05.Jan.2007 Ingersoll-Rand "buy"
Rating-Update: Zürich (aktiencheck.de AG) - Die Analysten der UBS nehmen für die Aktie von Ingersoll-Rand (ISIN BMG4776G1015/WKN 989747) ein Upgrade von "neutral" auf "buy" vor. (05.01.2007/ac/a/u)
05.Jan.2007 US says "extraordinary renditions" are over, but the evidence says otherwise
Excerpt: The US is telling its overseas allies that it has stopped "extraordinary renditions" and needs their help to empty Guantanamo's prison cells.

But human rights groups dispute this assertion and a question mark hangs over 200 "war on terror" detainees who could be held indefinitely without trial.
Top ten news items you missed in 2006
10. Hackable passports
Excerpt: But a German hacker quickly found a vulnerability. With a laptop and a chip reader he bought for $200, he was able to steal data from an encrypted RFID tag, potentially allowing him to clone an ePassport.

And it's not just Americans who are at risk. Twenty-seven countries (mostly in Europe) that participate in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program are required by U.S. law to issue the new electronic passports to their citizens.

The Dutch and British media have already reported major security flaws in the new IDs. ...
9. What's worse than bird flu? The cure.
8. Petro powers drop the dollar
7. The gender gap gets smaller
6. Iran and Israel hold secret talks
5. United States funds the Taliban
Excerpt:

00.Nov.2006 -As recently as-the Institute for War and Peace Reporting revealed that villagers in Afghanistan's war-torn south were handing over U.S. cash meant for reconstruction projects to Taliban fighters,

who then use the money to purchase weapons, cell phones + explosives. ...
4. Russia fuels Latin American arms race
3. Bush's post-Katrina power grab
Excerpt: But largely overlooked was a revision of a nearly 200-year-old law to restrict the president's power during major crises.

00.Dec.2006 Congressional Quarterly examined the changes, saying that the new law "takes the cuffs off" federal restraint during emergencies.

Rather than limiting the circumstances under which a president may deploy troops to "any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy," the 2006 revision expands them to include "natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident."

In other words, it's now easier for the federal government to send in troops without a governor's invitation. ...
2. China runs up African debt
1. India helps Iran build the bomb, while the White House looks the other way
AT&T agrees to net neutrality as part of BellSouth merger
Excerpt: AT&T is now offering the FCC to refrain from offering any service that prioritizes or degrades any Internet data based on its source, ownership or destination. This would apply for two years after merger.
Comment: This sounds like a victory for the net neutrality movement, until you realize that it comes with an expiration date. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Massive OneDOJ "suspect" database contains people never charged with any crime
Excerpt: Civil-liberties and privacy advocates say the scale and contents of such a database raise immediate privacy and civil rights concerns, in part because tens of thousands of local police officers could gain access to personal details about people who have not been arrested or charged with crimes.
"Raw police files or FBI reports can never be verified and can never be corrected," [the ACLU's Barry] Steinhardt said. "That is a problem with even more formal and controlled systems.

The idea that they're creating another whole system that is going to be full of inaccurate information is just chilling."
Feds claim no warrant is needed to read your email
Excerpt: To help prove their case, the government wanted access to Warshak's e-mail.

They got a court order to access the e-mail accounts in question, but they did not get search warrants (court orders have a lower burden of proof).

Warshak appealed this on Fourth Amendment grounds, arguing that a search warrant should have been required to peek "inside" his mail.

The government responded by arguing that email was more analogous to "e-postcards" that could be read without "opening" anything.
Cheney hails Nixon pardon at Ford's state funeral
Excerpt:

Vice President Dick Cheney hailed former U.S. President Gerald Ford at a state funeral on Saturday for pardoning Richard Nixon, his disgraced predecessor + helping to heal the nation after the Watergate scandal.
Ford, the 38th president who died on Tuesday at age 93, steered the USA through "a crisis that could have turned to catastrophe," said Cheney, chief of staff in Ford's White House 30 years ago +

an honorary pallbearer at the ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
Comment: The notion of Cheney praising Ford's corpse for pardoning Nixon's crimes is just about twenty miles past ludicrous.

It's like Al Capone vouching for John Dillinger's character. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Ford kept criticism of Iraq war secret during his lifetime
Comment: I know you're not supposed to point out the glaring character flaws of the recently departed, but

what else can you say about an elder statesman with nothing to lose refusing to speak out against the worst foreign policy catastrophe in U.S. history? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Judge rules against Democrat in stolen Florida Congressional election
Excerpt: A judge ruled

Friday that the Democrat who narrowly lost the race to succeed Rep. Katherine Harris cannot examine the programming code of the electronic voting machines used in the disputed election.
Circuit Judge William Gary ruled that

Christine Jennings' arguments about the possibility of lost votes were "conjecture" + did not warrant disclosing the trade secrets of the voting machine company, Election Systems & Software.
The Jennings campaign said it will appeal.
"It's shocking that there is more concern for protecting a company's profits rather than protecting our right to vote," Jennings said in a news release.
Bill Clinton's first bout with AIDS Excerpt:

00.000.1980 -In the mid-s-as contaminated blood flowed from Arkansas inmates to other countries,

00.000.1980 -In the mid-s-then-Governor W.J. Clinton sat on his hands despite evidence of severe mismanagement in his prison system + its medical operations.
Some of the killer blood ended up in Canada where it contributed to the deaths of an unknown number of blood and plasma recipients.

00.000.1980-00.000.1985 An estimated 2,000 Canadian recipients of blood + related products got the AIDS virus.

00.000.1980-00.000.1990 At least 60,000 Canadians were infected with the hepatitis C virus.

Arkansas was one of the few sources of bad blood during this period. Other Arkansas plasma was sent to Switzerland, Spain, Japan + Italy. . .
Israel lies again: New settlements in Gaza Excerpt:

Israel has approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, breaking a promise to the U.S. to halt home construction in the Palestinian territories.
SEC changes reporting rule on bosses' pay
Use our New York Times login unk.news + password unknown Excerpt:

The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a move announced late on the last business day before Christmas, reversed a decision it had made

00.Jul.2006 + adopted a rule that would allow many companies to report significantly lower total compensation for top executives. ...
"It was a holiday present to corporate America," Ann Yerger, the executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, said yesterday.

"It will certainly make the numbers look smaller in 2007 than they would otherwise have looked."
Bush thinks about Iraq for nearly three whole hours
Excerpt:

President Bush worked nearly three hours at his Texas ranch on Thursday to design a new U.S. policy in Iraq, then emerged to say that he + his advisers need more time to craft the plan he'll announce in the new year.
Poll: Active duty U.S. soldiers disapprove of Bush handling ofwar, do not support escalation
Excerpt: Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements.

They say the temporary surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea.
Life in Liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
US deaths in Iraq exceed 9/11 count
Excerpt: The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 2,974, one more than the number of deaths in the 11.Sep.2001, attacks in the USA, according to an Associated Press count on Tuesday.
Comment: If you believe that all lives matter, not just Americans, the numbers are much more sickening.

More than three-quarters of a million people have been killed, in America's insane over-response to the murders of 3,000 on 11.Sep.2001 . Helen & Harry
05.Jan.2007 Peanuts Kill More Americans Than Terrorists - Paul Joseph Watson -If western governments were really trying win the "war on terror" they wouldn't give terrorists so much credit
05.Jan.2007 New US intelligence chief named Retried Vice Admiral Mike McConnell is named as new US spy chief, replacing John Negroponte.
05.Jan.2007 Tijuana police ordered to disarm Local police in the Mexican city of Tijuana are made to hand in their guns in a crackdown on drugs violence.
05.Jan.2007 FBI releases files on late judge Newly-released FBI files give more details on William Rehnquist's dependence on painkillers in the 1980s.

05.Jan.2007 Researchers Find Potential Cure for Cancer - Zonk 118-
MECC writes "Researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have found a way to kill cancer cells without radiation or toxic chemicals.

The group is taking the step of patenting the idea, as this new approach using sugars may hold real potential for the fight against cancer.

This is not the first approach to use sugars, the article states, but is (by the researchers' estimation) the most successful. From the article:

'Sampathkumar and his colleagues built upon 20-year-old findings that a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate can slow the spread of cancer cells.

In the 1980 s, researchers discovered that butyrate, which is formed naturally at high levels in the digestive system by symbiotic bacteria that feed on fibre, can restore healthy cell functioning ...

The researchers focused on a sugar called N-acetyl-D-mannosamine, or ManNAc, for short + created a hybrid molecule by linking ManNAc with butyrate.

The hybrid easily penetrates a cell's surface, then is split apart by enzymes inside the cell.

Once inside the cell,

ManNAc is processed into another sugar known as sialic acid that plays key roles in cancer biology, while butyrate orchestrates the expression of genes responsible for halting the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.'"
05.Jan.2007 http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0107/ohareufo.html

Military and civilian pilots are known to be quite reticent about reporting unusual flying objects. Careers reportedly can be significantly damaged when pilots report seeing a UFO.

Some accounts even include fairly aggressive interrogation or debriefing by mysterious government agents who help witnesses forget what they saw, or at least stay silent about it.
05.Jan.2007 http://www.wvva.com/News/index.php?ID=9808
Eddy Suyanto, the head of the search and rescue mission, later put the number of emergency signals at six — saying the last one came over waters just south of Manado.
05.Jan.2007 http://www.wvva.com/News/index.php?ID=9808
But he told reporters Thursday that at least two signals from Flight KI-574's emergency beacon — activated on impact or when a plane experiences a sharp, sudden descent — were picked up by another aircraft in the vicinity and by a satellite.
05.Jan.2007 Another Thousand Lives -By Bob Herbert
If there were politicians here at home with some of the courage of the troops in the field, we could begin saving lives rather than watching helplessly as the Bush White House continues to sacrifice them.

Three thousand and counting is enough. Continue

05.Jan.2007 Soldiers and Imperial Presidents -By Charles Sullivan
Military service is one of America’s sacred cows; it is something that is rarely questioned and is surrounded by an invisible aura of nobility.

No one, especially those who serve, wants to think of their time in the military as anything less than honorable and worthy of glorification. Continue

05.Jan.2007 Saddam’s Execution and the coming Campaign in Baghdad -By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar
It is evident that USA will in the near future attack Al-Sadr forces in Baghdad and will try to crush and disband his militia the Mahdi Army.

This attack will result in resignation of Al-Sadr’s supporters in the parliament, creating a vacuum which can then be filled with the Sunnis. Continue

05.Jan.2007 In Padilla Wiretaps, Murky View of ‘Jihad’ Case -By DEBORAH SONTAG
Tens of thousands of conversations were recorded. Some 230 phone calls form the core of the government’s case, including 21 that make reference to Mr. Padilla, prosecutors said.

But Mr. Padilla’s voice is heard on only seven calls. And on those seven, which The Times obtained from a participant in the case, Mr. Padilla does not discuss violent plots. Continue
05.Jan.2007 _{http://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/} Either Miers has decided to get going while the getting is good (although she can still be deposed), or Bush "axed" her to leave so he could find himself a real lawyer.

