| 27.Oct.2005 Group: U.S. troops not leaving Iraq soon: "This is a long-term proposition + I would expect the next U.S. administration to have forces inside Iraq at a fairly large number for some years to come." 27.Oct.2005 Bush: Iraq war will require more sacrifice: President George W. Bush, bracing for the fallout when the U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000, said on Tuesday the Iraq war will require more sacrifice and rejected critics calling for a U.S. pullout. 27.Oct.2005 In case you missed it: Theory of Perpetual War: America needs good wars. The nation has to be kept on its toes: - This is why 11.Sep.2001 was a ‘gift’ from heaven! - It put the country in the ‘proper’ mood. 27.Oct.2005 Greg Palast: Opec And The Economic Conquest Of Iraq: TWO AND A HALF YEARS AND $202 BILLION into the war in Iraq, the United States has at least one significant new asset to show for it: effective membership, through our control of Iraq's energy policy, in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Arab-dominated oil cartel. 27.Oct.2005 God, Iraq and the power of the President's PR : Mark Borkowski on the worrying rise and rise of Karen Hughes, George W Bush's 'ambassador for public diplomacy' and the woman behind the throne 27.Oct.2005 Iraqi interior ministry accused of assassinating defence lawyer in Hussein trial : The interior ministry of the pro-US government in Iraq is being directly accused of carrying out the murder of Sadoun Antar Nudsaif al-Janabi, a key defence lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven others that began on 19.Oct.2005 . 27.Oct.2005 US detainees 'Murdered' during interrogations -By Associated Press
At least 21 detainees who died while in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were the victims of homicide and usually died during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defence Department data. Continued 27.Oct.2005 White House Insists That CIA Should Be Allowed To Continue Torture Of Detainees -By ERIC SCHMITT
Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the handling of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected Qaeda militants and other terrorists. Continued 27.Oct.2005 The White House Cabal -By Lawrence B. Wilkerson
LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 00.000.2002-00.000.2005 .
IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Continued 27.Oct.2005 Condi Rice and Syrian Regime Change
Could Somebody Recommend a President? By Paul Craig Roberts
On the basis of the word of a convicted felon and swindler, Condi Rice wants a high level UN Security Council meeting to condemn Syria so the Bush administration can bring about "regime change" in Syria. Continued
27.Oct.2005 The bullet holes and bloodstains are gone, but for Uzbeks life is even worse : Repression on a huge scale follows massacre of at least 500 protesters 27.Oct.2005 Able Danger warned of attack on USS Cole : Senior Pentagon officials were warned not to let the USS Cole dock in Yemen two days before terrorists attacked the ship five years ago killing 17 sailors, according to Congressman Curt Weldon, who said the crucial intelligence was gleaned from the former secret defense operation, "Able Danger." 27.Oct.2005 MI5 'blunders let Tube bomber slip away': A report said that a succession of intelligence failures had allowed Mohammad Sidique Khan, who detonated a device on a train at Edgware Road station on 07.Jul.2005 to "slip away'' after briefly coming under scrutiny. 27.Oct.2005 Bush Admin. Drops Plan for Nuclear Bunker Buster : The Bush administration has abandoned research into a nuclear "bunker-buster" warhead, deciding instead to pursue a similar device using conventional weaponry, a key Republican senator said Tuesday. 27.Oct.2005 ConocoPhillips Profit Rises 89% to Record $3.8 Bln : ConocoPhillips, the No. 3 U.S. oil company, said third-quarter profit jumped 89 % to a record $3.8 billion as supply disruptions and rising demand lifted prices to unprecedented highs. 27.Oct.2005 Lawmakers vote to allow privatizing US food stamps: House and Senate negotiators working on a $100 billion agriculture spending bill voted on Tuesday to allow states to privatize the food stamp program, which helps 25 million people put food on the table monthly. 27.Oct.2005 Poll: Americans more accepting: Although the traditional nuclear family continues to be prized, only 19 % of families fulfill that ideal (nondivorced parents with children).
27.Oct.2005 Iran: Ahmadinejad: Wipe Israel off map: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map. 27.Oct.2005 Israel warns of Tehran 'danger' : Israel regards Iran as "a clear and present danger", Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has said. 27.Oct.2005 If Israel has nukes, why can’t the rest? The U.S. adopts a biased stance towards countries who possess or seek nuclear technology or weapons, allowing states like Israel, India to proceed without any interference, although they failed to fulfill their commitments under the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), while it piles the pressure on and fights others like Iran, Iraq (before toppling Saddam Hussein) and North Korea for them not to have nukes. 27.Oct.2005 Russia, Iran agree to solve nuclear issue within IAEA : Russia and Iran agreed a solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program should be sought within the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the two countries' foreign ministers said Monday. 27.Oct.2005 Syria in the Imperialist Crosshairs: The Israel News Agency report made clear that it was a region-wide program for toppling governments; this was shockingly revealed by the title, “UN Gives Green Light for Israel, Syria, Iran War.” 27.Oct.2005 Israel worried about possible new Russia-Syria arms deals : Israel has expressed concern over Russia's intention to sign new arms deals with Syria, following the already completed deal to provide Syria with SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles. 27.Oct.2005 Mike Whitney: Assassinations in Lebanon; Pipelines in Haifa : Syria poses no threat to America's national security. We have no dog in this fight. The real threat is those who now operate freely within the foreign policy establishment, using the US military to further their own self-serving objectives of controlling Middle East oil and securing an imaginary Israeli empire. 27.Oct.2005 Old whine, new bottle: The UN ‘report’ on the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese PM, bears all the hallmarks of yet another set-up, no doubt ‘inspired’ by US pressure as part of the build-up to yet another Middle Eastern ‘adventure’. 27.Oct.2005 Lebanese encircle Palestinian bases : Lebanese troops and tanks have encircled military bases run by pro-Syrian Palestinian fighters near the border with Syria.
26.Oct.2005 Last Seven Days News Follow the links below for stories from our last seven news days 26.Oct.2005 25.Oct.2005 24.Oct.2005 21.Oct.2005 20.Oct.2005 19.Oct.2005 18.Oct.2005 For earlier stories visit our news archive .
26.Oct.2005 26.Oct.2005
26.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-381773,00.html
Im Weißen Haus hielt man sich mit offiziellen Stellungnahmen zurück. Es wird zurzeit viel spekuliert", erklärte Sprecher Scott McClellan gestern. "Es gibt viele Fakten, die wir nicht kennen." Man warte nun auf die erfolgreiche Beendigung der Untersuchung des Sonderermittlers. Das tun auch die Demokraten. Senator Charles E. Schumer aus New York forderte Bush bereits auf zu versichern, alle Beamten, die angeklagt würden, umgehend zu entlassen und auf Kritik am Sonderermittler zu verzichten.
26.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-381773,00.html
CIA-AFFÄRE Die Fakten Am 06.Jul.2003 -wenige Wochen nach dem Einmarsch der USA in den Irak, wirft Joseph C. Wilson der US- Regierung in der "New York Times" unter der Überschrift "What I didn't find in Africa" vor, "unter Vorspiegelung falscher Tatsachen in den Krieg" gegen den Irak gezogen zu sein. Der Ex- US- Botschafter war von US- Vizepräsident Dick Cheney als Sondergesandter in den Niger geschickt worden, um Beweise für das Gerücht zu finden, Iraks damaliger Diktator Saddam Hussein wolle sich in dem Land Uran für den Atombombenbau verschaffen.
Wilson findet keine Spuren und spricht von einer Inszenierung. Acht Tage später, am 14. Juli 2003, wird seine Ehefrau Valerie Plame, eine bis dahin verdeckt arbeitende CIA- Angestellte, in einem Zeitungsartikel enttarnt. Der konservative Kolumnist Robert Novak nennt ihren Deck- und Klarnamen und beruft sich in seinem Bericht auf "zwei hohe Regierungsbeamte". Der Verdacht Seit fast zwei Jahren untersucht der Sonderermittler Patrick Fitzgerald, wer für die Enttarnung von Valerie Plame verantwortlich ist. Es geht um Geheimnisverrat und Falschaussagen, die vorsätzliche Enttarnung eines Agenten ist in den USA strafbar. Der Verdacht bringt die Bush- Administration in Bedrängnis: Die Informationen, die zur Enttarnung Plames führten, könnten gezielt von Regierungsvertretern gestreut worden sein, um Joseph C. Wilson zu diskreditieren. In der Schusslinie sind Präsidentenberater Karl Rove und I. Lewis Libby, Stabschef von Cheney. Die Personen Patrick Fitzgerald: Der Bundesanwalt gilt als hartnäckig, unbestechlich und unparteiisch. Dem Sohn irischer Einwanderer wurde die Untersuchung in der CIA- Affäre Ende 2003 übertragen. Zuvor hatte er bereits Mafiamörder ins Gefängnis gebracht und die Hintermänner des ersten Anschlags auf das World Trade Center 1993 verfolgt.
Joseph C. Wilson: Wilson war jahrelang Diplomat und arbeitete an den US- Botschaften in Niger, Burundi, im Kongo und in Gabun. Als 1991 der Golfkrieg losbricht, leitet er die Botschaft in Bagdad. 1998 zieht er sich aus dem diplomatischen Dienst zurück und macht eine politische Beraterfirma auf. Im Februar 2002 kehrt Wilson noch einmal nach Afrika zurück, um im Auftrag von Vizepräsident Dick Cheney herauszufinden, ob Niger Uran in den Irak exportierte - und findet keine Beweise. Der Titel seines Beitrages in der "New York Times" ist eine Ohrfeige für die US- Regierung: "Was ich nicht in Afrika fand".
Valerie Plame: Sie ist eine der Schlüsselfiguren der Affäre. Wilsons Frau war bis zu ihrer Enttarnung eine Elite- Offizierin der CIA, ihr Spezialgebiet: Massenvernichtungswaffen. Ihre Enttarnung ist eine kriminelle Handlung, durch die Bekanntgabe ihres Klar- und Decknamens ist ihre Karriere als CIA- Agentin beendet.
Karl Rove: US- Präsident George W. Bush nennt ihn den "Architekten". Rove ist Bushs Großstratege, engster Weggefährte und Organisator, verantwortlich für dessen Wahlkämpfe - und steht seit geraumer Zeit im Verdacht, widerrechtlich über Valerie Plame geplaudert und zwei Journalisten auf die Spur der Agentin gebracht zu haben. Eine Anklage Roves in der Affäre gilt als nicht ausgeschlossen.
I. Lewis Libby: Der Jurist ist Stabschef von Vizepräsident Cheney und steht zusammen mit Rove im Brennpunkt der CIA- Affäre. Unter Eid hatte Libby ausgesagt, die Information über die CIA- Tätigkeit Plames ursprünglich von Journalisten erfahren zu haben. Einem Bericht der "New York Times" zufolge wurde er aber von Cheney informiert. Libby droht eine Anklage, möglicherweise wegen Falschaussage und Behinderung der Justiz, im schlimmsten Fall sogar wegen Geheimnisverrats.
Dick Cheney: Über den US- Vizepräsident wird mittlerweile viel spekuliert. Einem Bericht der "New York Times" zufolge informierte Cheney seinen Berater Libby am 12. Juni 2003 über die Identität Plames. Mit der Weitergabe geheimer Informationen an seinen Chefberater hat Cheney völlig legal gehandelt. Anders sähe es aus, sollte die Aktion dazu gedient haben, Plame zu enttarnen.
Judith Miller: Die Reporterin der "New York Times" hat vor einem Untersuchungsausschuss eingeräumt, mit ranghohen Mitgliedern der US- Regierung über die CIA- Agentin Plame gesprochen zu haben. Weil sie sich weigerte, den Behörden den Namen eines Informanten zu nennen, war sie 85 Tage im Gefängnis. Zunächst als Märtyerin für die Pressefreiheit gefeiert, gerät Miller zunehmend ins Zwielicht. Sie habe die Redaktion über "das Ausmaß ihrer Verwicklung irregeführt", sagte jetzt Bill Keller, Chefredakteur der "New York Times".
