Un-CensoredNews

President Zardari? Tested Soon, Tested Heavily

2008-08-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

If a nation is genetically strong, not only will it survive, it will also grow stronger and more vital through trial and error. If not, it will die anyway, whatever you do. That's the way it is. The graveyards of the world are littered with the debris of civilizations, empires, superpowers and states long gone. Given the ground realities, the new leaders of

Pakistan

will be tested soon, and tested heavily. It is Mr. Zardari's right to be the next president because the people gave his party the most seats. He deserves it and the people deserve him. But will he give up politics to become neutral or will he appoint someone else to be our next Head of State as President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force and symbol of the unity of the Federation and continuity of the State?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—‘It may happen that you will hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that you will love a thing which is evil for you. God knows, and you know not.’ Al-Quran (2:216).

The inquisition ended before the impeachment could begin. Pervez Musharraf belongs to history now. History, however, is rarely accurate. It depends on who writes it. Only the Almighty is the final judge. He knows best.

Nothing is permanent, except the Almighty. All things come to an end, good or bad. Let the dead past bury its dead. Let those who belong to it worry about it. Look to the present – and the future. The new question now is: Musharraf may belong to history, but where does Pakistan belong? Where will it belong in a year? Where will it belong when the biggest of all the post-Cold War convulsions yet to come has consumed itself and the world finds a new equilibrium? Alive and kicking? On life support? Or …?

The answer lies in the hands of two unlikely men. Can they rise to the occasion? We won't have long to wait. They have played the game before and failed under much easier circumstances. This is not a facetious statement. The victors have always reshaped the world after the end of every world war. The Cold War was actually the Third World War, the longest in history. The instant it was over the map of the world started changing. The Soviet Union collapsed into numerous independent states, some still in the process of being shaped, others yet to find equilibrium. Germany, divided after World War II, was reunified as the Cold War petered out. East Europe found new shape and new doctrines. The process has still neither peaked nor culminated, not until those countries of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa that were crafted by the victorious colonizers after the first two World Wars are reshaped again to meet the needs and demands of the new victor.

After the First World War we saw the emergence of Saudi Arabia, modern Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq. The seeds of Israel were sown with the Balfour Declaration. After the Second World War came rapid decolonization and we saw the emergence of Pakistan and later Bangladesh, India, Israel, the emergence of a victorious and independent communist China, so many African countries with their borders drawn in straight lines cutting across tribes.

Both times the victors parceled out the world amongst themselves, especially the division of the European spoils, with east Europe going to the communist Soviet bloc and west Europe to the capitalist U.S. bloc.

Now there is only one victor, so it is easier to refashion the world to his needs, with no tiresome allies to share the spoils with. But this will never bring peace. It never has, it never will. Peace will only come when the obvious choice finally dawns on the world: co-existence or no existence. This is the context in which the latest rulers of Pakistan have to operate.

It is good that Musharraf decided not to fight it out. He could have used strong-arm methods constitutionally and legally. But the country would have gone into a greater tailspin; greater perhaps than it's fragile unity could bear. His was a decision based on wisdom made by a very patriotic man.

He left with dignity after making a dignified speech. I am particularly happy because finally a suggestion of mine has been accepted: don't abort the learning process again. The people have sown their seeds. Now they have to reap the harvest. This is the imperative. Else they won't move on. Unless they do, they will never learn to sow better seeds to reap a better harvest in future. It's called growing up, evolving, maturing. Who said it's not a painful process?

If an entity is genetically strong, not only will it survive, it will also grow stronger and more vital through trial and tribulation. If not, it will die along the way anyway, whatever you do. That's the way it is. The graveyards of the world are littered with the debris of civilizations, empires, superpowers and states long gone.

Given the ground realities, the new leaders of Pakistan will be tested soon, and tested heavily. It is Mr. Zardari's right to be the next president because the people gave his party the most seats. He deserves it and the people deserve him.

But will he give up politics to become neutral or will be appoint someone else to be our next Head of State as President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force and symbol of the unity of the Federation and continuity of the State?

As people's living conditions deteriorate with rising prices, as gas and electricity become increasingly scarce and more expensive, and as the security situation worsens, with large swathes of the country outside the government's writ and under the control of warlords and terrorists of various hues, as some areas already are, the army will again be asked, from within and without, to intervene and stop the rot, even if it is not inclined to.

But history has shown that the army can stop the rot only for a time. The process that is programmed in a nation's genes and a country's DNA can only be delayed, not halted or reversed. That can only happen in the very rare event that there is a revolution.

