Beast System: Laying The Foundation Of The Beast

[oneofmany]

True

On topic with thread title isn't it ???: Beast System: Laying The Foundation Of The Beast

QueEx

Indeed. He is viewed as a mere puppet by some (at least according to my Iranian friend).

 

[oneofmany]

FLUORIDE TRUTH hits the TV in AUSTRALIA

FLUORIDE TRUTH hits the TV in AUSTRALIA

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[LennyNero1972]

Re: True

Indeed. He is viewed as a mere puppet by some (at least according to my Iranian friend).

Yeah I read an article awhile back stating he is actually Jewish. He could be an Israeli plant.

 

[older version]

Re: True

Yeah I read an article awhile back stating he is actually Jewish. He could be an Israeli plant.

Sounds like the current leader of the Vatican.

 

[oneofmany]

Amnesty urges Australia to end racial discrimination

Amnesty urges Australia to end racial discrimination​

SYDNEY (AFP) – Human rights group Amnesty Tuesday urged Australia to end policies it said racially discriminated against Aborigines and asylum seekers, saying the country was failing its international obligations.

In a report to a Geneva-based UN committee monitoring racial discrimination, Amnesty said that Australia's so-called "intervention" in Aboriginal communities to protect the vulnerable was of particular concern.

The plan, which was first rolled out in 2007 under the previous conservative government, introduced compulsory income management and banned the sale of alcohol and pornography in more than 70 Outback Aboriginal townships.

Although the current Labor government, which in 2008 made a historic apology to the nation's indigenous for past wrongs, made some changes to the policy, rights had not been fully reinstated, Amnesty Australia said.

"We are seriously concerned about the impact of what we have found to be racially discriminatory policies against Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people," national director Claire Mallinson said.

"There are thousands of indigenous Australians who do not have equal rights."

Indigenous communities are the country's most disadvantaged -- suffering higher rates of incarceration, unemployment, illness and child mortality -- but the issue has been largely absent from Australia's current election campaign.

But asylum seekers, particularly those arriving illegally by boat, have been a key issue of debate ahead of the August 21 poll in which Prime Minister Julia Gillard is running just ahead of her conservative opponent, Tony Abbott.

The government, which has suspended the processing of asylum claims from Afghans pending an assessment of the situation in the war-wracked country, has proposed establishing an off-shore processing centre, possibly in East Timor.

Abbott has spoken of turning back the boats.

"Refusing to process visa applications from asylum seekers fleeing oppression in war-torn Afghanistan is completely unacceptable," Mallinson said.

"Regardless of the outcome of the election, the Government of the day must reinstate full legal protections against racial discrimination."

Amnesty's criticism comes after the independent group Human Rights Watch called on Australia's political leaders to ensure that the country's treatment of asylum seekers met international laws and obligations.

"People fleeing desperate situations have a right to seek asylum, and Australia should treat them fairly and respectfully," said the group's acting Asian director, Elaine Pearson.

 

[oneofmany]

Israel bulldozes Muslim graveyard

Israel bulldozes Muslim graveyard​

Israeli construction crew members bulldoze their way through a Muslim burial ground, reportedly removing hundreds of gravestones and injuring a protesting Arab.

The team on Monday rampaged through graves in the ancient al-Quds (Jerusalem) Maaman Allah cemetery, carrying on until Tuesday, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported.

"The destruction is related to the issue of renovation. The Israeli establishment does not want us to renovate the graves so it is destroying them," said Mahmud Abu Atta of the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, which is responsible for the oversight of Muslim religious sites, AFP reported.

A bulldozer hit and moderately injured Ali Abu Sheikha, a local sheikh, who had stood up to the act of desecration, Ma'an said.

The incident marked the most destructive of its kind since 2009, when 1,500 bodies were exhumed for the construction of the controversial Museum of Tolerance. The planned building is to be built by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a US-based Jewish human rights group.

Alongside vast expanses of other Arab territories, Israel occupied al-Quds during full-fledged military operations in 1948.

In 1967, the regime went on to annex the eastern part of the city, which is hailed as the capital of any potential Palestinian state, and later defied the international community's condemnation of its act.

 

[oneofmany]

Pat Tillman Is NOT With 'God'! He's Fucking Dead!

Pat Tillman Is NOT With 'God'! He's Fucking Dead!

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[oneofmany]

Immortal Technique: No escape from capitalism!

Immortal Technique: No escape from capitalism!

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[oneofmany]

Israeli jets violate Lebanon's airspace

Israeli jets violate Lebanon's airspace​

Israeli warplanes have once again violated Lebanon's airspace, conducting several unwarranted flights over the country, the Lebanese army says.

An army statement on Wednesday said that eight Israeli aircraft illegally entered Lebanon's airspace from the south at 10:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) and flew over Lebanon.

Within five minutes, two other Israeli jets violated the country's airspace from the sea and roamed over Baalbek.

The statement also said that an Israeli warplane entered the country at 10:40 a.m. (0740 GMT) and headed out more than twenty minutes later.

Lebanon's military often reports airspace violations by Israeli aircraft but does not usually open fire on them.

The airspace violations, which are reported on an almost daily basis, contravene the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.

According to evidence-backed statistics submitted to the UN by the Lebanese government, Israel has breached the provisions of the resolution on more than 7,000 occasions by violating Lebanon's airspace, territorial waters, and border.

 

[oneofmany]

Russian Scholar Warns Of 'Secret' U.S. Climate Change Weapon

Russian Scholar Warns Of 'Secret' U.S. Climate Change Weapon​

As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries.

In a recent article, Andrei Areshev, deputy director of the Strategic Culture Foundation, wrote, "At the moment, climate weapons may be reaching their target capacity and may be used to provoke droughts, erase crops, and induce various anomalous phenomena in certain countries."

The article has been carried by publications throughout Russia, including "International Affairs," a journal published by the Foreign Ministry and by the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

In an telephone interview with RFE/RL, Areshev appeared to back off from claims he made in the article, saying that he was merely positing a theory.

"First of all, I would like to say that what I wrote in that article, even the citations, does not in any way claim to a be final truth. It is, if you will, speculation, in other words, the definition of an hypothesis," Areshev said.

Moscow is currently sweltering under record temperatures. On July 29 Moscow suffered its hottest day ever, with temperatures hitting 39 degrees.

But Russia isn't the only country suffering form a heat wave this summer. Indeed, the United States is also experiencing record temperatures. On July 24, temperatures in Washington, D.C., hit 37.7 degrees, and local weather services issued heat warnings for the first time this summer.

Areshev agrees that it is also hot in the United States, but notes that the United States is significantly farther south than Russia, meaning that such high temperatures are not so surprising there.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, however, announced in July that land and ocean temperatures throughout the world were the highest ever, since they began tracking global temperatures in 1880.

Conspiracy Theories

In the article, Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the U.S. Defense Department and the University of Alaska.

HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection.

Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction "in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries."

Areshev's article also references an unmanned spacecraft X-37B, an orbital test vehicle the Pentagon launched in April 2010. The Pentagon calls X-37B a prototype for a new "space plane" that could take people and equipment to and from space stations. Areshev, however, alleges that the X-378 carries "laser weaponry" and could be a key component in the Pentagon's climate-change arsenal.

The Pentagon was not immediately reachable for comment.

Areshev also cites the U.S. government's effort to use rain and cloud coverage to block the Vietnam Army's supply routes during the Vietnam War. He insisted, however, that he was not a conspiracy theorist.

"My comments were not made in order to accuse the U.S., or any other country, of consciously influencing Russia," Areshev said. "That would be quite ridiculous."

Asked whether or not Russia was also experimenting with climate-control methods, Areshev said since he was not a member of the government, he did not have information about such projects.

 

[oneofmany]

Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed

Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed

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[oneofmany]

America Won the Cold War But Now Is Turning Into the USSR, Gerald Celente Says

America Won the Cold War But Now Is Turning Into the USSR, Gerald Celente Says​

There's a lot of talk these days about America being an empire in decline. Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute, goes a step further, arguing America is following a similar path as the former Soviet Union.

"While the many glaring differences between the two political systems have been exhaustively publicized - especially in the U.S. - the glaring similarities [go] unnoticed," Celente writes in The Trends Journal, which he publishes.

In the accompanying video, Celente describes some of these similarities, including:

A rotten political system: He compares politicians (Democrats and Republicans alike) to "Mafioso" and says campaign contributions are really thinly disguised "bribes and payoffs."

Crony capitalism: Like in the USSR of old, Celente laments that so much of America's wealth (93%) is controlled by such a small group small portion of its population (10%). Owing to that concentration of wealth, the government makes policies designed to reward "the bigs" at the expense of average citizens (see: Bailouts, banks).

Military-industrial complex: The USSR went bankrupt fighting the cold war and Celente fears the U.S. is "squandering its greater but still finite resources on a gargantuan defense budget, fighting unwinnable hot wars and feeding an insatiable military stationed on hundreds of bases worldwide."

As with many observers, Celente thinks America will suffer the same fate in Afghanistan as the USSR, the British Empire, Alexander the Great and all others who've ventured into the "graveyard of empires."

The irony, of course, is that while America defeated Soviet Communism and won the Cold War, perhaps our greatest threat today comes from China and its booming state-controlled economy.

 

[oneofmany]

GMOs making Americans fat?

GMOs making Americans fat?

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[ionblast]

Props for the updates.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Re: GMOs making Americans fat?

GMOs making Americans fat?

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Eating too much is making Americans fat.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Re: America Won the Cold War But Now Is Turning Into the USSR, Gerald Celente Says

America Won the Cold War But Now Is Turning Into the USSR, Gerald Celente Says​

Actually I would say more like Nazi Germany.

 

[oneofmany]

Recession may have pushed US birth rate to new low

Recession may have pushed US birth rate to new low​

Forget the Dow and the GDP. Here's the latest economic indicator: The U.S. birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in at least a century as many people apparently decided they couldn't afford more mouths to feed.

The birth rate dropped for the second year in a row since the recession began in 2007. Births fell 2.6 percent last year even as the population grew, numbers released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics show.

"It's a good-sized decline for one year. Every month is showing a decline from the year before," said Stephanie Ventura, the demographer who oversaw the report.

The birth rate, which takes into account changes in the population, fell to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people last year. That's down from 14.3 in 2007 and way down from 30 in 1909, when it was common for people to have big families.

The situation is a striking turnabout from 2007, when more babies were born in the United States than any other year in the nation's history. The recession began that fall, dragging down stocks, jobs and births.

"When the economy is bad and people are uncomfortable about their financial future, they tend to postpone having children. We saw that in the Great Depression the 1930s and we're seeing that in the Great Recession today," said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University.

"It could take a few years to turn this around," he added.

The birth rate dipped below 20 per 1,000 people in 1932 and did not rise above that level until the early 1940s. Recent recessions, in 1981-82, 1990-91 and 2001, all were followed by small dips in the birth rate, according to CDC figures.

The Great Recession "is definitely a deterrent" to people having more children, said Dr. Michael Cabbad, chief of maternal health at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where births declined from about 2,800 in 2008 to about 2,500 last year.

Even Cabbad's son said he'd like to have more children "if his business plan works out."

Nearly half of low- and middle-income women surveyed a year ago by the Guttmacher Institute said they wanted to delay pregnancy or limit the number of children they have because of money concerns. Half of those women also said the recession made them more focused on contraceptive use. Guttmacher researches reproductive health issues.

Besides finances, experts said a decline in immigration to the United States also may be pushing births down.

The downward trend invites worrisome comparisons to Japan and its "lost decade" of economic stagnation in the 1990s, which was accompanied by very low birth rates. Births in Japan fell 2 percent in 2009 after a slight rise in 2008.

Not so in Britain, where the population took its biggest jump in almost half a century last year and the fertility rate is at its highest level since 1973. France's birth rate also has been rising; Germany's birth rate is lower but rising as well.

Cherlin said the U.S. birth rate "is still higher than the birth rate in many wealthy countries and we also have many immigrants entering the country. So we do not need to be worried yet about a birth dearth" that would crimp the nation's ability to take care of its growing elderly population.

The new U.S. report is a rough count of births from states. It estimates there were 4,136,000 births in 2009, down from a year ago's estimate of 4,247,000 in 2008 and more than 4.3 million in 2007.

The report does not give details on trends in different age groups. That will come next spring and will give a clearer picture who is and is not having children, Ventura said.

Last spring's report, on births in 2008, showed an overall drop but a surprising rise in births to women over 40, who may have felt they were running out of time to have children and didn't want to delay despite the bad economy. Women who postpone having children because of careers also may find they have trouble conceiving, said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based demographic research group. "For some of those women, they're going to find themselves in their mid-40s where it's going to be hard to have the number of children they want," he said. Heather Atherton is nearing that mark. The Sacramento, Calif., mom, who turns 36 next month, started a home-based public relations business after her daughter was born in 2003. She and her husband upgraded to a larger home in 2005 and planned on having a second child not long afterward. Then the recession hit, drying up her husband's sales commissions and leaving them owing more on their home than it is worth. A second child seemed too risky financially. "However, we just recently decided that it's time to stop waiting and just go for it early next year and let the chips fall where they may," she said. "We can't allow the recession to dictate the size of our family. We just need to move forward with our lives."

 

[oneofmany]

Obama created by CIA: Report

Obama created by CIA: Report​

A newly released report claims that the US President Barack Obama is a CIA creation, as his clandestine life poses question after question.

American investigative journalist and former National Security Agency employee Wayne Madsen says Obama as well as his family including his parents, step-father, and grandmother had connections with the CIA and other wealthy elites such as the Rothschild and Rockefeller families.