Or: She knows that something really big and bad is a-comin' + she wants no part of it.
The most welcome paragraphs in the Post piece reveal that Congressmen Waxman and Levin are readying themselves for investigations into Katrina, contractor fraud in Iraq (read: Haliburton) and detainee torture:

However, one sign that relations will be bumpy is a decision by House leaders to give Waxman's committee special authority to force administration officials to sit for depositions,

a tool it last had under Republicans in the late 1990s. Heh heh. What goes around, comes around... Permalink
05.Jan.2007 Yahoo! Answers: Answers and Comments for What can we do to stop ... http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061022134838AA3BwM9

SARKIS SOGHANALIAN The Cold War's Largest Arms Merchant With more than 40 years of ... uk.answers.yahoo.com/rss/question?qid=20061022134838AA3BwM9
Merchants of Death - Yahoo! TV Documentary that travels into the lives of the two biggest private arms dealers in the world - Sarkis Soghanalian + Sam Cummings. Lebanese-born Sarkis ... _{tv.yahoo.com/merchants-of-death/show/16738}
Activities - View as HTML Sarkis Soghanalian, the prince of Lebanese arms dealers, is in trouble again. This time the Turkish-born ... http://in.news.yahoo.com/050320/32/2kapj.html
www.mena-small-arms.org/Nobody_talks_about_us.Roundup.04.05.doc
Know Your BFEE: Poppy Bush Armed Saddam Miami – Sarkis Soghanalian was once the most powerful arms dealer in the world. ... (5) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050916/ap_on_go_co/sept11_ .
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4813493
RAWSTORY: Congressman Conyers hammers the Washington Post's Dana ... Democratic Underground, Latest Threads Latest, Greatest Threads Greatest, Lobby Lobby, Journals Journals, Options Options, Help ...
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1558643
Illicit Arms Brokers: Aiding + Abetting Atrocities - View as HTML

profile case, such as one against the illicit trafficker Sarkis Soghanalian + his ... on Brokering: adopted 15.Nov.2001 ,” www.watsoninstitute.org/bjwa/archive/9.1/SmallArms/Austin.pdf
CONDOR - DHS IWIC Daily Open Source Report - View as HTML Source: http://story.news. yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story28306/ts_nm/...

Sarkis Soghanalian, an Armenian-born Lebanese arms broker who has a long history of ... _{www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/nipc-daily/NIPC_Daily_2003-03-07.pdf}
911 Skeptics Unite Contact: Apocryphon Productions, kellyheresy@ yahoo.com ... they concentrated on the early role of George Bush and weapons dealer Sarkis Soghanalian. 911skeptics.blogspot.com/
22.Jul.2002 NucNews http://story.news. yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020722/pl_nm/...

00.Jul.2001 -since- A: Sarkis Soghanalian is right now in Jordan, . ... nucnews.net/nucnews/2002nn/0207nn/020722nn.htm

06.Nov.2000 NucNews The arms broker who arranged the sale, Sarkis Soghanalian, said in an interview ... http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001106/re/streisand_odonnell_dc_3.html _{nucnews.net/nucnews/2000nn/0011nn/001106nn.htm}
Proyecto Desaparecidos: Notas: Septiembre 2006 Archives 0341-155882788 - uadhrosario@ yahoo.com .ar ...

Acelor put them in touch with international weapons broker Sarkis Soghanalian, a Turkish-born Lebanese citizen ... www.desaparecidos.org/bbs/archives/2006_09.html
I. Tráfico de armas, una de las causas de la crisis de Vladimiro ... El vendedor de armas más famoso del mundo, Sarkis Soghanalian, ...

[Fuente: Versión enviada al Equipo Nizkor por aproded@ yahoo.com el 16sep00] www.tlahui.com/politic/politi00/politi10/pe10-10.htm
Haciendo Punto En Otro Blog Send comments or scathing critiques to: carmelo_ruiz@ yahoo.com ...

The plane for the Panama trips was provided by arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, ... carmeloruiz.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_carmeloruiz_archive.html
VB on NY Times Earlier in the year, I met with the notorious Sarkis Soghanalian in the balmy ... Send mail to frozenindividual@ yahoo.com with questions or comments about ... www.chichakli.com/vb_on_ny_times.htm
Yahoo! Clever: Antworten und Kommentare zu What can we do to stop ...

The latter situation is detailed in an exclusive interview with Sarkis Soghanalian regarding his early years as an arms trafficker operating out of Miami de.answers.yahoo.com/rss/question?qid=20061022134838AA3BwM9
20050303 A Lebanese arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, known as The Merchant of Death, gets the rifles ...

Intel Bulletin 020000106 Spy Tech Agency Sarkis Soghanalian, ... alfatomega.com/20050303.html
20050317 BCCI's relationships with convicted Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, Syrian drug ... groups. yahoo.com/group/ohioleft/message/1966 ... alfatomega.com/20050317.html
Global Free Press: Peircing The Veil Of Censorship http ... http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/fc/world/indonesia/latest_developments/story/*http://story.news.yahoo

... with Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, syrian ... netti.nic.fi/~hyk/911-tietosanakirja.pdf

VENEZUELA NEWS BULLETIN No. 929 as declaraciones del traficante de armas libanés Sarkis Soghanalian, el estadounidense Charles Max http://groups. yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages _{www.franz-lee.org/files/pandemonium00929.html}

Aujourd'hui, 2 messages : Au cours de la même période, des types comme Sarkis Soghanalian, un grand marchand d'armes qui passe ses ... http://fr.news.yahoo.com/030130/5/3033s.html _{vdedaj.club.fr/cuba/bulletin/csp_525.htm}

[Perhaps the anti war protesters who claimed we armed Iraq] - CPFC ... Perhaps the anti war protesters who claimed we armed Iraq. (Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images) ...
www.cpfc.org/forums/history/topic/35227-1.html

abc.es: EMBAJADOR YANQUI NEGROPONTE: IMPUNE PARA EL COLONIALISMO ... Pero también es cierto que la aparición de Sarkis Soghanalian Kupelian en el ...

La CIA entonces recurrió a Sarkis Soghanalian, amigo de Hussein y ... foros.abc.es/cgi-local/forosabc/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=3;t=000239

abc.es Email : jose2000@ yahoo.com ... Pero también es cierto que la aparición de Sarkis Soghanalian Kupelian en el contrabando de armas a las FARC, ... _{foros.abc.es/cgi-local/forosabc/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=reply;f=3;t=000239}

[CTRL] Fwd: [Spy News] Peru trial links CIA to drug terrorists

A Lebanese arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, known as The Merchant of Death, gets the rifles from Jordan + puts them on a Ukrainian plane that parachutes ... _{www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg110929.html}

Peru's ex-spymaster sentenced to prison - Yahoo! News Acelor, who also received a 15-year sentence, put them in touch with international weapons broker Sarkis Soghanalian, a Turkish-born Lebanese citizen + US ...
p2.news.re2.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060922/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/peru_montesinos_trial

Peru's former spymaster faces verdict - Yahoo! News Acelor put them in touch with international weapons broker Sarkis Soghanalian, a Turkish-born Lebanese citizen + 23-year US resident — whose long career ...
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060921/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/peru_montesinos_trial

:: NOTICIERO DIGITAL :: Ver tema - Vladimiro Montesinos, condenado ...

Sarkis Soghanalian (Traficante y vendedor de armas) en el Aeropuerto de Amman http://www.publicedcenter.org/stories/peru-arms/evidence07.jpg www.noticierodigital.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1214961&sid=ef39912efc00c992e87b20ae610236e5

ImmInst.org -> Global Arms Proliferation Sarkis Soghanalian, an Armenian-born Lebanese arms broker who has a long history of covert weapons deals, including some at the request of the CIA,

PEN-L message, Fw: [marxist] CIA, drugs + Plan Columbia The Peru-FARC deal > reportedly involved a Lebanese-Armenian international arms dealer named > Sarkis Soghanalian, who is currently serving a jail sentence ...
archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2001m06.1/msg00294.htm

CIA, drugs + Plan Columbia The Peru-FARC deal reportedly involved a Lebanese-Armenian international arms dealer named Sarkis Soghanalian, who is currently serving a jail sentence in ... _{mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-May/010366.html}

From whvande.pol at chello.nl Thu May 2 08:32:59 2002 From: wh ...

Re: Saddam Hussein + Sarkis Soghanalian I am seeking either unclassified, or recently declassified documents on the arming of Saddam Hussein by Sarkis G. lists101.his.com/pipermail/intelforum/2002-May.txt

Broker: Broker Dealer For Attorney b> and a Lebanese arms <b>dealer</b> known as <b>...</b> in touch with international weapons <b>broker</b> Sarkis Soghanalian <b>. ...
broker.yourtruemoney.com/broker/dealer/for/attorney/broker_dealer_for_attorney.html?xml=rss

Political Crossfire Forums :: View topic - Saddam wanted to use ... Sarkis Soghanalian not only provided weapons to Iraq, he inspected the front lines ... And federal court documents show that Sarkis Soghanalian had a ...
www.politicalcrossfire.com/forum/viewtopic. php?t=66551&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - Digging up MG's dirt Geragos has defended other "high profile" clients - like a mega arms dealer: Sarkis Soghanalian http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/s...oghanalian.html ...
www.websleuths.com/forums/printthread.php?t=3165&pp=40

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - Digging up MG's dirt Sarkis Soghanalian http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/s...oghanalian.html http://tinyurl.com/26pcj . aka MissCrabapple from Court TV ...
www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3165

Terrorism and Drug War Re: BAYER & EXXON HISTORY pt 4: Who named ... Zuercher -

08.Feb.2004 Israel Is Losing -Anonymous -

08.Feb.2004 Interview With Sarkis Soghanalian Anonymous -

08.Feb.2004 US Image ... www.cannabisculture.com/staff/dml/MalmoFeb2004.html

INTERLINK HEADLINE NEWS No 2052

Es Sarkis Soghanalian, de origen libanés y ciudadano estadounidense Fue procesado en Lima y está preso en EE.UU. Además, habría vendido armas a la dictadura ... www.ilhn.com/ediciones/2052.html

Imprimir Artículo: Perú: Montesinos recibe 20 años de cárcel por ...

El proceso involucró al conocido distribuidor de armas libanés Sarkis Soghanalian, el "mercader de la muerte", quien fue el nexo entre los peruanos y los ... espanol.news.yahoo.com/s/060922/52/1hp14.html&printer=1

SERBEST?: Syrian Human Rights Defender receives 2005 Martin ...