Thus they should not waste time in chasing relatively irrelevant issues driven by huge egos. The first and foremost priority is to provide security to the citizens and the wherewithal for a decent survival at the very least. When one reads about fathers committing suicide because they cannot feed their children, mothers selling their toddlers for a pittance out of sheer hopelessness, hundreds of families left without breadwinners because of the satanic doings of terrorists, the fate of a handful of judges pales into insignificance, or hounding Pervez Musharraf for that matter just to satisfy bloodlust.

Those who wish to hound him should remember Jesus: ‘He who is without sin should cast the first stone.’

And they should also remember what God has said in the Quran: "I bestow honor on whom I wish and dishonor on whom I wish.’

SAVING PAKISTAN

The entity we call Pakistan and which is dearer to us than life itself can only be saved by three means. One, a revolution led by men with depth, vision and a native but coherent ideology and with the people behind them. Our genes have shown no such propensity.

The second is to submit to America entirely. Forget Kashmir, recognize Israel, give up all nuclear assets and downsize your armed forces to a token level. Then see how the mare goes. But first decide whether there is self-esteem in this.

The third and preferred path to salvation lies in wisdom. Wisdom demands that regardless of numbers, our rulers should put aside their differences and get together to form a national government in which every region, province, ethnicity, language and sect is represented to work together to take the country out of the perfect storm it is engulfed in.

Sadly, wisdom is also something that has passed us by entirely, more even than our propensity to revolution.

The Greeks said, ‘Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.’

Our people are not mad; they are desperate. They are desperate because the choices before them are all anchored in past military regimes, their leaders (and their continuation) born of military patronage. If they had a fresh new choice anchored in the people, without doubt they would decide sensibly. There is vacuum for a new political force to emerge and fill. A force that is anchored in a native ideology and rooted in the land and its people.

‘Let there be a community from among you that invites to all that is good, and enjoins the doing of what is [known by common sense and sound minds to be] right, and forbids the doing of what is [known by common sense and sound minds to be] wrong, and it is they who attain to success." [3:104].

This is advice from the Almighty to form groups, associations, political parties and the like to take the initiative to invite people to the good, enjoin them to get on the correct path and forbid that which is evil. This is also one of the prime duties of rulers and leaders.

When in trouble, seek guidance from that pure and pristine spring from which the River of God flows. "And incline not toward those who do wrong, lest the Fire should touch you, and you have no protectors other than Allah, nor you would then be helped." [11:113].

‘And devour not one another's possessions wrongfully, nor offer them to those who rule, so as to wrongly and knowingly devour what is owned by others." [2:188].

This verse on corruption applies not just to rulers but also as importantly, if not more, to the ruled as well, to those who corrupt rulers. Punishment equally harsh awaits the corrupters and those who spread corruption through the land by corrupting rulers by seducing them and exploiting their weaknesses.

Without The ISI

2008-08-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Without The ISI

Everyone in Washington and New Delhi mentions ISI when talking about terrorism. Really? What about the Israeli Mossad, the Indian RAW, and the American CIA? Who had links with Al-Qaeda all along? Certainly not the ISI. The fact is that ISI never had links with Al-Qaeda. Others did. And yes, ISI has links with some people inside the Afghan Taliban. But without this link,

U.S.

soldiers and others in

Afghanistan

would have been in a worse situation than they are in now.

ISLAMABAD,

Pakistan

—Strategic Forecasting, Inc., the American private intelligence gathering company better known as STRATFOR, seems to have deviated from its policy of terse insightful articles by putting out a long rambling unsubstantiated tirade against the ISI, one of

Pakistan

's three major intelligence agencies.

Recently the company produced a report that was immediately quoted in the western media, dubbing the ISI as a ‘rogue agency’ and a list of other accusations that accurately mirror the motivated and unsubstantiated statements made by the Indians, the U.S. officials and their puppet regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul.]

Kamran Bukhari, the Pakistani researcher working for company and the author of the article, does not offer even a shred of evidence to support the many allegations (none of them new) against the ISI. This inevitably brings the motivation of the exercise into question because so far STRATFOR has been impartial and objective in its reports.

The author or STRATFOR seems to think that 'overhauling' the ISI would somehow ward off 'foreign pressures', end the 'jihadist insurgency' and resolve the 'crisis in government' in Pakistan.

Amazingly the U.S. and the incumbent Pakistan government think this is exactly what the present ISI is trying to do against great odds and there is plenty of evidence to support this contention. So an overhaul will not lead to any dramatic results and may be counterproductive.

The author has described the ISI as 'large, powerful and autonomous'.

It is large and it is powerful – among the most credible spy agencies in the world. But it is not autonomous. It works under the Prime Minister, its director general is appointed by the Prime Minister from a panel of serving three-star generals, all the officers are posted from the three services – army, navy, the air force – and they are all career officers who come for fixed tenures.

