Karimov's sole defender
Rebel MP George Galloway’s Respect Party claimed today that evidence that he profited from Saddam Hussein’s regime was forged.
Ahead of Mr Galloway’s appearance in front of a committee of US senators in Washington, his party said the committee was relying on a counterfeit document created in Baghdad
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4566448
"Insh'Allah [God willing] Iraq will be the graveyard of the Americans," adds Ahmed, "Qaim is three small villages and with all their planes and tanks they still fail to control it. If they were brave they should attack one or two villages without planes and helicopters and tanks and fight man to man!"
http://www.rense.com/general65/conci.htm
About two decades ago, research indicated that certain nanoscale
materials exhibit unexpectedly unique and novel properties. The
existence of structures at the nanoscale level may confer a distinct
set of physical, chemical, and biological properties.
EPA is interested in whether commercial activities of nanoscale
materials may present a potential risk to human health and the
environment because of their unique physical structure and consequent
properties. Available information on potential hazards and exposures is
limited (Refs. 1 and 2). Therefore, EPA is considering how best to
evaluate the risks associated with nanoscale materials and how to
manage those risks. TSCA is often viewed as a regulatory gap filler,
which is intended to provide regulatory and information collection
authority lacking in some other environmental statutes
http://cryptome.org/epa051005.txt
The submarine USS San Francisco struck an undersea mountain about 360 miles southeast of its Guam homeport Jan. 8 because its leaders and watchteams failed to develop and execute a safe voyage plan, the command investigation into the incident concluded.
"The findings of fact show that San Francisco (SSN 711), while transiting at flank (maximum) speed and submerged to 525 feet, hit a seamount that did not appear on the chart being used for navigation," the 124-page report said of the incident in the vicinity of the Caroline Islands.
"Other charts in San Francisco’s possession did, however, clearly display a navigation hazard in the vicinity of the grounding," it said. "San Francisco’s navigation team failed to review those charts adequately and transfer pertinent data to the chart being used for navigation, as relevant directives and the ship’s own procedures required.
http://www.cpf.navy.mil/investigation.html
[This is some good detective work.]
According to the Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov) database, the US DOD's US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has awarded just over 29,000 contracts since at least October of 2003. A review of 2,000 of those contracts shows that awards go to the usual suspects like SAIC, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Some go to unusual suspects like Colombia Tri-Star pictures and Time Warner for movie and video distribution services.
Within that batch of 2,000 contracts are approximately 50 mentions of a "classified domestic contractor" and a "classified foreign contractor" operating at 18th & F Street, NW, Washington, DC. Tallying up the numbers, it turns out that these two contractors have received approximately $100 million for contingency operations in amounts ranging from $17K to $25M (USD). The bulk of the money has been let to the classified domestic contractor (the foreign contractor is based in the United Kingdom). At least 296 actions (awards, transfer of funds) have taken place on the contract and there have been at least 17 modifications. The contract is consistently extended and will run to at least September of 2006.
According to fpds.gov, the effort operates under the guidelines established in 10 USC 101(a)(13). That section of the US Code states the following:
"(13) The term "contingency operation" means a military operation that- (A) is designated by the Secretary of Defense as an operation in which members of the armed forces are or may become involved in military actions, operations, or hostilities against an enemy of the United States or against an opposing military force; or (B) results in the call or order to, or retention on, active duty of members of the uniformed services under Section 688, 12301 (a), 12302, 12304, 12305, or 12406 of this title, chapter 15 of this title, or any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress."
The Defense Systems Information Agency, National Capitol Area (DISA-NCA) has also funded the effort under the ominous heading "other justice, public order, safety act".
The fpds.gov system provides the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) number for the domestic contractor which is 790238638. Punching that into the D&B database returns this message: "contractor not disclosed, 2011 Crystal City, Suite 911, Arlington, Virginia. Plugging that information into google.com, it turns out that the former American Management Systems, Inc. (ams.com) was located in Suite 911. CGI (cgi.com), "the largest information services company in the world", bought AMS and retained the not-so interesting information services portion of AMS. CGI sold off the very interesting AMS defense and intelligence unit and its people, run by Gil Guarino, in 2004 for a hefty $1B (USD).
And the buyer? CACI International, the group that received unwelcome attention for its role in the torture scandals in Iraq that plague the company and the US government to this day. For its purchase of a piece of the "classified domestic contractor" CACI was awarded "the Hottest M&A Deal" by the Northern Virginia Technology Council in May 2004. According to investorideas.com, "The huge CACI-CG-AMS transaction involved thousands of employees and over $1 billion in cash. For CACI, it was the largest acquisition in the company's 42-year history. The transaction increased CACI's workforce by almost one quarter -- from some 7,600 employees to more than 9,400 -- brought in more than 300 new contracts, and raised revenue to $1 billion for the first time in the company's history."
Having reviewed just 50 or so entries for this contract (Dxxxxx04xxxxx), and ending up at a $100M USD value, one can only speculate on how many more of the "classified" awards are contained within the remaining 27,000 USSOCOM, DISA-NCA entries. Perhaps it runs into the hundreds of millions. And for what? Domestic operations? Interrogation and rendering? Homeland security? Intelligence gathering and assassination? It's all speculation since only Rumsfeld, Guarino and CACI's Jack London know for sure.
(If you want to learn more on the matter, go to fpds.gov and register--it's free. Use this information: Award ID=9700. IDV ID=9700. Contracting Office=H92236 and HC1047.)
http://cryptome.org/rummy-op.htm
According to National Security Agency insiders, outgoing NSA Director General Michael Hayden approved special communications intercepts of phone conversations made by past and present U.S. government officials. The intercepts are at the height of the current controversy surrounding the nomination of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.