There remain persistent rumors that Hussein helped finance the party, supported by allegations by Lebanese arms merchant Sarkis Soghanalian [34] + by ... f28.parsimony.net/forum68059/messages/893.htm

[tacticalmedialist]ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, No. 328 [tacticalmedialist]ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, No. 328. Arm The Spirit ats@locust.etext.org Mon

07.Jan.2002 . Previous message: [tacticalmedialist]ANTIFA ... https://squat.net/pipermail/tacticalmedia/2002-January/000345.html
[tacticalmedialist]ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, No. 328 From:, Arm The Spirit (by way of tactical@tmcrew.org). Date:, Mon,

07.Jan.2002 Subject:, [tacticalmedialist]ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, ... squat.net/tmc/msg02439.html
Return to index DolfanTalk Off Topic Forum Politics: Most ... Politics: Most Americans Say Bush is Dishonest,

11.Nov.2005 Two things that Bush has used in his campaign in '04 are both slipping, his preceived ... www.dolfantalk.net/forums/offtopic/index.cgi?frames=n;read=144653&expand=1

El papel de EE.UU. en la situación mundial y la necesidad de ...

El derechista comerciante de armas de origen turco pero nacionalizado Jordano, Sarkis Soghanalian Kupelian, viejo conocido de los gobiernos dictatoriales ... argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/110481_comment.php

Other News And Ugaz wants to question a potential key witness: Sarkis Soghanalian, ... in Koinonia from

Nov.14th – 17th or email her at littleflowercw@ yahoo.com ... 1worldcommunication.org/worldnews.htm
Untitled Wilhelm Ehlers + Sarkis Soghanalian have given arms brokers the unattractive ... +370-5-2103569,. e-mail: fzigaras@ yahoo.com ... beta.lka.lt/~serveris/biblioteka/KNYGOS/strategic_review_2004.pdf
Google Groups: soc.culture.native Lebanese arms trafficker Sarkis Soghanalian ; the weapons were ... from the testimony of Soghanalian + Atef Halasa, chief of ...
Google Groups: soc.culture.peru A Lebanese arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, known as 'The Merchant of Death', gets the rifles from Jordan and puts them on a Ukrainian plane that ...
05.Jan.2007 PMag v04n4p14 -- The Secret Team, Part V: Cha Cha Cha ...

One of Shackley's colleagues was an old contact, Alberto Sicilia-Falcon, a Cuban exile trained by the CIA as part of the Bay of Pigs invasion. www.peacemagazine.org/archive/v04n4p14.htm
05.Jan.2007 Coup d'état ... legal tactics may be considered a coup, according to Luttwak.

Edward Luttwak, Coup d'etat: A practical handbook, Harvard University Press, 1969, 1980. _{www.ebroadcast.com.au/lookup/encyclopedia/pu/Putsch.html}
05.Jan.2007 Subliminal News - Excerpts from 'Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook' by Edward Luttwak

Internal Documents from Diebold Election Systems. A Guide to ' ... Excerpts from ' Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook ' by Edward Luttwak. www.subliminalnews.com/archives/000067.php
05.Jan.2007 Coups + Coup Attempts in Africa, Is there a missing link? - African Security Review Vol 13 No 3,

00.000.2004 ... Luttwak with his succinctly titled work " Coup d'état: A practical handbook " + ... Edward Luttwak describes a coup as "the infiltration of a small but critical ... www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/13No3/ENgoma.htm 05.Jan.2007 ? Kategorie:Nachrichtendienstliche Operation - Infos + ...

Iran-Contra-Affäre (Die Iran-Contra-Affäre, in Anlehnung an die Watergate-Affäre auch Irangate genannt, war ein politischer Skandal während der Amtszeit... _{wissen.wisotoday.de/Kategorie:Nachrichtendienstliche_Operation}

05.Jan.20007 7Iraq Update February 1-7 | The Agonist Burnt Orange Report ...

A frequent Pentagon critic who has made repeated research trips to Iraq to ... Iraq war did not create wave of terrorism: Rumsfeld ... agonist.org/20060303/iraq_update_february_1_7

05.Jan.2007 Direct from the front: "Severely Blogged" | ProvoPulse.com

In fact, the pentagon is refusing a court order to turn over additional images that are ... Hows does Rumsfel - Saddam realtionship change all of a sudden? provopulse.com/home/?q=node/1165

05.Jan.20007 David Corn From page 61 of the 911 Commission Report:."Saddam Hussein, had never had an ... + the criminal actions of Douglas Feith + Rumsfeld + Wolfowitz + Wurmser. _{www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/01/odoms_attack_on.php}

05.Jan.2007 BuzzMachine.. by Jeff Jarvis

There's a report that Saddam's No.2, who led the terrorist attacks aka ... once was a close friend to both Mr. Chirac + Mr. Rumsfel -at the same time. _{www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2003_12.html}

05.Jan.2007 Hanging 'makes martyr of Saddam' Egypt's president says the circumstances of Saddam Hussein's execution have turned him into a martyr.
05.Jan.2007 US nuclear chief forced to quit The head of the US nuclear weapons agency is made to resign following a number of security breaches.
05.Jan.2007 Bush, Merkel push Mid-East talks German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Bush agree to back a new Middle East peace meeting.
05.Jan.2007 Halliburton neutral Rating-Update: New York (aktiencheck.de AG) -

Die Analysten von Calyon Securities stufen die Aktie von Halliburton (ISIN US4062161017/WKN 853986) von "add" auf "neutral" herunter. (05.01.2007/ac/a/u)
05.Jan.2007 US Bancorp "outperform" Rating-Update: Arlington (aktiencheck.de AG) -

Die Analysten von Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co stufen die Aktie von US Bancorp (ISIN US9029733048/WKN 917523) unverändert mit "outperform" ein.

Das Kursziel werde von 37 USD auf 40 USD angehoben. (04.01.2007/ac/a/u)
05.Jan.2007 Eli Lilly "market perform" Rating-Update: Boston (aktiencheck.de AG) -

Die Analysten von Leerink Swann & Co. stufen die Aktie von Eli Lilly (ISIN US5324571083/WKN 858560) von "outperform" auf "market perform" herunter. (04.01.2007/ac/a/u)
05.Jan.2007 Nuclear Weapons Chief Fired After Security Breaches At Several Facilities...
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Thursday dismissed the chief of the country's nuclear weapons program because of security breakdowns at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other facilities.
Linton Brooks said he would leave in two to three weeks as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a post he held since July 2002.

http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~r/huffingtonpost/LatestNews/~3/70995612/nuclear-weapons-chief-fir_n_37878.html
05.Jan.2007 Bill Gates: Robots Will Be "Nearly Ubiquitous Part Of Our Day-To-Day Lives" In Near Future...
An office worker checks her home-gadget webpage from her work computer. The tasks she set for her home robots in the morning have all been completed: washing and ironing, vacuuming the lounge and mowing the lawn. http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~r/huffingtonpost/LatestNews/~3/70940434/bill-gates-robots-will-b_n_37873.html
05.Jan.2007 First Day Vote: Dem-Led House Bars Members From Flying On Corporate Jets, Accepting Gifts Or Meals From Lobbyists...
The U.S. http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~r/huffingtonpost/LatestNews/~3/71016306/first-day-vote-demled-h_n_37879.html
05.Jan.2007 A diary of the future
(published on Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST)New-year predictions from the editor of The World in 2007

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=8455403e2804da9278a41ae1a4bbc607
05.Jan.2007 CYA For The USA - The Coverup Of Complicity Continues - BG http://www.rense.com/general74/cya.htm
05.Jan.2007 Today's Papers: Woman on Top - BG today's papers
Woman on Top -By Daniel Politi
USA Today + the Washington Post lead with news that President Bush is making changes to his top military + diplomatic Iraq advisers as he prepares to announce details of his overall strategy for the war next week.

The Wall Street Journal includes the staffing changes in the top spot of its worldwide newsbox, but focuses on how Bush's Iraq plan will call for a "surge" of 20,000.

In addition, the Bush administration plans to pump more money into Iraq to promote economic growth.

The New York Times leads with Democrats officially taking control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, where, as expected, Rep. Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House.

After a day filled with celebration, much applause + the usual promises of bipartisanship, the House opened the session by passing what the WP calls "the broadest ethics + lobbying revision since the Watergate era."

The Los Angeles Times goes high with both the staff changes + the new Congress but leads with approximately 1,000 U.S. + Iraqi troops launching a "major offensive" in Diyala province, a place that has become a sort of hub for Sunni insurgents.

U.S. commanders did not share details of the offensive with their Iraqi counterparts until shortly before it began, fearing the information would leak to insurgents.

Regardless, it seems the insurgents were prepared for their arrival + by the time the raids started there were very few military-age men found in the area. To continue reading, click here.
05.Jan.2007 Eric Boehlert: Why is Woodward Still Spinning the Ford Pardon? - BG 
Perhaps no major media figure has played a bigger role in rehabilitating Gerald Ford's image by polishing the pardon and turning it into a sweeping, heroic act than The Washington Post's best-selling author, Bob Woodward. The problem though, is that Woodward isn't always honest about the pardon that he insists was so "gutsy." Which raises the question, why is Woodward so eager to create not only an aura of goodwill around the former Republican president, but an aura of heroic independence? Read the full Media Matters column here. Source: _{http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~3/71094339/why-is-woodward-still-spi_b_37890.html}
05.Jan.2007 Taking Stock of the Intel Community Shake Up - BG -by Larry C Johnson

There are big doings in the intel community that may signal the start of a new effort to cook the books to justify an attack on Iran. Let's start with John Negroponte's move to State Department. I am told by a knowledgeable friend that Negroponte was pressured by the White House to take the job at State. The exodus of key State Department personnel ( e.g., Deputy Secretary Zoellick, Counselor Phil Zelikow + Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Hank Crumpton) left Condi twisting in the wind. Negroponte gives Condi one of the most experienced foreign service officers in the State Department's history. Negroponte will not be shedding crocodile tears as he drives to Foggy Bottom. The Director of National Intelligence job is still in its full birthing pains and, while having... Source: http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/taking_stock_of.html
05.Jan.2007 Negroponte's Exit Planned Ahead of Time - BG http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/1/4/121418.shtml?s=lh
05.Jan.2007 Migrants 'do not pull wages down' - BG -Blogger Thought: How can this hooey be printed?
There is "little evidence" that migrants pull wages down or make getting work harder says a paper by the Bank of England.... Source: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6232835.stm
05.Jan.2007 Finally, Gen. Garcia alleges that the Dracuweed is resistant to herbicide, although he doesn't say which herbicide. As every farmer and cultivator of weed-free lawns knows, plants develop resistance to herbicides via natural selection, without any guidance from breeders. If growers have deliberately bred a herbicide-resistant plant or exploited one that they discovered, I'd love AP to get a botanist—as opposed to a Mexican general—to confirm it. Likewise, if these plants reach maturation more quickly than other varieties, I'd like a scientist to say so. I await the AP follow-up.

Proof that AP has no monopoly on stupid pot stories came in October, when Reuters ran its piece about marijuana in Afghanistan. (See the reprint on Defensetech or dial it up on Nexis.) Datelined Ottawa, the story reports that Canadian troops battling Taliban forces "have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy—almost impenetrable patches of 10-foot-tall marijuana plants."

Gen. Rick Hillier claims the Taliban fighters use the plants as cover + that efforts to burn the crops with white phosphorous and diesel have failed.

Well, knock me over with a dirty bong! To begin with, finding 10-foot-tall marijuana plants in a country like Afghanistan isn't any more shocking than stumbling upon 10-foot-tall corn plants in Nebraska. As for impenetrability, I suspect the average Nebraska corn field is as impassable to troops as the average marijuana farm in Afghanistan.