26.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-381773,00.html
Die Anklagen würden die Dynamik des Skandals noch verstärken und das Weiße Haus in eine tiefe politische Krise stürzen. Die Bush-Regierung, deren Image nach dem kläglichen "Katrina"-Krisenmanagement, den rapide sinkenden Zustimmungsraten zur Irak-Politik und dem Spenden-Skandal um Republikanersprecher Tom DeLay ohnehin schwer ramponiert ist, dürfte weiteren erheblichen Schaden nehmen.
Die Aussicht, dass die Affäre die restliche Amtszeit des Präsidenten bestimmen könnte, sorgt im Weißen Haus jedenfalls für "düstere Stimmung", wie es ein Freund des Präsidenten gegenüber der "New York Times" beschrieb. Die "Washington Post" sprach bereits von den "dunkelsten Tagen der Bush-Präsidentschaft".
Geheimnisverrat von oberster Regierungsstelle
Bis Ende der Woche will Sonderermittler Patrick Fitzgerald seine Untersuchungen abgeschlossen haben. Es geht um die Frage, ob hochrangige Regierungsmitarbeiter im Sommer 2003 gegenüber einem Journalisten die Identität der CIA-Undercover-Agentin Valerie Wilson preisgaben, um sich damit an ihrem Ehemann, dem ehemaligen US-Diplomaten Joe Wilson, zu rächen. Dieser hatte zuvor der US-Regierung in einem Artikel für die "New York Times" vorgeworfen, den Einmarsch im Irak bewusst mit falschen Informationen gerechtfertigt zu haben. Valerie Wilson wurde wenige Tage nach Erscheinen des Artikels in einer Kolumne des Journalisten Robert Novak unter ihrem Mädchennamen Valerie Plame enttarnt.
Die vorsätzliche Enttarnung eines CIA-Agenten ist in den USA strafbar. Staatsanwalt Fitzgerald sieht die Schlüsselrolle bei Rove und Libby, die die "zwei hochrangigen Regierungsvertreter" sein sollen, auf deren Indiskretionen sich Novak bei der Enttarnung der Agentin Wilson bezog. Es würde sich danach um Geheimnisverrat von höchster Regierungsstelle handeln.
26.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-381773,00.html Geheimnisverrat
Bush fürchtet Anklage gegen seine Berater
Die Herren im Weißen Haus zittern: In Kürze könnte sich entscheiden, ob in der Affäre um eine enttarnte CIA-Agentin Anklage erhoben wird. Auf der Liste des Sonderermittlers stehen engste Berater von US-Präsident Bush und seinem Vize Cheney. Washington - Mit einer Anklage müssen nach Informationen der "New York Times" insbesondere Karl Rove, stellvertretender Büroleiter und einer der engsten Weggefährten von US-Präsident George W. Bush, sowie I. Lewis Libby, enger Mitarbeiter von US-Vizepräsident Dick Cheney, rechnen. Das Blatt beruft sich dabei auf Anwälte, die mit dem Fall der Enttarnung der CIA-Geheimagentin Valerie Plame befasst sind.
26.Oct.2005 One finger's worth of Historical Events (PDF File) ...of the United States John ... MEMBERS Carol Cartwright, John H. Foster , Jean L ... bombs and bases, Dulles . ... intimacy with their American... wwics.si.edu/topics/pubs/ACFB14.pdf Save Faulty Justifications and Ominous Prospects: NATO's "Victory" in... (PDF File) Jeffrey Record says of U.S. tactics in Vietnam: The evidence, including the widespread declarations of free-fire zones in .enemy.-controlled... www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa357.pdf Save Roadmap to Where? ...and Baghdad in search of peace in the Mideast. The diplomatic landscape that John Foster Dulles ... War that "the enemy of my enemy is my... www.obermayer.us/aer/articles/2003/ND0518Little.htm Save Nazis in the Attic ...powerful: The Dulles brothers ( John Foster , later Secretary of State, and Allen, later director of ... I wish that I could send some of my shock... www.govsux.com/nazis_in_the_attic.htm Save Commentary Magazine - Henry Luce & His Time He studied my face for some time as if he were trying to read the limits of my strength... remark to Emmet John Hughes: "I don't care how my... www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V44I5P37-1.htm Save Bigger Than Any New Code of Ethics and Rules of Audit ...the partition of Korea. Under Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles and his brother, Allen Dulles ... – supporting enemy of my enemy , etc... aux.zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/cpa2005/papers.htm \8267doost.htm | Save History News Network East adage, "The enemy of my enemy is my ... States under the policy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles . www.historynewsnetwork.org/articles/printfriendly/751.html "ONE HELL OF A GAMBLE": KHRUSHCHEV, CASTRO + KENNEDY, 1958-1964 ...recommended to Christian Herter, the acting secretary of state during John Foster Dulles 's illness ... "Do you believe that? This is my army. www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/ae/books/9798 www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/ae/books/9798/08/17/gamblech1.html Nazi Connection ...powerful: The Dulles brothers ( John Foster , later Secretary of State, and Allen, later director of ... I wish that I could send some of my shock... www.propagandamatrix.com/archivenaziconnection.html Carl Savich | Columns | serbianna.com US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated that the role of Yugoslavia during the Cold War was ... The rationale was: The enemy of my enemy is... www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/044.html
26.Oct.2005 THE ILLUMINATI - PETER LEVENDA AND THE MAGICKAL ROOTS OF NAZISM... ...to their sworn enemy: reality or the King. I am thinking just now -- perhaps in a stream of consciousness -- about the Philby affair. A group of... 66.70.140.217/b/levenda.html Peter Levenda and the Magickal Roots of Nazism, Interview by Tracy... ...to their sworn enemy: reality or the King. I am thinking just now -- perhaps in a stream of consciousness -- about the Philby affair. A group of... www.childoffortune.com/levenda.nazi.htm
26.Oct.2005 Juice The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend ... 1954 (4 months after the fall of Dien Bien Phu), U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles convened the... juice.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=202
26.Oct.2005 Nahost: Irans Präsident will Israel von der Landkarte tilgen 26.Oct.2005 Italiens Uni-Krise: Studenten legen Hochschulen lahm
26.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-381593,00.html
In der neuen Studie fand das Team von Tyler-Smith bei 3,3 Prozent der untersuchten Männer große Übereinstimmungen in den DNA-Sequenzen des Y-Chromosoms, was auf einen gemeinsamen Vorfahren vor rund 500 Jahren hinweist. Dabei könnte es sich um Giocangga handeln, dessen Enkel die Eroberung von China durch die Mandschu vorantrieb und 1644 die Qing-Dynastie gründete, vermuten die Wissenschaftler. Eine große Klasse von Adligen, abstammend von Giocangga, regierte das Land bis 1912 und genoss ein luxuriöses Leben mit Konkubinen und zahlreichen Ehefrauen.
Die Forscher gehen davon aus, dass es ihnen unter diesen Umständen gelungen sein sollte, ihr Erbgut weit zu verbreiten. "Diese Art von Reproduktionsvorteil ist beim Menschen möglicherweise wichtiger, als wir bislang dachten", sagte Tyler-Smith dem Online-Nachrichtendienst des Magazins "Nature".
26.Oct.2005 Setting up Abbas: The Israeli Prime Minister has finally fulfilled the task with which he was charged 38 years ago by Menachem Begin: ensure permanent Israel control over the entire Land of Israel while foreclosing the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.
26.Oct.2005 U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern To Introduce Bill Ending Funding For Iraq War: As the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reaches 2,000, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) this week will introduce legislation to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to deploy United States Armed Forces to Iraq. 26.Oct.2005 Improve security or we quit: Saddam's lawyers: Lawyers representing Saddam Hussein announced on Wednesday that they would boycott the special tribunal trying the ousted Iraqi president until they are given better security. 26.Oct.2005 Saddam's defense team wants to put Bush on trial: "We shall contact international and Arab lawyer associations and will put forward the proof allowing for a trial of the criminal Bush at the same time as the fake trial takes place in Iraq," Saleh Armouti told a meeting of the Amman-based Saddam defense committee. 26.Oct.2005 Detainee says he wishes to die: A detainee on a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay wants a judge to order the removal of his feeding tube so he can be allowed to die, one of his lawyers said Tuesday. 26.Oct.2005 Vice President for Torture : VICE PRESIDENT Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans. 26.Oct.2005 Legalized Torture, Reloaded : Cheney's proposal - Would give the president the power to allow government agencies outside the Defense Department (the administration has in mind the C.I.A.) to mistreat and torture prisoners as long as that behavior was part of "counterterrorism operations conducted abroad" and they were not American citizens. 26.Oct.2005 Prosecutor in leak case seeks indictments against Rove, Libby, lawyers close to case say: Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to indict Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, lawyers close to the investigation tell RAW STORY. 26.Oct.2005 Grand Jury in CIA Leak Case Adjourns : The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity met for three hours Wednesday with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and his deputies, adjourning for the day without announcing any action. 26.Oct.2005 Leak grand jury meets prosecutor: The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity met on Wednesday with special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald amid signs the prosecutor was preparing to seek criminal charges. 26.Oct.2005 Indictments in CIA leak ‘about to be handed down’: On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week. 26.Oct.2005 CBS To Report Fitzgerald Will Make His Decision Known Tomorrow : CBS’ JOHN ROBERTS: Lawyers familiar with the case think Wednesday is when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will make known his decision + that there will be indictments. Supporters say Rove and the vice president’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, are in legal jeopardy. 26.Oct.2005 CIA leak illustrates selective use of intelligence on Iraq: The grand jury probe into the leak of a covert CIA officer's name has opened a new window into how the Bush administration used intelligence from dubious sources to make a case for a pre-emptive war and discarded information that undercut its rationale for attacking Iraq. 26.Oct.2005 In case you missed it: The new Pentagon papers: A high-ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war. 26.Oct.2005 Italian faces pre-war intelligence probe: The head of Italy's military secret services will be questioned by a parliamentary commission next week over allegations that his organization gave the United States and Britain disputed documents suggesting that Saddam Hussein had been seeking uranium in Africa, officials said Tuesday. 26.Oct.2005 Michael Ledeen’s Fingers in the Niger Yellowcake : Some of us, those who pay attention, have suspected for some time the fraudulent Niger yellowcake documents—so crudely slapped together as to be laughable—are tied to Michael Ledeen, the neocon’s neocon, who is connected to the neofascist Italian military intelligence agency, SISMI. 26.Oct.2005 In case you missed it: Israel strives to import America's war on terror : The Israeli political-security establishment is coming to the conclusion that the terror attacks on September 11 granted Israel and advantage; at a time when Israel was under increasing international pressure because of the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. 26.Oct.2005 Dialectics of the Plame Affair: The neocon-dominated Bush administration opted for generalized Southwest Asian war after 9-11. "S.H. and U.B.L.; things related and unrelated," penned Rumsfeld the day after. The meaning of this shorthand is clear in retrospect: the administration would use the opportunity to link unrelated phenomena, most notably Iraq (S.H. = Saddam Hussein) and al-Qaeda (U.B.L. = Usama bin Laden), but also 9-11 with a whole range of unfriendly forces that could be targeted in the new situation. 26.Oct.2005 Ted Rall : Why Bush Is Unimpeachable: : Impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Nixon and Clinton faced Congresses controlled by the other party. Because Bush belongs to the same party as the majorities in the House and Senate, nothing he does can get him impeached. 26.Oct.2005 Iran opposition group seeks US legitimacy : Even by the standards of Washington politics it was an unusual spectacle - the veiled leader of a Middle East group banned in the US as a terrorist organisation delivering a speech by live video-link to applauding members of Congress inside the Capitol itself
26.Oct.2005 We Burn Corpses, Don't We?