It was revealed by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) during Bolton's Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing that Bolton requested transcripts of 10 NSA intercepts of conversations between named U.S. government officials and foreign persons. However, NSA insiders report that Hayden approved special intercept operations on behalf of Bolton and had them masked as "training missions" in order to get around internal NSA regulations that normally prohibit such eavesdropping on U.S. citizens.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/042505Madsen/042505madsen.html
His problems started when he asked the agency to look into the activities of an employee he thought might be engaged in espionage. Instead, the NSA called him in for an emergency psychological evaluation, one of the usual procedures in blackballing an employee. He was duly determined to be crazy and put on administrative leave. Tice was later assigned to unload furniture from trucks at a warehouse, where he hurt his back. He also served an eight-month tour of duty in the NSA motor pool, where the analyst worked at maintaining the agency’s fleet of vehicles, gassing them up, cleaning them and checking the fluids, and driving NSA big shots around town.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0519,webmondo1,63748,6.html
The subject of civil war is broached, and Mohammed, a Shia driver from Sadr City blurts out, "The occupiers are creating these problems between the Shia and Sunni, but they will not divide us! All occupations only mean destruction and suffering!"
Again I look around the room filled with seething Iraqis and find them nodding once again.
Ahmed raises his voice over the others and with eyes seething with anger asks, "My cousin is in al-Qaim, and he just told me the Americans have destroyed so many houses in that area and killed women and children!"
All of the attention in the room shifts to the large, mustached man wearing a brown dishdasha as he continues.
"They are entering our houses where women and children are, and this is totally against our traditions and culture. They must leave our country immediately!"
http://www.rense.com/general65/conci.htm
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Louis Manzo, D-Jersey City, authorizes the forfeiture of "motor vehicle, building or premise" if a firearm is found in it that is not possessed legally per state law – "even if the firearm was not possessed by the owner of the motor vehicle, building or premise," states a summary of the bill, A3998. The legislation was introduced Thursday.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44183
And lastly, for those of you who may think that since I have been gagged and stopped by almost all available official channels, I must be ready to vaporize into thin air, please think again. I am gagged, but not dead; not yet.
http://sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2422
Washington's "war on drugs" in Colombia is collapsing in chaos and corruption, and the drug producers are winning. The so-called Plan Colombia, which has cost the US more than $3bn (£1.6bn) in the past five years, is being abandoned, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=638590
Two former national security leaders say they are perplexed that suicide bombers have not targeted Americans on U.S. soil.
"The threshold of entry into this business of suicide bombs is not very high," said Sandy Berger, national security adviser in President Clinton's second term. "All you need to do is strap something to you and walk into some place where there are a lot of people. It's a little bit of a mystery to me why that hasn't happened ... given the resentment of the United States in many areas of the world.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/nation/11622393.htm
The problem is, scientists can't predict with precision how our species will adapt to changes over the next millennium, let alone the next million years. That's why Dawkins believes it's imprudent to make a prediction in the first place.
Others see it differently: In the book "Future Evolution," University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward argues that we are making ourselves virtually extinction-proof by bending Earth's flora and fauna to our will. And assuming that the human species will be hanging around for at least another 500 million years, Ward and others believe there are a few most likely scenarios for the future, based on a reading of past evolutionary episodes and current trends.
Where are humans headed? Here's an imprudent assessment of five possible paths, ranging from homogenized humans to alien-looking hybrids bred for interstellar travel.
CONTINUED: Will we all be assimilated?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7103668/
[Paving the way for vampire robots.]
A Japanese research team has developed a fuel cell that runs on blood without using toxic substances, opening the way for use in artificial hearts and other organs.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw111596760144B215
As if the devastating effects of crack use – which has spread through the south and southeastern regions of Brazil – were not enough, a new drug was recently discovered in the state of Acre on the Bolivian border. Possibly one of the most potent and dangerous drugs known, “oxi,” or “oxidado,” (“rust”) as known by its users, is a variant of crack. The difference is that, in its manufacture, instead of adding baking soda or ammonia to cocaine hydrochloride (the method for creating crack), kerosene and quicklime are added to produce oxi. “We had an idea that this drug existed, but no scientific study had proven so,” says Álvaro Ramos, president of the Acre Harm Reduction Network (REARD in its Portuguese initials.)
...
Extremely harmful to the body, oxi’s use disturbs the nervous system and produces paranoia and constant fear. But beyond that, “they get nervous, sometimes lose weight very quickly, take on a yellowish color, have liver problems, stomach aches, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and constant diarrhea,” says Álvaro. After more than five years in harm reduction work, Mendes says that he was never so shaken as when he witnessed oxi consumption. “When [the user] had finished smoking the rock, swallowing the smoke in his mouth, he fell down vomiting and defecating, and had his high in the middle of his vomit and feces, until he got up to smoke another.” Another alarming fact, this time in numeric terms: around 30 percent of those the team interviewed died within one year – the great majority from the effects of the drug, although some had also died participating in robberies or smuggling.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue37/article1288.html
Sergeant Kevin Benderman cannot shake the images from his head. There are bombed villages and desperate people. There are dogs eating corpses thrown into a mass grave. And most unremitting of all, there is the image of a young Iraqi girl, no more than eight or nine, one arm severely burnt and blistered, and the sound of her screams.
Last January, these memories became too much for this veteran of the war in Iraq. Informed his unit was about to return, he told his commanders he wanted out and applied to be considered a conscientious objector. The Army refused and charged him with desertion. Last week, his case - which carries a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment - started before a military judge at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
"If I am sincere in what I say and there's consequences because of my actions, I am prepared to stand up and take it," Sgt Benderman said. "If I have to go to prison because I don't want to kill anybody, so be it."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-02.htm
Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that if he is assassinated, his government has a contingency plan to prevent his enemies from taking control of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
"Some people might want to kill me, but they don't dare ... because if they did, they fear what would happen the next day," the Venezuelan leader said in a television broadcast.
...Chavez has been spending Venezuela's oil wealth to fund free health and education services for the poor and distribute subsidies and credits for workers' cooperatives he says should be the basis for a new kind of socialism.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-08.htm
[is it just me or is it like DeLay=stooge?]
A company largely owned by the Saudi government has spent more than $1.5 million since 1998 lobbying Congress to shield the chemical industry from liability for damages caused by MTBE, a potentially cancer-causing gasoline additive that has seeped into water supplies across New England, according to federal documents.