Madsen has put together an extensive three-part (and growing) series with conclusive proof and documentation that Barack Obama Sr., Stanley Ann Dunham (Obama's mother), Lolo Soetoro (the Indonesian stepfather of Barack Obama) and Barack Obama himself all hold deep ties to the CIA and larger intelligence community. Madsen has been using publicly available data bases for his work on Obama.

"I don't see any change and in some aspects I think he's worst than former President Bush. I wish this information was available during the presidential elections. Obama has always been very supportive of the CIA and applauded them in a speech rather than investigating their torture operations in Guantanamo Bay and abroad," Madsen explained.

Obama's supporters have been very careful to keep his history hidden by clamping down his high school records, college records, passport and his birth certificate. Barry Soetoro was an alias for Barack Obama and this was the name registered at the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

[oneofmany]

Fidel Castro claims Osama bin Laden is a US spy

Fidel Castro claims Osama bin Laden is a US spy

Former Cuban president says the 9/11 mastermind is in the pay of the CIA and cites WikiLeaks as his source​

Fidel Castro has more reason than most to believe conspiracy theories involving dark forces in Washington. After all, the CIA tried to blow his head off with an exploding cigar.

But the ageing Cuban revolutionary may have gone too far for all but the most ardent believer in the reach and competence of America's intelligence agency. He has claimed that Osama bin Laden is in the pay of the CIA and that President George Bush summoned up the al-Qaida leader whenever he needed to increase the fear quotient. The former Cuban president said he knows it because he has read WikiLeaks.

Castro told a visiting Lithuanian writer, who is known as a font of intriguing conspiracy theories about plots for world domination, that Bin Laden was working for the White House.

"Bush never lacked for Bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate," Castro said, according to the Communist party daily, Granma. "Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, Bin Laden would appear, threatening people with a story about what he was going to do."

He said that thousands of pages of American classified documents made public by WikiLeaks pointed to who the al-Qaida leader is really working for.

"Who showed that he [Bin Laden] is indeed a CIA agent was WikiLeaks. It proved it with documents," he said, but did not explain exactly how.

He made his comments during a meeting with Daniel Estulin, the author of three books about the secretive Bilderberg Club which includes men such as Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, leading European officials and business executives. Estulin says that the club is form of secret world government, manipulating economies and political systems.

Estulin offered his own views on Bin Laden: that the man seen in videos since 9/11 is not him at all but a "bad actor".

However the two men did find something to disagree on.

Estulin has long argued that the human race will need to find another planet to live on because of overcrowding.

Castro was not keen. He observed that man had only made it to the moon, which is entirely unsuitable as a new home, and what lay beyond that was not much better. Better to fix things on earth.

"Humanity ought to take care of itself if it wants to live thousands more years," he said.

 

[oneofmany]

Special Investigation: As France expels its gipsies, is this a chilling echo of...

Special Investigation: As France expels its gipsies, is this a chilling echo of the Nazis​

Dawn breaks over the outskirts of Paris, its arrival marked by the banging of fists on the locked door of a caravan.

The noise wakes 30-year-old Dana from her sleep, and when she pulls back the curtains to see what is causing the commotion, she finds a dozen uniformed riot police, batons in hand.

‘Get up,’ one yells at her.

‘You’ve got half an hour to leave.’

By now her two children — girls aged three and seven — are crying, so her husband goes outside to ask what is going on. He is pushed to the ground. Clearly, there is to be no discussion.

So the young family does as they are ordered, packs what they can into plastic bags and quickly joins a growing line of men, women and children standing, heads bowed, beside the road.

They are all Roma gipsies and must now make a ‘choice’ — sleep rough or be deported back to their native Romania.
Across France this month, similar scenes have been unfolding on an almost daily basis as police execute the orders of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President.

He has pledged to destroy 300 gipsy camps nationwide by the end of the year, deporting thousands.

Sarkozy makes no bones about this no-nonsense approach. He claims that the Roma, many of whom arrived in France after Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, are responsible for an outbreak of crime.

His solution? Raze their camps, round up their inhabitants and then stick them on a plane home. As a sweetener, there’s a payment of £245 per adult and £80 per child.

As a policy it could hardly be more simple. But, as Sarkozy must have known, the route he has embarked upon is one fraught with controversy.

And as it is revealed that immigration swelled the UK population by 196,000 during Labour’s last year in power, it is a problem we, too, may one day face.

Images of Roma families being bused to airports have provoked condemnation not just in France but across Europe. Sarkozy has been accused of ethnic cleansing and of fanning racism.

Indeed, Jean-Pierre Grand, a deputy in Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), compared the President’s policy to Vichy France’s round-up of Jews during World War II.

Collaborating with the Nazis during the occupation, the French authorities deported 76,000 Jews — and thousands of gipsies. Many were killed in Nazi concentration camps.

Even the Pope has added his voice to the chorus of criticism — pointedly telling French pilgrims to accept ‘legitimate human diversity’ and asking parents to ‘educate your children about universal brotherhood’.

Others point out the futility of what Sarkozy is doing. Because those deported are EU citizens, they have a right to return to France should they choose.

A budget-airline ticket from Bucharest to Paris costs just £60 — and, as the Daily Mail has learned, many of those sent home have vowed to use the money given to them by the French government to fund their journey back.

But Sarkozy is not for turning. He made his reputation as a hardline politician and now in the top job is desperate to bolster his standing among the electorate.

With two years to go before the next election, his ratings have slumped. Getting tough on law and order and immigration plays well with the Right.

And anyway, ask his supporters, what exactly is so wrong with what he is doing? After all, they point out, the immigrants he is sending home live in squalor and cannot support themselves.

Forget the legal niceties and liberal sensitivities, that is the reality on the ground.

‘As usual, Sarkozyism is out of step with the elites,’ claims the President’s forthright Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, ‘but in step with society.’

It was on the morning of August 16 that the squalid camp inhabited by Dana and her family was, in the words of Mr Sarkozy, ‘evacuated’ by police.

Situated in the southern Paris suburb of Choisy-le-Roi, it was typical of hundreds across France. It was on wasteland on the outskirts of the city, had no electricity, and the only water available was that taken from the nearby canal.

Seventy people lived there, their homes a collection of ramshackle caravans. The vast majority had arrived following the accession of Romania to the EU.

And they were not alone. It is estimated that in the three years since then 20,000 Roma have set up home in France.

Like the French residents of Choisy-le-Roi, few among the new arrivals have been able to find work — even on the black market.

Instead, they scrape a living by busking or begging, their bedraggled children taken along to further pluck at the heart strings of passers-by.

Of course, France — like the rest of Europe — is no stranger to mass immigration. In the past decade, the numbers seeking asylum there have outstripped even Britain.

But the action taken against the Roma represents a step-change in what has gone before.