War Crimes in Afghanistan -By Erid Ruder
For the people of Afghanistan, fed up wit h U.S. atrocities and support for regional warlords, there's growing talk of ejecting U.S. troops--just as the former USSR's military was kicked out in 1989 after a decade of occupation. "Their future will be like the Russians," said Zahidullah, a resident of Kabul. Continued
26.Oct.2005 What Reagan Started, Bush Is Finishing By David Martin
After eight years of the Gipper, four years of Bush I, eight years of Republican Lite under Clinton + five years of Shrub, we see the truth of the Reagan Revolution. The gradual withering away of the welfare and regulatory state has not unleashed the American entrepreneurial spirit. Rather, it has set loose the predatory greed of the 19th century robber barons, the class cannibalism of Social Darwinism + the winner-take-all rapacity of laissez faire capitalism. Continued
26.Oct.2005 Naher Osten: Peres fordert Irans Ausschluss aus der Uno
26.Oct.2005 Manager-Gehälter: Offenlegungspflicht für Öffentliche Unternehmen
26.Oct.2005 Seuchen: Verdacht auf Vogelgrippe bei drei Franzosen
26.Oct.2005 Irak: Saddam-Anwälte setzen Kontakt zum Gericht aus
26.Oct.2005 Atomarer Bunkerknacker: US-Regierung gibt "Mini-Nukes" auf 26.Oct.2005 EU-Gipfel: Blair präsentiert Fünf-Punkte-Plan
26.Oct.2005 US-Fernsehen: Lieber Satire als Nachrichten
26.Oct.2005 Geheimnisverrat: Bush fürchtet Anklage gegen seine Berater
26.Oct.2005 Schwarz-Rot: Kronzeugenregelung kommt wieder
26.Oct.2005 Mehrbelastungen: Was auf die Bürger zukommen könnte
26.Oct.2005 Koalitionspoker: Union und SPD streiten über Atomausstieg
26.Oct.2005 Paris: Chirac-Vertraute wegen Korruption verurteilt 26.Oct.2005 London: U-Bahn-Bomber schon vor Anschlägen im Visier der Polizei
26.Oct.2005 Tüftelwettbewerb: Fahrstuhl soll Lasten ins All hieven
26.Oct.2005 Fall Hariri: Russland will Syrien schützen
26.Oct.2005 Potenter Herrscher: Asiat hat 1,5 Millionen Nachfahren
26.Oct.2005 Online-Medien: Gates sagt den Tod der Printpresse voraus
26.Oct.2005 Tawhid-Prozess: Verurteilter Terrorist flüchtet aus Gerichtssaal 26.Oct.2005 Mordfall Hariri: Assad versucht sich in Schadensbegrenzung
26.Oct.2005 Vogelgrippe-Schutz: EU rät vom Verzehr roher Eier ab
26.Oct.2005 Hariri-Mord: Syrien verspricht Hilfe bei Aufklärung
26.Oct.2005 Fiat-Dynastie: Die Fehltritte des Agnelli-Sprösslings
26.Oct.2005 Angst vor Gespenst: Sieben Grundschüler in China totgetrampelt
26.Oct.2005 Kriegsbilanz: 2000 US-Soldaten und 30.000 Zivilisten starben im Irak 26.Oct.2005 Hariri-Mord: Syrien unter Druck der Uno
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
https://www.thewashingtonnote.com / says that Fitzgerald will release one to five indictments tomorrow. The Financial Times makes a similar prediction. So does John Roberts of CBS:
Lawyers familiar with the case think Wednesday is when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will make known his decision + that there will be indictments. Supporters say Rove and the vice president’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, are in legal jeopardy. But they insisted today the two are secondary players, that it was an unidentified Mr. X who actually gave the name of CIA agent V alerie Plame to reporters. Fitzgerald knows who Mr. X is, they say + if he isn’t indicted, there’s no way Rove or Libby should be. Who is Mr. X? Perhaps Dick Cheney. Former CIA analyst Melvyn Goodman has some pertinent observations:
From the first day I was convinced that Dick Cheney was the center of this covert action to lead the country into war, because this is what this is about: the misuse and the secret use of intelligence. It's about that more than it is leaks and sources and even Valerie Plame's identity. It's about how we went to war.
Dick Cheney, I thought, would obtain some kind of plausible denial, because this was run like a CIA covert action. But now he's lost his denial, if he was indeed the source of Valerie Plame's name to Lewis Libby, who then went forward with Karl Rove to give this name to at least five or six journalists +, of course, it was Robert Novak who did the administration's work for it. He was what some people would call the useful idiot, who then ran the Valerie Plame name in his column. But this is now in the White House.
And once, frankly, you had Lewis Libby implicated -- Lewis Libby is just an apparatchik. As an old Soviet analyst, the Libby type is quite recognizable. And you knew that he had to have some sponsorship or endorsement, or he was galvanized in some way by, indeed, his patron. And, of course, his patron was Dick Cheney. Meanwhile, Scott McClellan has, in essence, tossed Rove and Libby into the snow.
Strange, isn't it? A few short months ago, every progressive considered the End of the Rove Era an impossible dream. Now that this goal seems close at hand, we feel unsatisfied. We want more. We want to see a broken Cheney.
As for me -- I'd be dancing a jig right now, if I weren't still smarting over the dunderheaded error committed earlier today. (See the apologetic note appended the previous post.) But please -- don't let my sour mood spoil your Fitzmas. Happy Holidays! Permalink # posted by Joseph : 7:40 PM 6 comments
More on the lie that led to war (Updated and corrected) A lot has happened on the Niger front since I wrote my piece this morning. La Repubblica has published a follow-up account; Josh Marshall gives both the gist and his analysis.
Laura Rozen also takes a very helpful look at the matter. Rozen was able to confirm a key contention made by the Italian newspaper -- that 09.Sep.2002 Bush's Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley met with SISMI head Nicolo Pollari. 09.Sep.2002 -At that time- Pollari had some Niger docs that he wanted to palm off on Bush Co. 00.Oct.2001 -09.Sep.2002-Roughly eleven months earlier- Pollari had already told Washington about Iraq's alleged devious doings in Africa. The documents seemed to confirm this earlier warning.
(Clever, eh? Pollari used one lie to "confirm" a later, more elaborate lie...)
Can we reconcile this new data with previous claims that the hoax originated with Ledeen and two former CIA officers? I believe so. La Repubblica traces the plot back to SISMI officer Antonio Nucera. But the actual origin point remains cloudy; in a forgery case, one always likes to know the name of the actual forger. Do not dismiss the earlier report that Ledeen, Clarridge and Wolf were the ultimate masterminds.
Perhaps the most startling aspect of this spy tale is the chronology. 00.000.1999 -The forgery conspiracy seems to date back to- -- which means 11.Sep.2001 -well before- the plot to foment war in the Middle East began
Yet Pollari waited until shortly after the tragedy to put the plot into motion.
Did SISMI as an institution try to mislead the Bush administration into war? Sure seems that way -- but only on the surface.
SISMI head Pollari did not merely meet with Hadley. He did not merely pass the forgeries along. 00.Oct.2001 -as early as in- He had warned the Bushites about the Niger "revelation" A short while later, he offered Cheney's office transcripts of the documents; later still, he handed over the documents themselves. In all, he spent a year cultivating the ground for war.
Question: Why on earth would SISMI want to goad the U.S. into invading Iraq?
Answer: They wouldn't.
Someone else was using Pollari, Nucera and so forth. Italian intelligence gained nothing from an American invasion. Besides, if this were truly a job conducted by SISMI (or any other professional intelligence agency), the fakes would have been of a higher quality.
Therefore, we must be dealing with an ad hoc group operating both inside and outside SISMI. Ideology and personal loyalty binds these individuals together.
There is precedent for the existence of such a group: "Super SISMI" of P2 fame. That group networked with interests outside Italy -- in particular, with what Joseph Trento calls the "rogue CIA."
I have now reconsidered the attractive-but-fanciful scenario (outlined below) that the CIA intentionally used these documents to embarrass the Bush administration. A cute idea -- but impossible. We now know that the plot pre-dates this administration.
No, we are dealing with a long-range plan to use American military might to remake the Middle East. The lie that led to war was not a SISMI plot per se , although key participants did belong to that agency. Neither was this a CIA plot per se , although the American participants do have backgrounds with American intelligence. Neither can we say that this a Bush/Cheney plot, since the scheme predates the administration.
One of the frustrating things about this international network is that we cannot put a name to it. The tired and not-really-accurate "neocon" label is the only nomenclature we have; for now, it will have to do.
I suspect that La Repubblica acquired this information from a leaks within the Berlusconi government, desinged to forestall Fitzgerald's revealtion.
Note: There's an old Russian proverb: Memory is a crazy old woman who picks up scattered bits of discarded cloth while ignoring diamonds. Permalink #
The secret society + the Niger forgeries (revised) Josh Marshall has done remarkable, ground-breaking work on the Niger forgeries and their movement through the murky world of Italian parapolitics. Yet he doesn't give his readers some necessary history.
In his latest look at the controversy, he draws from a recent (as-yet untranslated) article in La Repubblica on the forgeries. Marhsall correctly identifies the piece as a limited hang-out (although he does not use that term). Marshall:
And this one says the culprits are Rocco Martino, the Italian woman who works in the Niger embassy in Rome and the SISMI operative Martino named as his ultimate source. The motive, says Repubblica, was money.
I've never named the SISMI colonel whom Martino said he (indirectly) got the documents from. But now Repubblica has. So I will too: his name is Antonio Nucera...
My experience with this case, going back almost two years now, is that whenever damaging new information was about to come out on the forgery mystery, the Italian government-cum-intelligence agencies put out substantial new information about what happened mixed with disinformation aimed at throwing people off their trail. And when I say 'their trail', I mean the complicity of Italian intelligence in the documents hoax itself.
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
The beans in that bag are Roman. In the general haze of events which precede the invasion of Iraq, Italian involvement is prefigured by a single, grotesque protagonist: 20.Sep.1938 Rocco Martino, born in Tropea (Province of Catanzaro), son of Raffaele Ventrici + America Ventrici,
To read the rest - and trust me: You GOTTA read this one - click on "Permalink ".
Here's the rest from La Repubblica: 00.000.2004 - in the summer of- Unmasked by the British press (The Financial Times, The Sunday Times), Rocco Martino spills the beans: It's true, I had a hand in the dissemination of those (Niger uranium) documents, but I was duped. Both Americans + Italians were involved behind the scenes. It was a disinformation operation.
An incomplete confession but close to the truth.
Martino conceals the identify of the architects behind the "operation" + appears to be merely a pawn, like his partners in crime. So is the puppeteer pulling the strings of their sordid adventure? To find out, we'll start with that funny-looking fellow who came to Rome from Tropea...
Rocco Martino is a dishonest cop + a crooked spy. Rocco Martino has the aura of a rogue about him even if you don't know his background. 00.000.1976-00.000.1997 Rocco Martino a captain of politico-military intelligence, he was let go for "conduct unbecoming." 00.000.1985 Rocco Martino was arrested for extortion in Italy. 00.000.1993 Rocco Martino was arrested in Germany in possession of stolen checks. 00.000.1999 -until- Rocco Martino -Nevertheless, according to a Defense Ministry official- worked for SISMI as a double agent.
00.000.199- Martino rents a place at No. 3 rue Hoehl in Sandweiler, Luxemburg. Rocco Martino gets a fixed salary from French intelligence + uses a consulting firm as cover: Security Development Organization. In other words, Rocco Martino also works for French intelligence. Serving two masters, Rocco tries his best. Rocco Martino sells information on the Italians to the French + information on the French to the Italians. “That's my job. I sell information”.
00.000.1999 the pleasure-seeking Rocco Martino is running out of cash. When Rocco Martino ’s down to his last dime, he hatches a plot of his own. Rocco Martino 's convinced that he's got a brilliant + risk-free idea. What illuminates the light bulb is the problem the French are encountering in Niger.