The chemical additive is widely used, particularly in the Northeast, to help gasoline burn more efficiently and meet standards set by the Clean Air Act. But when it gets into drinking water, MTBE is suspected of causing cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Many state and local governments -- including New Hampshire and 60 communities in Massachusetts -- have sued oil and chemical companies, claiming that they should have known the risks of using methyl tertiary butyl ether. The communities say the companies must pay to clean up groundwater that became contaminated when MTBE-treated gasoline seeped into the soil from leaking tanks.
But the industry -- helped by the House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas -- has maintained that it should not be obliged to pay for damages caused by a product used to meet a federal requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-06.htm
Afghans also complain that innocent villagers are frequently arrested and taken to Guantanamo Bay or the interrogation center north of Kabul at Bagram if they are unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of attacks on US soldiers or if they are the victim of faulty intelligence. Last year, Mr Karzai appealed to the US military to rethink their tactics. But he is now demanding control of military activities. He said: "We will allow or not allow operations to be conducted."
The President also called for the return of hundreds of Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo, another major friction point, and promised to raise the issue with President George Bush when the two leaders meet in Washington this month. But he stressed the importance of the relationship with America which has underpinned his government.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-05.htm
"We will not be deceived by this," Islamic cleric Mullah Sadullah Abu Aman told Reuters in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, referring to the magazine's retraction.
"This is a decision by America to save itself. It comes because of American pressure. Even an ordinary illiterate peasant understands this and won't accept it."
Aman was the leader of a group of clerics who Sunday vowed to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it handed over the military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran.
That call for a jihad, or holy war, still stood, he said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-03.htm
The bodies of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Uzbekistan are scarcely cold, and already the White House is looking for ways to dismiss them. The White House spokesman Scott McClellan said those shot dead in the city of Andijan included "Islamic terrorists" offering armed resistance. They should, McClellan insists, seek democratic government "through peaceful means, not through violence".
But how? This is not Georgia, Ukraine or even Kyrgyzstan. There, the opposition parties could fight elections. The results were fixed, but the opportunity to propagate their message brought change. In Uzbek elections on December 26, the opposition was not allowed to take part at all.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-27.htm
It was then, unbeknownst to the federal lawmakers who debated the merits of drilling in ANWR, that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation started to lay the groundwork to pursue civil charges against UK oil and gas behemoth BP and the corporation’s drilling contractor for failing to report massive oil spills at its Prudhoe Bay operation, just 60 miles west from the pristine wilderness area that would be ravaged by the very same company in its bid to drill for oil should ANWR truly be opened to further development.
BP has racked up some hefty fines over the years due to a number of mishaps at its Prudhoe Bay operations. In 2001, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission found high failure rates on some Prudhoe wellhead safety valves. The company was put on federal criminal probation after one of its contractors dumped thousands of gallons of toxic material underground at BP's Endicott oil field in the 1990s. BP pleaded guilty to the charges in 2000 and paid a $6.5 million fine, and agreed to set up a nationwide environmental management program that has cost more than $20 million.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-30.htm
Germany's newspapers yesterday carried frame-by-frame shots of the incident, in which Peter Gloystein, a member of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Bremen's economics minister, was shown on a podium, gleefully dousing Udo Oelschläger with champagne.
Mr Gloystein, who was attending the public opening of Bremen Wine Week, said as he poured: "Here's something for you to drink as well." Mr Oelschläger burst into tears and responded: "Who are you? Why are you doing this?" at which Mr Gloystein's aides attempted to bundle him away.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/14/wgerm14.xml
Meekan told the International Whale Shark Conference in Perth this week that the average size of the fish had declined, from just over 7 metres in 1995 to around 5.5 metres today.
Researchers don't know exactly why the fish is shrinking. But they speculate that over-fishing in unprotected international waters, injuries caused by collisions with sea vessels and a drop in the average age of the fish could be reasons.
"Any fish population that is undergoing unsustainable mortality usually shows a drop in average size of individual fish, and a drop in abundance. So what we're seeing at Ningaloo is particularly worrying, because these waters are protected," says Meekan.
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1367719.htm
Napier's work on logarithms is seen as essential in creating the ground work for Isaac Newton's extraordinary breakthroughs and other scientific discoveries in the fields of physics and astronomy in particular.
A paper he wrote on multiplication, called the Rabdologiae, contained a design for a machine using metal plates to multiply and divide large numbers.
This is the earliest known mechanical device that could be used to calculate the square root of large numbers and makes Napier the inventor of what would centuries later become a modern calculator.
http://www.rense.com/general65/owt.htm
Israel has decided to transfer garbage beyond the Green Line and dump it in the West Bank for the first time since 1967. The project was launched despite international treaties prohibiting an occupying state from making use of occupied territory unless it benefits the local population.
In addition, pollution experts say such use of the Kedumim quarry - located in an old Palestinian quarry between the Kedumim settlement and Nablus - will jeopardize Palestinian water sources.
The dump operators plan to deposit some 10,000 tons of garbage from the Dan and Sharon regions every month in what was known as the Abu Shusha quarry, the largest in the West Bank. In the last few days trucks and bulldozers have been covering the quarry's floor with brown soil to turn it into a garbage dump. Huge semi-trailer trucks are to bring the Sharon and Dan garbage, which will be amassed at the Hadarim garbage station near Tel Mond prison, to the quarry.
http://www.rense.com/general65/garbage.htm
Refugees who fled from the massacre committed by Uzbek security forces agreed on one thing yesterday: the number of dead is not 500 - the most common reported figure - but could be in the thousands.
As reports continued to come in of clashes spreading outside the town of Andizhan, a sergeant in charge of the bridge at the border village of Kara Suu said he believed that 2,000 had been massacred during three days.
http://www.rense.com/general65/dead.htm
Possible impacts from such a geomagnetic storm include widespread power system voltage control problems; some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage. Spacecraft operations may experience extensive surface charging; problems with orientation; uplink/downlink and tracking satellites. Satellite navigation may be degraded for days, and low-frequency radio navigation can be out for hours. Reports received by the NOAA Space Environment Center indicate that such impacts have been observed in the United States.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2437.htm
Finally the truth has come to light. Mr. Robert Ménard, secretary general of the RSF for twenty years, has confessed to receiving financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization that depends on the U.S. Department of State, whose principal role is to promote the agenda of the White House for the entire world. Ménard was indeed very clear. â‚?¬œWe indeed receive money from the NED. And that hasnâ‚?¬™t posed any problem.â‚?¬? (1)
Former U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1983, during a period in which military violence took the place of traditional diplomacy in order to resolve international matters. Thanks to its powerful ability of financial penetration, the NEDâ‚?¬™s goal is to weaken governments that would oppose the foreign hegemonic power of Washington. (2) In Latin America, the two targets are Cuba and Venezuela.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7851
Evan Lowenstein, 60, who owns more than a dozen 24-hour local massage parlors, was arrested at his home Thursday. He refused to answer Local 2's questions.