The ISI is funded by the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Defense. How can it possibly be autonomous? The ISI's task is strategic intelligence and if it is directed to do other things then that tasking has to come from the government of the day.

ISI has been placed center-stage in the whole transnational terrorist scene. The CIA, RAW and KHAD and many other intelligence agencies are not mentioned. They all have a role. ISI has been linked to AL Qaeda – actually it is a target of Al Qaeda and there is plenty of evidence to support this. ISI never had links with Al Qaeda.

If today the ISI did not have links with the Taliban then the U.S. and Afghanistan would be in a much greater trouble than they are now. It is the ISI that uses its links to obtain vital intelligence. In some areas there is no substitute for human intelligence.

No organization, and certainly no intelligence agency, would ever tolerate sub-groups within its ranks. The ISI does not have any people within its ranks who would work against the overall policy. Such elements would not be tolerated and the organization would be undermined very quickly. This has never happened.

Freelancing retired personnel of ISI do pick up jobs outside the agency after retirement and get involved in various assignments. But the ISI does not maintain any links with them. If there was any truth in such allegations then names and places would have surfaced a long time ago.

The attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul should not be seen in isolation. It had been preceded by an attack on the Afghan National Day Parade and by a spectacular jail break in Kandahar. In fact, unsubstantiated charges can actually start a proxy war in Kabul between rival intelligence agencies – something that must be avoided at all costs.

ISI is an asset and a vital link in the war against terror. It has proved this again and again.

India -Pak Partion...Hard Core Reality!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

With the tragic Legacy of an uncertain future, a young Refugee sits on the walls of purana Qila, Transformed into a Vast Refugee Camp Dehli

The Massive Exchange of population that took place in the summer of 1947 was unprecedented It Left behind a trail of death and destruction.The Indian Man was slashed the make way New country Pakistan

Millions Left for their Promised New Homeland with smiles on their faces as train left both india and pakistan.This is a Train to Pakistan being Given a warm Send Off

In a Couple of Months in the summer off 1947, A Million people were slaughtered on both sides in the religious sides in the religious rioting. Here, bodies of the victims of rioting are picked up from a city Street

An Aged and Abandoned Muslim Couple and their grand children sitting by the roadside on this ardous journey.
The Old Man is dying of exhaustion.The Caravan has gone on "Wrote Bourke-White

The Migration

Zardari in Hot Water Over Assurances To Guarantors

2008-08-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has assured foreign guarantors — Washington and London — that Musharraf will not be prosecuted.

A PPP source on Thursday said Zardari did not want to backtrack for the third time on his pledge to restore the judiciary, but his assurances to the international guarantors, who played a role in Musharraf’s resignation, have compelled him to review his Aug 7 agreement with Nawaz Sharif.

The agreement envisages that the judges would be restored immediately after the impeachment and/or resignation of the president. Meanwhile, Zardari was confronted by some of the MPs during his meeting with the PPP MNAs on Wednesday night. They were demanding that a party like PPP should never give indemnity to any dictator. But the agitating MPs were told that Washington and London were pressing for other things.

Asif Zardari, who according to most PPP leaders, always finds himself between the devil and the deep blue sea because of external pressures and local political situations, finally had to agree to Nawaz Sharif’s demand of restoration of the deposed judges. But a party source revealed that this issue was now being used as a bargaining chip by the PPP co-chairman.

“This is called brinkmanship,” the source said, adding that the situation had been created within no time to secure presidency for Zardari. “The PPP CEC has also been convened to pass a unanimous resolution, nominating Zardari as the presidential candidate,” the source said.

The source was sure that if the PML-N agreed to send Zardari to the presidency, the judges issue would be resolved despite his reservations on deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Another senior party leader, who met Zardari on Wednesday, said: “If the PPP does not protect Musharraf from a much-demanded trial, the guarantors would be after it. And if the government avoids or further delays restoration of the judges, the PML-N would quit the coalition.”

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has, however, already said that his party would wait for the restoration of “all the deposed judges” till Friday. Although Nawaz has remained firm on his stance on the judges issue as well as on the question of indemnity to Musharraf, the PPP sees Nisar Ali Khan, Javed Hashmir and Ahsan Iqbal as the real spoilers.

They are said to be behind Sharif’s inflexible stance on these thorny issues. PPP sources believe that the PML-N is playing politics to get popularity instead of reconciling with ground realities.

The ANP and the JUI-F are, however, said to be comfortable with the PPP’s stand on all the three issues. Asfandyar Wali and Fazlur Rehman are reportedly working on a constitutional package, which will also include some provisions to curtail the suo motu powers of the chief justice of Pakistan to pave the way for an amicable solution to the judges’ restoration issue.

