You can help fund the film here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattmccormick/buzz-one-four



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#Newspurge: Body Language and the Breadline Blues

Econocrash:
Net Worth of Average American Family Reverts to Lowest Level in 20 Years*
Federal Reserve Board Members Gave Their Own Banks $4 Trillion in Bailouts*
Stanford gets 110yrs for $7B swindle*
EU: ATM limit if Greece leaves euro*
Video: Post-collapse - Where we're headed and what to do about it*

Geopolitiks:
"Scenarios" of Sudden Disasters for Mankind: ‘Are the London Olympics a target for a False-Flag Attack?’*
Independent Scotland could use ‘full range of armed forces’ to defend its interests*
Greek neo-Nazi MP assaults female guest in TV debate*
Ukraine ambassador accuses BBC of bias over Euro 2012 racism claims*
Euro 2012: England players visit Auschwitz*
Video: BBC Panorama - Chris Rogers witnessed racist violence at a match in Kharkiv, Ukraine*
Syria Crisis and Putin's Return Chill US Ties With Russia*
Russia Printing Money For Cash-Strapped Syria*
Russia’s ‘Revolutionary’ Situation*
Nile Bowie: Searching for Solutions in Syria*
Video: Obama accelerates preparations for limited air strikes, no-fly zones in Syria*
28% of Federal Contract Funds Go to Just 10 Companies…All Make Weapons Systems*
Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army: Who Is Raymond Odierno?*
U.S. Troop Suicides Surge (Again)*
Osama bin Laden not killed by US, claims former CIA agent*
If Attacking Rescuers and Funerals is Evil When Others Do It, Why is It Okay if It’s Done by the CIA?*
Video: Legal framework required to stop CIA drone carnage*

Obamessiah:
Video: Presidential sElections 2012 - The Rand Paul bomshell*
Is Ron Paul (maybe) getting ready to endorse Mitt Romney?*
Mitt Romney in the Vanguard of the New World of Super PAC Campaigning*
Barack Obama In NYC For Sarah Jessica Parker Fundraiser*
Obama has lost some of his popularity abroad, Pew poll finds*
Obama campaign plan for private sector? Hire more teachers, firefighters*
As Recess Nears, Little Hope for Breaking Partisan Impasse*
Pranksters Hijack Republican Live-Streamed Petition Drive*
D.C. Car Bomb Attempt?*
Commerce Secretary Causes Two Car Accidents: Who is John Bryson?*
Northrop Grumman Gives VP Half Million Dollar Bonus before He Goes to Work for Congress*
Update: Secret Service Allegations Exposed - Assault, Porn, Wiretaps and more*
Video: Secrets of Body Language*

Police State Updates:
Video: Military Global Hawk Drone Crashes In Maryland*
Defense Department Flying Drones From Three South Florida Locales*
A drone for every home*
9/11: A Decade Later, A Whole New Ballgame*
Half of Prisoners Still Held at Guantánamo Have Actually been Cleared for Release*
More Americans Killed by Bees and Wasps or Falling Televisions than by Terrorists*
Indiana First State to Allow Citizens to Shoot Law Enforcement Officers*
Video: 'Fast and Furious' Wiretaps Show DOJ Knew About 'Gunwalking'*

Portlandia/Oregon Oddities:
Oregon court opens Boy Scouts 'perversion files'*
Is there a serial killer on the Ore. coast?*
Oregon man contracts the plague after bitten by stray cat*
Feds convict first Oregon medical pot grower*
Man suspected of threatening PSU officer, robbing bank arrested*
Video: SERT Standoff Ends Manhunt*

West Virginia Worry:
WV Hitchhiker Crossing US Writing 'Kindness' Book Shot In Montana*
Update: Montana authorities say hitchhiker shot himself*
Bachelorette Emily Goes 'West Virginia Hoodrat' On Kalon*
Immunization Effort Gets Shot In The Arm*
Walker couple names 114 defendants in asbestos suit*

Duplicate Mega Millions Lottery Tickets Raise Questions

#Prediction for the weekend: #MegaMillions + #AprilFoolsDay = #Hoax #Drama #Econocrash #Psyop

— MediaMonarchy.com (@mediamonarchy) March 30, 2012

from AZFamily.com: Two lottery tickets bought in the Valley are raising eyebrows. They were purchased by employees at Hughes Performance, a Phoenix company that specializes in rebuilding transmissions. Jan Bleichroth owns the company and collected money from employees for the big Mega Millions drawing, which just about everyone hopes to win. “I’m going on vacation, I’m going to buy a new house, I’ll buy a boat, whatever,” she said. “So, everybody was having fun on Friday fantasizing.” Bleichroth collected $145 and went to a QT convenience store where she purchased 145 tickets using Quick Pick, a computer that’s supposed to randomly select your numbers for you. But after bringing the tickets back to her shop and making copies for everyone, one of her employees noticed something peculiar about those two seemingly normal tickets.