Police and federal customs officers took the female employees in for questioning. They believe many of them are immigrants brought to the states solely to perform as sex slaves.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/4482038/detail.html?subid=10100242
The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.
“>The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Thohni Al Wuheidi, asserted that the Israeli authorities have buried 80 tons of Nuclear waste near the city of Nablus.
The Minister added that the waste were buried 300 meters away from Nablus, while the burial of more nuclear waste was still being completed around the rest of Gaza Strip and West Bank cities, especially those with high population intensity such as Nablus, Hebron and Gaza.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=4678
From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and women were sterilized in this country, many without their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing.
"The procedures that were done here were done to poor folks," said Steven Selden, professor at the University of Maryland. "They were thought to be poor because they had bad genes or bad inheritance, if you will. And so they would be the focus of the sterilization."
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=708780
It was the most negative result since 2001, reflecting a stark reassessment of economic views, the bank said.
Latest US economic data gave little cheer, with industrial production falling 0.2% in April.
Fears of a resurgence in US inflation were stoked by a 0.6% rise in producer prices, increasing the likelihood of further short-term interest rate increases.
Soaring energy costs were largely to blame, with big increases in the price of oil and higher residential natural gas prices.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4555961.stm
Another funny story deals with the famous hand grenade incident in Georgia. Believe it, a live grenade was thrown at Bush but bounced off someone else and fell back to the ground. Since this would indicate a laxity on the part of his guards, the story soon changed to the live grenade being a “dud” and then “just a hoax.” I am waiting for the spin freaks to come out with the story that the grenade was actually one of those fancy Ukrainian Easter eggs with a little note from some Georgian woman thanking God for sending Bush to earth to bless the people of Georgia.
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1586.htm
It is crystal clear that the terrorists... and the time bombs originated from training conducted with foreign experts at a place in a neighbouring country by a world famous organisation of a certain superpower nation," Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told reporters.
He also accused the unnamed organisation - based in Washington - of having given $100,000 (£54,000) to a dissident group led by a cousin of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4549109.stm
The man behind the contentious practice of killing Palestinian militants with missile strikes became head of Israel's feared Shin Bet security service Sunday, taking charge of the agency at a time when it faces the additional task of watching Jewish extremists.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050515/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_shin_bet
Every night there are approximately 1,500,000 homeless children in America. Over half of all homeless families have been without shelter for over six months. Nationally families with children make up approximately 40 percent of the overall homeless population, with 42 percent of homeless youths being children under the age of five. Approximately 85 percent of all homeless parents with children are single mothers. The average homeless family is composed of a young single mother and two children under the age of six. (National Coalition for the Homeless, US Conference of Mayors, Urban Institute)
...
When asked if she has gone hungry she just got an exasperated look, like it was the stupidest question she had ever heard.
“Duh! What do you think?” she asks with some irritation. “I am hungry all the time, even when there is enough food. I am afraid to eat till I’m really full because we might run out of food if we’re little pigs. I ate as much as I could on Thanksgiving but that was the only time this year I’ve been really full. I ate six pieces of pie and had three plates of turkey. I wish we had that much food all the time.”
“We’re almost out of food again, because mom went to every place she could find that gave out food” she explains. “You can’t go to most places more than once a month, so we try to get all the food we can when we get into a new town. We eat at soup kitchens and I know my mom gets some food from grocery store dumpsters. I don’t tell my sisters because they wouldn’t eat any food if they knew that.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00199.htm
WWASPS
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,595056833,00.html
[You see how a government will stand by its own servants?]
ONE of Hitler’s top intelligence officers, who ordered the murders of more than 100 British secret agents in concentration camps, was spared execution as a war criminal and selected to work for MI6
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1611185,00.html
The Philippines has received assurance from the Israeli government that it would act upon the poor treatment of Filipinos travelling on Tel Aviv flights.
Manila has filed a formal protest over the alleged segregation of the travellers at the back of aircraft on flights to Tel Aviv
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1370096.htm
It seems that there are a growing number of people who believe as I do, that the economic tsunami planned by the Bush administration is probably only months away. In just 5 short years the national debt has increased by nearly 3 trillion dollars while the dollar has continued its predictable decline. The dollar has fallen a whopping 38% since Bush took office, due largely to the massive $450 billion per year tax cuts. At the same time, numerous laws have been passed (Patriot Act, Intelligence Reform Bill, Homeland Security Bill, National ID, Passport requirements etc) anticipating the need for greater repression when the economy takes its inevitable nosedive. Regrettably, that nosedive looks to be coming sooner rather than later.
...
This same Ponzi scheme has been carried out repeatedly by the IMF and World Bank throughout the world; Argentina being the last dramatic illustration. (Argentina's economic collapse occurred when its trade deficit was running at 4%; right now ours is at an unprecedented 6%.) Bankruptcy is a fairly straight forward way of delivering valuable public assets and resources to collaborative industries, and of annihilating national sovereignty. After a nation is successfully driven to destitution, public policy decisions are made by creditors and not by representatives of the people. (Enter, Paul Wolfowitz)
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04082005.html
The Andijan massacre – and whatever massacres are to come – might leave Schwartz as Karimov's sole defender, but as I pointed out in 2001: the Uzbek lobby has deep roots, not only among the neocons and the Bush administration, but the Clintonites as well. Uzbekistan has some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, and what's more, it occupies a key geographical nexus in the region, one that could be the connecting bridge between the oil reserves of Central Asia and the energy-hungry West.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5958
Ahead of Mr Galloway’s appearance in front of a committee of US senators in Washington, his party said the committee was relying on a counterfeit document created in Baghdad
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4566448
"Insh'Allah [God willing] Iraq will be the graveyard of the Americans," adds Ahmed, "Qaim is three small villages and with all their planes and tanks they still fail to control it. If they were brave they should attack one or two villages without planes and helicopters and tanks and fight man to man!"
http://www.rense.com/general65/conci.htm
About two decades ago, research indicated that certain nanoscale
materials exhibit unexpectedly unique and novel properties. The
existence of structures at the nanoscale level may confer a distinct
set of physical, chemical, and biological properties.