But what of the failure of white phosphorous and diesel to make ash of the Afghan marijuana forest? You couldn't incinerate a green corn field with those fuels, so why expect to take out a green marijuana field with them?

If the Canadians really wanted to show the Taliban they're serious about marijuana eradication, they should have called in a napalm strike.
05.Jan.2007 Goodman: Impeaching, Prosecuting Nixon Could Have Elevated the Nation - BG Source: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=11786
05.Jan.2007 Nice. New documents... - BG -Nice. New documents show that in 1986, John Bolton unleashed the FBI on witnesses who were going to testify against William Rehnquist during his confirmation hearings. ...
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/70824351/week_2006_12_31.php
05.Jan.2007 AlterNet: America's Holy Warriors - BG http://alternet.org/story/46211/
05.Jan.2007 Citing no evidence, Hannity maintains Iraqi WMDs "were moved" - BG 
On the January 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, while discussing the execution of Saddam Hussein, co-host Sean Hannity again claimed of Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction, "I believe there were WMDs" in Iraq, adding, "I believe they were moved." As Media Matters for America has previously noted, the Iraq Survey Group's final report, commonly known as the Duelfer report, did not find any evidence that illicit weapons were secretly transferred out of Iraq. According to the Duelfer report's Key Findings: "Saddam Husayn ended the nuclear program in 1991 following the Gulf war. ISG found no evidence to suggest concerted efforts to restart the program." "While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges th... Source: http://mediamatters.org/items/rss/200701040002
05.Jan.2007 Objective: incapacitation (Wilson) - BG It appears that the U.S. government has successfully driven Jose Padilla insane....... Source: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2007/01/objective_incap.html
05.Jan.2007 George Will on the Minimum Wage and Commodity Labor - BG 
George Will wants to abolish the minimum wage: But the minimum wage should be the same everywhere: $0. Labor is a commodity; governments make messes when they decree commodities' prices. Washington, which has its hands full delivering the mail and defending the shores, should let the market do well what Washington does poorly. If you are offended by the suggestion that people are nothing more than commodities – so is Kevin Drum: This, in a nutshell, is the core problem with conservative economics: it views workers as commodities. Naturally it follows from this that we should be free to treat workers like commodities, rather than as human beings. But Will is very wrong on the economics for several reasons. For example, he writes: The problem is... Source: http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2007/01/george-will-on-minimum-wage-and.html
05.Jan.2007 News Hounds: Hannity Displays Ignorance.... - BG http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/04/hannity_displays_ignorance_of_sunni_shia_sectarian_differences.php
05.Jan.2007 Why Did Negroponte Switch Jobs? - BG 

John D. Negroponte, whom President Bush installed less than two years ago as the first director of national intelligence, will soon leave his post to become the State Department's second-ranking official, administration officials said Wednesday. Mr. Negroponte will fill a critical job that has been vacant for months + he is expected to play a leading role in shaping policy in Iraq. But his transfer is another blow to an intelligence community that has seen little continuity at the top since the

00.000.2004 departure of George J. Tenet as director of central intelligence.

(NYT) Is this a further downsizing of independently-run intelligence agencies that occurred along with a major shift of intelligence work and intel budget to the Pentagon under Rumsfeld? It should be noted that Rumsfeld's replacement, Robert Gates, is a former... Source: http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/why_did_negropo.html
05.Jan.2007 News Hounds: Brit Hume Sinks to New Lows in "War on the UN" - BG http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/04/brit_hume_sinks_to_new_lows_in_war_on_the_un.php
05.Jan.2007 Neue US- Strategie: Bush wechselt komplette US- Führung im Irak aus
05.Jan.2007 http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/0,1518,druck-457946,00.html

Wie bei einem guten Zaubertrick wirft Regisseur Nolan eine Menge in die Waagschale - und gewinnt. So erkennt man am Schluss, worin der Unterschied zwischen der Illusionskunst des späten 19. Jahrhunderts und der des frühen 21. Jahrhunderts besteht: Während ein Zaubertrick seine Wirkung verliert, sobald er aufgelöst wird, möchte man Nolans Film sofort ein zweites Mal sehen.
05.Jan.2007 Saddam Execution: More Staged Propaganda - Paul Joseph Watson -Order out of chaos agenda continues in Iraq as Hussein video stokes sectarian violence and paves way for escalation of
05.Jan.2007 Terror's Trivial When It's Not Muslims - Paul Joseph Watson -Madrid Airport bombing receives scant attention Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Thursday, January 4, 2007 How many
05.Jan.2007 40% See 2007 War With Iran As Second Carrier Deployed - Paul Joseph Watson -Next phase of genocidal rampage in Middle East readied as deliberate destruction of Iraq continues
05.Jan.2007 “No back rubs.” - Nico - – President Bush, at the end of a joint conference Thursday evening with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, referencing this:
05.Jan.2007 30%. - Nico - President Bush’s approval rating, according to a new CBS News poll. Sixty-eight % said they had optimistic feelings about the 110th Congress, while 25 % said they were pessimistic.
05.Jan.2007 ABC: Bush set to replace Abizaid, Casey. - Nico -

President Bush “intends to nominate Admiral William J. Fallon to replace General John Abizaid at Central Command” and Lieutenant General David Petraeus to replace General George Casey as Baghdad commander.

“The president wants a clean sweep” an official told ABC News. “Fallon, who is in the Navy, is currently head of Pacific Command; he will be overseeing two ground wars, so the appointment is highly unusual.”
05.Jan.2007 North Korea prepping new nuke test. - Nico -

“North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test,” U.S. defense officials tell ABC News. “We think they’ve put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning.”
05.Jan.2007 Ellison Takes Swearing-In Photograph With Koran - Nico -

Today, following the official swearing-in ceremony for the 110th Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) was photographed with his wife Kim and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Ellison + Pelosi placed their hands on a copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

“Look at that. That’s something else,” Ellison said, as officials from the Library of Congress showed him the

00.000.1764 Koran published in London . “Oh my God. This is great.” Digg It!
05.Jan.2007 Global Warming: Hell And High Water - Guest -

The book that gave birth to ClimateProgress, Hell and High Water: Global Warming — The Solution and the Politics, is out.

In the book, I expose the tactics of conservative politicians who deny the science and delay genuine action on alternative energy initiatives.

I examine the media’s sloppy reporting and unwillingness to probe behind the rhetoric.

The book discusses the country’s future if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted immediately.

I explain why the environment is subject to vicious cycles whereby an initial warming change leads to further warming.

The oceans, soils, Arctic permafrost + rainforests may eventually become sources of greenhouse emissions +

I discuss how sea levels are on course to rise by

00.000.2100 high enough to swallow up numerous coastal communities + inland areas on both U.S. coasts

The larger point is that strategies to combat climate change are all technically possible and can significantly slow global warming

while also buying more time for the world to develop new technologies + a consensus for even stronger action. The book lays out a number of key solutions to avoiding a climate catastrophe, including:

– capturing carbon dioxide from coal plants and storing it underground

– building 1 million large wind turbines

– launching massive energy-efficiency programs for homes, office buildings + heavy industry

– increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks to 60 miles per gallon while also equipping them with advanced hybrid technology

– ceasing all tropical deforestation.

ClimateProgress.org will be featuring excerpts of the book for the next few weeks. – Joe Romm
05.Jan.2007 McCain Claims He Knew Iraq War Would Be ‘Long And Hard And Tough,’ Contradicting Pre-War Statements - Nico -

Today on MSNBC, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that he knew the Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough,” + that he was “sorry” for those who voted for the war believing it would be “some kind of an easy task.” “Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for,” McCain said. Watch it:

In fact, during the run-up to war in 2002 and 2003, McCain repeatedly described the prospects of war in the rosiest terms, declaring the U.S. would “win easily”:

“Because I know that as successful as I believe we will be + I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women.” [, 9/24/02]

“ We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies .” [, 9/29/02]

“But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily. ” [MSNBC, 1/22/03]

Full transcript:

We’ve made mistakes in Iraq, we all know that we have. The result of our withdrawal will be chaos. Do we have to do a lot better? Yes. Does the Iraqi government have to be better and the economy better? Yes. But unless you establish security, you cannot have political and economic development. That’s a lesson of history that’s — there are abundant examples. And so, I believe we need to win this. When I voted to support this war, I knew it was probably going to be long and hard and tough + those that voted for it and thought that somehow it was going to be some kind of an easy task, then I’m sorry they were mistaken. Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for.
05.Jan.2007 President Bush plans to nominate - Amanda - U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad to replace John Bolton as the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, according to ABC News.
05.Jan.2007 Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduced - Amanda - himself to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) today on the House floor. In an earlier letter to his constituents, Goode attacked Ellison — the first Muslim elected to Congress — and warned “American citizens” to “wake up” or “there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office.” Watch it:
05.Jan.2007 Thank you for being a friend. - Judd -

Harriet Miers, Bush’s failed Supreme Court nominee, has submitted her resignation as White House counsel. Here’s our video tribute, from back in the day of her Supreme Court nomination:

Watch in streaming Quicktime

UPDATE: Miers pushed out?

The White House strongly hinted that White House Counsel Harriet Miers’s departure had been encouraged.

She had a “series of conversations in recent days” with Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Snow said + “she made her decision yesterday,” i.e. Wednesday.

People close to the White House say Bolten had hoped to make a change in the counsel’s office when he took over in the spring of 2006.

Miers’s style didn’t mesh well with that of the crisply organized former investment banker, people who know them say.
05.Jan.2007 The House makes history. - Amanda - The 110th Congress has officially elected Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as Speaker of the House, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold the position.
05.Jan.2007 U.S. Health Care System: Paying More, Getting Less - Guest -

It is no surprise to hear that the U.S. health care system is in shambles. Health care costs are increasing faster than wages +

nearly 47 million Americans — 8 million of whom are children — are uninsured. Millions more are underinsured.

Yet, we continue to spend more on health care per person than any other country, including countries that provide health care coverage to its entire citizenry.

According to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation,

00.000.2003 -in alone-, health spending per person was at least 24 % higher than that of Luxembourg (the second highest spending country) + over 90 % higher than countries considered global competitors.

But our health care system spending is not buying us superior health:

– Americans on average die at a younger age compared to the average age of death of comparable nations. Japan has the highest life expectancy.

– The U.S. infant mortality rate is 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, while Japan + Sweden have rates below 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.

– The obesity rate among adults in the U.S. is 30.6 % ; the highest rate of developed countries. This rate is nearly 21 % higher than the rate of the second highest country, Mexico.

Nor does it buy us better health care or more resources:

– About 70 % of deaths and health costs in the U.S. are attributable to chronic disease, which are largely preventable. Yet, only half of recommended preventive services are provided to adults .

– The U.S. has fewer practicing physicians and nurses per 1,000 people than comparable countries.

Instead, our health care system is pushing millions of hardworking Americans into relentless financial constraints + sends thousands to early graves.