00.000.1999-00.000.2000 -between- In brief, the French realize that someone is working abandoned mines to generate a brisk clandestine trade in uranium. Who is purchasing the smuggled uranium? The French are looking for an answer + Rocco Martino senses an opportunity.
So he asks for help form an old colleague at SISMI: Antonio Nucera. Antonio Nucera, a Carabinieri (cop) like Rocco Martino, is the Deputy Chief of the SISMI center in viale Pasteur in Rome. He's chief of the 1st and the 8th divisions (weapons and technology transfers and WMD proliferation counterespionage, respectively, for Africa and the Middle East.
This section is very busy section at the end of the 1980s, tailing the many agents which Saddam has deployed around the world prior to the invasion of Kuwait... "With some success," according to an Italian intelligence official who at the time worked for the division. The official recalls: We succeeded in getting our hands on Niger code books and a telex from Ambassador Adamou Chékou to the Niger Foreign Ministry informing Niamey that Wissam al-Zahawie, the Iraqi Ambassador to the Vatican, would be coming to Niger as a representative of Saddam Hussein.
But that wasn’t all. We confiscated maraging steel (ultra-high strength steel) in the port of Trieste. We thought it was destined for a series of centrifuges used to separate uranium. We exchanged information on Iraqi nuclear proliferation at the end of the eighties with the British of MI6—the cream of the crop. A sincere friend of Italy worked there: Hamilton MacMillan. MacMillan mentored Francesco Cossiga [Interior Minister, in charge during the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades] in his introduction to the mysterious ways of espionage when he was "resident" in Rome.
Nucera decided to give a hand to his old friend, Rocco. Rocco quickly briefs him on the job. Isn't there anything you can give me? Info? A good Niger contact? I’ll take anything you have! The French are as dry as people lost in the desert. They want to know who is buying their uranium under the table. I'm prepared to pay well to find out.
In the archives of Nucera's SISMI division, there are documents that could be useful in pawning off a half-baked frittata and making a few bucks. There's the telex from the Niger ambassador. Further needs might be met at the Niger Embassy at No. 10 via Baiamonte in Rome. SISMI director Nicolò Pollari confirms to La Repubblica: Nucera wanted to help out his friend. He offered him the use of an intelligence asset -- no big deal, you understand; one that was still on the books but inactive -- to give a hand to Martino. The asset worked at the Niger Embassy in Rome. She was in bad shape. She barely eked out a living in the back of the espionage shop. She didn't get a monthy sum from Italian intelligence. In other words, she was a contractor.
Information and cash were exchanged. It was only chickenfeed -- a few hundred thousand lira notes. But that was a lot in 2000 -- and Martino was really desperate. He was on a slow slide to destitution -- nothing to spy on and nothing to sell.
La Signora . You should have seen her, "La Signora". Sixty years old if she was a day! A face that once was pretty -- now it looked a crinkled leaf. You could call her a gofer for the Niger Embassy. She looked like my old auntie. A French accent. A complicit wink. Always spoke in a whisper. Even when she said "hello," her voice was like a tiny, mysterious flute, ready to reveal a thousands secrets. But even "La Signora" needed cash.
Nucera arranged the meeting. Rocco and La Signora don't take long. He going to get what he came for. But wasn't Nucera her official contact at SISMI? Then why wasn't she supposed to know that it was SISMI who wanted the favor? And why was the item useful to the Agency?
With the blessing of Nucera, Rocco and La Signora, a pair of clever snake-oil salesmen, conclude a bargain. There would be a few sheets of paper available for sale. But the help of a Niger national was needed. La Signora points him to the right man. He’s First Embassy Counselor Zakaria Yaou Maiga. As Pollari told us, that Maiga spent six times more than he earned.
The gang of spendthrift bunglers who short on cash is ready to go into action. Rocco Martino, La Signora, Zakaria Yaou Maiga. Nucera retreates into the shadows. They wait for the embassy to close its doors for New Years 2001. They simulate a break-in and burglary. When on January 2, 2001, bright and early, the Second Secretary for Administrative Affairs Arfou Mounkaila reports the burglary to the Carabinieri of the Trionfale station, he has to admit with a grin that the burglars were half asleep. A lot of trouble and effort for nothing. Mounkaila is unable to report missing what he doesn't know is gone. Letterhead + official stamps. In the hands of the snake oil peddlers, useful stuff with which to assemble a dodgy dossier.
Old documents are extracted from the SISMI division's archives—like code books (Nucera is deputy chief of section), letters, contracts and a memorandum of understanding between the government of Niger and Iraq "concerning the supply of uranium on 5 and 6 July 2000 in Niamey." The memorandum has a 2-page attachment entitled "Agreement." Rocco hands over the "package" to agents from the French Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure. They hand him some banknotes which he spends in Nice. Rocco loves the Cote d’Azur.
Up to this point, a caper worthy of Stan Laurel, Goofy and Cruella deVille. But it's an innocuous swindle. The French take the documents and throw them in the dumpster. One of the agents remarks, Niger is a French-speaking place and we know how things are there. But nobody would have confused one minister with another they way they did in that useless piece of garbage.
Case closed, then? No! The burlesque imbroglio is transformed into a very grave matter. Along comes September 11th and Bush immediately starts to think about Iraq and requests proof of Saddam's involvement in the attacks.
SISMI recalls the via Baiamonti squad to into action. A new director, Nicolò Pollari, arrives at Forte Brasco. And Col. Alberto Manenti, the new man on the job, is placed in charge of WMD. A well-prepared officer but completely incapable of saying "No" to a superior, says a SISMI official with whom he worked. Col. Manenti had Nucera on his staff for a time and knew him well. Manenti, who knows that Nucera is about to retire, asks him to stay on as a consultant.
SISMI is straining at the bit. It has room for maneuver like never before in the history of Italy. Berlusconi asks Pollari for a feat on the international stage which will catapult Italy to the first among US allies. A similar request comes in from the CIA station chief in Rome, Jeff Castelli. News, information, useful scraps of intelligence are needed. Now! On the double! Washington is looking for proof to use against Saddam.
The White House (in particular, Cheney) puts pressure on the CIA to hop to it. The absence of proof isn't proof of absence, philosophizes Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. In that kind of climate, with their phony dossier, the snake oil salesmen of via Baiamonti, (Rocco Martino and Antonio Nucera) would be useful. So what do they do in the fall of 2001? Rocco Martino describes it this way: At the end of 2001, SISMI handed the yellowcake dossier to the British of MI6.
They hand over a dossier devoid of scrutiny. They claim only that they got it from "a reliable source." Then they make a small tweak: SISMI wanted to disseminate the Niger documents to allied intelligence but at the same time, did not want its collaboration in the operation known. These are allegations which Palazzao Chigi vehemently denies. The government tells a bald-faced lie. After the war reveals the WMD chicanery, the Italian Government swears that no uranium dossier was handed over or made to be handed over to anyone, either directly or through intermediaries.
The next move was predictable. The Italian Government and SISMI build a dike between Forte Braschi and the footprints of the via Biaimonte squad. But its denial does not hold up.
It is a fact that in fall of 2001, SISMI monitored Rocco Martino's every move in London. This is confirmed to the Repubblica by SISMI chief Nicolo Pollari. We monitored Martino and photographed his meetings in London. Would you like to see the pictures? So why didn't Rome put the lie to its ex-agent and snake oil salesman? Especially since the information in the dossier was vouched for by Pollari to Jeff Castelli, CIA station chief. It is a fact that a report on the bogus, made-in-Rome dossier ended up at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence -- in the Office of Strategic, Military and WMD Proliferation Affairs.
Strategic Affairs is not a big place. At the time, 16 analysts worked there under the direction of Greg Thielmann. Thielmann tells La Repubblica: I received the report in fall of 2001. We thought that Langley acquired it from their field officer in Italy. The agent in the field reports that Italian intelligence let him see some papers documenting the attempt by Iraq to acquire 500 tons of pure uranium from Niger. So, SISMI purported the truth of documents it knew to be false to the CIA.
There's a second confirmation. At Langley, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson was assigned the mission to verify the Italian "story" of the 500 tons of uranium.
Says Wilson: The report was not very detailed. It's not clear if the agent who signed the report materially saw the peddled documents or whether he heard it from another source.
We'll have to modify the sequence of events:
Fall 2001: General Pollari's SISMI is in possession of a phony dossier assembled by Rocco Martino and Antonio Nucera. They show it to the CIA while Rocco Martino delivers it to Sir Richard Dearlove's MI6. This is only the beginning of the Great Italian Yellowcake Scam.
To be continued... Permalink
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
I think this translation deserves the widest possible audience. I hope I may be forgiven for republishing it here:
Double-Dealers and Dilettantes -- the Men Behind Nigergate Were All Italians.
The military intervention in Iraq was justified by two revelations: Saddam Hussein attempted to acquire unprocessed uranium (yellowcake) in Niger (1) for enrichment with centrifuges built with aluminum tubes imported from Europe(2). The fabricators of the twin hoaxes (there was never any trace in Iraq of unprocessed uranium or centrifuges) were the Italian government and Italian military intelligence. La Repubblica has attempted to reconstruct the who, where and why of the manufacture and transfer to British and American intelligence of the dodgy dossier for war.
They are the same two hoaxes that Judith Miller, the reporter who betrayed her newspaper, published (together with Michael Gordon) on September 8, 2002. In a lengthy investigative piece for the New York Times, Miller reported that Saddam could have built an atomic weapon with those aluminum tubes. These were the goods that the hawks in the Bush administration were expecting.
The "war dance" which followed Judith Miller's scoop seemed like "carefully-prepared theater” to an attentive media-watcher, Roberto Reale of Ultime Notizie (The Latest News).
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Niger-gate: How it began The Nur al-Cubicle blog draws from the foreign media to present less-familiar views on the current crisis. The current offering gives us a good translation of the first La Repubblica piece on Niger-gate.
Do I think this investigation is the final word? No.
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Permalink
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Yes, our old "pal" Michael Ledeen finally shows up on stage...!
Part Two of the investigative series by Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe d'Avanzo of La Repubblica.
INVESTIGATION / SISMI Director General Nicolò Pollari travels to the States to corroborate the purchase of nuclear material by Saddam Hussein.
Pollari travels to Washington to present his version of "the truth":
The Yellowcake Dossier was not the work of the CIA.
For SISMI Director Nicolò Pollari, the rules of his profession are unequivocal. He tells La Repubblica: "I am an intelligence chief and my only institutional partner in conversation following 9-11 was CIA Director George Tenet in Washington. Obviously, I held conversations solely with him." But is it really true that our cloak-and-dagger people worked solely with the CIA? Or did they work as part of the clandestine effort undertaken by the parallel intelligence agency created by Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz within the Iraq War Group, the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and the office of the National Security Advisor -- all determined to produce the evidence for "regime change" in Baghdad?
It is a known fact that on the eve of the war on Iraq and under the supervision of Palazzo Chigi Diplomacy Advisor Gianni Cestellaneta (today Italian Ambassador to the United States), SISMI chief Pollari arranged a meeting in Washington with the staff of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. La Repubblica has documented the double ruse engineered by the Italian government and Italian intelligence. At least one of the very non-institutional encounters covered, according to intelligence agents, the creation of a network involving government, intelligence and information sharing.
Brief synopsis: Pollari’s SISMI wants to give credence to the story of acquisition of uranium ore in order to build a nuclear bomb. The scheme is transparent. The "authentic" papers concerning an attempt to acquire uranium in Niger (stale Italian intelligence left over from the 80's) are a legacy of a former SISMI Deputy Chief in Rome, Antonio Nucera. They are bundled up together with other worthless documents assembled helter-skelter after a simulated burglary of the Niger Embassy (embassy letterhead and stamps are taken). The documents are exhibited by Pollari's men to the CIA Station Chief in Rome while SISMI's "postman," a certain individual by the name of Rocco Martino, delivers a copy to Richard Dearlove’s MI6 in London.