EPA is interested in whether commercial activities of nanoscale
materials may present a potential risk to human health and the
environment because of their unique physical structure and consequent
properties. Available information on potential hazards and exposures is
limited (Refs. 1 and 2). Therefore, EPA is considering how best to
evaluate the risks associated with nanoscale materials and how to
manage those risks. TSCA is often viewed as a regulatory gap filler,
which is intended to provide regulatory and information collection
authority lacking in some other environmental statutes
http://cryptome.org/epa051005.txt
The submarine USS San Francisco struck an undersea mountain about 360 miles southeast of its Guam homeport Jan. 8 because its leaders and watchteams failed to develop and execute a safe voyage plan, the command investigation into the incident concluded.
"The findings of fact show that San Francisco (SSN 711), while transiting at flank (maximum) speed and submerged to 525 feet, hit a seamount that did not appear on the chart being used for navigation," the 124-page report said of the incident in the vicinity of the Caroline Islands.
"Other charts in San Francisco’s possession did, however, clearly display a navigation hazard in the vicinity of the grounding," it said. "San Francisco’s navigation team failed to review those charts adequately and transfer pertinent data to the chart being used for navigation, as relevant directives and the ship’s own procedures required.
http://www.cpf.navy.mil/investigation.html
[This is some good detective work.]
According to the Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov) database, the US DOD's US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has awarded just over 29,000 contracts since at least October of 2003. A review of 2,000 of those contracts shows that awards go to the usual suspects like SAIC, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Some go to unusual suspects like Colombia Tri-Star pictures and Time Warner for movie and video distribution services.
Within that batch of 2,000 contracts are approximately 50 mentions of a "classified domestic contractor" and a "classified foreign contractor" operating at 18th & F Street, NW, Washington, DC. Tallying up the numbers, it turns out that these two contractors have received approximately $100 million for contingency operations in amounts ranging from $17K to $25M (USD). The bulk of the money has been let to the classified domestic contractor (the foreign contractor is based in the United Kingdom). At least 296 actions (awards, transfer of funds) have taken place on the contract and there have been at least 17 modifications. The contract is consistently extended and will run to at least September of 2006.
According to fpds.gov, the effort operates under the guidelines established in 10 USC 101(a)(13). That section of the US Code states the following:
"(13) The term "contingency operation" means a military operation that- (A) is designated by the Secretary of Defense as an operation in which members of the armed forces are or may become involved in military actions, operations, or hostilities against an enemy of the United States or against an opposing military force; or (B) results in the call or order to, or retention on, active duty of members of the uniformed services under Section 688, 12301 (a), 12302, 12304, 12305, or 12406 of this title, chapter 15 of this title, or any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress."
The Defense Systems Information Agency, National Capitol Area (DISA-NCA) has also funded the effort under the ominous heading "other justice, public order, safety act".
The fpds.gov system provides the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) number for the domestic contractor which is 790238638. Punching that into the D&B database returns this message: "contractor not disclosed, 2011 Crystal City, Suite 911, Arlington, Virginia. Plugging that information into google.com, it turns out that the former American Management Systems, Inc. (ams.com) was located in Suite 911. CGI (cgi.com), "the largest information services company in the world", bought AMS and retained the not-so interesting information services portion of AMS. CGI sold off the very interesting AMS defense and intelligence unit and its people, run by Gil Guarino, in 2004 for a hefty $1B (USD).
And the buyer? CACI International, the group that received unwelcome attention for its role in the torture scandals in Iraq that plague the company and the US government to this day. For its purchase of a piece of the "classified domestic contractor" CACI was awarded "the Hottest M&A Deal" by the Northern Virginia Technology Council in May 2004. According to investorideas.com, "The huge CACI-CG-AMS transaction involved thousands of employees and over $1 billion in cash. For CACI, it was the largest acquisition in the company's 42-year history. The transaction increased CACI's workforce by almost one quarter -- from some 7,600 employees to more than 9,400 -- brought in more than 300 new contracts, and raised revenue to $1 billion for the first time in the company's history."
Having reviewed just 50 or so entries for this contract (Dxxxxx04xxxxx), and ending up at a $100M USD value, one can only speculate on how many more of the "classified" awards are contained within the remaining 27,000 USSOCOM, DISA-NCA entries. Perhaps it runs into the hundreds of millions. And for what? Domestic operations? Interrogation and rendering? Homeland security? Intelligence gathering and assassination? It's all speculation since only Rumsfeld, Guarino and CACI's Jack London know for sure.
(If you want to learn more on the matter, go to fpds.gov and register--it's free. Use this information: Award ID=9700. IDV ID=9700. Contracting Office=H92236 and HC1047.)
http://cryptome.org/rummy-op.htm
According to National Security Agency insiders, outgoing NSA Director General Michael Hayden approved special communications intercepts of phone conversations made by past and present U.S. government officials. The intercepts are at the height of the current controversy surrounding the nomination of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.