Related Updates: Mega Millions -
Did Maryland woman cheat co-workers out of millions?*
#USnews At least one winner hits US lottery jackpot: http://bit.ly/HwIDQ6 via #DPA*
#USnews At least three winners in record US lottery jackpot: http://bit.ly/HuoZR0 via #DPA*

Camp David, Not Chicagoland, to Host G8

from nytimes.com: President Obama has boasted for months about playing host to the annual summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations this May in his hometown, Chicago. But on Monday, without explanation, the White House announced a shift to the secluded setting of Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

Administration officials and associates, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the president in recent weeks began discussing the idea of a more intimate setting for the world leaders — both to ease their communications and to cut down on the security concerns and traffic tie-ups of a big-city meeting.

Also, several noted, attendees will include Vladimir V. Putin, a harsh critic of the United States, who will return as Russia’s president after his election on Sunday.

“To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues,” the brief White House statement said. Camp David is about an hour from Washington and open only to the president and people he invites.

Still, the change was unusual given the months-long lead time that such events require.

from 'flash mob' to 'flash rob': 5 things to know about crime waves

military.com says flash mob attacks 'the new terrorism'
from ibtimes: A flash mob in Germantown, Maryland robbed a local 7-Eleven store in under one minute Saturday night. Surveillance footage of the incident shows a group of teenagers walking wordlessly into the convenience store. They are followed seconds later by a stream of people, presumably juveniles, many covering their faces with shirts and hoods. The group walks around the store, taking as much as possible, before leaving 40 seconds later.

Montgomery County Police believe the event was organized online, likely on Facebook. A total of 28 individuals were captured in the videotape, and investigators say they have identified about half of them. The video was posted online, and many members of the community came forward with tips.

Flash mobs aren't new, nor are they unique to Maryland. They are an increasingly frequent trend that often have severe results, and townships and police departments around the country are trying to figure out how to combat the problem.

police kill gunman who held 3 at discovery channel

eugenicist took hostages, issued anti-human manifesto
from newstimes: A man who railed against the Discovery Channel's environmental programming for years burst into the company's headquarters with at least one explosive device strapped to his body Wednesday and took three people hostage at gunpoint before police shot him to death, officials said. The hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — were unhurt after the four-hour standoff. Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said tactical officers moved in after officers monitoring Lee on building security cameras saw him pull out a handgun and point it at a hostage. An explosive device on the gunman's body detonated when police shot him, Manger said. Police were trying to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks the gunman had also contained explosives. A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing said authorities had identified James J. Lee as the likely suspect.

related updates:
eugenicist gunman exposes dark side of envirocult*
environmental activism can lead to madness*
video: oswald's pro-cuba protest ... er, uh ... james j. lee money toss protest*

unrelated murder/mayhem updates:
video: 48ft yacht, worth $1m, registered with/to[?] US govt, washes ashore in florida, engine running, lights on, nobody aboard*
police shoot & kill spokane preacher*
winnipeg chief family court judge on bondage website*

police state updates: brand new/deal with it

download: the enemy belligerent,
interrogation, detention & prosecution act of 2010*
police act swiftly after gun purchases:
odot worker on leave - mentally evaluated after buying handguns, ak-47*
conspiracy fact: every major terror plot in US was contrived*
sheppard air force base on lock down*
pittsburgh police fight release of g20 records*
'jihad jane': philly woman charged with supporting terrorists*
neocon bloggers celebrate indictment of 'crazy' patsy*
cretin-derham hall on lockdown after threat*
minneapolis schools locked down after web threat*
uk parents angry over cctv in school toilets*
pacific north american regional integration & control*
USrael announces agreement to enhance joint aviation security*
department of education posts order for police shotguns*
chicago police expand taser use*
dhs wants to make your cell phone a 'smell' phone*
pentagon trains workers to hack defense computers*
obama appointing military intel official to run tsa*
official: fmr army intel officer to lead tsa*
norad exercise over nw arizona & s california on mar11*
no-fly list includes the dead*
video: plane intercepted by norad; escorted to frederick, md*

police escort student from class after refusing to pledge allegiance

from raw story: A middle school teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland, will have to apologize to a 13-year-old student after yelling at her and having her escorted out of class by school police when the student refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