However, the PML-N is adamant that the restoration should not be linked to any constitutional package. While the PPP seems comfortable with the reconciliatory efforts of these two new players, the PML-N does not have faith in them.

PML-N sources are of the view that Asfandyar and Maulana Fazl are ready to provide indemnity to Musharraf and are also ready to go with the PPP’s solution to the judges’ issue even if it excludes deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from the restoration process.

According to a senior PML-N leader, the duo is what he called “trading off” with the PML-N to find a middle way acceptable to both the PPP and the PML-N. To get the judges’ restored, the source said, the couple would ask the PML-N to soften its stance on Musharraf and the indemnity required for him.

A source, who met Maulana Fazl on Tuesday, said the JUI-F chief was confident that he would be able to save the coalition from collapsing. The Maulana was quoted to have said that Asif Zardari had committed in his agreement with Nawaz Sharif to restore the judges immediately after the impeachment or resignation of Musharraf. The Maulana, according to the source, had said that during the last meeting of the coalition partners Nawaz Sharif had desired to show the agreement to Asfandyar and Fazl to prove his point that Zardari was dithering yet again. On this, the PPP Co-chairman had pointed out that the agreement was a secret document which could not be shown to a third party. But now after seeing the agreement document, the two leaders have told Asif Zardari that there is no ambiguity in the agreement.

The Maulana was also reported to have said that he was eagerly requested by Nawaz Sharif to get the Aug 7 agreement implemented to resolve the prolonged judges’ issue. Because of the Aug 7 agreement, even PPP sources admit, Asif Zardari feels quite pressurized to take a decision on the judges’ issue. It was also because of these pressures that he is seeking resignation of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Hidden Activities Of Mr. Zard........Aari & Mr. Shar.....If

2008-08-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Peoples Party's so called Chairman Mr. Aasif Ali Zardari, is looking for an exit from his party, from Pakistan's present mess and from active politics,Most probably, people of Pakistan might get sudden news that Mr. Zardari is seriously ill and would be away for som time from active politics,(and that 'some time' might be forever) .in fact, Aasif Ali Zardari and Mr. Nawaz Sharif are virtually dead, gone, bifurcated,Pakistan's some channels (so-called) anchor mafia and press are keeping them alive, trying to infuse life in their dead bodies, Everyday some popular and experienced pesons Newspapers put some headlines to boost the marale of the public. in fact, some (so-called) press and media's ugly survivel is that of Mr.Zardar and Mr.Sharif,to keep the hot issue alive, like (under observation) Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhary, who is History now,Aitezaz Ahsan, would you bet your Bar-at-Law degree on that?ZARDARI BUSY CHECKING HIS BANK ACCOUNTSThe so-called Co-Chairman of peoples part has made than a dozen visits to London, Dubai and other parts of the world on record(no one knows how many hidden,secret visits elsewhere) after the assassination his wife.The Peoples Party's loudspeaker like Sherry Rehman, (Sher Bano) Farhatullah Babar and many other use to giving justification that, Zardari's these trips to the public through the some so-called media by saying that since ,Zardari is playing the part of both the mother and the father to his children after the (sad) assassination of Great Benazir Bhutto, so he has to be away to take care of his children, Bullshit!
They are no more children, They have attain pubirty, They are big kid, teenagers, grown up in the West. Aasif Zardari does not need to baby sit them or push feeders in their mouths, Thease are lame excuse. Zardari goes abroad ever now and then to check his bank accounts and count his properties,thans to Presiden Pervez Musharraf's NRO! Pervez Musharraf and his alies would die deaths that would be an example for the world.and very sorry, Let me tell you that all of we and our political leaders are ugly,corrupt,freaky, stinking, and haggard, these race of we and leaders would die miserably and helplessly in leprosy,heart attackes,cancer, diabetes,HIV, and other painful .HUNDRED(100)days of senseless and empty slogans1, How many times Nawaz Sharif and Aasif Zardari had meetings in Lahore,Islamabad, Bhurban, Rawalpindi and Dubai and London.etc?2, How many times Aasif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif left for Dubai,London on record and secret visitis other destinations?3, Who is the man in power.PM Gilani or Governing party's so-called Co-Chairman?4, The Costs of each and every utilities soaring,Like Gasoline has juggled at 70 to 78 PKR, Dollar has jumped to 74.89 Rs agains PKR.5, The innocent 99.99% of the peoples of Pakistan have been pushed towards pain, just empt, baseless, egoistic,dirtful claims and statements by these leaders,which are being heard to masses, Aasif Zardari repeatedly says Shaheed this, Shaheed that, jeay Bhutto, jeay Benazir, President House would be echoing with the slogans of Jeay Bhutto,nothing else? President would be the party's worker. all the lollypops, drama are being played with the struggled workers, all Bullshit, my........? (advance sorry)6, Believe us that Aasif Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, Pervez Musharraf and other political shungens have no interet in Great Pakistan, or Peoples or their own parties as wel, but Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhary,, all otherrs and Aasif Zardari just taking care of bank accounts and properties all over the world.
7, Zardari did not choose to become a Prime Minister in the first place, as he wanted privacy and confidentiality to organize his bank accounts and properties all over the world.a little bird has told us that as soon as Aasif Zardari is free, he would kick out the Yousuf Raza Gilani from PM House.8, The man known as Mr.Ten percent(in recent past) knows that waiting for 8-9 years for Bilawal is along time, when Bilawal will finish his education and get training to enter politics, not to mention that the sword of the real Bhuttos hangs on his head. A day is about to come when Aasif Zardari has to leave the fake combine slogan of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, when the real Bhuttos move for the Kill.A piece of our Humble advice for Namaz Sharif Learn a lesson from Saddam Hussain's breaking neck!...............