It was revealed by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) during Bolton's Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing that Bolton requested transcripts of 10 NSA intercepts of conversations between named U.S. government officials and foreign persons. However, NSA insiders report that Hayden approved special intercept operations on behalf of Bolton and had them masked as "training missions" in order to get around internal NSA regulations that normally prohibit such eavesdropping on U.S. citizens.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/042505Madsen/042505madsen.html
His problems started when he asked the agency to look into the activities of an employee he thought might be engaged in espionage. Instead, the NSA called him in for an emergency psychological evaluation, one of the usual procedures in blackballing an employee. He was duly determined to be crazy and put on administrative leave. Tice was later assigned to unload furniture from trucks at a warehouse, where he hurt his back. He also served an eight-month tour of duty in the NSA motor pool, where the analyst worked at maintaining the agency’s fleet of vehicles, gassing them up, cleaning them and checking the fluids, and driving NSA big shots around town.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0519,webmondo1,63748,6.html
The subject of civil war is broached, and Mohammed, a Shia driver from Sadr City blurts out, "The occupiers are creating these problems between the Shia and Sunni, but they will not divide us! All occupations only mean destruction and suffering!"
Again I look around the room filled with seething Iraqis and find them nodding once again.
Ahmed raises his voice over the others and with eyes seething with anger asks, "My cousin is in al-Qaim, and he just told me the Americans have destroyed so many houses in that area and killed women and children!"
All of the attention in the room shifts to the large, mustached man wearing a brown dishdasha as he continues.
"They are entering our houses where women and children are, and this is totally against our traditions and culture. They must leave our country immediately!"
http://www.rense.com/general65/conci.htm
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Louis Manzo, D-Jersey City, authorizes the forfeiture of "motor vehicle, building or premise" if a firearm is found in it that is not possessed legally per state law – "even if the firearm was not possessed by the owner of the motor vehicle, building or premise," states a summary of the bill, A3998. The legislation was introduced Thursday.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44183
And lastly, for those of you who may think that since I have been gagged and stopped by almost all available official channels, I must be ready to vaporize into thin air, please think again. I am gagged, but not dead; not yet.
http://sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2422
Washington's "war on drugs" in Colombia is collapsing in chaos and corruption, and the drug producers are winning. The so-called Plan Colombia, which has cost the US more than $3bn (£1.6bn) in the past five years, is being abandoned, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=638590
Two former national security leaders say they are perplexed that suicide bombers have not targeted Americans on U.S. soil.
"The threshold of entry into this business of suicide bombs is not very high," said Sandy Berger, national security adviser in President Clinton's second term. "All you need to do is strap something to you and walk into some place where there are a lot of people. It's a little bit of a mystery to me why that hasn't happened ... given the resentment of the United States in many areas of the world.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/nation/11622393.htm
The problem is, scientists can't predict with precision how our species will adapt to changes over the next millennium, let alone the next million years. That's why Dawkins believes it's imprudent to make a prediction in the first place.
Others see it differently: In the book "Future Evolution," University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward argues that we are making ourselves virtually extinction-proof by bending Earth's flora and fauna to our will. And assuming that the human species will be hanging around for at least another 500 million years, Ward and others believe there are a few most likely scenarios for the future, based on a reading of past evolutionary episodes and current trends.
Where are humans headed? Here's an imprudent assessment of five possible paths, ranging from homogenized humans to alien-looking hybrids bred for interstellar travel.
CONTINUED: Will we all be assimilated?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7103668/
[Paving the way for vampire robots.]
A Japanese research team has developed a fuel cell that runs on blood without using toxic substances, opening the way for use in artificial hearts and other organs.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw111596760144B215
As if the devastating effects of crack use – which has spread through the south and southeastern regions of Brazil – were not enough, a new drug was recently discovered in the state of Acre on the Bolivian border. Possibly one of the most potent and dangerous drugs known, “oxi,” or “oxidado,” (“rust”) as known by its users, is a variant of crack. The difference is that, in its manufacture, instead of adding baking soda or ammonia to cocaine hydrochloride (the method for creating crack), kerosene and quicklime are added to produce oxi. “We had an idea that this drug existed, but no scientific study had proven so,” says Álvaro Ramos, president of the Acre Harm Reduction Network (REARD in its Portuguese initials.)
...
Extremely harmful to the body, oxi’s use disturbs the nervous system and produces paranoia and constant fear. But beyond that, “they get nervous, sometimes lose weight very quickly, take on a yellowish color, have liver problems, stomach aches, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and constant diarrhea,” says Álvaro. After more than five years in harm reduction work, Mendes says that he was never so shaken as when he witnessed oxi consumption. “When [the user] had finished smoking the rock, swallowing the smoke in his mouth, he fell down vomiting and defecating, and had his high in the middle of his vomit and feces, until he got up to smoke another.” Another alarming fact, this time in numeric terms: around 30 percent of those the team interviewed died within one year – the great majority from the effects of the drug, although some had also died participating in robberies or smuggling.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue37/article1288.html
Sergeant Kevin Benderman cannot shake the images from his head. There are bombed villages and desperate people. There are dogs eating corpses thrown into a mass grave. And most unremitting of all, there is the image of a young Iraqi girl, no more than eight or nine, one arm severely burnt and blistered, and the sound of her screams.
Last January, these memories became too much for this veteran of the war in Iraq. Informed his unit was about to return, he told his commanders he wanted out and applied to be considered a conscientious objector. The Army refused and charged him with desertion. Last week, his case - which carries a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment - started before a military judge at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
"If I am sincere in what I say and there's consequences because of my actions, I am prepared to stand up and take it," Sgt Benderman said. "If I have to go to prison because I don't want to kill anybody, so be it."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-02.htm
Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that if he is assassinated, his government has a contingency plan to prevent his enemies from taking control of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
"Some people might want to kill me, but they don't dare ... because if they did, they fear what would happen the next day," the Venezuelan leader said in a television broadcast.
...Chavez has been spending Venezuela's oil wealth to fund free health and education services for the poor and distribute subsidies and credits for workers' cooperatives he says should be the basis for a new kind of socialism.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-08.htm
[is it just me or is it like DeLay=stooge?]
A company largely owned by the Saudi government has spent more than $1.5 million since 1998 lobbying Congress to shield the chemical industry from liability for damages caused by MTBE, a potentially cancer-causing gasoline additive that has seeped into water supplies across New England, according to federal documents.
The chemical additive is widely used, particularly in the Northeast, to help gasoline burn more efficiently and meet standards set by the Clean Air Act. But when it gets into drinking water, MTBE is suspected of causing cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Many state and local governments -- including New Hampshire and 60 communities in Massachusetts -- have sued oil and chemical companies, claiming that they should have known the risks of using methyl tertiary butyl ether. The communities say the companies must pay to clean up groundwater that became contaminated when MTBE-treated gasoline seeped into the soil from leaking tanks.