According to the ACLU of Maryland, a 13-year-old female student at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance on Jan. 27. The teacher reportedly ordered the girl out into the hallway, where he threatened the girl with detention and then sent her to the school counselor's office.

The next day, when the student again refused to stand for the pledge, the teacher called school officers to remove her from the classroom and take her to the counselor's office once again.

"When the student’s mother reached out to an assistant principal for help in dealing with the teacher’s abusive and improper actions, the official said her daughter should instead apologize for her 'defiance.' The student did apologize, twice," the ACLU states.

The right to sit silently during the Pledge of Allegiance has been held up by the US Supreme Court, and is enshrined in Maryland state law and Mongtomery County Public Schools' own policies, reports the Washington Post.

virginia governor clears way for dc sniper's execution tonight

fittingly, this execution comes as the mass murder contagion is, once again, raging across america...
from ap: Gov. Tim Kaine denied clemency Tuesday for sniper John Allen Muhammad, clearing the way for him to be executed for the attacks that terrorized the nation's capital region for three weeks in 2002.

Muhammad is set to die by injection Tuesday night at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. His attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal.

"I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine, who is known for carefully considering death penalty cases, said in a statement. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene."

Muhammad was sentenced to death for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a three-week spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

He and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.

The motive for the shootings remains murky. Malvo said Muhammad wanted to use the plot to extort $10 million from the government to set up a camp in Canada where homeless children would be trained as terrorists. But Muhammad's ex-wife has said she believes the attacks were a smoke screen for his plan to kill her and regain custody of their three children.

For the families of those killed, the day is a long time coming.

related: unsolved copycat case of the '03 west virginia sniper*

update: sniper who terrorized washington area is executed
from reuters: John Allen Muhammad was executed on Tuesday for masterminding and carrying out with his teenage accomplice the 2002 sniper shootings that killed 10 people and terrified the Washington, D.C., region a year after the September 11 and the deadly anthrax attacks. The 48-year-old Muhammad was put to death by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia, said Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor. "Death was pronounced at 9:11 p.m. There were no complications. Mr. Muhammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement. He did not acknowledge us or make any statement whatsoever," Traylor told reporters. "Things went very normally," Traylor added.

nasa/pentagon scientist arrested for attempted israeli spying

... add this to the long list of israeli spies like larry franklin, jonathan pollard, steven rosen & keith weissman ...
from wikinews: Stewart D. Nozette, 52, from Chevy Chase, Maryland in the United States, was arrested Monday on charges of espionage and is being held until a court hearing on Tuesday. He is accused of spying for Israel.

Nozette received a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had several high profile jobs in the U.S. government and access to classified materials. He worked for the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1990 to 1999 and was the President of the Alliance for Competitive Technology, which was formed in 1990 by Nozette. Both of these organizations had contracts with the U.S. government, providing advanced technology. Nozette also worked for NASA and the Department of Defense. During the course of these jobs, authorities say Nozette had access to classified information. The last time he is alleged to have had regular access to any such information was as late as 2006.

An undercover FBI agent, pretending to be an Israeli intelligence officer, confronted Nozette on September 3, 2009 and asked for government information. Later that day Nozette confirmed his willingness to give the officer classified material in exchange for money and an Israeli passport. During another meeting with the officer, Nozette pointed out that he no longer had access to classified documents but might recall information from them.

After a month, Nozette received two envelopes containing US$11,000 and lists of questions they wanted Nozette to answer. Over a time period of a decade, from 1998 to 2008, Nozette received and returned the envelopes allegedly containing information labeled as "top secret" and "secret", about U.S. military satellites, the nation's early warning systems against missile attacks, and the ability of the U.S. to withstand and defend itself a large-scale attack. In total, authorities say Nozette would have made a profit of US$225,000.