Is Mr 10 Percent going to lead Pakistan's future?

2008-08-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

They blame Musharraf for Corruption!

PROPERTIES OF ASIF ALI ZARDARI

THE LOCAL ASSETS ARE:

Plot no. 121, Phase VIII, DHA Karachi.

Agricultural land situated in Deh Dali Wadi, Taluka, Tando Allah Yar.

Agricultural property located in Deh Tahooki Taluka, District Hyderabad measuring 65.15 acres.

Agricultural land falling in Deh 76-Nusrat, Taluka, District Nawabshah measuring 827.14 acres

Agricultural land situated in Deh 76-Nusrat, Taluka, District Nawabshah measuring 293.18 acres

Residential plot No 3 (Now House) Block No B-I, City Survey No 2268 Ward-A Nawabshah

Huma Heights (Asif Apartments) 133, Depot Lines, Commissariat Road, Karachi

Trade Tower Building 3/CL/V Abdullah Haroon Road, Karachi

House No 8, St 19, F-8/2, Islamabad

Agricultural land in Deh 42 Dad Taluka/ District Nawabshah

Agricultural land in Deh 51 Dad Taluka Distt Nawabshah

Plot No 3 & 4 Sikni (residential) Near
Housing Society Ltd. Nawabshah

CafT Sheraz (C.S No.. 2231/2 & 2231/3) Nawabshah

Agricultural land in Deh 23-Deh Taluka & District Nawabshah

Agricultural property in Deh 72-A, Nusrat Taluka, Nawabshah

Agricultural land in Deh 76-Nusrat Taluka, Nawabshah

Plot No. A/136 Survey No 2346 Ward A Government Employee's Cooperative Housing Society Ltd, Nawabshah

Agricultural land in Deh Jaryoon Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad

Agricultural land in Deh Aroro Taluka Tando Allah Yar ' '

Agricultural land in Deh Nondani Taluka Tando Allah Yar ' '

Agricultural land in Deh Lotko Taluka Tando Allah Yar ' '

Agricultural land in Deh Jhol Taluka Tando Allah Yar '
Agricultural land in Deh Kandari Taluka Tando Allah Yar ' '

Agricultural land in Deh Deghi Taluka Tando Mohammad Khan

Agricultural land in Deh Rahooki Taluka, Hyderabad

Property in Deh Charo Taluka, Badin

Agricultural property in Deh Dali Wadi Taluka, Hyderabad

Five acres prime land allotted by DG KDA in 1995/96

4,000 kanals on Simli Dam

80 acres of land at Hawkes Bay

13 acres of land at Maj Gulradi (KPT Land)

One acre plot, GCI, Clifton

One acre of land, State Life (International Center, Sadar)

FEBCs worth Rs. 4 million

SHARES IN SUGAR MILLS INCLUDE:
Sakrand Sugar Mills Nawabshah
Ansari Sugar
Mills Hyderabad
Mirza Sugar Mills Badin
Pangrio Sugar Mills Thatta
Bachani Sugar Mills Sanghar