Whereas immigration was previously viewed and managed as a largely logistical problem (30,000 immigrants without permission to stay in France were deported last year), it is now being portrayed as the cause of France’s social ills, particularly
crime.

As figures show Roma crime has risen 140 per cent in Paris each year since 2007, Sarkozy labelled the camps as ‘sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly
shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime’.

The trigger for that rhetoric was a mass attack in July on a police station in the normally idyllic Loire Valley town of Saint-Aignan, 150 miles south of Paris.

A 400-strong mob of Roma armed with iron bars and baseball bats set fire to cars and threatened officers.

The riot had been sparked by the fatal shooting by a gendarme of a 22-year-old gipsy who was being investigated for burglary.

Following the disturbance, Sarkozy immediately called an emergency cabinet meeting and then ordered the ‘systematic evacuation’ of all the illegal camps and squats.

Those removed from the camps were to be offered money to go home. In practice, those who refused that offer would be deported anyway. (When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, it was agreed that their citizens would face special restrictions in France, allowing their deportation after three months if they did not have a job or means of supporting themselves.)

And so it was that earlier this month the process of closing the camps and dispersing their occupants began.

But unlike previous deportations of Roma — 8,000 are said to have left France already this year — this time it was clear they were to be targeted, aggressively, en masse.

Condemnation swiftly followed.

Critics argue that as his popularity wanes so Sarkozy needs to shore up the support of Far Right voters, the natural supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front party,
whose backing in the last hustings was crucial to his election.

‘This is a shameful policy,’ Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister, said.

‘It’s an electoral strategy. This will contribute nothing to the security of French people.’

Arnaud Montebourg, of France’s Socialist opposition, accused the State of instigating ‘a kind of official racism that says, “These people are the cause of all our woes, please have a go at them and forget our own failure in the fight against crime.” ’

That the 55-year-old conservative president needs to bolster his position is in no doubt.

His approval ratings hover just above 30 per cent and, like many European governments, cash-strapped France is trying to push through unpopular
cost-cutting measures — among them, lifting the retirement age from 60 to 62.

Amid all the discontent, a poll published this week suggested that more than half of the French want to see the Left win the 2012 presidential race.

And so Sarkozy has turned his attention to law and order. As well as the deportation of the Roma, he is also proposing legislation that will strip French citizenship from ‘people of foreign origin’ if they threaten the lives of police, commit polygamy or carry out female circumcision.

According to a poll, more than 80 per cent support that proposal.

Support for the expulsion of the Roma has been put, variously, at between 40 and 79 per cent.

In other words, Sarkozy’s actions are not playing badly with the French public. Polling further suggests that they are unconcerned about whether the mass deportations might infringe European law.

As one commentator pointed out: ‘Even if Sarko has done something wrong it will take ages before the EU takes any action — and by then the Roma will have gone, so why
worry?’.

In Italy, which has 60,000 non-Italian Roma, the government declared a ‘gipsy emergency’ in 2008, leading to expulsions as part of a security package.

Elements of the package were subsequently found to be incompatible with EU law, but by then it was largely irrelevant as the expulsions had taken place.

Italy’s interior minister, Roberto Maroni, has backed the French deportations, adding that he believes a host nation should be able to expel any EU citizen who does not meet minimum requirements.

Supporters of Sarkozy also believe the measures send a message back to Romania and Bulgaria that may deter others from making the journey.

But they also want to know what on earth has happened to all the EU money that has been pumped into Romania — £3.5 billion a year — to improve the lot of the Roma
community there.

The evidence on the ground suggests that little has improved — and that, as quickly as the Roma are sent back, they will return.

It is a point emphasised by the experience of the Cojocaru family.

They were kicked out of France last week. Yesterday, the Mail tracked them down to the town of Roman, in eastern Romania, where they have been staying with friends since they were deported.

They revealed that despite being handed a total of £740 by the French government in exchange for leaving, they intend to return at the first possible opportunity.

Mother- of - three Argent ina Cojocaru, 35, explained: 'We left Romania a year ago for a better life. We could not afford to live here. It is so poor. We could not survive.

'In Romania we never had any opportunities to work, but we thought in France we would at least have a chance of a better life.'

Life in France, however, is little better. Unable to find work, they ended up begging on the streets of St Etienne. Home was a hut in a camp occupied by other Roma. But despite the hardships, they say it was an improvement on their previous lives.

'Even though we had no jobs in France, we were in a better situation than others back in Romania,' said husband Valentin, 40.

'When we were made to leave, we were forced to say that we would not return. But we will wait until the situation dies down - and then we will return.'

It is a view shared by Dana. After being thrown out of the camp in Choisy-le-Roi, she and 50 others were offered shelter by the local council in a school gymnasium. There they sleep on mattresses on the floor, eating provisions provided by local residents.

But their time is running out. When the school term begins in ten days' time, they will have to find somewhere else to live or agree to deportation.

Dana is desperate to stay. 'I studied a bit of French at school and always wanted to come here,' she says.

'There's nothing for any of us back home apart from poverty. Anybody who wants to make something of their lives has to move abroad. All we want is to earn money to eat, no more. But now we are being treated like animals - nothing less. It is pure racism.'

'There's nothing for us in Romania except poverty.'
She adds: 'We are all European citizens. We have our rights, but Sarkozy is ignoring them. He is a tyrant. He is so cruel.'

Those words will not bother Sarkozy nor halt the policy of camp clearances and deportations.

On Thursday, a further 283 Roma were bused to airports in Paris and Lyon and then placed on flights back to Romania.

As they touched down in Bucharest, the deportees made it clear that while the French might want to push them out, the pull of economics will be hard to resist.

Alin, 24, boasted that he had spent his three months in Bordeaux begging.

'Life was much better there - we made €40 a day and that was more than we make in Romania in a month,' he said.

Another woman, Maria, said she, too, had supported her children by begging and that she had only left France because she had been given no other choice.

Her youngest daughter, aged ten, added: 'France is my home, but it is a long way away now.

'But my mum says we will go back and that when we go we can get the train.'

Just what welcome she will receive at Paris's Gare de l'Est, only the coming weeks and months will tell.

 

[oneofmany]

Veterans’ group: CIA blocking lawsuit over experiments on troops

Veterans’ group: CIA blocking lawsuit over experiments on troops​

An advocacy group working on behalf of Vietnam veterans has asked a federal judge in California to sanction the CIA, saying the spy agency has been blocking efforts to uncover its role in alleged experiments on US soldiers from the 1950s to 1970s.

The Vietnam Veterans of America filed a lawsuit on behalf of six Vietnam War veterans in January, 2009, claiming that the CIA had used an estimated 7,800 US service members as "guinea pigs" in experiments involving "at least 250, but as many as 400 chemical and biological agents," according to Courthouse News.