Nozette, if convicted, faces maximum sentence of life in prison. "The conduct alleged in this complaint is serious and should serve as a warning to anyone who would consider compromising our nation's secrets for profit," said U.S. Assistant Attorney General David Kris.


related: art students in wtc connected to israeli intelligence service

police state int'l: fbi, dmv, fema, norad, apf & more

police stop more than 1m people on street*
phone company is arm of govt, feds admit in spy suit*
report: US considers phone companies 'arm of government'*
nypd tracking cell phone owners, but foes aren't sure practice is legal*
los angeles' anti-terrorism program sparks controversy*
battening down the hatches: secret state monitors protest, represses dissent*
fit to fly? balance board tapped to detect shifty characters at airports*
who’s who in big brother's database?*
fbi delves into dmv photos in search for fugitives*
fbi building system that blows away fingerprinting*
driver license photo database used by fbi*
apf withdraws effort to run hardin jail*
ag drops investigation into apf*
above the law? hilton refuses to co-operate with montana atty general*
behind montana jail fiasco: how private prison developers prey on desperate towns*
proposed bc law would allow big fines, jail time for olympics violators*
jericho's ravenwood comes to america*
waco siege 'enforcer' to rule over global police force*
6yr-old suspended for bringing camping utensil to delaware school*
delaware school backs down after outcry over ban on pupil with lunch knife*
former right-wing leader warns of religious right violence: 'anyone can be killed'*
norad exercise planned for east coast, new england on oct14-16*
pittsburgh: beta test for a police state*
fema to evaluate maryland's readiness*
sweatshop conditions in US cities*

econocrash: blood money, insider trading, banksters & biometrics

'blood oath' sealed stanford deal, court is told*
kroll gave all-clear to stanford*
borrowing to pay interest on borrowing is a ponzi scheme*
insiders selling stocks at highest level since may '08*
sec investigating apple for insider trading*
fed urges secrecy on bailed out banks*
flashback video: kucinich says the fed is paying banks not to make loans*
bloomberg wins its lawsuit against the federal reserve*
regulators shutter 3 banks in ca, md & mn; bringing '09 total to 84 banks closed*

was morgan stanley compromised by project mayhem?*
video: 'globalist bankster' blows the whistle on the nwo*
frank: house will pass paul’s fed bill this year*
video: misinfo alert: frank never said that hr1207 will pass in oct*
US jobless soars as companies squeeze workers*
bank's thumbprint rule irks armless man*
for more hard-pressed americans, a campsite is home*
jobless rate at 9.7%; 216K jobs lost in aug*

cyber/space\war: comets, ibm/dna, cybercom & pointless babble

building block of life found on comet*
4m lbs of space junk pollute earth's orbit*
ibm uses dna to make next-gen microchips*
audio: will maryland be cybercom home?*
air force establishes 'reduced' cybercom*
US military cyber force activated*
US man 'stole 130m card numbers'*
tjx hacker charged with heartland, hannaford breaches*

uk intel has 'terrorist facebook' to find links between key players*
40% of twitter messages 'pointless babble': study*
firefox plug-in frees court records, threatens judiciary profits*

ft detrick inventory turns up 9,220 more vials of pathogens

from washington post: An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that officials wouldn't know whether dangerous toxins were missing.

After four months of searching about 335 freezers and refrigerators at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, investigators found 9,220 samples that hadn't been included in a database of about 66,000 items listed as of February, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, the institute's deputy commander.

The vials contained some dangerous pathogens, among them the Ebola virus, anthrax bacteria and botulinum toxin, and less lethal agents such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the bacterium that causes tularemia. Most of them, forgotten inside freezer drawers, hadn't been used in years or even decades. Officials said some serum samples from hemorrhagic fever patients dated to the Korean War.

Kortepeter likened the inventory to cleaning out the attic and said he knew of no plans for an investigation into how the vials had been left out of the database. "The vast majority of these samples were working stock that were accumulated over decades," he said, left there by scientists who had retired or left the institute.

"I can't say that nothing did [leave the lab], but I can say that we think it's extremely unlikely," Kortepeter said.