With new policy leaders, the impetus for real health reform is now:

we can afford to provide every American affordable health care that emphasizes prevention, while controlling costs + maintaining individuals’ choice of doctors and plans. – Meredith L. King
05.Jan.2007 Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) has evicted Dick Cheney - Nico - from his office in the Capitol, “and the Harlem heavyweight is moving into the prime digs today,” the New York Post reports.

“Gilded letters were freshly painted atop the office door yesterday proclaiming ‘Ways and Means Committee’ - confirming that the office now belongs to Rangel, the House panel’s new chairman.”
05.Jan.2007 Deval Patrick will be sworn in today as Massachusetts governor, -Payson- offically becoming the nation’s second African-American elected governor.

Patrick will “take the oath of office on a Bible given to John Quincy Adams by kidnapped Africans whom

00.000.1841 Adams helped free in the Amistad slave ship case he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court .”
05.Jan.2007 Murtha Plans To Deny Bush Funding For Troop Escalation - Judd -

President Bush is widely expected to announce a plan next week to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq by at least 20,000. Congress may not cooperate.

In an interview with Arianna Huffington, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), the chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, said he intends to block funding for any escalation plan. An excerpt:

When we asked about the likelihood of the president sending additional troops to Iraq, Murtha was adamant.

“The only way you can have a troop surge,” he told us, “is to extend the tours of people whose tours have already been extended, or to send back people who have just gotten back home.”

He explained at length how our military forces are already stretched to the breaking point, with our strategic reserve so depleted we are unprepared to face any additional threats to the country.

So does that mean there will be no surge? Murtha offered us a “with Bush anything is possible” look, then said: “Money is the only way we can stop it for sure.”…

He says he wants to “fence the funding,” denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq “as soon as we can.”

27.Dec.2006 -released- A memo from the Center for American Progress, recommends “an amendment on the supplemental funding bill that states that if the administration wants to increase the number of troops in Iraq above 150,000, it must provide a plan for their purpose + require an up or down vote on exceeding that number.”

Bush_Funding_For_Troop_Escalation">Digg It!
05.Jan.2007 Saddam-Anwalt will Aufklärung über Identität der vermummten Henker - sfux Stephan Fuchs ? Saddam Husseins französischer Anwalt Emmanuel...
05.Jan.2007 Präsident Lula bewilligt Militäreinsatz in Rio - sfux Rio de Janeiro -

Brasiliens Staatspräsident Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hat den Einsatz der Streitkräfte zur Bekämpfung der ausufernden Gewaltwelle in Rio de Janeiro bewilligt.

Eine Antidrogen- Eliteeinheit solle ebenfalls eingesetzt werden, teilte die Regierung in Brasilia am späten Donnerstagabend (Ortszeit) mit. Zeitpläne für den Einsatz wurden vorerst nicht bekannt.

28.Dez.2006 -seit dem- Allein eine Attentatswelle der Drogenmafia hatte in Rio 24 Menschenleben gekostet. Lula bezeichnete...
05.Jan.2007 Spain could sue US Agents over CIA flight - sfux dpa -

Spain could sue 13 agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) travelling on a plane which is thought to have transported terrorist suspects + which made stopovers in Palma de Majorca,

the daily El Pais reported Wednesday.
An association of lawyers + a group of professionals...
05.Jan.2007 Mountain of U.S. Secrets Available Jan. 1 - sfux UPI -

When the clock ticks in the year 2007, hundreds of millions of classified U.S. documents older than 25 years will become available to the public.

00.000.1995 former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed an executive order calling for the declassification by

00.000.2000 but agencies complained they couldn't meet the deadline...
05.Jan.2007 Staatsanwalt hätte fast Saddams Hinrichtung abgebrochen - sfux SDA -

Ein Staatsanwalt hätte die Hinrichtung Saddam Husseins wegen der Beschimpfungen gegen den Todeskandidaten nach eigenen Worten beinahe abgebrochen.

Er habe damit gedroht zu gehen, sagte Munkith al-Farun am Dienstag.
Die Verantwortlichen für die Schmähungen am Galgen hätten gewusst, dass «wenn ich gehe, die Hinrichtung nicht fortgesetzt werden konnte».

Laut Gesetz muss bei der Exekution ein Vertreter der Anklage anwesen sein.
05.Jan.2007 Saddam-Video: Wie offiziell war der "heimliche Exekutions-Filmer"? - sfux Stephan Fuchs & div. Meldungen -

Nach der Entrüstung über die Videoaufnahmen von der Hinrichtung Saddam Husseins ist ein Wachmann festgenommen worden.

Wie die "New York Times" unter Berufung auf einen Augenzeugen der Exekution berichtete,

soll der nationale Sicherheitsberater Muwaffak al-Rubai die heftig umstrittenen Bilder mit der Kamera seines Mobiltelefons gemacht haben. Dieser aber bestritt das vehement.
Der stellvertretende Generalstaatsanwalt...
05.Jan.2007 Negroponte?s Dark Past - sfux The case against Bush?s new intelligence czar Robert Parry -

In These Times has been following the career of John Negroponte for many years. Here is some of what we have reported.
05.Jan.2007 US-Geheimdienstdirektor Negroponte wird Vize-Aussenminister - sfux Washington - US-Geheimdienstdirektor John Negroponte wird offenbar neuer Vize-Aussenminister. Sein Amt sei dem früheren Chef der Nationalen Sicherheitsbehörde (NSA) Michael McConnell angeboten worden, hiess es unter Berufung auf einen hohen Regierungsbeamten.
Der Postenwechsel werde voraussichtlich Ende der Woche offiziell bekannt gegeben, meldete FoxNews. Nach Angaben des Senders NBC hat Negroponte bereits akzeptiert, Stellvertreter von Aussenministerin...
05.Jan.2007 FBI bescheinigt Folter auf Guantanamo - sfux World Content News -

Ein neuer Report der US- Bundespolizei FBI listet 26 Fälle von Misshandlungen auf, die sie im US-Gefangenenlager Guantanamo Bay auf Kuba beobachtet hat. Demnach ist vor Ort anwesenden FBI-Mitarbeitern wiederholt aufgefallen, wie Gefangene an Händen und Füßen gefesselt in "Verhörräumen" über Tage hinweg ohne Nahrung oder Wasser in Embryostellung am Boden gelegen hätten. Oft seien...
05.Jan.2007 Britons eating many additives Survey finds Britons unaware they are eating on average 20 additives - and some as many as 50 - per day.
05.Jan.2007 Bush revamps US military in Iraq US President George Bush is to change two key military chiefs as part of his new strategy for Iraq, officials say.
05.Jan.2007 WHO chief issues bird flu warning Hong Kong's Margaret Chan takes over at the WHO, warning that bird flu remains a global threat.
05.Jan.2007 Oil in biggest fall in two years The price of oil sees its largest drop in two years, spurred by a rise in stockpiles after mild US weather.
05.Jan.2007 Democrats take control of Congress Democrats take control of the US Congress, with a woman at the helm of the House for the first time.
05.Jan.2007 Vietnam warned on bird flu threat A top health chief in Vietnam warns that a recent bird flu outbreak poses a huge risk to human health.
05.Jan.2007 Black hole found in ancient lair Scientists find a black hole in an unusual location - inside a compact group of ancient stars.
05.Jan.2007 The Green Room While the rest of the world argues about climate change, Alaskan natives are having to deal with the consequences.
05.Jan.2007 How To: Disable an RFID Passport Some people aren't too keen on openly transmitting their personal data.
05.Jan.2007 Saturn Gives Up Its Icy Secrets The Cassini Imaging Team releases beautiful images from the ringed planet. In Beyond the Beyond.
05.Jan.2007 MEG Scanners Are Mega Powerful A powerful scanner that tracks neural activity by the millisecond is helping scientists see in granular detail what happens inside the brain when it's sick, emotional or in pain.

05.Jan.2007 Brain Scan Machines Scientists are getting good at deciphering how and why neurons fire inside the human brain, thanks to powerful, if portentous-looking, brain scan technologies.
05.Jan.2007 Untangling the Incan Mystery The Andean empire built great cities but left no written record -- just some mysterious knotted strings called khipu. Can an anthropologist and a few mathematicians crack the code? By Gareth Cook from Wired magazine.
05.Jan.2007 Here comes the terabyte hard drive With a terabyte drive, consumers can store 250,000 MP3 songs. That's enough for two solid years of listening without a single repeat.
05.Jan.2007 Molecular basis for learning, memory found in mice Study of live mice while they learn, form memories and then recall them provides the key.
05.Jan.2007 Senators aim to ease up on Net, phone taxes One bill would make a ban on levies on Net access permanent, while others would sweep away remaining taxes on local phone service.
05.Jan.2007 Wal-Mart's new software schedules just-in-time employees Blog: According to an article Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal(subsciption required), Wal-Mart Stores in 2007 will create...
05.Jan.2007 Broadband tax plan revived in Senate Blog: Scarcely a half day into the 110th Congress's inaugural session, a proposal has resurfaced to collect fees from all communications...
05.Jan.2007 Feds urge research on nano risks Blog: ARLINGTON, Va.--That nano-engineered golf ball might help shave strokes off your game, but is it hazardous to your health--or...
05.Jan.2007 Russian Rocket Hits Wyoming - CowboyNeal 168- Harmonious Botch wrote in with a story that opens:

"A spent Russian booster rocket re-entered the atmosphere Thursday over Colorado and Wyoming, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. NORAD spokesman Sean Kelly said the agency was trying to confirm a report that a piece of the rocket may have hit the ground near Riverton, Wyoming, at about 6 a.m. Kelly said military personnel had not yet reached the scene. No damage was reported and the debris was not believed to be hazardous, NORAD said. Eyewitnesses reported seeing flaming objects in the sky at the time the rocket was re-entering, Kelly said."
05.Jan.2007 North Korea's Secret Biochemical Arsenal - Zonk 226- mattnyc99 writes

"Popular Mechanics has an in-depth report on North Korea's biological and chemical weapons stock, which has been developed in secret and has gone largely unnoticed amidst the country's nuke threat. From the article: 'North Korea's Chemical and Bioweapons (CBW) program appears to be modeled on that of the former Soviet Union, which covertly constructed a massive biological weapons infrastructure within the shell of a civilian research organization called Biopreparat. Inside Biopreparat, the Soviets developed deadly agents that included weaponized forms of anthrax and pneumonic plague. Intelligence reports from the USA and South Korea list anthrax, smallpox, pneumonic plague, cholera and botulism toxins as leading components of North Korea's bioweapons projects.' "
05.Jan.2007 Social Networking Site Safety Questioned - Zonk 66- An anonymous reader writes to mention a TechNewsWorld article about social networking sites.

Researchers are finding these places are goldmines for social engineering exercises. Between worm attacks and simple human observation, sites like MySpace are the perfect place to obtain saleable personal information. From the article: "The danger is real, according to a study conducted by CA and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). In October, the alliance issued its first social networking study examining the link between specific online behaviors and the potential for becoming a victim of cybercrime. Despite all the publicity about sexual predators on sites like MySpace and FaceBook, the alliance took a different approach by measuring the potential for threats such as fraud, identity theft, computer spyware and viruses. Although 57 % of people who use social networking sites admit to worrying about becoming a victim of cybercrime, they are still divulging information that may put them at risk, as Boyd suggested.