Among the chemicals the lawsuit alleges were used on the soldiers were LSD, sarin and phosgene nerve gases, cyanide, PCP and even THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The lawsuit described it as a "vast program of human experimentation" that was "shrouded in secrecy" and carried out without the informed consent of the experiment subjects.

"In 1970, [the CIA] provided Congress with an alphabetical list showing that they had tested 145 drugs during Projects Bluebird, Artichoke, MKULTRA and MKDELTA," the lawsuit stated, as quoted at Courthouse News.

As the defendant in the suit, the CIA is obliged, by judge's orders, to hand over data relevant to the lawsuit. But the VVA has asked a judge to sanction the CIA, saying the agency has ignored or blocked its requests for information, and has released only a small portion of the relevant documents.

The VVA's first attempts to obtain CIA data on the experiments "have been pending for over a year, during which time [the CIA] have attempted to sidestep their discovery obligations at every turn, withholding (or even refusing to search for) large volumes of relevant, responsive documents [and] refusing to provide ... witnesses to testify about their document searches and certain substantive topics," the motion (PDF), filed in a California federal court this week, states.

The VVA says the CIA had refused to use "a routine protective order" that would restrict any sensitive CIA data to within the courtroom, and instead blacked out large parts of relevant documents. The plaintiffs say the CIA refused to provide the names of the test subjects involved, allowing only the names of the six defendants who filed the lawsuit.


"Even more unbelievably, it appears that defendants have yet to search even the most obvious location for documents — Edgewood Arsenal itself," the motion states, referring to the location northeast of Baltimore where the experiments are said to have been carried out.

The motion states the CIA "served no responses or objections whatsoever" to the VVA's second and third requests for information.

The motion asks that the judge, in addition to sanctioning the CIA, also order the CIA to pay the VVA's costs associated with its attempts to obtain CIA information.

Judge James Larson of the US District Court in northern California will begin hearing arguments in the case on Sept. 29.

The VVA describes itself as "the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families."

A 2003 report (PDF) from the Department of Veterans Affairs states that "between 1950 and 1975, about 6,720 soldiers took part in experiments involving exposures to 254 different chemicals, conducted at US Army Laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, MD. Congressional hearings into these experiments in 1974 and 1975 resulted in disclosures, notification of subjects as to the nature of their chemical exposures, and ultimately to compensation for a few families of subjects who had died during the experiments."

 

[oneofmany]

India halt vaccine programmes after the deaths of four children

India halt vaccine programmes after the deaths of four children​

Vaccine programmes grind to a halt in India once more, when four children died after they received the measles vaccination in Lucknow. The four children were reported to have fainted soon after they were vaccinated and witnesses reported seeing the children's eyes roll back as they began to have seizures. All of the children were under the age of two years of age, with the youngest being just six months. Sadly the children died before medical aid workers could reach them.

As news of the deaths spread, immunization drives in 41 villages have been halted until further investigations have taken place.

The Indian Express stated in their article 4 children die within minutes of vaccination - www.indianexpress.com that-

"The immunisation programme was being conducted as part of the government's Jachha Bachha Suraksha Abhiyan launched on August 15. Minutes after vaccination, the children started gasping for breath."

NDTV reported that the Health Ministry has ordered an inquiry after the four infants, all believed to be below nine months, died after the vaccine. The inquiry team has yet to reach Uttar Pradesh, however, the Uttar Pradesh government has announced compensation for the families of the victims.

This is not the first report of adverse reactions after the measles vaccination. The measles vaccine has had a dubious and rather tainted history. In the UK, a government report dating back to 1968 , exposed on the website VacTruth.com in May of this year stated:-

Section 6 – Reactions

"Mild febrile reactions and transient rashes may be expected to follow the administration of the vaccine in a substantial proportion of cases. The rise of body temperature which may occur from 5 to 10 days after vaccination – usually about the 8th day – is due to the multiplication of the attenuated virus. This febrile reaction, when it occurs, seldom lasts more than 24 to 48 hours. The Committee on Safety of Drugs has agreed that severe and unusual reactions to measles vaccine should be reported on the yellow card used for reporting adverse reactions to drugs. The Committee does not however, wish to receive reports of mild febrile reactions and rashes associated with the use of this vaccine."

This proves that the UK government as far back 1968 knew that the measles vaccine gave children adverse reactions, in fact, after reading the papers it is very clear that they were quite happy to be offering babies a vaccine that they admit, in a substantial proportion of cases, gives them high fevers and rashes.

That same report stated in section 7 that it was unwise for this vaccine to be given to children under the age of 9 months.

"Section 7 – Routine Vaccination

The live measles vaccine should not be given to children below the age of nine months since it usually fails to immunise such children, owing to the presence of maternally transmitted antibodies."

The Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunization who advise the government said that the vaccine should instead be given to children in their second year of life after the completion of the immunisation against diphtheria, tetanus whooping cough and polio.!

Yet it appears that none of this was ever even considered before the children of India were vaccinated.

In India ,this is the third vaccine disaster this year. In April the Indian Times wrote an article Hib vaccine: Are press releases telling whole truth? - Health … and reported that their country was being misled over the effectiveness of the HIB vaccine. The vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae type b (the main cause of childhood meningitis and pneumonia) was advertised as being safe and effective however, in the Medical Journal of Medical Research three senior paediatricians accused three agencies, USAID, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health the Hib Initiative and the GAVI Alliance of misrepresentation of the facts by selectively and inaccurately reporting the actual findings of the Bangladesh Hib probe study in order to promote the vaccine's wider use. The India Times said :-

"According to the Agencies joint press release the results of the Bangladesh study conducted in 2007 "showed that the routine immunization of infants with the Hib conjugate vaccine prevented over one-third of life-threatening pneumonia cases and approximately 90 per cent of Hib meningitis cases".

It further said "this vaccine study builds on the evidence of the real burden of Hib pneumonia" in Indonesia.

Both these statements argue in favour of Hib vaccination in developing countries through "selective interpretation/presentation of the actual research findings", says Jacob Puliyel at St. Stephens Hospital in New Dehli and one of the doctors finding fault with the press release.

The Bangladesh study compared Hib vaccination status among children with confirmed pneumonia or meningitis against those without these diseases (controls). The major finding that there was "no difference" in the Hib vaccination status of children with pneumonia compared to community controls was omitted in the press release, the Indian doctors claim.

The study also found that among those who received all three doses of the vaccine, there was "no statistically significant protective effect" against either confirmed meningitis or probable meningitis but it found statistical significance in a sub-group that received only two doses of the vaccine."

The Times continued:-

"The press release made another misrepresentation by saying the study "builds on" evidence of the burden of Hib pneumonia from Indonesia whereas the Indonesia study actually reported more pneumonia in the Hib vaccinated group than controls, says Puliyel.

In fact, the Indonesia study paper concludes by saying

" Hib Vaccine" will not have a major role in efforts to reduce the overall burden of respiratory illness.....as improvements in nutritional status, maternal education and socioeconomic status" (can have)."