Still, the overstock and the previous inaccuracy of the database raised the possibility that someone could have taken a sample outside the lab with no way for officials to know something was missing.

flashback: fort detrick disease samples may be missing

fort detrick disease samples may be missing

from frederick news-post: Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick. As first reported in today's edition of The Frederick News-Post by columnist Katherine Heerbrandt, the investigators are from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division unit at Fort Meade. Chad Jones, spokesman for Fort Meade, said CID is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. He said the only other detail he could provide is that the investigation is ongoing. Fort Detrick does not have its own CID office, Jones said, which is why Fort Meade's CID was brought in. Jones said he could not comment on when the investigation started. CID is responsible for investigating crimes where the Army is, or may be, a party of interest, according to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command website. USAMRIID is the Army's top biodefense lab, where researchers study pathogens including Ebola, anthrax and plague.

In February, USAMRIID halted all its research into these and other diseases, known as "select agents" following the discovery of virus samples that weren't listed in its inventory. The institute's commander, Col. John Skvorak, ordered research halted while workers conducted a complete inventory of the institute's select agents. That inventory is nearly completed, though the exact end date isn't known yet, said Caree Vander Linden, USAMRIID spokeswoman. Vander Linden said she didn't know about the CID investigation and referred questions to the CID's head public affairs office. There is no indication whether the CID investigation is connected to USAMRIID's re-inventorying of its select agent stocks.

update1: army biolab's missing vials may never be found
(which, oddly, isn't that scary)
from danger room: Vials of a potentially harmful pathogen have gone missing at Fort Detrick, the Army's main biodefense lab. But don't freak out. The samples of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) virus are relatively small. The Army has found "no evidence yet of criminal misconduct," the Washington Post reports. And the virus usually causes only "a mild flulike illness" - although "brain inflammation and death" are possible, too. "It has potential for use as a biological weapon but is far less lethal than some other agents the lab works with." And that's the real thing to keep in consideration. This isn't anthrax, it's a relatively non-lethal biological agent. Yes, it is highly infectious and easily aerosolized. Yes, that makes VEE a good candidate for military applications. And yes, as a virus, once a person is infected, there is no cure; like the flu, you have to ride out the effects. But it's not really a mass casualty tool, if you're a terrorist looking for lots of bodies..."We'll probably never know exactly what happened," one Army official tells the Post. "It could be the freezer malfunction. It could be they never existed."

update2: army nearly done with probe of fort detrick pathogen lab

update3: detrick missing venezuelan equine encephalitis samples;
21 polo ponies from venezuela died at event in florida
from cryptogon: According to CBS News, the people investigating the deaths of the horses in Florida are focusing on the possibility that a tainted batch of a vitamin supplement called Biodyl might be to blame. All of the horses that died received the supplement. The five horses that didn’t receive the Biodyl are fine. Ok. Maybe that’s it. But… Would you believe that Fort Detrick is missing three vials of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis? The U.S. Army has launched an investigation into the disappearance of the vials from the lab. Biodyl is made by a company called Merial, which is a joint venture between Merck and Aventis. Merial produces pharmaceutical products and vaccines for livestock, pets and wildlife. Are the two incidents related? I have absolutely no idea.

update4: pharmacy made mistake in horse drug

update5: supplement suspected in death of polo horses
from ap: Twenty-one prized polo horses that mysteriously died before one of the sport’s top championships were given a supplement that likely caused their deaths, the leader of the Venezuelan-owned team told an Argentine newspaper.

flashbacks: miltech: biolabs, spysats, germs & cern, daily dose of terror: drills, darpa, sims & dew & anthrax updates: ivins, labs & hatfill's predictive programming

miltech: biolabs, spysats, germs & cern

cern atom-smasher relaunch delayed to september
from afp: Researchers announced Monday a new delay for the restart of Europe's Big Bang atom-smasher, saying the faulty multi-billion dollar machine would now be turned back on in late September. The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) had planned to relaunch the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this spring before delaying it to the summer. But CERN management decided to aim for a September restart to reinforce protection systems. "The schedule we have now is without a doubt the best for the LHC and for the physicists waiting for data," CERN Director General Rolf-Dieter Heuer said in a statement. "It is cautious, ensuring that all the necessary work is done on the LHC before we start-up, yet it allows physics research to begin this year."

flashback: 'end of the world' machine breaks down again

who'll be the next darpa chief?
from danger room: Tony Tether, the long-time chief of Darpa, is stepping down. So who'll be the next to head up the Pentagon's premiere research agency - and become the country's most visible defense geek? Several different names keep coming up. In no particular order, they include:

• Dr. Lisa Porter, physicist, head of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity ("Darpa for spies"), and former NASA associate administrator;