Social networkers are also downloading unknown files from other people's profiles + responding to unsolicited instant messages that could contain worms, the NCSA reported."
05.Jan.2007 Merkel- Besuch: Bush träumt noch immer vom Wildschwein
05.Jan.2007 http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-457884,00.html

Ganz abgesehen von der Frage, wer sich zum Beispiel gezüchtete Organe überhaupt leisten könnte: Die größeren Möglichkeiten stellen Ärzte und Patienten vor immer größere Ethik-Probleme. Welche Körpermodifikation erlaubt ist, welche geächtet, welche gar verboten wird - darüber wird es in den kommenden Jahrzehnten große Debatten geben.

"Bei jedem Menschen liegt die Grenze woanders", sagt Journalistin Norton. Ihrer Meinung nach sind Menschen heute schon jene Überwesen der Zukunft, allerdings ohne es zu merken. Tattoos, Piercings, Brustvergrößerungen, selbst die Spirale zur Empfängnisverhütung - all das seien typische, wenngleich bekannte und akzeptierte Körpermodifikationen.

Implantate für mehr Bequemlichkeit?
05.Jan.2007 Der Mensch

00.000.2067 : Ohr am Arm, Magnet im Finger

05.Jan.2007 Urin- Affäre an US- Schule: Anklage gegen Zwölfjährige fallen gelassen
05.Jan.2007 Entwicklungsländer: Hunger frisst die geistigen Fähigkeiten auf
05.Jan.2007 Merkel bei Bush: Hand in Hand zu den Krisenherden
05.Jan.2007 FDP- Planspiele: Sozial und liberal - das war einmal
05.Jan.2007 Hohe Strom- und Gaspreise: Brüssel will Macht der Konzerne brechen
05.Jan.2007 Rente mit 67: Regierung plant Ausnahmen für Banker
05.Jan.2007 Unterstützung gestrichen: Bundesagentur straft 500.000 Arbeitslose ab
05.Jan.2007 Transatlantische Beziehungen: Merkel will Bush beim Nahost- Frieden helfen
05.Jan.2007 Letzter Motassadeq- Prozess: Gericht ringt um gerechte Strafe für den Terrorhelfer

05.Jan.2007 US- TV- Bericht: Nordkorea bereitet neuen Atomwaffentest vor

05.Jan.2007 US- EU- Beziehungen: Bush lobt Merkels Weisheit
05.Jan.2007 Shopping urges 'spotted in brain' The moment when a shopper decides to buy can now be clearly seen on a brain scan, a US study says.
05.Jan.2007 General Motors "sell"
Rating-Update: New York (aktiencheck.de AG) - Die Analysten der Banc of America stuft die Aktie von General Motors (ISIN US3704421052/WKN 850000) von "neutral" auf "sell" herab. Das Kursziel werde von 30 auf 25 USD gesenkt. (03.01.2007/ac/a/u)
05.Jan.2007 Daddy Bush Attacks JFK "Conspiracy Theorists" - Paul Joseph Watson -Former President triumphs Warren Commission at Ford's funeral; Are the Bush's breaking down?
05.Jan.2007 Snow: Americans ‘Out of Touch With Reality’ In Iraq _{- Think Progress} -

Just weeks ago, President Bush insisted that the USA was “absolutely” winning in Iraq.

Recently, as the casulties have mounted, he’s toned back his sunny rhetoric slightly, saying the USA was not “winning or losing.”

Yet media reports indicate Bush believes the USA can win by sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq, a gambit that has been tried before and failed.

This prompted a reporter to ask White House Press Secretary Tony Snow if Bush was “fundamentally out of touch with what the reality is on the ground in Iraq?” Snow responded that “we may be out of touch with reality because we sit around and we look at fractional pictures on the screen.” Bush, on the other hand, “knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there.” Watch it: Transcript:

Q The only question, though, to press a little bit, is the view that the President has been determined, he’s been resolved + nobody questions that, but does he get it? I mean, is he fundamentally out of touch with what the reality is on the ground in Iraq?

MR. SNOW: No, I think what happens is, we may be out of touch with reality because we sit around and we look at fractional pictures on the screen. This is a President who gets exhaustive briefings on a daily basis about the situation. He knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there.
05.Jan.2007 “If we surge and it doesn’t work, - Nico - it’s hard to imagine what we do after that.” — Frederick Kagan, the “intellectual architect” of the Iraq escalation.
05.Jan.2007 ‘White House won’t condemn Saddam taunts.’ - Amanda -

“Prime Minister Maliki’s staff have already expressed their disappointment in the filmings, so I guess we’ll leave it at that,” said deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel.
05.Jan.2007 McCain On Iraq War: ‘This Issue Isn’t Going To Be Around In 2008' - Nico -

00.Feb.2007 issue of Vanity Fair, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is quoted telling a group of conservatives last October that the Iraq war “isn’t going to be around in 2008.”

According to Vanity Fair, an audience member told McCain, “The war’s the big issue. Some kind of disengagement — it’s going to have to happen. It’s a big issue for you…in 24 months.” McCain responded:

“ I do believe this issue isn’t going to be around in 2008. I think it’s going to either tip into civil war … ” He breaks off, as if not wanting to rehearse the handful of other unattractive possibilities. “Listen,” he says, “I believe in prayer. I pray every night.” And that’s where he leaves his discussion of the war this morning: at the kneeling rail.

Later, McCain told Vanity Fair editor Todd Purdum, “It’s just so hard for me to contemplate failure that I can’t make the next step.”

Quotes attributed to anonymous McCain advisers also suggest that the Arizona senator — who passionately supported the initial Iraq invasion + is leading the charge for escalation — now sees his initial support as a liability:

Asked whether, knowing all that is known now (no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, no effective Iraqi army), McCain would have still supported the invasion, his aides say he doesn’t view the question in such simple terms. … “He stands by his support for doing something,” one aide said. …

“If you knew we were going to lose, would you still be for it?” the aide asked. “That’s a different hypothetical question, that he doesn’t have to answer yet.”

Read the full Vanity Fair article HERE.
05.Jan.2007 Bush Consistently Played Politics During 109th Congress - Amanda -

In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, President Bush urges the new Congress to not “play politics as usual.”

He writes, “If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate. If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation.”

But three of the most egregious examples of partisan politicking in the 109th Congress — gay marriage, flag burning + Terry Schiavo — were pushed by the President.

Ban on Gay Marriage: In every year of the 109th Congress, Bush urged lawmakers to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage. From the beginning, the move received little public support and was considered “likely to fail,” but Bush and other conservatives continued to push it as one of the most important issues facing the nation. When the amendment failed in the Senate in June, the New York Times reported that Bush “expressed disappointment,” but urged lawmakers to “take several [more] tries.”

Ban on Flag Burning: Conservatives’ attempt to ban flag burning was opposed by the majority of Americans, called a “non-problem” by a Republican senator + would have violated rulings by the Supreme Court that declared flag burning protected free speech. Yet Bush supported the amendment and when the vote in the Senate failed, called on the senators to keep trying.

Terry Schiavo Legislation: Bush and conservative leaders in Congress used the tragic case of Schiavo as an opportunity for political grandstanding. A memo, which the AP reported was distributed by Senate leadership to right-wing members, called Schiavo “a great political issue.” Bush played his part in the spectacle by flying to Washington from his ranch in Crawford to sign the bill, even though waiting a few hours for the bill to be flown to him would likely “have made no difference in whether Ms. Schiavo lives.”

Under Bush’s watch, the 109th Congress used valuable time to “play politics as usual.” It failed to raise the minimum wage, left nine out of 11 spending bills undone + left unresolved a long list of national security priorities.
05.Jan.2007
Bush Promises To ‘Knock Our Socks Off’ At SOTU With 5 Year Old ‘Energy Independence’ Pledge - Payson -

Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that energy “will be a central theme of President George W.?Bush’s state of the union speech this month”:

Al Hubbard, chairman of the National Economic Council, who is co-ordinating White House energy policy, has also raised expectations.

In a speech at De Pauw University he predicted “headlines above the fold that will knock your socks off in terms of our commitment to energy independence .”

In every one of his previous State of the Union addresses, Bush has promised to push America towards energy independence:

• 2006: Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy.

• And here we have a serious problem:

• America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. [1/31/2006]

• 2005: To keep our economy growing, we also need reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy. …

• I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy. [2/2/2005]

• 2004: Consumers and businesses need reliable supplies of energy to make our economy run —

• so I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation + make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy. [1/20/2004]

• 2003: Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment. …

• Even more, I ask you to take a crucial step and protect our environment in ways that generations before us could not have imagined. [1/28/2003]

• 2002: Good jobs also depend on reliable and affordable energy.

• This Congress must act to encourage conservation, promote technology, build infrastructure + it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil. [1/29/2002]

• 2001: We can produce more energy at home while protecting our environment + we must.

• We can produce more electricity to meet demand + we must.

• We can promote alternative energy sources and conservation + we must.

• America must become more energy-independent + we will. [2/27/2001]

Yet the Financial Times also reports today that “U.S. dependence on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries for its oil imports has risen to its highest level in 15 years.”

“At more than 52 %, Opec’s share of US oil imports is at its highest since 1992.”

As of Septmeber 2006, 70 % of oil consumed in the USA came from foreign sources, up from 58 % in 2000.
05.Jan.2007 Ellison To Be Photographed With Koran Owned By Thomas Jefferson - Nico -

Conservatives have repeatedly argued that Muslim Rep.-elect Keith Ellison’s (D-MN) decision to take an unofficial swearing-in photograph with his hand on the Koran was un-American.

Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) warned last month that “if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office + demanding the use of the Koran.” Talk show host Dennis Prager said Ellison’s act “undermines American civilization.”

In a symbolic decision showing how misguided this argument is, Ellison has chosen to take his photograph with a personal copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson:

Jefferson’s copy is an English translation by George Sale published in the 1750s; it survived the 1851 fire that destroyed most of Jefferson’s collection and has his customary initialing on the pages. This isn’t the first historic book used for swearing-in ceremonies — the Library [of Congress] has allowed VIPs to use rare Bibles for inaugurations and other special occasions.

Jefferson was a champion of religious tolerance. His 1777 Draft of a Bill for Religious Freedom states…

…that our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry ; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.

In an ironic twist, the Washington Post reports that Virgil Goode “represents Jefferson’s birthplace” of Albemarle County, Virginia, but had no comment on Ellison’s book choice. Digg It!
05.Jan.2007 Senate may have filibuster-proof margin for climate bill. - Judd -

Energy and Environment Daily reports, “Several prominent sources ready to track the upcoming legislative debate say Senate Democrats may be positioned to move a [climate change] bill faster than the House, perhaps even with the make-or-break 60 vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.” Industry attorney Mark Menezes said, “I think 60 is in play depending on how it’s written.”
05.Jan.2007 Administration Official: Troop Escalation ‘More Of A Political Decision Than A Military One’ - Judd - reports “President Bush is expected to announce his new Iraq strategy in an address to the nation

early next week.” According to the BBC, “The speech will reveal a plan to send more US troops to Iraq.”