That's the baseline snapshot. We'll now provide the second chapter of the Great Italian Yellowcake Scam orchestrated in Italy to provide the pretext for the invasion of Iraq. We reintroduce Greg Thielmann, former director of the US Department of State's intelligence bureau, who encounters the Italian report on the uranium. He does not recall the precise date.
Thielmann recounts the events of autumn 2001 in generalities. But the precise date may prove revealing: it is October 15, 2001. On that day three events are woven together to produce an astounding coincidence: Nicolò Pollari is appointed to head SISMI by the Italian government on September 27, after serving as Number Two at CESIS (a coordinating intelligence agency at Palazzo Chigi). Silvio Berlusconi is finally invited to the White House by George W. Bush. October 15 marks the date of the first CIA report on the evidence assembled by the Italians.
It's impossible to say if all this is coincidence, but one cannot ignore the context: The Italians possess a burning desire score a win. After his bungling remarks on the Clash of Civilizations, Berlusconi is encountering problems in getting an invitation from the White House, under fire from moderate Arab regimes. Pollari is eager to quickly get in step with Premier and the new course of action. The new chief at the SISMI section in charge of WMD, Colonel Alberto Manenti (direct superior of Antonio Nucera), wants to put himself on the same page as the new SISMI director. It is a known fact that Bush shows the West Wing's Rose Garden to Berlusconi and the CIA acknowledges, as reported by Russ Hoyle (who has been analyzing the conclusions of the US Congressional Investigation Committee) that Italian intelligence has some neatly prepackaged information with a pretty bow. Negotiations (between Niamey and Baghdad) on the purchase of uranium have been ongoing since the start of 1999; the sale [of uranium to Baghdad] was approved by the Niger Supreme Council in 2000. No documentary evidence is offered to show that any shipment of uranium has occured. CIA analysts consider the report to be "somewhat limited" and "lacking in necessary detail." Intelligence and Research analysts at the US Department of State qualify the intelligence as "highly suspect."
The first contact with the American intelligence community is not gratifying for Pollari but still highly useful. The SISMI director, who is no fool, reconstructs the landscape and the cast members of the ongoing behind-the-scenes battle in the American Administration between those who stress caution and pragmatism (US Department of State and the CIA) and those who are looking for an excuse to start a war (Cheney, the Pentagon), which is already on the drawing board.
However, when the SISMI director returns to Italy, he perceives a similar battle underway in Rome. Gianni Castellaneta advises Pollari to look in other directions, while Defense Minister Antonio Martino tell Pollari to expect a visit from an old friend of Italy.
This old friend is Michael A. Ledeen, a veteran of American parallel intelligence networks, who had been previous declared persona non grata by Rome during 1980s. [Likely because of kidnapping of Abu Abbas, orchestrated by Ledeen and Oliver North + the attempted "extraordinary rendition" of Abbas through Italy--Nur] Ledeen is in Rome on a mission from the Office of Special Plans, created at the Pentagon by Paul Wolfowitz to collect intelligence which would support a war on Iraq. A source at Forte Braschi [equivalent to Langley, VA, the headquarters of the CIA--Nur] tells La Repubblica: On the subject of intelligence collected on the uranium purchase, Pollari gets the cold shoulder from CIA Station Chief Jeff Castelli. Apparently, Castelli has dropped the matter entirely. Taking a hint, Pollari discusses the matter with Michael Ledeen.
No one knows what leads Ledeen to return to Washington. But at the beginning of 2002, Paul Wolfowitz convinces Dick Cheney that the uranium trail picked up by Italian intelligence should be explored in closer detail. As the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence relates, a determined Vice President makes a request to the CIA to take another look into "the possible acquisition of Niger uranium." During a meeting, Dick Cheney explicitly states that this piece of intelligence is held by "a foreign intelligence agency."
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Here (courtesy of Nur al-Cubicle) is a translation of the second part of the La Repubblica investigation.
I feel guilty reprinting the fine work of another blogger, but -- as I've demonstrated! -- I have never been to Italy and I do not know Italian + thus could not do this work myself. (That didn't stop me from altering Nur's translation slightly: To avoid confusion, I've put back quotation marks that appeared in the original. I also corrected a few obvious typos and added some paragraph breaks to increase readability.)
26.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Raw Story -- which has had a fine track record in this case, reports that he will bring indictments against Rove and Libby. Even better: Richard Sale, whose reporting has been terrific, tells us that Fitzgerald's real target is Cheney. He may also go after Ledeen and co. And he may even ask for another Grand Jury !
26.Oct.2005 A State Of Inequality
By Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel
The United States is now the third most unequal industrialized society after Russia and Mexico. This is not a club we want to be part of. Russia is a recovering kleptocracy, with a post-Soviet oligarchy enriched by looting. And Mexico, despite joining the rich-nations club of the Organization for Economic and Community Development, has some of the most glaring poverty in the hemisphere. Continue
26.Oct.2005 Australia: Beattie warns terrorism laws 'unconstitutional': Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has warned his state and territory counterparts the Federal Government's proposed new counter-terrorism laws may be unconstitutional. 26.Oct.2005 Anti-terrorism laws lack UK-style safeguards: expert: A British legal expert says the Federal Government's proposed new anti-terrorism laws offer limited protection against human rights violations, in comparison to UK laws. 26.Oct.2005 Miers' Answer Raises Questions : Legal experts find a misuse of terms in her Senate questionnaire 'terrible' and 'shocking.' 26.Oct.2005 Land deal gets new scrutiny as Bush resists requests on Miers' work: The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that he wanted to probe a land-condemnation proceeding in 1999 that awarded Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers more than $100,000 for a half-acre of family-owned land in Dallas.
26.Oct.2005 Lawyer tells Amnesty meeting tale of a Guantanamo detainee : al-Habashi was flown to Morocco, where his torturers took a blade to his penis numerous times + then to the Americans in Afghanistan, Stafford Smith said. Al-Habashi was flown to Guantanamo in 2004.
26.Oct.2005 What happens when you speak truth to power in America: George Galloway faces jail for fresh corruption claims : Galloway could be facing a lengthy prison sentence in the United States after a Senate committee last night claimed it had fresh evidence his political organisation and his wife had received nearly £340,000 in oil-for-food allocations from Saddam Hussein and then lied under oath about the deal. 26.Oct.2005 Video report: Galloway claims revenge is the motive: Galloway claims revenge is the motive: George Galloway has called the allegations against him a "revenge attack" from a "lickspittle right-wing senator". 26.Oct.2005 Put up or shut up: Galloway challenges the US Senate committee to charge him : The Respect MP George Galloway has thrown down a challenge to the US Senate homeland security committee to charge him with perjury and "I'll see you in court". . 26.Oct.2005 Galloway rejects senate perjury claims : A furious George Galloway today challenged US senators to charge him with perjury over claims that he solicited money from Saddam Hussein's oil-for-food programme and lied about it under oath. 26.Oct.2005 U.S. Senate Smears George Galloway Again!: Galloway's wife 'received £100,000 from Iraqis' : An "investigative" committee of the United States Senate says Galloway's wife 'received $149,980,000 from Iraqis' 26.Oct.2005 Galloway accused of lying to US Senate : The MP George Galloway angrily rejected fresh allegations last night from a US senate investigation that he lied under oath about Saddam Hussein's multimillion-pound oil-for-food programme. 26.Oct.2005 In case you missed it: Galloway Speak Truth To Power.: Video: Galloway v The US Senate : George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, delivered this statement to US Senators today (05/17/05) who have accused him of corruption 26.Oct.2005 U.S. District Judge Says Confession Under Torture Legal: A federal judge ruled Monday that prosecutors can use a confession by a man charged with joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush, despite defense claims that the confession was obtained through torture.
26.Oct.2005 NSC Chief Hadley asked Italy for a Bashar Replacement : Steven Hadley, the director of the US National Security Council, called the President of the Italian senate to asked if he had a candidate to replace Bashar al-Asad as President of Syria. The Italians were horrified. Italy is one of Syria’s biggest trading partners so it seemed a reasonable place to ask! This is what Washington has been up to. 26.Oct.2005 Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neo-Cons, Cheney: "This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," Scowcroft told the magazine, 26.Oct.2005 Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report : Lawyers involved in the case, who described the notes to The New York Times, said they showed that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003. 26.Oct.2005 Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby: Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. 26.Oct.2005 Bushies take aim at probe : Team Bush was finalizing its campaign to discredit and undermine special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's conclusions, sources told the Daily News. 26.Oct.2005 "Playing Fast and Loose with the Facts": I don't like what Miller represents in journalism. She is not, to my mind, a journalist. She forfeited that claim when she became a conduit of propaganda for the neo-conservative cabal that has its bloody hands on the control levers of the nation. 26.Oct.2005 Rep. Jerrold Nadler: Fitzgerald Must Broaden Investigation : “Did the Bush Administration deliberately mislead Congress about the war? 26.Oct.2005 La Repubblica's Scoop, Confirmed: Italy's intelligence chief met with Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley just a month before the Niger forgeries first surfaced. 26.Oct.2005 Juan Cole: Rupert Murdoch and Judith Miller: Rupert Murdoch + Richard Mellon Scaife + other far rightwing billionaires have deeply corrupted our information environment. They are in part responsible for what happened at the NYT
26.Oct.2005 Group: U.S. troops not leaving Iraq soon: "This is a long-term proposition + I would expect the next U.S. administration to have forces inside Iraq at a fairly large number for some years to come." 26.Oct.2005 Bush: Iraq war will require more sacrifice: President George W. Bush, bracing for the fallout when the U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000, said on Tuesday the Iraq war will require more sacrifice and rejected critics calling for a U.S. pullout. 26.Oct.2005 In case you missed it: Theory of Perpetual War: America needs good wars. The nation has to be kept on its toes: - This is why 9/11 was a ‘gift’ from heaven! - It put the country in the ‘proper’ mood. 26.Oct.2005 Greg Palast: Opec And The Economic Conquest Of Iraq: TWO AND A HALF YEARS AND $202 BILLION into the war in Iraq, the United States has at least one significant new asset to show for it: effective membership, through our control of Iraq's energy policy, in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Arab-dominated oil cartel. 26.Oct.2005 God, Iraq and the power of the President's PR : Mark Borkowski on the worrying rise and rise of Karen Hughes, George W Bush's 'ambassador for public diplomacy' and the woman behind the throne 26.Oct.2005 Iraqi interior ministry accused of assassinating defence lawyer in Hussein trial : The interior ministry of the pro-US government in Iraq is being directly accused of carrying out the murder of Sadoun Antar Nudsaif al-Janabi, a key defence lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven others that began on October 19. 26.Oct.2005 Closing the Neocon Circle : George W. Bush has unveiled a new vision for U.S. foreign policy. His inspiration: Israel’s Natan Sharansky 26.Oct.2005 Bush says military action against Syria "last resort" : "A military (option) is always the last choice of a president," he told Al Arabiya television in an interview aired on Tuesday when asked about a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of Hariri. 26.Oct.2005 Blair New Warnings To Syria And Iran: The PM warned Iran that life could become "a lot more difficult" if it carries on defying the international community. 26.Oct.2005 Security Council Split Over Resolution on Syria : Western nations working on a resolution to pressure Syria to cooperate with a U.N. investigation into the slaying of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri are encountering resistance from other Security Council members -- principally Algeria, China and Russia -- U.S., European and U.N officials said Monday. 26.Oct.2005 Syria is being Set Up to Fail: A Leaked Letter from Washington : It explains how Syria is being set up to fail so that the US can isolate it and carry out a process of regime-change at the expense of Iraqi stability and the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. It explains how the US administration's policy of forcing regime change in Syria is trumping the need to save lives in Iraq.
26.Oct.2005 Iraq voters approve US-backed constitution : Iraq's Electoral Commission, revealing final results from the October 15 referendum, said 79 % of voters backed the constitution against 21 % opposed in a poll split largely along Iraq's sectarian and ethnic lines.