• Retired Rear Admiral Jay Cohen, DHS' science and technology chief, former head of the Office of Naval Research;


• Dr. Mark Lewis, aeronautical engineer, University of Maryland professor, and former Chief Scientist of the Air Force;


• Dr. Michael Goldblatt, CEO of Functional Genetics, former head of Darpa's Defense Sciences Office, former science and technology chief at McDonald's Corporation;


• Dr. Jane "Xan" Alexander, physicist, former deputy director of Darpa and the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency;


• Dr. Regina Dugan, mechanical engineer, former Darpa program manager;


• Zach Lemnios, electrical engineer, Chief Technology Officer at MIT's Lincoln Lab, and former director of Darpa's Microsystems Technology Office;


• Dr. Amy Alving, aerospace engineer, Chief Technology Officer at SAIC, and former director of Darpa's Special Projects Office.

saic awarded task order to support US joint forces command

boeing says spysat-spying spysats on track for launch
from register: US aerospace colossus Boeing says it has conducted successful ground testing of America's planned "space surveillance" satellite system. The idea, essentially, is spy satellites to spy on other spy satellites. Boeing and the US Air Force refer to the new watcher-watcher kit as Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS). "The SBSS team is making good progress on the path toward launch," said Colonel James Jordan of the USAF Space Superiority Wing in Los Angeles. The colonel was speaking of recent tests in which a space-command ops centre in Colorado successfully sent control signals over "the encrypted Air Force satellite control network" to an SBSS spacecraft on the ground. The plan is for the first SBSS sats to be launched this spring. Once in space they will be able to monitor other objects in near-Earth space using optical sensors. America would like to be able to do this primarily because keeping track of opposition spy satellites is difficult from the Earth's surface... SBSS watcher-sats high in space can monitor a large part of an entire hemisphere, unaffected by weather. Not only can they keep tabs on opposition spybirds as they orbit, they can also watch what happens after things are launched into space. "The importance of a space-based capability to monitor space assets cannot be overstated," said Craig Cooning, Boeing veep in charge of space monitoring stuff. Well, maybe it can be just a little.

amerithrax lab halts research after toxin-tracking scare
from danger room: When the Pentagon needs to handle the deadliest biowarfare threats, it turns to the labs of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Maryland. It's the only place in the American military complex equipped to handle the worst of the worst diseases -- those that have no cure and are transmissible by air. Which makes it extremely unnerving, that the place had to suspend biodefense research on Friday, "after discovering apparent problems with the system of accounting for high-risk microbes and biomaterials." That's the scoop from the new ScienceInsider blog, which notes that "the lab has been under intense scrutiny since August, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation named former USAMRIID researcher Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks." The concern this time is that the lab may not be accurately tracking the use and storage of all of its biological organisms in an internal government database - leaving the door open to misplacement, mishandling, or worse. According to an internal memo obtained by ScienceInsider, "any materials found without a corresponding record in the database must be reported to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army." "I believe that the probability that there are additional vials of BSAT [biological select agents and toxins] not captured in our … database is high," institute commander Col. John Skvorak wrote. This is not a good thing.

nerve agent may be missing from utah depot
from deseret news: Is the Army missing some nerve gas? Pentagon auditors concede that is a remote possibility because of discrepancies in records between how much chemical weapons agent was initially stored and how much of it was later destroyed at Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot and other bases nationwide. But officials believe all the nerve agent in question was destroyed, according to a partially censored U.S. Army Audit Agency report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Auditors list in it several reasons that could have caused apparent-but-unreal variances in those records. But auditors concluded, "The (Army Chemical Materials) Agency didn't have complete assurance that amounts recorded in the system were accurate, which increased its chances for heightened levels of program scrutiny by federal, state and international organizations that have a vested interest in the elimination of chemical weapons." Such words can cause shivers among Utahns who remember such things as the death of thousands of sheep in Skull Valley in 1968 that were blamed on nerve gas tests that went awry at nearby Dugway Proving Ground, and Skull Valley residents who have blamed mysterious illnesses on exposure to tiny amounts of nerve agent from such tests.