But the industry -- helped by the House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas -- has maintained that it should not be obliged to pay for damages caused by a product used to meet a federal requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-06.htm
Afghans also complain that innocent villagers are frequently arrested and taken to Guantanamo Bay or the interrogation center north of Kabul at Bagram if they are unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of attacks on US soldiers or if they are the victim of faulty intelligence. Last year, Mr Karzai appealed to the US military to rethink their tactics. But he is now demanding control of military activities. He said: "We will allow or not allow operations to be conducted."
The President also called for the return of hundreds of Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo, another major friction point, and promised to raise the issue with President George Bush when the two leaders meet in Washington this month. But he stressed the importance of the relationship with America which has underpinned his government.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-05.htm
"We will not be deceived by this," Islamic cleric Mullah Sadullah Abu Aman told Reuters in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, referring to the magazine's retraction.
"This is a decision by America to save itself. It comes because of American pressure. Even an ordinary illiterate peasant understands this and won't accept it."
Aman was the leader of a group of clerics who Sunday vowed to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it handed over the military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran.
That call for a jihad, or holy war, still stood, he said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0516-03.htm
The bodies of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Uzbekistan are scarcely cold, and already the White House is looking for ways to dismiss them. The White House spokesman Scott McClellan said those shot dead in the city of Andijan included "Islamic terrorists" offering armed resistance. They should, McClellan insists, seek democratic government "through peaceful means, not through violence".
But how? This is not Georgia, Ukraine or even Kyrgyzstan. There, the opposition parties could fight elections. The results were fixed, but the opportunity to propagate their message brought change. In Uzbek elections on December 26, the opposition was not allowed to take part at all.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-27.htm
It was then, unbeknownst to the federal lawmakers who debated the merits of drilling in ANWR, that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation started to lay the groundwork to pursue civil charges against UK oil and gas behemoth BP and the corporation’s drilling contractor for failing to report massive oil spills at its Prudhoe Bay operation, just 60 miles west from the pristine wilderness area that would be ravaged by the very same company in its bid to drill for oil should ANWR truly be opened to further development.
BP has racked up some hefty fines over the years due to a number of mishaps at its Prudhoe Bay operations. In 2001, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission found high failure rates on some Prudhoe wellhead safety valves. The company was put on federal criminal probation after one of its contractors dumped thousands of gallons of toxic material underground at BP's Endicott oil field in the 1990s. BP pleaded guilty to the charges in 2000 and paid a $6.5 million fine, and agreed to set up a nationwide environmental management program that has cost more than $20 million.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-30.htm
Germany's newspapers yesterday carried frame-by-frame shots of the incident, in which Peter Gloystein, a member of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Bremen's economics minister, was shown on a podium, gleefully dousing Udo Oelschläger with champagne.
Mr Gloystein, who was attending the public opening of Bremen Wine Week, said as he poured: "Here's something for you to drink as well." Mr Oelschläger burst into tears and responded: "Who are you? Why are you doing this?" at which Mr Gloystein's aides attempted to bundle him away.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/14/wgerm14.xml
Meekan told the International Whale Shark Conference in Perth this week that the average size of the fish had declined, from just over 7 metres in 1995 to around 5.5 metres today.
Researchers don't know exactly why the fish is shrinking. But they speculate that over-fishing in unprotected international waters, injuries caused by collisions with sea vessels and a drop in the average age of the fish could be reasons.
"Any fish population that is undergoing unsustainable mortality usually shows a drop in average size of individual fish, and a drop in abundance. So what we're seeing at Ningaloo is particularly worrying, because these waters are protected," says Meekan.
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1367719.htm
Napier's work on logarithms is seen as essential in creating the ground work for Isaac Newton's extraordinary breakthroughs and other scientific discoveries in the fields of physics and astronomy in particular.
A paper he wrote on multiplication, called the Rabdologiae, contained a design for a machine using metal plates to multiply and divide large numbers.
This is the earliest known mechanical device that could be used to calculate the square root of large numbers and makes Napier the inventor of what would centuries later become a modern calculator.
http://www.rense.com/general65/owt.htm
Israel has decided to transfer garbage beyond the Green Line and dump it in the West Bank for the first time since 1967. The project was launched despite international treaties prohibiting an occupying state from making use of occupied territory unless it benefits the local population.
In addition, pollution experts say such use of the Kedumim quarry - located in an old Palestinian quarry between the Kedumim settlement and Nablus - will jeopardize Palestinian water sources.
The dump operators plan to deposit some 10,000 tons of garbage from the Dan and Sharon regions every month in what was known as the Abu Shusha quarry, the largest in the West Bank. In the last few days trucks and bulldozers have been covering the quarry's floor with brown soil to turn it into a garbage dump. Huge semi-trailer trucks are to bring the Sharon and Dan garbage, which will be amassed at the Hadarim garbage station near Tel Mond prison, to the quarry.
http://www.rense.com/general65/garbage.htm
Refugees who fled from the massacre committed by Uzbek security forces agreed on one thing yesterday: the number of dead is not 500 - the most common reported figure - but could be in the thousands.
As reports continued to come in of clashes spreading outside the town of Andizhan, a sergeant in charge of the bridge at the border village of Kara Suu said he believed that 2,000 had been massacred during three days.
http://www.rense.com/general65/dead.htm
Possible impacts from such a geomagnetic storm include widespread power system voltage control problems; some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage. Spacecraft operations may experience extensive surface charging; problems with orientation; uplink/downlink and tracking satellites. Satellite navigation may be degraded for days, and low-frequency radio navigation can be out for hours. Reports received by the NOAA Space Environment Center indicate that such impacts have been observed in the United States.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2437.htm
Finally the truth has come to light. Mr. Robert Ménard, secretary general of the RSF for twenty years, has confessed to receiving financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization that depends on the U.S. Department of State, whose principal role is to promote the agenda of the White House for the entire world. Ménard was indeed very clear. â‚?¬œWe indeed receive money from the NED. And that hasnâ‚?¬™t posed any problem.â‚?¬? (1)
Former U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1983, during a period in which military violence took the place of traditional diplomacy in order to resolve international matters. Thanks to its powerful ability of financial penetration, the NEDâ‚?¬™s goal is to weaken governments that would oppose the foreign hegemonic power of Washington. (2) In Latin America, the two targets are Cuba and Venezuela.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7851
Evan Lowenstein, 60, who owns more than a dozen 24-hour local massage parlors, was arrested at his home Thursday. He refused to answer Local 2's questions.