26.Oct.2005 Soldiers Lost in Iraq Top Those Lost in First Four Years in Vietnam; : "The nearly 2,000 Americans killed in combat (1,998 on October 24, 2005) in Iraq since 2003 are more than were lost in Vietnam combat in the first four years of U.S. combat (1961-1965, when just over 1800 died). This total is more than were lost in the last two years of combat (1971-1972, when just over 1600 died),"
26.Oct.2005 US death toll in Iraq hits 2,000 : For the first time, a majority of Americans believe the Iraq war was the "wrong thing to do", according to a poll published in The Wall Street Journal.
26.Oct.2005 The White House Cabal By Lawrence B. Wilkerson
LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005.
IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Continued 26.Oct.2005 Condi Rice and Syrian Regime Change
Could Somebody Recommend a President? -By Paul Craig Roberts
On the basis of the word of a convicted felon and swindler, Condi Rice wants a high level UN Security Council meeting to condemn Syria so the Bush administration can bring about "regime change" in Syria. Continued
26.Oct.2005 White House Insists That CIA Should Be Allowed To Continue Torture Of Detainees By ERIC SCHMITT
Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the handling of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected Qaeda militants and other terrorists. Continued
26.Oct.2005 US detainees 'Murdered' during interrogations By Associated Press
At least 21 detainees who died while in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were the victims of homicide and usually died during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defence Department data. Continued
26.Oct.2005 _AuthenticO-Historia-index_20040823242526_UPDATED
Jul.2001 USA "Terrorist Threat Shuts Down Emergency Shuttle Landing Site in Morocco"/SPIEGEL+ NASA+ . 11.Sep.2001 9-11+One-SYNTHESE/">9-11+One-SYNTHESE ... alfatomega.com/
2004092425 Nov.2002 Warhawk Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Plans to stimulate reactions from terrorist cells, Kevin Bayhouse , Idaho Indymedia Center. ... alfatomega.com/2004092425.html
26.Oct.2005 P2\Carlos-Guillermo-Suarez-mason
2001-03-12 (24) Italian Parliament. Licio Gelli's List of P2 Members. 1981
10.Dez.2004 CHRONIK Berlusconis Prozesse in den vergangenen Jahren Seit mehr als einem Jahrzehnt brachte die italienische Justiz Silvio Berlusconi immer wieder in Bedrängnis. Das Spektrum reichte von Meineid über Bilanzfälschung und Steuerbetrug bis zur Bestechung. Bereits 1990 wurde Berlusconi wegen falscher Aussage über seine Zugehörigkeit zur Geheimloge P2 wegen Meineids verurteilt. Das Urteil wurde in einer Berufungsverhandlung bestätigt, verfiel aber wegen einer Amnestie. Im Dezember 1997 erhielt Berlusconi wegen Bilanzfälschung beim Erwerb der Filmverleihfirma Medusa in den achtziger Jahren 16 Monate Haft. Dann erfolgte Freispruch wegen "erwiesener Unschuld" nach Berufungs- und Kassationsverfahren im Jahr 2000. Im Juli 1998 wurde er wegen Bestechung von Finanzbeamten zu 33 Monaten Haft verurteilt. Die Fahnder waren für sein Medienimperium Fininvest und einige Tochterunternehmen zuständig. Nach einem Berufungs- und Kassationsverfahren wurden die Vorwürfe 2000 als hinfällig betrachtet. Ebenfalls im Juli 1998 verurteilte ein Gericht Berlusconi wegen illegaler Parteienfinanzierung zu 28 Monaten Haft. Ein Jahr später wurde das Urteil kassiert. In der Sache ging es um Zahlungen von damals umgerechnet 20 Millionen Mark (rund 10,2 Millionen Euro) auf schwarze Konten des ehemaligen sozialistischen Ministerpräsidenten Bettino Craxi. Im März 1999 wurde Berlusconi gerichtlich vom Vorwurf mutmaßlicher Unregelmäßigkeiten beim Kauf eines privaten Grundstücks freigesprochen. Wegen Verjährung und Amnestie entfiel jede weitere Strafverfolgung. Im November 2001 stellten die Richter ein Verfahren um Korruption beim Kauf des Buchverlags Mondadori wegen Verjährung ein. Berlusconi war beschuldigt worden, die römische Justiz bestochen zu haben. 2002 ließ ein Gericht nach langen Beratungen Vorwürfe wegen Bilanzfälschung als verjährt fallen. Laut Anklage hatte Berlusconi als Präsident des Fußballclubs AC Mailand 1992 den Millionentransfer für einen Spieler teils mit Schwarzgeld bezahlt und zu niedrig deklariert. © SPIEGEL ONLINE 2004 Alle Rechte vorbehalten Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung der SPIEGELnet GmbH [nach oben] [----] [ ]
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Why is all this past-tense material still relevant?
1. Because the ideological heirs of that far-right faction have achieved power in the present administration.
2. Because the public must understand that this strategy -- mass death engineered to seem the work of an opponent -- has precedent. The extreme right really will use such tactics to acquire and maintain power.
Understand the past and you will better understand the future. Permalink
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Case in point: Gary Buell's recent look back at the Secret Army Organization, a militia-like provocateur group of the early '70s -- whose leaders were run by the FBI.
The SAS represented the plausibly deniable "action arm" of an extremist group within the government which felt that Nixon had sold out by pursuing detente. I've discussed this group in past posts, which looked back at Hoover, Angleton + the Moorer-Radford affair.
Another plot targeted the 1972 Republican National Convention. In this scenario, terrorists falsely identified as Vietnam Veterans Against the War personnel were to bomb and gun down delegates.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
The sub-human brutes who have filled their Southern-fried brain cells with such whoppers as "intelligent design" and the Tim LaHaye interpretation of the Apocalypse are the same factophobes who still believe that Saddam engineered 9/11 and that Hillary is a pagan socialist. These creatures are no longer human. They are the Borg. They cannot reason independently.
For the rest of their pitiful lives, they will believe -- really and truly believe -- the myth of leftists dancing in the streets to celebrate the 2000th death. The mere absence of any partying leftists cannot puncture the hallucination. Permalink
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
The La Repubblica partial hangout -- "Look thus far + no further " -- comes after former CIA operatives Larry Johnson and Vince Cannistraro disclosed the existence of an Italian Parliamentary Commission report on the authorship of the forgeries. Fitzgerald, we are told, has read this report. According to this story, the forgers were Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf of the CIA, aided by Michael Ledeen.
(A side note: Can we classify Ledeen as CIA? His resume suggests that he -- like Valerie Plame/Wilson -- may have functioned as an NOC officer. He certainly has long-standing ties both to P2 and to various players in the "rogue CIA" netowrk discussed by Joseph Trento in Prelude to Terror .)
I strongly urge readers to study both Justin Raimondo's piece on the forgeries, as well as Xymphora's recent take.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Permalink
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
Perhaps the most startling aspect of this spy tale is the chronology. The forgery conspiracy seems to date back to 1999 -- which means the plot to foment war in the Middle East began well before 9/11.
Yet Pollari waited until shortly after the tragedy to put the plot into motion.
Did SISMI as an institution try to mislead the Bush administration into war? Sure seems that way -- but only on the surface.
SISMI head Pollari did not merely meet with Hadley. He did not merely pass the forgeries along. He had warned the Bushites about the Niger "revelation" as early in October, 2001. A short while later, he offered Cheney's office transcripts of the documents; later still, he handed over the documents themselves. In all, he spent a year cultivating the ground for war.
Question: Why on earth would SISMI want to goad the U.S. into invading Iraq?
Answer: They wouldn't.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,druck-381549,00.html London
Anti-Terror-Gesetz gegen Tierschützer
Großbritanniens Innenminister Charles Clarke plant nach einem Bericht der "Times" ein Gesetz, wonach gegen militante Tierschützer dieselben Strafmaßnahmen ergriffen werden dürfen wie gegen Terroristen. Verdächtige könnten danach auch ohne Anklage bis zu drei Monate in Haft genommen werden. London - Die Maßnahmen sollen nach dem Willen Clarkes nicht nur bei Sachbeschädigungen in Laboren oder Einrichtungen der Industrie greifen, sondern bereits bei einer "Glorifizierung militanter Aktionen".
Sollte das Gesetzesvorhaben vom Parlament abgesegnet werden, könnten Extremisten in Großbritanniens oft radikaler Tierschutzlobby schon für die Anstiftung zu Gewaltakten mit bis zu sieben Jahren Gefängnis bestraft werden. Ganz ähnlich wie bei den derzeit im Unterhaus diskutierten neuen Anti-Terror-Gesetzen könnten dann nach Angaben der Zeitung auch radikale Tierversuchsgegner bei einem Verdacht auf Teilnahme an Gewalttaten bis zu drei Monate ohne Anklage in Polizeihaft gehalten werden.
Hintergrund sind die zunehmenden Zerstörungsaktionen gegen die Tierversuchsindustrie des Landes, die mit einem Jahresumsatz von drei Milliarden Pfund (4,5 Milliarden Euro) zu den größten Europas gehört. Bei dem letzten größeren Angriff hatten Gegner der Tierversuche im Juli Einrichtungen der Oxford University im Wert von umgerechnet 750.000 Euro zerstört.
"Ich bin überzeugt, dass Tierschutz-Terrorismus bekämpft werden muss", sagte Clarke nach Angaben der "Times" bei einer Beratung des gemeinsamen Menschenrechtskomitees beider Kammern des britischen Parlaments. Die Anti-Terror-Gesetze seien dafür geeignet. "Jene, die gewalttätige Terrorakte als Mittel zur Förderung der Rechte von Tieren rechtfertigen, würden unter diese Gesetze fallen."
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
In his latest look at the controversy, he draws from a recent (as-yet untranslated) article in La Repubblica on the forgeries. Marhsall correctly identifies the piece as a limited hang-out (although he does not use that term). Marshall:
And this one says the culprits are Rocco Martino, the Italian woman who works in the Niger embassy in Rome and the SISMI operative Martino named as his ultimate source. The motive, says Repubblica, was money.
I've never named the SISMI colonel whom Martino said he (indirectly) got the documents from. But now Repubblica has. So I will too: his name is Antonio Nucera...
My experience with this case, going back almost two years now, is that whenever damaging new information was about to come out on the forgery mystery, the Italian government-cum-intelligence agencies put out substantial new information about what happened mixed with disinformation aimed at throwing people off their trail. And when I say 'their trail', I mean the complicity of Italian intelligence in the documents hoax itself. We must also discuss the complicity of Michael Ledeen, who has long-standing ties to the ultra-right "Super-SISMI" faction within Italian intelligence. "Super-SISMI" grew out of the fascist secret society P2.
One need not trace the P2 links very far to understand why La Repubblica chose to tell only a partial truth. The owner of that influential newspaper is Silvio Berlusconi, the shady media tycoon who became Prime Minister of Italy -- and a close ally of George W. Bush.
Berlusconi, like Ledeen, was a member of P2.
From the excellent Wikipedia entry:
...in 1981 a scandal arose on the discovery by the police of Licio Gelli's secret freemasonry lodge (Propaganda Due, or P2) aiming to move the Italian political system in an authoritarian direction to oppose communism. A list of names was found of adherents of P2, which included members of the secret services and some prominent personalities from the political, industrial, military and press elite, among which Silvio Berlusconi, who was just starting to gain popularity as the founder and owner of "Canale 5" TV network. The P2 lodge was dissolved by the Italian parliament in December 1981 and a law was passed declaring similar organizations illegal, but no specific crimes were alleged to individual members of P2. Berlusconi later (1989) sued for libel three journalists who had written an article hinting at his involvement in financiary crimes and in this occasion he declared in court that he had joined the P2 lodge "only a very short time before the scandal broke" and "he had not even paid the entry fee". Such statements, however, conflicted with the findings of the parliamentary commission appointed to investigate the lodge's activity, with material evidence + even with previous testimony of Berlusconi, all of which showing that he had actually been a member of P2 since 1978 and had indeed paid a 100,000 Italian liras entry fee. Because of this he was indicted for perjury, but the crime was extinguished by the 1989 amnesty.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
La Repubblica has published a follow-up account; Josh Marshall gives both the gist and his analysis.