FRONT COMPANIES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES:
Bomer Fiannce Inc, British Virgin Islands
Mariston Securities Inc, ' ' '
Marleton Business S A, ' ' '
Capricorn Trading S A, ' ' '
Fagarita Consulting INc, ' ' '
Marvil Associated Inc, , '
' '
Pawnbury Finance Ltd, ' ' '
Oxton Trading Limited, ' ' '
Brinslen Invest S A, ' ' '
Chimitex Holding S A, ' ' '
Elkins Holding S A, ' ' '
Minister Invest Ltd, ' ' '
Silvernut Investment Inc, ' ' '
Tacolen Investment Ltd,
' ' '
Marlcrdon Invest S A, ' ' '
Dustan Trading Inc, ' ' '
Reconstruction and Development Finance Inc, ' ' '
Nassam Alexander Inc.
Westminster Securities Inc.
Laptworth Investment Inc 202, Saint Martin Drive, West Jacksonville
Intra Foods Inc. 3376, Lomrel Grove, Jacksonville, Florida
Dynatel Trading Co, Florida
A..S Realty Inc. Palm Beach Gardens Florida
Bon Voyage Travel Consultancy Inc, Florida

PROPERTIES IN UK ARE:
355 acre Rockwood Estate, Surrey (Now stands admitted)
Flat 6, 11 Queensgate Terrace, London SW7
26 Palace Mansions, Hammersmith Road, London W14
27 Pont Street, London, SW1
20 Wilton Crescent, London SW1
23 Lord Chancellor Walk, Coombe Hill, Kingston, Surrey
The Mansion, Warren Lane, West Hampstead, London
A flat at Queensgate Terrace, London
Houses at Hammersmith Road, Wilton Crescent, Kingston and in Hampstead.

PROPERTIES IN BELGIUM ARE:
12-3 Boulevard De-Nieuport, 1000, Brussels, (Building containing 4 shops and 2 large apartments)
Chausee De-Mons, 1670, Brussels

PROPERTIES IN FRANCE ARE:
La Manoir De La Reine Blanche and property in Cannes

PROPERTIES IN USA -- in the name of Asif Zardari and managed by Shimmy Qureshi are:
Stud farm in Texas
Wellington Club East, West Palm Beach
12165 West Forest Hills, Florida

Escue Farm 13,524 India Mound, West Palm Beach
3,220 Santa Barbara Drive, Wellington Florida
13,254 Polo Club Road, West Palm Beach Florida
3,000 North Ocean Drive, Singer Islands, Florida
525 South Flager Driver, West Palm Beach, Florida
Holiday Inn Houston Owned by Asif Ali Zardari, Iqbal Memon and Sadar-ud-Din Hashwani

BANK ACCOUNTS IN FOREGN COMPANIES ARE:
Union Bank of Switzerland (Account No. 552.343, 257.556.60Q, 433.142.60V, 216.393.60T)
Citibank Private Limited (SWZ) (Account No. 342034)
Citibank N A Dubai (Account No. 818097)

Barclays Bank (Suisse) (Account No. 62290209)
Barclays Bank (Suisse) (Account No. 62274400)
Banque Centrade Ormard Burrus S A
Banque Pache S A
Banque Pictet & Cie
Banque La Henin, Paris (Account No. 00101953552)
Bank Natinede Paris in Geneva (Account NO.. 563.726.9)
Swiss Bank Corporation
Chase Manhattan Bank Switzerland
American Express Bank Switzerland
Societe De Banque Swissee
Barclays Bank (Knightsbridge Branch) (Account No. 90991473)
Barclays Bank, Kingston and Chelsea Branch, (Sort Code 20-47-34135)
National Westminster
Bank, Alwych Branch (Account No. 9683230)
Habib Bank (Pall Mall Branch).
National Westminster Bank, Barking Branch, (Account No. 28558999).
Habib Bank AG, Moorgate, London EC2
National Westminster Bank, Edgware Road, London
Banque Financiei E Dela Citee, Credit Suisse
Habib Bank AG Zurich, Switzerland
Pictet Et Cie, Geneva
Credit Agricole, Paris
Credit Agridolf, Branch 11, Place Brevier, 76440, Forges Les Faux
Credit Agricole, Branch Haute – Normandie, 76230, Boise Chillaum

Total estimated wealth worth of $USD 11 Billion "miracle of capitalism, pure luck or THE HARD EARNED MONEY OF PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN ?"

Good bye Days of Enlightenment, welcome Darkness

2008-08-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

This one is for the doom-sayers of the 'Musharraf Era' and supporters of the New Order headed by twice-tried and failed looters, corrupt leaders and parties.