Sadly India were to be told further vaccine lies again in April this year, this time relating to the Gardasil vaccine. In an article I wrote at the time India suspends use of HPV Gardasil vaccines :: Weekly Blitz I reported the following:-

"It seems that the HPV vaccine Gardasil manufactured by Merck, has been in the spotlight again this week, as the news pours in that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to immediately suspend it's cervical cancer control vaccination programme for girls. The action was taken after 4 girls died and 120 were injured after receiving the vaccine."

Further on I continued by adding:-

"The programme was marred by controversy after four deaths and complications among 120 girls were reported after vaccination. The girls complained of stomach disorders, epilepsy, headaches and early menarche. Women activists fear the vaccine may impact the mental health of girls who have shown no signs of distress so far."

A few weeks later a letter appeared on the front page of the The Hindu on the 14th April 2010 to Azad that read:-

"Another issue which unfortunately has not been addressed in your letter is the conflict of interest involved in the PATH project. This NGO is a partner of the manufacturing company MERCK in other projects.

As a partner, it can be easily understood that the conflict arises from the interests of the subjects of the project, in this case children, on the one hand, and the vaccine manufacturer, on the other.

If there is not to be a cover-up of what appears prima facie to be a case of connivance with a vaccine manufacturing company in violation of set guidelines, I would once again request you to kindly look into the aspect of the inquiry, both in its terms of reference and in its composition."

So if The Hindu's research is correct and all indications show that it is, the NGO can hardly be classified as impartial, can he?

The campaign group the Truth about Gardasil were disgusted by these revaluations. India was at the time a country trying to come to terms with the fact that their children were used as part of an experiment, when all the time it was known that the vaccine used had been seen to cause adverse reactions worldwide.

The Truth about Gardasil put out a press release stating:

"Where is representation for the families of the four young tribal girls in Khammam district who died following the vaccination? Where is representation from the 70 public health organizations, networks, medical professionals, human rights groups and women's organizations that brought the HPV vaccine campaign in India to its knees on April 7, 2010 by voicing their intense opposition to the unethical nature of the HPV vaccination 'projects' conducted in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat by PATH International, in collaboration with ICMR and State Governments?

Where are these organizations now? Perhaps they will be allowed to sit in the balcony of their congressional hall just as the women adversely affected by the first birth controls pills in the 1960's had to do as they listened to senate testimony orated by men as they argued the risks and benefits in January of 1971."

However, the deaths did not stop there as the death toll in India rose to 6 but according to the reports that followed none of the deaths had anything to do with this vaccine. One article reported the deaths of the 6 girls was not due to vaccine failure but according to Indian minister they were put down to various causes including, viral fever, drowning, suicide and a suspected snake bite.

If vaccines continue to injure and kill the children of India, India may decide to become the first country to ban vaccinations altogether, after all who could blame them?

As yet no one is sure why there have been so many vaccine disasters in India this year. It seems that false advertising by the drugs companies and conflicts of interest could be held responsible at least to some extent.

 

[oneofmany]

S.Korea to start fingerprint scans at airports

S.Korea to start fingerprint scans at airports​

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea will introduce fingerprint scans at airports and ports from Wednesday in a bid to stop suspected criminals and foreign visitors with forged documents, officials said.

Immigration officials will scan the fingerprints of suspect arrivals to check against databases for possible criminal records, the justice ministry said Monday.

A facial recognition programme would be used as a secondary device, it said.
"We will closely check related documents of visitors. Immigration officials will also use their instinct and experience in sorting out suspicious visitors," a ministry official told AFP, declining to give details.

Anyone with a criminal record in South Korea or travelling on a fake passport would be banned from entering the country, the ministry said.

"This will ... contribute to the successful hosting of the G-20 summit," it said in a statement.

South Korea has tightened security measures ahead of the G-20 summit in November.

Four international airports plan to start screening suspicious passengers with full body scanners from October 1.

Government officials have insisted the scanners are an effective way of preventing terrorism, despite complaints that they violate privacy.

Full body scanners will only be used on passengers considered a possible security threat, while others can opt to be scanned manually by airport staff.

The machines have fuelled controversy around the world, with several European countries and the United States introducing them.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Re: Obama created by CIA: Report

I heard this about a year before the election that he is a creation of British Intelligence/CIA.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Re: Fidel Castro claims Osama bin Laden is a US spy

That's what was first reported after 911. Bin Laden was a known CIA asset during the Russian War in Afghanistan. The press stated Osama's rebellion was known as "blowback" or when an agent or asset goes rogue against the US.

 

[oneofmany]

5 more American troops die in Afghan fighting

5 more American troops die in Afghan fighting​

KABUL, Afghanistan – Five more American troops were killed in action in Afghanistan on Tuesday, ending the month with a spike in bloodshed that has claimed the lives of 19 U.S. service members in only four days.

The U.S. death toll for August stood at 55 — three-quarters of them in the second half of the month as the Taliban fight back against U.S. pressure in southern and eastern strongholds. American losses accounted for more than 70 percent of the 76 fatalities suffered by the entire NATO-led force.

NATO said four of the Americans were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, while a fifth died in a gunfight with insurgents in the country's south. No other details were released.

Until the late month spike, it appeared that the death toll for August would be well below the back-to-back monthly records of 66 in July and 60 in June.

By the middle of August only 13 Americans had been killed — in part because of greater use of heavily armored vehicles and other defenses against roadside bombs, the Taliban weapon of choice.

The reason behind the sudden spike in deaths was unclear because few details about the casualties are released for security reasons.

Most of the U.S. deaths occurred in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, longtime Taliban strongholds that are the focus of the American-led operation against the insurgents.

As the U.S. formally ends its combat role in the Iraq war, NATO and Afghan forces are ramping up operations in Afghanistan, especially in the area around Kandahar City, the Taliban birthplace and their former headquarters until they were ousted from power in the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, that higher casualties were inevitable because more troops have arrived in Afghanistan in recent weeks, bringing the overall alliance force to more than 140,000 — including 100,000 Americans. The U.S. figure is more than triple the number of American service members in Afghanistan at the beginning of last year.

"Right now we see more fighting and unfortunately also more casualties," Fogh Rasmussen said. "But that is the inevitable result of sending more troops ... On top of that, we now attack the Taliban strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar. That of course means more fighting and unfortunately also more casualties."

A NATO spokesman in Kabul, James Judge, said the insurgents traditionally step up attacks in late summer and early fall before the advent of the harsh Afghan winter, when fighting usually eases. He said casualty figures were likely to remain "somewhat elevated" in September because the insurgents may try to disrupt parliamentary elections.

In a meeting Tuesday with journalists from The Associated Press and two other news organizations, the top commander Gen. David Petraeus insisted that despite the casualties, progress was being achieved in Helmand and Kandahar. Petraeus said he recently walked through the market in Marjah, which until last February had been a major Taliban stronghold and wholesale distribution center for opium.