Laura Rozen also takes a very helpful look at the matter. Rozen was able to confirm a key contention made by the Italian newspaper -- that Bush's Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley met with SISMI head Nicolo Pollari on September 9, 2002. At that time, Pollari had some Niger docs that he wanted to palm off on BushCo. Roughly eleven months earlier, Pollari had already told Washington about Iraq's alleged devious doings in Africa. The documents seemed to confirm this earlier warning.
(Clever, eh? Pollari used one lie to "confirm" a later, more elaborate lie...)
25.Oct.2005 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/
No, we are dealing with a long-range plan to use American military might to remake the Middle East. The lie that led to war was not a SISMI plot per se , although key participants did belong to that agency. Neither was this a CIA plot per se , although the American participants do have backgrounds with American intelligence. Neither can we say that this a Bush/Cheney plot, since the scheme predates the administration.
One of the frustrating things about this international network is that we cannot put a name to it. The tired and not-really-accurate "neocon" label is the only nomenclature we have; for now, it will have to do.
Another question: Why is Berlusconi's newspaper revealing all this now?
Only one answer occurs to me. Fitzgerald really does have this information + he really does intend to broaden the scope of his inquiry to include the Niger documents.
Berlusconi, who has suffered political damage from his support for the war, must have decided to reveal the facts -- at least, as many of the facts as he dare -- before that report reaches the public. Doing so was the only way he could hope to give the issues some favorable spin. Permalink
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,druck-381145,00.html
Sony Pictures verhandelt bereits über die Filmrechte.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,druck-381145,00.html
Als Clinton einen Schwung Weltuntergangsdramen gelesen hatte, befahl er ein Abwehrsystem gegen biologische und chemische Waffen. "Unter Clinton hat dieses Land begonnen, sich auf den Heimatschutz vorzubereiten. Wer solche Bücher liest, versteht die Probleme, vor denen wir stehen, besser", behauptet Clarke.
Der Thrillerautor hat also bisweilen echte politische Macht, jene Kraft zur Veränderung, die sich auch Clarke nun wünscht. Im Weißen Haus verglich er seine Bemühungen vor dem 11. September, für den Kampf gegen al-Qaida zu werben, mit Churchills Warnungen vor dem Aufstieg der Nazis. Bush habe nicht zugehört, sagt Clarke.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,druck-381145,00.html
"Als ich in der Regierung war, habe ich mit allen möglichen Papieren versucht, auf Gefahren aufmerksam zu machen. Aber irgendwann bekommen sie alle diesen glasigen Blick und gewöhnen sich daran. Sie müssen die Regierenden zwingen, sich die Zukunft bildlich vorzustellen und über ihre Rolle darin nachzudenken."
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,druck-381145,00.html
Es sind schon ziemlich düstere Aussichten, die Richard Clarkes ersten Roman "The Scorpion's Gate", der jetzt weltweit gleichzeitig erscheint, dominieren. Fiktion natürlich, die man als mittelmäßigen Tom-Clancy-Verschnitt betrachten könnte, aber die Vita des Autors verleiht dem Ganzen den besonderen Thrill der Authentizität: Clarke ist als ehemaliger Terrorismusberater des Weißen Hauses einer der führenden Experten der Zunft - drei Präsidenten diente er als Cheforganisator der Anti-Terror-Politik, in der Regierung Bill Clintons gar mit Kabinettsrang. Und er beharrt darauf, dass die von ihm geschilderten Szenarien eben nicht pure Phantasie seien: "Es gibt eine große Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass es so kommen könnte."
Furore hat Clarke bisher schon als Sachbuchautor gemacht, seine vergangenes Jahr erschienene Abrechnung mit der Bush-Regierung und dem Irak-Krieg ("Against All Enemies") wurde ein Bestseller. Im Weißen Haus ist er, seit er aus Protest gegen das Bagdad-Abenteuer zurücktrat, Persona non grata.
Der lästige Insider ist einfach nicht ruhig zu stellen. Clarke kritisiert auf allen Kanälen, als Experte in den abendlichen Nachrichtensendungen, als Vortragender in Harvard, als Autor der Kolumne "Der Sicherheitsberater" im "New York Times Magazine". Bushs Politik mache die Welt nur gefährlicher, behauptet Clarke. Als ewigen Querulanten schmähen ihn die Republikaner, als eine Art Kapitän Ahab, für den der Präsident der weiße Wal ist.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-381510,00.html
Washington - Wie die "New York Times" heute unter Berufung auf mit dem Fall befasste Anwälte auf ihrer Website berichtet, belegen von Libby angefertigte Notizen, dass er von Cheney im Juni 2003 persönlich über die Identität der Agentin informiert wurde. Nur einen Monat später habe der konservative Kolumnist Robert Novak in einem Zeitungsartikel Valerie Plame als Agentin enttarnt.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,druck-381356,00.html
Polit-Thriller: Schachpartie mit Dr. Evil (24.10.2005)
https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/0,1518,381378,00.html
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,druck-381356,00.html
Recherchieren in Bagdad verboten
"Dieser Fall stinkt", klagte Rosenthal, der früher selbst für das Blatt Korrespondent im Weißen Haus war. Zugleich beklagte er aber auch einen generellen Verfall der Presse- und Meinungsfreiheit in den USA seit den Terroranschlägen des 11. September. Die jüngsten Entwicklungen - darunter der "Patriot Act" zur Terrorabwehr, der viele Bürgerrechte beschneide - "erinnern sehr ungemütlich an totalitäre Regierungen".
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,druck-381356,00.html
Durch Miller sei die "Times" zum Sprachrohr der US-Regierung geworden, klagte Dowd. "Judys Geschichten über Massenvernichtungswaffen passten allzu perfekt in die Argumentation des Weißen Hauses für den Krieg." Dass Miller eine so "führende Rolle" bei der "inzestuösen Ausschmückung" der amtlichen Linie spielen konnte, daran trage auch die Redaktionsleitung Schuld: Selbst als Keller sie vom Massenvernichtungswaffen-Thema abgezogen habe, sei sie immer wieder "dahin abgedriftet". Dowd schrieb anklagend: "Warum hat niemand dieses Abdriften gestoppt?"
So sind einem Bericht des Magazins "Newsweek" zufolge jetzt auf einer internen Krisensitzung sogar Forderungen nach den Rücktritten von Keller und Verleger Arthur Sulzberger aufgekommen. "Der Verleger", zitierte "Newsweek" einen "Times"-Mitarbeiter, "sollte den Preis zahlen."
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,druck-381356,00.html
"Die Zeitung hatte gerade ein großes Trauma durchlitten, die Jayson-Blair-Episode + musste ihr Gleichgewicht wiederfinden", rechtfertigte Keller seine damalige, zögerliche Haltung zu Millers Verhalten.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,druck-381356,00.html
Pulitzer-Preisträgerin Miller hatte kürzlich nach fast dreimonatiger Beugehaft vor einem Sonderstaatsanwalt über ihre konspirativen Kontakte zu Lewis Libby ausgesagt, dem Stabschef von US-Vizepräsident Dick Cheney. Der Staatsanwalt will bis Ende dieser Woche klären, wer im Weißen Haus im Sommer 2003 den Namen der CIA-Agentin Valerie Plame an ausgesuchte Journalisten weitergegeben hat - ein potentiell strafbarer Geheimnisverrat. Plame ist die Ehefrau des Regierungskritikers Joe Wilson, der zuvor einer der Begründungen des Irak-Kriegs - Saddam Husseins angeblicher Versuch, sich Uranstaub zum Atombombenbau zu beschaffen - in der "NYT" widersprochen hatte.
Während Millers Beugehaft hatte sich die Verlagsspitze kategorisch hinter die Reporterin gestellt und den Fall als einen Test der Presse- und Meinungsfreiheit dargestellt. Niemand dürfe Journalisten zwingen, ihre anonymen Quellen zu verraten, beharrte Chefredakteur Bill Keller: "Die Position in einem Fall wie diesem ist, den Reporter zu unterstützen", erklärte er.
Inzwischen klingt Keller aber anders. "Ich habe überhört, was bedeutende Warnglocken hätten sein müssen", schrieb er am Freitag in einer langen E-Mail aus Asien, wo er gerade dienstlich unterwegs ist, an alle Mitarbeiter. "Hätte ich über die Details der Verstrickung Judys mit Libby Bescheid gewusst, wäre ich vorsichtiger gewesen, wie die Zeitung ihre Verteidigung artikuliert." Miller, die selbst von dem Memo im Urlaub überrascht wurde, scheine die Redaktion "über das Ausmaß ihrer Verwicklung irregeführt" zu haben.
"Alles Gute, Bill"
Keller warf seinem früheren Star Miller vor, sich zur Komplizin in einer "Flüsterkampagne" der Regierung gegen deren Kritiker gemacht zu haben. Doch er nutzte das Memo, das mit dem knappen Gruß "Kollegen" begann und mit "Alles Gute, Bill" endete, auch für ein mea culpa über das eigene Verhalten seit seinem Amtsantritt, kurz nach dem Skandal um den Fälscher und Plagiator Jayson Blair: "Ich wünschte, wir hätten uns mit der Kontroverse um unsere Berichterstattung über Massenvernichtungswaffen schon ab dem Moment beschäftigt, als ich Chefredakteur wurde."
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,druck-381356,00.html
Führende Edelfedern forderten ganz offen die Entlassung der Kollegin Miller + der Chefredakteur leistete den Offenbarungseid.
"Die Leute hier sind sehr aufgebracht", sagte der leitende Redakteur Andrew Rosenthal, Sohn des legendären Ex-Chefredakteurs Abe Rosenthal, im Gespräch mit SPIEGEL ONLINE. Miller, die 85 Tage in Beugehaft saß, weil sie ihre Regierungskontakte nicht offenlegen wollte, habe auch der eigenen Redaktion wichtige Informationen vorenthalten. "Wir stehen voll hinter unseren Reportern, solange sie sich an die Spielregeln halten", betonte Rosenthal. "Die Frage ist: Wurde diese Abmachung von beiden Seiten eingehalten?" Und zur Debatte um Millers Zukunft sagte er: "Ich glaube nicht, dass sie jemals wieder hier arbeiten wird. Mehr weiß ich aber nicht."
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-381002,00.html
"Das Herstellen und Testen von Nanoautos und anderer molekularer Maschinen gibt uns entscheidende Einblicke bei unserer Forschung zur molekularen Fertigung. Sie helfen uns, die Grundregeln zu lernen."
Den Bau ihres "Nanocar" beschreiben Tour und Kelly in einem Artikel, der in einer der kommenden Ausgaben des Fachblatts "Nano Letters" erscheinen wird. Mittlerweile haben die Forscher ihren Fuhrpark um ein lichtbetriebenes Nanoauto und einen Nano-Laster erweitert, der sogar Nutzlasten transportieren kann - wenn auch sehr, sehr kleine.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-381609,00.html
Washington/Hamburg - Gute Nachrichten für Menschen, die sich auf Darmkrebs untersuchen lassen möchten: War bislang eine Stuhlanalyse oder eine Darmspiegelung notwendig, könnte bald ein Bluttest eingesetzt werden, den Forscher aus Deutschland und den USA entwickelt haben.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-381021,00.html
Und seit 2001 beschäftigen sie sich auch mit der Frage, ob sich über Sonnenkraft gewonnenes Zink als Energieträger eignet. Der EU war das SOLZINC getaufte Projekt ein Förderbudget von 1,3 Millionen Euro wert - insgesamt investierten sechs Partner aus fünf Ländern drei Millionen Euro.