**********************************
Good bye Days of Enlightenment, welcome Darkness

Basic comparison of 1999 and 2007

Pak Economy in 1999 was: $ 75 billion
Pak Economy in 2007 is: $ 160 billion

GDP Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 1999: $ 270 billion
GDP Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 2007: $ 475.5 billion

GDP per Capita in 1999: $ 2,000
GDP per Capita in 2007: $ 3,004

Pak revenue collection 1999: Rs. 305 billion
Pak revenue collection 2007: Rs. 708 billion

Pak Foreign reserves in 1999: $ 700 million
Pak Foreign reserves in 2007: $ 17 billion

Pak Exports in 1999: $ 7.5 billion
Pak Exports in 2007: $ 18.5 billion

Textile Exports in 1999: $ 5.5 billion
Textile Exports in 2007: $ 11.2 billion

KHI stock exchange 1999: $ 5 billion at 700 points
KHI stock exchange 2007: $ 70 billion at 14,000 points

Foreign Direct Investment in 1999: $ 1 billion
Foreign Direct Investment in 2007: $ 8 billion

Debt servicing 1999: 65% of GDP
Debt servicing 2007: 26% of GDP

Poverty level in 1999: 34%
Poverty level in 2007: 24%

Literacy rate in 1999: 45%
Literacy rate in 2007: 53%

Pak Development programs 1999: Rs. 80 billion
Pak Development programs 2007: Rs. 520 billion

Under Musharraf's vision

Ø · 9 world class Engineering universities being developed and 18 Public universities already developed.

Ø · Public sector institutions have increased from 110,267 (in 1999) to become
Ø · Private sector institutions have increased from 36,096 (in 1999) to become 81,103 (in 2006).
Ø · PAK is 3rd best in world Banking profitability.
Ø · PAK IT industry now values around $2 billion, including $1 billion exports and employs around 90,000 professionals.
Ø · CNG sector has attracted over $70 billion investment in last 5 years; and created 45,000 jobs.
Ø · Telecom sector attracted around $10 billion in investment and created above 1.3 million jobs.
Ø · Industrial Parks are being setup throughout the country for the first time! M3 estate, Sunder industrial estate, Chakri, etc.
Ø · Major Mega projects like the Saindak, Rekodiq, Marble production, Coal production and Mining & Quarrying are being pursued.
Ø · In 2006, GDP growth is 6%. Earlier in 1999 was 3.5%.
Ø · Foreign Reserves from $1 bn to $17 bn.
Ø · KHI stock market: from 700 points to 13,000 points.
Ø · Literacy rate improved by 11%.
Ø · Poverty decreased by 10%.
Ø · He made 4 dams: Mirani, Subakzai, Gomalzam, Khurram Tangi dams.
Ø · 6 Motorways completed or under construction: M1, M3, M8, M9, M10, M11.
Ø · Six major highways under construction.
Ø · GWADAR advance mega Sea port developed under his vision!
Ø · Historic 100% increase in Tax collection of $11 billion.
Ø · Large scale manufacturing is 30 year high, and Construction activity is 17 year high.
Ø · Newly found World class copper- gold deposits in Chagai will fetch $600 million per year.
Ø · A new Oil refinery with UAE will fetch $5 billion & will process 300,000 oil barrels a day.
Ø · Industrial sector registered 26% growth.
Ø · PAK in 1999 was a $75 billion economy; and now 2006 it's $160 billion economy!
Ø · PAK economy is now the 3rd fastest growing economy after China & India .

Education under Musharraf Era

In 1999-2000 there were 31 Public Universities. Now 2005-2006 there are 49 Public Universities. Under Musharraf 20 NEW UNIVERSITIES SET UP!

Ø · Air University (established 2002)

Ø · Institute of Space technology, ISB (established 2002)

Ø · Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University , Quetta (established 2004)

Ø · University of Science & Technology, Bannu (established 2005)

Ø · University of Hazara (founded 2002)

Ø · Malakand university, Chakdara (established 2002)

Ø · Karakurum International university, Gilgit (established 2002)

Ø · University of Gujrat (established 2004)

Ø · Virtual University of Pak, Lahore (established 2002)

Ø · Sarhad University of IT, Peshawar (established 2001)

Ø · National Law University , ISB (2007)

Ø · Media University , ISB (2007) etc.

Ø · University of Education , Lahore (2002)

Ø · Lasbella University of Marine Sciences, Baluchistan (2005)

Ø · Baluchistan University of IT & Management, Quetta (2002), etc.

Pakistan now has a total of 245,682 Educational institutions in all categories, including 164,579 (i.e. 67 percent) in the Public sector and 81,103 (i.e. 100 percent) in the private sector, reports the National Education Census (NEC-2005). The census -- jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education, the Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPAM) and the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) -- reveals that the number of private-sector institutions has increased from 36,096 in 1999-2000 to 81,103 in 2005, i.e. by 100 per cent.

Total 99,319 Educational Institutions (Public & Private) have increased in Musharraf Era!