He said security in Kabul had been reinforced in recent months and that five or six bases were being built for the Afghan army around the city to protect the capital.

Nevertheless, gunmen stopped a bus Tuesday carrying clerks of the Afghan Supreme Court in south Kabul. One gunman boarded the bus and opened fire, killing three people and wounding 12, the Interior Ministry reported.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg insisted Tuesday that the military campaign in Afghanistan was "turning the corner" as he wrapped up a two-day unannounced visit to British troops in Helmand.

"We hear so much bad news," he told British soldiers. "Of course the country mourns when people lose their lives. People are full of anguish when there are serious injuries. But what I have seen today is a complete transformation of the military effort that I first saw when I visited two years ago."

Also Tuesday, NATO said its forces, working with Afghan army and police, had killed 19 insurgents and captured five in a major air assault on the village of Omar in the eastern province of Kunar.

Ground forces taking part in the assault that began Monday uncovered weapons caches and ammunition stockpiles inside the village, a statement said.

Two insurgents were killed and one was wounded in an airstrike Monday on a Taliban commander in charge of logistics in Kandahar, NATO said.

In Zabul province, insurgents on Monday night ambushed a convoy carrying food and other supplies, killing two private security guards and wounding five others, provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar said.

 

[oneofmany]

Indigent bodies must be offered to med schools

Indigent bodies must be offered to med schools​

The bodies of poor and indigent people for whom Des Moines County would be required to pick up the bill for burial or cremation will soon be offered up to medical schools to use for educational purposes before being laid to rest at public expense.

During a recent review of state law while helping update the county's general assistance manual, Senior Assistant County Attorney Amy Beavers turned up an old law, previously unenforced by the county, requiring bodies being buried with taxpayers' dollars must be offered for use by medical science. Once the college or medical school has finished with the body, it will be properly buried or cremated.

The only exceptions are for veterans, and if the decedent had a written declaration of what should happen with the body. The funerals of poor and needy veterans are handled through the county's Veteran Affairs Office, not through general assistance.

Beavers informed the Des Moines County Board of Supervisors of the law last week during a workshop session.

"We have to start complying with Iowa law on this," Supervisor Dan Cahill said upon hearing of the state code.

Supervisors asked implementation of the new rule be postponed until after the board meets with area funeral directors. Officials expect the meeting to take place Tuesday during a workshop following the board's regular 9 a.m. meeting at the Des Moines County Courthouse.

Funeral homes must inform the county when an indigent funeral is required. County employees, who approve burials at public expense, will now be required to inform the Iowa Department of Public Health of a body's availability within 48 hours. The Iowa Department of Public Health is supposed to maintain a list of medical schools the bodies can be offered to.

Failure to notify the Iowa Department of Public Health could result in a simple misdemeanor charge, and the willful withholding of information by a funeral home could result in charges of an aggravated misdemeanor, Beavers said.

Bodies must be held at either a funeral home or medical facility for 30 days in case a family member chooses to claim the deceased and pay for the funeral. If a family member claims the body and pays for the burial or cremation, submission to a medical facility will not be required.

Family members are legally required to pay for funerals. But if the decedent and family members meet income guidelines, the county pays $1,900 for the burial of an adult and $950 for that of a child.

In 2007, the county received 51 requests to fund burials and granted 22. Applications fell to 23 in 2008, and 16 were approved. In 2009, applications remained steady at 23, but only nine were approved. And as of Wednesday, 15 applications have been submitted so far this year with nine approved, said county General Assistance Coordinator Alana Capps.

The decrease in applications and approvals is due in part to efforts by county employees to verify applications and ensure no assets or family members exist who would be legally required to pay for the service, county officials said.

Publicly funded burials have long been subject to abuse, Cahill said.

"This is an area that has been abused over the years by citizens and funeral homes in getting counties to pay towards funerals," Cahill said. "What they did in the past is, they would take the ($1,900) from the county for the funeral and then they would bill the family the difference. And that is not right."

County policy states funds paid for indigent burials will pay for services in full and families cannot be billed nor pay to have additional services, with the exception of paying for copies of death certificates, date of death engraving, cost of a minister to perform a memorial or transportation of a body greater than 50 miles.

 

[oneofmany]

Drowning in Debt: US students helpless to pay off education

Drowning in Debt: US students helpless to pay off education

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[oneofmany]

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography​

A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.
The cases turned up during a 2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions.

In a related inquiry, the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to be guilty of purchasing child pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But the DCIS opened investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in prosecuting just a handful.

The Boston Globe first reported the Pentagon's role in Project Flicker in July, citing DCIS investigative reports (PDF) showing that at least 30 Defense Department employees were investigated.

But new Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act, which you can read here, show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. Astonishingly, nine of those had "Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information" security clearances, meaning they had access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. But DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. Without greater public disclosure of how these cases wound down, it's impossible to know how or whether any of the names listed in the Project Flicker papers came in for additional scrutiny. It's conceivable that some of them were picked up by local law enforcement, but it seems likely that most of the people flagged by the investigation did not have their military careers disrupted in the context of the DCIS inquiry.

Among those charged were Gary Douglass Grant, a captain in the Army Reserves and a judge advocate general, or military prosecutor. After investigators executing a search warrant found child pornography on his computer, he pleaded guilty last year to state charges of possession of obscene matter of a minor in a sexual act in California. Others included contractors for the NSA with Top Secret clearances; one of them -- a former contractor -- fled the country after being indicted and is believed to be in Libya.

But the vast majority of those investigated, including an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army and an official in the office of the secretary of defense, were never charged. On top of that, 212 people on ICE's list were never investigated at all.

According to the records, DCIS prioritized the investigations by focusing on people who had security clearances -- since those who have a taste for child pornography can be vulnerable to blackmail and espionage. The documents show that the probe then concentrated on people who had been previously suspected of or convicted of sex crimes, or had access to children as part of their Defense Department duties. But at least some of the people on the Project Flicker list with security clearances were never pursued and could possibly remain on the job: DCIS only investigated 52 people, and 76 of those on the Project Flicker list had clearances.

A DCIS spokesman didn't return phone calls. But the agency's own documents obtained via The Upshot's FOIA request indicate that the decision to press investigations forward hinged largely on questions of the resources available to the investigators. "Due to DCIS headquarters' direction and other DCIS investigative priorities, this investigation is cancelled" is a common summation in the files.

A source familiar with the Project Flicker investigations -- who requested anonymity because public disclosure could jeopardize this person's job -- confirmed that departmental resources, and priorities, were decisive factors in letting inquiries lapse.

DCIS is primarily tasked with rooting out contractor fraud and investigating security breaches; its 400 staffers were already plenty busy before Project Flicker dropped 264 more names onto their caseloads. And child pornography investigations are difficult to prosecute. Many judges wouldn't issue search warrants based on years-old evidence saying the targets subscribed to a kiddie porn website once.