In einem typischen Laborexperiment wird ein "Two Cavity"(Zwei-Kammern)-Reaktor mit einem Zinkoxid-Pulver-Kohlenstoff-Gemisch beschickt. Der Reaktor wird geschlossen, mit Stickstoff gespült und zum Aufheizen in den Fokus einer so genannten "beam down"-Optik gerückt. Nach dem Versuch ist das Reaktionsbett praktisch verschwunden, denn die Produkte Zink und Kohlenmonoxid liegen bei den vorherrschenden Temperaturen gasförmig vor. Das gasförmige Zink kondensiert dann nahezu hundertprozentig im nachgeschalteten Kühler zu feinem Staub.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-381021,00.html
Bereits Thomas Alva Edison wusste, dass aus Zink und Sauerstoff auch direkt Elektrizität gewonnen werden kann. Und: Zink-Luft-Brennstoffzellen haben gegenüber konventionellen Energiequellen deutlich höhere Energieinhalte. Sie sind zehnmal so hoch wie bei einem Bleisystem und rund dreimal so hoch wie bei einem Lithiumsystem
25.Oct.2005 Referendum im Irak: Bush gratuliert zu mutiger Wahl
25.Oct.2005 Trauer bei Angehörigen: 2000. US-Soldat stirbt im Irak
25.Oct.2005 Bundeswehr: Inlandseinsätze doch nicht vom Tisch
25.Oct.2005 Vogelgrippeverdacht in Deutschland: Gänse starben an Rattengift
25.Oct.2005 Hariri-Mord: Bush will Syrien bestrafen 25.Oct.2005 Deutsch-russische Pipeline: Litauens Präsident warnt vor Senfgas-Unglück
25.Oct.2005 "Wilmas" Bilanz: Aufräumarbeiten werden Wochen dauern 25.Oct.2005 Enttarnung einer Agentin: US-Vizepräsident Cheney gerät unter Druck
25.Oct.2005 Verhörvorschriften: Bush will Gesetz gegen Missbrauch aufweichen 25.Oct.2005 Richterentscheid: Karstadt verliert Anspruch auf Wertheim-Grundstücke
25.Oct.2005 Große Koalition: Kronzeugenregelung kommt wieder
25.Oct.2005 Frühwarnung: Bluttest kann Krebs erkennen 25.Oct.2005 Düsterer Alpenort: Reflektoren sollen Rattenberg aufhellen
25.Oct.2005 Bundeswehreinsätze im Inland: Schlappe für künftigen Verteidigungsminister Jung 25.Oct.2005 Vogelgrippe-Verdacht in Neuwied: Banges Warten auf Laborergebnisse
25.Oct.2005 Cancun: "Wilma" zerstörte 110 Hotels
25.Oct.2005 Erste Hurrikan-Bilanz: "Wilma" verursacht Schäden in Milliardenhöhe 25.Oct.2005 Kostenlose Beats: Elektronisches aus Österreich 25.Oct.2005 Reise ins Paradies: "Schlaf den Schlaf des Bräutigams!" 25.Oct.2005 Der Dschihad-Tourist: "Es gefiel Gott, ihm den Weg zu weisen"
25.Oct.2005 Uno-Attentäter Abu Osama: "Er war schöner als der Mond ..." 25.Oct.2005 Terrorismus: Der Cyber-Friedhof der Dschihadis 25.Oct.2005 Endergebnis: Irakische Verfassung ist angenommen 25.Oct.2005 Zeitreisen: Tunnel in andere Welten
25.Oct.2005 Mehlis-Report: Bush droht Syrien mit Militärschlag 25.Oct.2005 Interview mit Arnulf Baring: "Deutsche denken zu klein über sich"
25.Oct.2005 Vogelgrippe-Verdacht: Weitere tote Wildvögel in Deutschland
25.Oct.2005 Saturnmond Dione: Der perfekte Schneeball 25.Oct.2005 London: Anti-Terror-Gesetz gegen Tierschützer
25.Oct.2005 Konjunktur-Aussichten: Ifo-Index überraschend stark gestiegen
25.Oct.2005 US-Ostküste: Meteorologen befürchten neuen Schwenk von "Wilma"
25.Oct.2005 Designierter Fed-Chef Bernanke: Glasnost im Geldtempel 25.Oct.2005 CIA-Affäre: Cheney soll in Enttarnung einer Agentin verwickelt sein
25.Oct.2005 Geflügelgrippe-Verdacht: 25 tote Vögel in Rheinland-Pfalz
25.Oct.2005 Florida: "Wilma" hinterlässt Chaos und Zerstörung 25.Oct.2005 US-Bürgerrechtlerin: Rosa Parks ist tot
25.Oct.2005 Hurrikan "Wilma": Millionen Menschen ohne Strom
25.Oct.2005 24. OKTOBER 2005
25.Oct.2005 Greenspan-Nachfolger: Bush nominiert Bernanke als Fed-Chef
25.Oct.2005 SPD-Generalsekretär: Bei den Genossen wächst der Münte-Frust
25.Oct.2005 Greenspan-Nachfolge: Bush könnte neuen Fed-Chef noch heute benennen 25.Oct.2005 Mord an Hariri: Massenproteste in Syrien gegen Mehlis-Report 25.Oct.2005 Schengen-Datenbanken: EU-Datenschützer warnt vor wachsender Missbrauchsgefahr
25.Oct.2005 Hurrikan-Alarm: "Wilma" flutet Süd-Florida
25.Oct.2005 Rekonstruktion: Steinzeit-Observatorium steht wieder 25.Oct.2005 Arbeitslosengeld II: Bundesagentur will Telefonkontrollen ausweiten
25.Oct.2005 Streit um Wahlanalyse: Frustrierte Union ringt um Einheit
25.Oct.2005 Nachgebaute Waffe: Archimedes' Todesstrahl lässt Schiffe glühen
25.Oct.2005 Zoo im Bett: Im Kopfkissen lauert der Pilzcocktail 25.Oct.2005 Vergiftete Hilfe: Müllkippe Dritte Welt
25.Oct.2005 Kritik an Medien: Berlusconi beschwert sich über Italiens Fernsehen
25.Oct.2005 Generalsekretär-Streit: SPD-Linker warnt vor Spaltung der Partei
25.Oct.2005 Koalitionsthema Finanzen: Koch spricht von Heulen und Zähneklappern 25.Oct.2005 Hurrikan: "Wilma" bricht über Floridas Küste herein
25.Oct.2005 CIA-Skandal: Angriff auf "Miss Amoklauf"
25.Oct.2005 Nahost: Israel tötet radikalen Palästinenser
25.Oct.2005 Solarchemie: Sonnenofen gießt Energie in Metall 25.Oct.2005 Nano-Mobil: Weltkleinster Wagen besteht aus einem Molekül
25.Oct.2005 Florida in Gefahr: Hurrikan "Wilma" wächst auf doppelte Größe 25.Oct.2005 Schmiergeldaffäre: Staatsanwälte ermitteln gegen Ex-Infineon-Chef 25.Oct.2005 Amerikanische Eliteunis: Codes für den Eingang 25.Oct.2005 Mordfall Hariri: Syrien wendet sich an Uno 25.Oct.2005 Volksabstimmung: Brasilianer lehnen Waffenverbot ab
25.Oct.2005 Hurrican "Wilma": Wasser im dritten Stock 25.Oct.2005 Spur von "Wilma": Viele beginnen noch einmal ganz von vorn
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
Mysterious 'half-animal, half-plant' marine microbe discovered by Japanese researchers A mysterious marine microbe, half of whose individual cells eat algae like animals while the rest perform photosynthesis like plants, has been discovered, a University of Tsukuba research team said.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
13.Oct.2005 Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq +Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
1000 Things Made Of Bamboo Oh yeah. Very cool. With another picture of an amazing bamboo bicycle.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
Tell Us Who Fabricated the Iraq Evidence Interesting reading.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
GM crop 'ruins fields for 15 years' GM crops contaminate the countryside for up to 15 years after they have been harvested, startling new government research shows.
The findings cast a cloud over the prospects of growing the modified crops in Britain, suggesting that farmers who try them out for one season will find fields blighted for a decade and a half.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
Christian Coalition leader faces sex abuse allegations Law enforcement officials said Saturday they are investigating complaints that Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, molested three female family members when they were pre-teens.
Buried at the bottom of the article:
Beres is also former chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party.
Guess we'll have to add his name to the list.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
Cars stolen in US used in suicide attacks The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering some vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior US Government officials.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
Spychips Sees an RFID Conspiracy A new book by advocates makes the case that corporations and government agencies are in collusion to put tiny radio transmitters on nearly everything we buy. Companies say it's about providing thought leadership, not the Mark of the Beast.
Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre hope to become the twin Erin Brockoviches of RFID, by revealing the threat posed by the radio tag replacements for barcode labels.
They may get their wish, if readers believe the conclusions of the advocates' new book, Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
The case of God's Banker: Roberto Calvi the trial begins Twenty-three years ago, an Italian businessman was found hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge.Today five people face murder charges in a courtroom drama that promises to provide yet more explosive twists in an extraordinary story.
25.Oct.2005 https://www.professorhex.blogspot.com/
25.Sep.2005 600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island The archipelago is named after Robinson Crusoe, but perhaps it should have been called Treasure Island.
A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.
Great story. Check this out.
The hoard is supposedly buried 15 metres (50ft) deep on Robinson Crusoe island, also known as the Juan Fernández island, home to Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the adventurer immortalised by Daniel Defoe as Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk was dumped on the island and lived alone for four years before being rescued. His exploits brought worldwide attention to the islands.
Even better: This most recent announcement, however, deserves greater credence because of the equipment used by the treasure hunters: a mini robot that can scan 50 metres deep into the earth. The robot, dubbed "Arturito", was invented by Chileans and over the past year has grabbed headlines by breaking some of the country's biggest criminal mysteries.
First, the robot detected the buried arsenal of a rightwing sect known as Colonia Dignidad. The guns and rocket launchers were buried at some 10 metres and while the authorities had searched for years, the robot found the buried weapons almost instantly.
Colonia Dignidad is of course the ex-Nazi hide-out and pedophile cult headquarters of the now-imprisoned Paul Schafer.
Here are some articles on Colonia Dignidad. posted by Prof. Hex at 10:41 PM Evil genius at work? More weather control conspiracies. posted by Prof. Hex at 10:27 PM Storm conspiracy theories might lead to more research Two odd hurricane-related stories caught my eye this past week. One was about an inventor thinking big.
His idea is that we could knock a hurricane's intensity down by a category or two. He says we should research using a fleet of jumbo jets to dump some kind of sponge-like stuff into one section of an approaching storm.
The sudden and massive absorption of moisture, that theory goes, could so disrupt that wedge of the storm that it would cause enough disorganization to knock the entire hurricane's circulation a bit out of whack.
I usually laugh off such stuff. But this time, I thought: Who knows?
posted by Prof. Hex at 10:25 PM In Mexico's Murders, Fury Is Aimed at Officials Victor Javier Garcia still has a dozen marks across his abdomen and genitals from the burning cigarettes the police used to torture him into falsely confessing to being a serial killer.
It made no difference to a lower court judge that the DNA tests on the bodies identified as his victims did not match the names of the women he was accused of killing. Or that a forensics expert testified that he had been ordered by his superiors to plant false evidence. Or even that witnesses retracted their testimony, saying the police had threatened them into making false statements.
Mr. GarcÃa was sentenced to 50 years anyway.
Murder and corruption in Ciudad Juarez. Most depressing part of the article:
In the meantime, there are growing signs that the serial-style killings have spread to other cities, like Chihuahua, 200 miles along the border; Toluca, a suburb of Mexico City; the Gulf Coast capital of Veracruz; and Tuxtla Gutiérrez in the southern state of Chiapas. Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca says he is considering creating a special prosecutor's office to investigate.
25.Oct.2005 http: XYZ ">//www.professorhex.blogspot.com/ Evil genius at work? More weather control conspiracies. | 