econocrash: unemployment, bank closures, survivalism & logic bombs

beijing rocked by 26m lost jobs
from independent: An estimated 26 million poor rural Chinese are now without jobs after pinning their hopes on the once-booming manufacturing sector, where work has dried up due to the global economic slowdown, a government advisory body said. The figure was released one day after Beijing warned of "possibly the toughest year" since the turn of the century, calling for the development of agriculture and rural areas to offset the economic fallout. Though many Chinese cities have seen double-digit growth in recent years, the countryside has lagged behind, forcing peasants to seek urban factory jobs. A recent government survey showed that more than 15 per cent of China's 130 million migrant workers have returned to their hometowns recently, where they are now unemployed, said Chen Xiwen, director of the Central Rural Work Leading Group. Another 5 million to 6 million new migrants enter the workforce each year, Mr Chen added. "So, if we put those figures together, we have roughly 25 to 26 million rural migrant workers who are now coming under pressures for employment," the official said.

banks closed in florida, maryland & utah
from bloomberg: Banks in Florida, Maryland and Utah were closed yesterday [jan30] as regulators wrapped up the busiest month for failures since the housing slump began in 2006. Ocala National Bank in Florida and Suburban Federal Savings Bank of Crofton, Maryland, were shut by federal regulators, according to statements sent by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. MagnetBank of Salt Lake City was seized by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. The banks had total assets of $876.4 million and deposits of $790 million. Six banks have failed this month as tumbling home prices and a 16-year high in unemployment boost foreclosures. The FDIC classified 171 banks as “problem” in the third quarter, a 46 percent jump from the previous period amid the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.

you're the crisis!: protesters rally against world economic forum
from reuters: Hundreds of people rallied in Geneva and Davos Saturday to protest against the World Economic Forum, saying the elite gathered for it annual meeting are not qualified to fix the world's problems. Carrying banners reading 'You are the Crisis' and throwing snowballs, several hundred protesters marched to fences surrounding the heavily guarded Hotel Seehof in the Davos ski resort, where many world leaders and business people stay during the forum. Protester Alex Heideger, a member of the Davos Green Party, said these were the people to blame for the economic mess. "It's the same people who came last year and said the world economic situation is fine, and now we're in a financial crisis. Now it's the taxpayer who has to solve the whole problem. It's people like you and me who have to pay for it with their tax money," he said.

survivalist: left of center now joining our 'growing' movement
from raw story: One-time preserve of anti-establishment loners, cultists and gun nuts has gone mainstream... Sick of worrying about the future? Then spare a thought for Jim Rawles. Rawles, 48, is one of a rising number of "survivalists" - Americans hunkering down for what they predict will be a nightmare of economic failure, mass terrorism, pandemics and social chaos. "The movement's definitely growing," Rawles, manager of the site survivalblog.com, told AFP by telephone from what he described as a survival-ready ranch "somewhere west of the Rocky Mountains." Survivalists have a long history in the United States. But what used to be the preserve of anti-establishment loners, cultists and gun nuts has gone mainstream. Government agencies are encouraging citizens to prepare evacuation plans and food supplies in case of myriad disasters.

feds allege 'logic bomb' plot to destroy fannie mae data
from ap: The Justice Department says it foiled a plot by a fired Fannie Mae contract worker in Maryland to destroy all the data on the mortgage giant's 4,000 computer servers nationwide. The U.S. Attorney's Office says 35-year-old Rajendrasinh Makwana, of Glen Allen, Va., is scheduled for arraignment Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on one count of computer intrusion. U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein says Makwana was fired Oct. 24. Rosenstein says that on that day, Makwana programmed a computer with a malicious code that was set to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network and destroy all data this Saturday. Makwana's federal public defender did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Washington-based Fannie Mae is the largest U.S. mortgage finance company.

northcom conducts 'humanitarian support' exercise in maryland

from kurt nimmo: The Armed Forces Press Service has initiated a propaganda campaign designed to convince the American people that deploying the 3rd Infantry Division in the United States in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a good thing. The propaganda piece appeared on the Hinesville, Georgia, Coastal Courier’s website on December 26. “The first active-duty unit dedicated to supporting U.S. civilian authorities in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack recently wrapped up three days of intensive training its members hope they never have to apply in real life,” Donna Miles reports for the Armed Forces Press Service. “Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team got hands-on training in skills they would depend on to provide humanitarian support during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident, known here as a CBRNE.” In order to portray the military as humanitarian saviors, the Armed Forces Press Service included a photo of a soldier wielding the “jaws of life” during an exercise that included “buddie teams” recently returned from Iraq’s Anbar province removing mannequins from the rubble of a collapsed building.