Last night on NBC News, Jim Miklaszewski reported that the new strategy will be announced next Tuesday + that an administration official “admitted to us today that this surge option is more of a political decision than a military one.” Watch it:

Just weeks ago, CentCom commander Gen. John Abizaid told Congress “I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the corps commander, General Dempsey, we all talked together. And I said, in your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American Troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no.” Digg It! Transcript:

WILLIAMS: First, NBC News pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski has learned that President Bush is prepared to announce a strategy of surge and accelerate in Iraq, which would involve some 20,000 additional American troops being sent to Iraq. Jim is with us from the Pentagon with more on this tonight. Jim. Good evening.

MIKLASZEWSKI: Good evening, Brian. Administration officials told us today that President Bush has now all but decided to surge those additional troops into Baghdad to try to control over the violence there and only then could they accelerate the turnover of territory to Iraqi security forces. Fact is they’re not up to the task yet. The plan would also throw more U.S. money at Iraq for reconstruction and a jobs program. Interestingly enough, one administration official admitted to us today that this surge option is more of a political decision than a military one because the American people have run out of patience and President Bush is running out of time to achieve some kind of success in Iraq. While this plan will clearly draw some stiff opposition on Capitol Hill, the president is expected to announce it a week from today.

WILLIAMS: Jim Miklaszewski on duty for us today. Thanks for that.
03.Jan.2007 January 3, 2007 _{- Think Progress} -

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dislikes being the country’s leader and wishes he could leave his job. “I wish I could be done with it even before the end of this term. I didn’t want to take this position,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Iraq’s Shiite-led government said it has ordered an investigation into the “battery of taunts” and video taping of Saddam Hussein’s execution . One witness reported the individual who took a cell phone video of the event was Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser.

The Justice Department said in a letter it “was not in a position” to provide documents on the CIA’s detention and interrogation of terror suspects that were requested by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

The Pentagon is increasingly relying on “emergency” supplemental funding requests, using them “to acquire future weapons that normally would be funded through the regular Pentagon budget.” An army official involved in budget planning says “It’s a feeding frenzy.”

House Democrats have finalized ethics reforms that “ban all travel paid for by lobbyists or organizations that employ lobbyists, require the ethics committee to pre-approve travel paid for by outside groups, enact a total gift ban, …require lawmakers to pay the market cost of flying on a corporate jet,” and “prevent the new majority from holding votes open to change the outcome.”

Lawmakers in Massachusetts, “the only state where same-sex marriage is legal, took a first step toward banning it” yesterday, “when legislators voted to advance a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman.”

“Only six of 75 U.S. metropolitan areas won the highest grades for their emergency agencies’ ability to communicate during a disaster, five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,” according to a new Dept. of Homeland Security report.

Six months ago, U.S. forces in Diyala province “hoped security would improve” with the death of Abu Musab Zarqawi. “Instead, security has collapsed” in the area and “attacks have more than doubled in the last year.” “Violence has devastated the provincial police force and brought reconstruction to a virtual standstill.”

Incoming House workforce chairman George Miller (D-CA) is set to “undo a controversial vestige of the Jack Abramoff era” by raising wages on the Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory where sex slavery and sweatshop factory conditions have been documented. Abramoff worked with conservatives to block better working conditions for years.

“The New Jersey Legislature will move to abolish the death penalty after a report released yesterday found that capital punishment is costly to taxpayers and serves no ‘legitimate… intent.’” “A 13-member commission, established last year to study the issue, recommended in its report that the death penalty be replaced with life in prison without parole.”

And finally: Pat Robertson makes his annual predictions. Evangelist Pat Robertson said yesterday that “God has told him that a terrorist attack on the USA would result in ‘mass killing’ late in 2007.” “I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” Robertson said. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear.” In 2005, Robertson predicted Congress would approve Bush’s Social Security privatization plan. “I have a relatively good track record,” he said. “Sometimes I miss.”
05.Jan.2007 Women drinkers 'depression link' The link between binge drinking and depression is stronger in women than men, a study says.
05.Jan.2007 2007 to be 'hottest on record' The world is likely to experience the warmest year on record in 2007, UK forecasters predict.
05.Jan.2007 Rio seeks troops to curb violence The Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro requests a deployment of federal troops to curb soaring gang violence.
05.Jan.2007 Bush appeals for Congress unity The US president urges Democrats to work with the White House, a day before a new session of Congress opens.
05.Jan.2007 Belarus hits Russia with oil tax Belarus imposes a $45 per tonne tax on Russian oil pumped through its territory to European customers.
05.Jan.2007 Olmert aide in corruption inquiry A senior aide to Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is placed under house arrest as part of a growing corruption scandal.
05.Jan.2007 Nato laments Afghan civilian dead Nato says its biggest mistake in Afghanistan in 2006 was killing civilians + promises a shift in tactics.
05.Jan.2007 Fed hints at future rate increase The US Fed hinted more rate rises may be needed to control inflation, notes from its latest meeting show.
05.Jan.2007 FBI workers saw detainee abuse Several FBI agents say they saw abusive practices during the interrogation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
05.Jan.2007 Texas Stays Biodiesel Execution Regulators who want to ban biodiesel delay a final decision for a year. While overall the fuel is cleaner, it increases ozone emissions. In Autopia.
05.Jan.2007 E-mail scammers face European crackdown Regulation requiring cooperation among EU prosecutors will leave e-mail predators "nowhere to hide," says U.K. government.
05.Jan.2007 5 Strangest Materials - ScuttleMonkey 75-MattSparkes that

NewScientist recently posted a quick look at five interesting materials with some very strange properties. There are liquids you can walk on, liquids that will escape containers by creeping up the sides + magnetic liquids that can easily show you the shape of magnetic fields. The story also offers video links to display some of more amazing properties described.
05.Jan.2007 Net Neutrality to Win Big on Capitol Hill? - ScuttleMonkey 76-
The New York Times has weighed in again on Net Neutrality, this time with a hopeful message of change in the near future due to the shift of power in the House and Senate. The opinion piece takes a look at Ron Wyden in the Senate and Edward Markey in the House who have both promised to lead the charge to pass a net neutrality bill in the coming months. Lessig, on the other hand, has a somewhat more cynical view of the new Congress.
05.Jan.2007 A Shopping-Scanner Darkly - ScuttleMonkey 
92- Using functional MRI scans, researchers have found which parts of the brain are active when people consider buying something and can predict whether or not they'll ultimately bite. One of the main findings was that rather than weighing a choice between the pleasure of making a purchase and the delayed gratification of using the dough for something else, the brain is actually weighing between the pleasure of buying and the pain of forking over the cash."
05.Jan.2007 2,000-year-old toilet may solve an ancient mystery 

The discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet at one of the world's most important archaeological sites is focusing renewed interest on a question that has preoccupied scholars for more than half a century:

Who lived at Qumran? _{posted by Prof. Hex}
05.Jan.2007 London-on-Sea: the future of a city in decay  Global warming puts great swaths of London underwater. With map. Via Boing Boing. _{posted by Prof. Hex}
05.Jan.2007 Douchebag of the Week! 

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson cited communications with God in predicting Tuesday that horrific terrorism aimed at the USA will result in "mass killing" during the second half of 2007.
Is the White House using Pat Robertson to prepare us for another 9/11 or is Robertson a crazy old man who hears voices? Either way, Pat Robertson is our Douchebag of the Week! _{posted by Prof. Hex}
05.Jan.2007 Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain 

A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety + depression.

The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
Via Daily Grail. _{posted by Prof. Hex} at 10:59 AM Mystery Metal Crashes Through NJ Roof  With pic. _{posted by Prof. Hex}
05.Jan.2007 Pentagon plans no action on report of Guantanamo detainee mistreatment :

The Pentagon plans no action as a result of a newly released FBI report on detainee abuse at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, a spokesman said Wednesday, asserting there is nothing new in the report.

05.Jan.2007 U.S. Faces Major Hurdles in Prosecuting Padilla: Even former Justice Department spokesman Corallo concedes that in hindsight, Padilla was a bit player.

Corallo says the government faces a problem over its ever-changing claims about what Padilla did and whether he could be prosecuted in a civilian court.
05.Jan.2007 Gerry Spence: $2M settlement underscores loss of freedom By Angus M. Thuermer Jr
“It’s a very frightening time in our country,” said Spence, who has made a career championing the cases of the common man and underdogs.

“What happens is that the corporate king, or the government-corporate king, the two combined, [are] leading us into fascism.” Continue

05.Jan.2007 Cooked in our own stew of cynicism and hopelessness-By J.D. Suss
Professional bureaucrats, installed by a corpocracy for half a century and more, bring colorless continuity to a national security state.

Western techno-wizardry is exported and emulated and comprises a new, financial colonization.

Inscribed within the fortresses of mega-buck global multinationals – the new area-wide demi-governments – are insatiable growth credos. Continue
05.Jan.2007 01/03/07 Operation: Save Bush's Legacy-By Robert Parry -The President seems determined to put in place a military hierarchy that will fall in line with his edicts, rather than disagree with him. Continue
05.Jan.2007 Robertson says God told him of ''mass killing'' in U.S.

00.000.2007 : - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson cited communications with God in predicting Tuesday that horrific terrorism aimed at the USA will result in "mass killing" during the second half of 2007.

05.Jan.2007 'Why the US should be worried': The USA is facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties.

Its lower and middle class families are slowly turning out to be the biggest losers of current globalisation. The USA, like ancient Rome, is beginning to be plagued by the limits of its power.

05.Jan.2007 Paul Krugman: A Healthy New Year : A scathing article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times described how insurers refuse to cover anyone with even the slightest hint of a pre-existing condition. People have been denied insurance for reasons that range from childhood asthma to a "past bout of jock itch."

05.Jan.2007 Parts of U.S. Experience Warm Winter : New York City saw a

November +

December without snow

for the first time since 1877. +

New Jersey had its warmest December since records started being kept 111 years ago.
05.Jan.2007 Bush pushes envelope on U.S. spying : The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on

20.Dec.2006 . Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

05.Jan.2007 Bush says feds can open mail without warrant: President Bush quietly has claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant.

05.Jan.2007 Negroponte Stepping Aside As Top Spy : National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, who has been closely involved with U.S. policy on Iraq, will trade in his job as top spy to become No. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
05.Jan.2007 Russia warns against Iran action:

COUNTRIES taking action against Iran independent of the United Nations, as called for by Washington, would not be helpful in luring Tehran back to negotiations on its nuclear program, Russia said today.

05.Jan.2007 Hersh: US, Israel support PKK's Iran wing t : Ankara, which has been pressing the USA for action to eliminate the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraq, responded with caution to a fresh report by leading U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that Washington was backing the group's Iranian wing to destabilize the Islamic republic.
05.Jan.2007 War pimp alert: Exclusive: Iran War "In 2 Years" : A WAR against Iran could be launched within the next two years, a senior adviser to George Bush warned last night.