"We were stuck in a situation where we had some great information, but didn't have the resources to run with it," the source told The Upshot. Many of the investigative reports obtained by The Upshot end with a similar citation of scarce resources:

Of course, other federal agencies, including ICE and the FBI, may have prosecuted some of the Project Flicker names the DCIS ignored. But that's unlikely, given that some of the DCIS investigations were closed due to lack of cooperation from ICE.

In one case, involving an Army Reserve corporal in the Pittsburgh area, a DCIS agent expressed exasperation after repeatedly trying to get ICE to collaborate with him on the investigation: "Based upon the complete non-responsiveness of ICE ... it is recommended that [the] matter be closed."

As for the 212 Project Flicker names that DCIS didn't investigate, the source familiar with the investigation said there was no systematic effort to inform their superiors or commanding officers of their suspected purchases of child pornography.

 

[oneofmany]

2010 already deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

2010 already deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan​

In only eight months, 2010 has become the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to a CNN count of Pentagon and NATO figures.

At least 321 troops have died so far in 2010, the highest yearly toll since the conflict began nearly nine years ago. The previous high was last year's 313 American deaths.

The deaths occurred during an increase of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and fierce fighting across the nation, particularly in the southern and eastern regions. Roadside bombs were responsible for many of the combat deaths.

President Barack Obama, who regards the Afghan war as the central front in the war against terror, said that because of the troop drawdown in Iraq, where the combat mission has now ended, more resources can be freed up for the fight in Afghanistan, including the added troops.

In his Oval Office speech Tuesday night, Obama said the United States is training Afghan security forces and supporting political solutions in the country, and plans to make a transition to Afghan troop leadership in July.

"As with the surge in Iraq, these forces will be in place for a limited time to provide space for the Afghans to build their capacity and secure their own future," he said.

 

[oneofmany]

US becoming a Third World country?

US becoming a Third World country?​

The United States is on the brink of sliding down to a Third World country, as it struggles with massive debts, rising unemployment and a deteriorating economy.

Some of the warning signs that indicate America's fantastic fall from a First World nation include rising unemployment and poverty.

According to Spiegel Online, the United States is recently faced with a new phenomenon called "the new poor."

In Ventura California -- a luxurious resort city -- about 20 percent of the residents are at risk of homelessness.

The once-rich, who have lost their homes, are now forced to sleep in their expensive cars parked in the city's corners, Captain William Finley, the head of the local branch of the Salvation Army said.

He further added that during the past months, the number of people taking advantage of the organization's free meals program, has doubled. Many drive up in their BMWs to receive free food, he went on to say.

Another signal that marks the demise of America's so-called greatness is the disappearance of the middle class.

During recent years, the gap between the rich and poor has increased at a staggering pace, systematically wiping the existence of the middle class from America.

Income inequality in the US has reached a stage where only one percent of Americans own as much as 37 percent of the total national wealth.

That means that if an average CEO earned 30 times as much as an ordinary worker in 1950, today he would own 300 times as much.

Meanwhile, in its current annual report, the US Department of Agriculture stressed that some 50 million Americans were not able to afford enough food to stay healthy at some point in 2009.

It also noted that one in eight adult Americans and one in four children now survive on government food stamps. These are unbelievable numbers for the world's richest nation, Spiegel wrote.

So far, US politicians have failed to come up with solutions to the growing crisis.

"The lights are going out all over America," Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman wrote last month. This is due to the fact that many US residents can no longer spend money because they have no savings.

Their houses have lost half of their value; they no longer qualify for low-interest loans; they are making less money than before or they're unemployed. This in turn reduces or eliminates their ability to pay taxes.

As a result, many state and local governments are faced with enormous budget deficits. In Hawaii, schools are closed on some Fridays to save the state money. A county in Georgia has eliminated all public bus services and in Colorado Springs, a city of 380,000 people, a third of streetlights have been shut off to save electricity.

In fact, the United States, which is in the wake of a huge debt crisis of above 90% of GDP, is threatened by a social Ice Age more severe than anything the country has seen since the Great Depression.

This is why last month, a leading online columnist, Arianna Huffington, issued the almost apocalyptic warning that "America is in danger of becoming a Third World country."

 

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Clinton spewing rhetoric, arrogance and hypocrisy

Clinton spewing rhetoric, arrogance and hypocrisy

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US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'​

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.

In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them".

One soldier said he believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon".

Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a "kill team". While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed "by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle", when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.

Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall.

Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone.

The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade.

The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.

Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians.

The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.

Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of "snitching", gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the "kill team".

Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury.

"Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn't have been mixed," Waddington told the Seattle Times.

 

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Nine years after 9/11, 900 responders are dead

Nine years after 9/11, 900 responders are dead


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EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Attempts to Block Book on Afghan War

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Attempts to Block Book on Afghan War​

On the eve of Sept. 11, Fox News has learned the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has attempted to block a book about the tipping point in Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining project called "Able Danger."

In a letter obtained by Fox News, the DIA says national security could be breached if "Operation Dark Heart" is published in its current form. The agency also attempted to block key portions of the book that claim "Able Danger" successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In a highly unusual move, the Department of Defense is now negotiating with the publisher, St. Martin's Press, to buy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of the book to keep it off shelves -- even after the U.S. Army had cleared the book for release.

Specifically, the DIA wanted references to a meeting between Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, the book's author, and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, removed. In that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, Shaffer alleges the commission was told about "Able Danger" and the identification of Atta before the attacks. No mention of this was made in the final 9/11 report.

Shaffer, who was undercover at the time, said there was "stunned silence" at the meeting after he told the executive director of the commission and others that Atta was identified as early as 2000 by "Able Danger."

"Dr. Philip Zelikow approached me in the corner of the room. 'What you said today is very important. I need you to get in touch with me as soon as you return from your deployment here in Afghanistan'," Shaffer said.

Once back in the U.S., Shaffer says he contacted the commission. Without explanation, the commission was no longer interested. An inspector general report by the Department of Defense concluded there was no evidence to support the claims of Shaffer and others. But Fox News has obtained an unredacted copy of the IG report containing the names of witnesses, who backed up Shaffer's story when contacted for comment.

Atta was the alleged ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers and piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.

Shaffer spoke to Fox News before he was asked by the military not to discuss the book. He confirmed efforts to block the book and other details.

Calling the move "highly unusual," he explained that the book had already been cleared for release when the DIA stepped in.

"Apparently, Defense Intelligence Agency took exception to the way the Army cleared the book," he told Fox News.

The documents and exclusive interviews, including an Army data collector on the Able Danger Project, are part of an ongoing investigation by the documentary unit "Fox News Reporting" which uncovered new details about American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and efforts by the FBI to track and recruit him for intelligence purposes after 9/11.