Police and federal customs officers took the female employees in for questioning. They believe many of them are immigrants brought to the states solely to perform as sex slaves.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/4482038/detail.html?subid=10100242
The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.
“>The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Thohni Al Wuheidi, asserted that the Israeli authorities have buried 80 tons of Nuclear waste near the city of Nablus.
The Minister added that the waste were buried 300 meters away from Nablus, while the burial of more nuclear waste was still being completed around the rest of Gaza Strip and West Bank cities, especially those with high population intensity such as Nablus, Hebron and Gaza.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=4678
From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and women were sterilized in this country, many without their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing.
"The procedures that were done here were done to poor folks," said Steven Selden, professor at the University of Maryland. "They were thought to be poor because they had bad genes or bad inheritance, if you will. And so they would be the focus of the sterilization."
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=708780
It was the most negative result since 2001, reflecting a stark reassessment of economic views, the bank said.
Latest US economic data gave little cheer, with industrial production falling 0.2% in April.
Fears of a resurgence in US inflation were stoked by a 0.6% rise in producer prices, increasing the likelihood of further short-term interest rate increases.
Soaring energy costs were largely to blame, with big increases in the price of oil and higher residential natural gas prices.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4555961.stm
Another funny story deals with the famous hand grenade incident in Georgia. Believe it, a live grenade was thrown at Bush but bounced off someone else and fell back to the ground. Since this would indicate a laxity on the part of his guards, the story soon changed to the live grenade being a “dud” and then “just a hoax.” I am waiting for the spin freaks to come out with the story that the grenade was actually one of those fancy Ukrainian Easter eggs with a little note from some Georgian woman thanking God for sending Bush to earth to bless the people of Georgia.
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1586.htm
It is crystal clear that the terrorists... and the time bombs originated from training conducted with foreign experts at a place in a neighbouring country by a world famous organisation of a certain superpower nation," Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told reporters.
He also accused the unnamed organisation - based in Washington - of having given $100,000 (£54,000) to a dissident group led by a cousin of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4549109.stm
The man behind the contentious practice of killing Palestinian militants with missile strikes became head of Israel's feared Shin Bet security service Sunday, taking charge of the agency at a time when it faces the additional task of watching Jewish extremists.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050515/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_shin_bet
Every night there are approximately 1,500,000 homeless children in America. Over half of all homeless families have been without shelter for over six months. Nationally families with children make up approximately 40 percent of the overall homeless population, with 42 percent of homeless youths being children under the age of five. Approximately 85 percent of all homeless parents with children are single mothers. The average homeless family is composed of a young single mother and two children under the age of six. (National Coalition for the Homeless, US Conference of Mayors, Urban Institute)
...
When asked if she has gone hungry she just got an exasperated look, like it was the stupidest question she had ever heard.
“Duh! What do you think?” she asks with some irritation. “I am hungry all the time, even when there is enough food. I am afraid to eat till I’m really full because we might run out of food if we’re little pigs. I ate as much as I could on Thanksgiving but that was the only time this year I’ve been really full. I ate six pieces of pie and had three plates of turkey. I wish we had that much food all the time.”
“We’re almost out of food again, because mom went to every place she could find that gave out food” she explains. “You can’t go to most places more than once a month, so we try to get all the food we can when we get into a new town. We eat at soup kitchens and I know my mom gets some food from grocery store dumpsters. I don’t tell my sisters because they wouldn’t eat any food if they knew that.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00199.htm
WWASPS
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,595056833,00.html
[You see how a government will stand by its own servants?]
ONE of Hitler’s top intelligence officers, who ordered the murders of more than 100 British secret agents in concentration camps, was spared execution as a war criminal and selected to work for MI6
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1611185,00.html
The Philippines has received assurance from the Israeli government that it would act upon the poor treatment of Filipinos travelling on Tel Aviv flights.
Manila has filed a formal protest over the alleged segregation of the travellers at the back of aircraft on flights to Tel Aviv
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1370096.htm
It seems that there are a growing number of people who believe as I do, that the economic tsunami planned by the Bush administration is probably only months away. In just 5 short years the national debt has increased by nearly 3 trillion dollars while the dollar has continued its predictable decline. The dollar has fallen a whopping 38% since Bush took office, due largely to the massive $450 billion per year tax cuts. At the same time, numerous laws have been passed (Patriot Act, Intelligence Reform Bill, Homeland Security Bill, National ID, Passport requirements etc) anticipating the need for greater repression when the economy takes its inevitable nosedive. Regrettably, that nosedive looks to be coming sooner rather than later.
...
This same Ponzi scheme has been carried out repeatedly by the IMF and World Bank throughout the world; Argentina being the last dramatic illustration. (Argentina's economic collapse occurred when its trade deficit was running at 4%; right now ours is at an unprecedented 6%.) Bankruptcy is a fairly straight forward way of delivering valuable public assets and resources to collaborative industries, and of annihilating national sovereignty. After a nation is successfully driven to destitution, public policy decisions are made by creditors and not by representatives of the people. (Enter, Paul Wolfowitz)
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04082005.html
The Andijan massacre – and whatever massacres are to come – might leave Schwartz as Karimov's sole defender, but as I pointed out in 2001: the Uzbek lobby has deep roots, not only among the neocons and the Bush administration, but the Clintonites as well. Uzbekistan has some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, and what's more, it occupies a key geographical nexus in the region, one that could be the connecting bridge between the oil reserves of Central Asia and the energy-hungry West.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5958
posted by abu nakba at 5/17/2005 07:36:00 PM
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