05.Jan.2007 Second U.S. carrier group to deploy to Gulf: : The Pentagon will send a second aircraft carrier and its escort ships to the Gulf, defense officials said on Wednesday, as a warning to Syria and Iran and to give commanders more flexibility in the region.
05.Jan.2007 NATO: Too many Afghan civilians killed: NATO said Wednesday that it killed too many Afghan civilians during fighting last year against resurgent Taliban militants, but that the occupation forces was working to change that in 2007.
05.Jan.2007 Hanging will haunt Bush: - I am taken aback by the reaction in India to Saddam Hussein's hanging. The anger cuts across religious and political divides.

05.Jan.2007 In case you missed it: Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot: While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.

05.Jan.2007 The "Demonization" of Muslims and the Battle for Oil: Throughout history, " wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.

05.Jan.2007 Iraq postpones execution of Saddam aides: A senior official from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the execution was postponed "due to international pressure."
05.Jan.2007 Iraq Vets Left in Physical and Mental Agony : The number of injured has far outstripped the dead, with the Veterans Administration reporting that more than 150,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability benefits.

05.Jan.2007 Poll: More troops unhappy with Bush’s course in Iraq : For the first time, more troops disapprove of the president’s han dling of the war than approve of it. Barely one-third of service members approve of the way the president is handling the war, ac cording to the 2006 Military Times Poll.

05.Jan.2007 Zbigniew Brzezinski,: US policy in the Middle East: Brzezinski argues that America “must accept the fact that real leadership in Iraq should be based on a coalition of the Shia clergy commanding the loyalty of Shia militias and of the autonomous Kurds and that the sooner a date is set for US departure, the sooner the authentic Iraqi leaders will be able to enlist Iraq’s neighbours in a wider regional effort to promote a more stable Iraq.”

05.Jan.2007 Rattled America will find it can't spin itself out of this one: GEORGE Bush will be hard put persuading three, four or five thousand American soldiers, marines and reservists who have already been there to go back to Iraq this year, to face 4 million Sunnis displeased by the Saddam hanging. Hard put too to persuade Nuri al-Maliki to stay in office + stay alive, till they get there.

05.Jan.2007 'Tony Blair is a liar', says dead soldier's fiancee: Rebecca Barnes, also a serving soldier in Iraq who recently shook hands with the Prime Minister on a visit to British troops, broke ranks to speak out about Tony Blair's deceit after her fiancee, Sergeant Graham Hesketh died in a roadside bomb.

05.Jan.2007 A promising Iraqi province is now a tinderbox: U.S. and Iraqi officials interviewed in recent days blamed the sharp downturn on a combination of U.S. neglect and abuses by the Iraqi army. U.S. troops largely disengaged from security here for weeks at a time, they say, handing the reins to Iraqi forces who proved to be abusive and ineffective.

05.Jan.2007 Patrick Cockburn : Saddam: From monster to martyr? : How Bush and Blair's choices have led to disaster in Iraq, culminating in a chaotic execution that is fuelling civil war

05.Jan.2007 Reports Saddam executed by militia: An Iraqi official says the hanging was supposed to be carried out by hangmen employed by the Interior Ministry, but that militias infiltrated the executioners' team.

05.Jan.2007 Moqtada al-Sadr may have been present at the execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: "I saw al-Sadr wearing the black hoods inside the room – the eyewitness said – and there was also Abdulaziz al-Hakim [leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq – SCIRI]. They were among the six men wearing hoods that one can see in the images aired by the TV".

05.Jan.2007 Kuwaiti in talks to buy Saddam's 'noose' : The businessman is apparently ready to pay any amount of money for the noose. According to sources, it is with Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr and the businessman's representatives are negotiating with him.
05.Jan.2007 Another Thousand Lives -By Bob Herbert
If there were politicians here at home with some of the courage of the troops in the field, we could begin saving lives rather than watching helplessly as the Bush White House continues to sacrifice them. Three thousand and counting is enough. Continue

05.Jan.2007 Soldiers and Imperial Presidents -By Charles Sullivan
Military service is one of America’s sacred cows; it is something that is rarely questioned and is surrounded by an invisible aura of nobility. No one, especially those who serve, wants to think of their time in the military as anything less than honorable and worthy of glorification. Continue

05.Jan.2007 Saddam’s Execution and the coming Campaign in Baghdad -By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar
It is evident that USA will in the near future attack Al-Sadr forces in Baghdad and will try to crush and disband his militia the Mahdi Army. This attack will result in resignation of Al-Sadr’s supporters in the parliament, creating a vacuum which can then be filled with the Sunnis. Continue

05.Jan.2007 In Padilla Wiretaps, Murky View of ‘Jihad’ Case -By DEBORAH SONTAG
Tens of thousands of conversations were recorded. Some 230 phone calls form the core of the government’s case, including 21 that make reference to Mr. Padilla, prosecutors said. But Mr. Padilla’s voice is heard on only seven calls. And on those seven, which The Times obtained from a participant in the case, Mr. Padilla does not discuss violent plots. Continue
05.Jan.2007 The Reemergence of the Discredited, Failed Neo-Cons and Their Psychologically Disabled Puppet, Bush. More Men and Women -- Americans and Iraqis -- Will Die Due To Delusions of Grandeur.
Pelosi Becomes First Female Speaker, Preparing to Confront Bush
Heather Wokusch: Return of Bush and the F-Word in 2007, Part II - A BuzzFlash Guest Contribution

05.Jan.2007 "I took some drugs today to help me write this review." Food of the Gods by Terence McKenna - Thom Hartmann's "Independent Thinker" Book of the Month Review
Essential, Essential Reading from the Author of "Wag the Dog" for BuzzFlash.com: "The Republican minority won't roll over and die. The right-wing propaganda and spin industry won't pack it in. The rich people, corporations and institutions who benefit from such policies aren't going to stop."

05.Jan.2007 The BuzzFlash Mailbag -- Uncensored and Unvarnished Truth from BuzzFlash Readers.

05.Jan.2007 Pelosi Remarks: "The election of 2006 was a call to change, not merely to change the control of Congress but for a new direction for our country. Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in the war in Iraq." 1/5
Congress Convenes With Democrats in Power 1/5
The Rude Pundit: In Brief: Democrats Burn the Republicans' Bed 1/5
Tomgram: Dreyfuss on Bush's Wizard-of-Oz Iraq Plan 1/5

05.Jan.2007 Scoop: John Kaminski: The New Resistance Let's face it:

Nazi bankers have taken over the world + are trying to turn every country into a combination of plantation run by them + concentration ... _{www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00099.htm}

05.Jan.2007 SHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA Nazi bankers such as Herman Abs were released from prison to work as economic advisers in the British zone of Germany.

The history of British 'efforts' to ... emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas3.htm
05.Jan.2007 Bernays, Edward L. impact -public relations in America-How did PR turn America into a country of hungry consumers— Could PR account for the continued racial problems ... _{authentico.planetaclix.pt/noname21.html}
05.Jan.2007 The CIA and Nazi War Criminals Released Under Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 146. Edited by Tamara Feinstein.

04.Feb.2005 www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/index.htm
National Security Archive Staff + Fellows Tamara Feinstein, Analyst, is the director of the Peru Documentation Project + also assists with the Mexico project.

She has authored several Electronic ... www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/arc_staff.html

Human Rights Digital Library - Academic Info Edited by Tamara Feinstein Also includes U.S. State Dept. Human Rights Reports on Peru + independent Peruvian Human Rights Links. www.academicinfo.us/humanlibrary.html
Latin American and Caribbean History - National Histories ... Edited by Tamara Feinstein Also includes U.S. State Dept. ... Peru Coast Earthquake (23.Jun.2001 ) - 7.9 ... www.academicinfo.us/latinamhistnat.html

The Search for Truth - View as HTML
The Peru Documentation Project is directed by Tamara Feinstein. The Project ... Source: National Security Archive Request ( Tamara Feinstein - Peru ... _{www.aprodeh.org.pe/sem_verdad/documentos/descl28-8/introduccion.pdf}
WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA [1]

Tamara Feinstein is director of the Peru Documentation Project at the National Security Archive (George Washington University) + Coletta Youngers is a ... www.wola.org/andes/Peru/peru_declassification_report.htm
BORR Terrorism News: "Montesinos: Blind Ambition" Contact: Tamara Feinstein 202-994-7219 Washington DC,

27.Jun.2002 - The National ... filed by National Security Archive staff member Tamara Feinstein . www.borrull.org/e/noticia.php?id=5212
The Scout Report - Vol 8,Nr 3 ... have been declassified in response to the Freedom of Information Act requests filed by National Security Archive staff Lynda Davis +

Tamara Feinstein. _{scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2002/scout-020125-re.html}
20060316 Edited by Tamara Feinstein Intern Assistance: Sara Coburn. (

24.Mar.2005 ) ... www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/ciaeich.html ... alfatomega.com/20060316.html
freedominfo.org: foi news - mexico: using foi in defense of the ... Special thanks to Tamara Feinstein + Jesse Franzblau for editorial assistance. Español.

Environmental groups in Mexico, from the southern state of Chiapas www.freedominfo.org/news/20060714.htm
05.Jan.2007 Secrecy News 06/27/02 ... disgraced intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos were published today by the National Security Archive in a briefing book edited by Tamara Feinstein. _{www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2002/06/062702.html}
Secrecy News 01/23/02 The compilation, prepared by Archive analyst Tamara Feinstein, complements the collection of Peru-related documents released earlier this month by the U.S. ... _{www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2002/01/012302.html}

Andes Shedding Light on the Past By Coletta Youngers and Tamara Feinstein.

14.Jan.2002 Memo Regarding Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, ... www.wola.org/andes/andes.htm
Intute: Social Sciences - Search results (+political +violence) This site provides access to National Security Archive Electronic Briefing book no.64 which was edited by Tamara Feinstein . It provides access to scanned ...
www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/cgi-bin/search.pl?term1=political+violence&limit=0
Intute harvester - Search results ... by Kate Doyle ( kadoyle@gwu.edu ) Research Assistance: Emilene Martínez Morales Additional Research: Tamara Feinstein and Michael Gavin Special than. ...
www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search_harvester.pl?limit=50&term1=+%20+recordings&subject=socialsciences

“State of Fear” Transcript As of December1, 2004 NGC Research ... - View as HTML
Edited by Tamara Feinstein ,. Director, Peru Documentation Project.

23.Aug.2003 . “Over the course of the past two years, the Commission accomplished ... 216.70.99.144/images/uploads/SOF_fact_check.pdf
[TJnetwork] National Security Archive Update, August 28, 2003 (HR ... National Security Archive Update,

28.Aug.2003 For more information contact Tamara Feinstein : tfeins7i@gwu.edu *The Search for Truth* The Declassified ... listserv.aaas.org/pipermail/tjnetwork/Week-of-Mon-20030825/000240.html

The CIA Names File on Adolf Eichmann National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 150. Edited by Tamara Feinstein Intern Assistance: Sara Coburn. (24.Mar.2005 ) ...
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/ciaeich.html