One Elected President, Two Unelected Politicians

2008-08-20T03:33:00.000-07:00

One Elected President, Two Unelected Politicians

In Beijing, world celebrates human achievement while in Islamabad we are stuck with politics

I wish our people and our leaders would understand that having political differences should not stand in the way of appreciating progress

Thanks to President Musharraf export revenue more than doubled, foreign direct investment increased from a meager $1 billion to $8 billion, and the Karachi stock exchange was widely touted as one of the best performing markets in the world.

This is a man who gave Pakistan a free television news culture and oversaw the freest election in our history.

This is a manufactured political crisis that will embolden Pakistan's ill-wishers and will sadly assure foreign investors that Pakistan is no place for their business.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—At the dawn of the Beijing Olympics, talk of Pakistan's chances at field hockey glory have taken a back seat to the de-facto national sport: Politics.

Beyond the hype, it's time to take a moment and examine the situation. It seems as if the nearly divorced coalition has decided to stick together in pursuit of the President's impeachment.

One would be convinced of their genuine commitment, if not for the fact that the last such joint press briefing was to announce the Murree Declaration, now defunct.

But it's important to look behind this smokescreen. After all, why would it take marathon talks if there weren't serious problems behind the scenes?

Farooq Naik, the law minister, was kicked out of the talks—twice.

According to a report in the Daily Times, Shahbaz Sharif felt that Naik could not be trusted amidst the Sindh High Court judges’ fiasco, and asked Zardari to remove him from the negotiations not only in the Prime Minister's House, but also at Zardari House.

I suppose it’s acceptable in political circles to ask your host to kick out his own guest.

In any case, a draft was agreed upon and presented to the nation for all to see. On the face of it, the case seems compelling for the common man: Musharraf has acted unconstitutionally, is responsible for the economic crisis, and he must go in order for democracy to flourish. A legal expert would be needed to examine the complex constitutional question, such as if the PCOs of 1999 and 2000 (both validated by the Supreme Court) are fair game for impeachment.

As for the economy and the democracy argument, things are a bit clearer.

It is hard to dismiss the vast economic improvements of Pakistan since 1999, and to float it as possible grounds for impeachment is laughable. Almost every major macro-economic indicator points to the economic turnaround of the past decade. Even if the 20-fold increase in foreign reserve levels can be whisked away as a byproduct of foreign aid, what about the results? On the business side, export revenue more than doubled, foreign direct investment increased from a meager $1 billion to $8 billion, and the Karachi stock exchange was widely touted as one of the best performing markets in the world. The National Commission for Human Development was conceived, helping achieve poverty reduction, a rise in literacy, and a 600% increase in funds for development programs. I wish our people and our leaders would understand that having political differences should not stand in the way of appreciating progress and pursuing our national interests; the economy being supreme.

As for democracy, it seems ironic that an elected President who oversaw the fairest elections in Pakistan's recent history is being cited as a hindrance for democracy by two unelected politicians.

But even more important is the fact that the duly elected Prime Minister, as well as the leading party's president (also an elected member of parliament) were both not present in the talks.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim has gone as far as to publicly separate himself from the Government, denounce the march to impeachment, and plead the Government to take notice of a very serious and rapidly deteriorating security and economic situation. He supposedly has even met with PML-Q leadership, which must have political analysts grabbing their calculators to re-analyze the number game in the event of some treasury members abstaining from an impeachment vote.

Critics of President Bush often rightfully say that the war in Iraq was a "war of choice." The impeachment saga is no different. In the face of unprecedented security threats in the tribal belt, with growing reports of foreign interference to destabilize the country, and an ever-worsening economy, this manufactured political crisis will embolden Pakistan's ill-wishers, and will sadly assure foreign investors that Pakistan is no place for their business.

No matter how impeachment goes, no one seems to win, as Pakistan is definitely the one to lose. Let's hope at least our Olympic team can change that.

Proposal to Break Pakistan

2008-08-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

Proposal to Break Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The US administration has floated a proposal before Pakistani authorities to hold referendum in the NWFP regarding its future, informed sources confided to The Post on Friday.

The sources said the US administration had asked Pakistan to decide the troubled-area of the NWFP through referendum either it go with Pakistan or emerge as an independent province. Before taking positions along the Pak-Afghan border, General Mullen who visited Pakistan last week floated this proposal before the Pakistani authorities.

However, the authorities refused the proposal straight away and conveyed a strong message before the visiting US General that the government of Pakistan would resolve the issue through its own description.

Meanwhile, local Taliban also joined hands with Pakistani forces against US forces which also sent a strong message to the US administration that people of the NWFP were not wishing for independent state. The Awami National Party-led province is, however, looking for changing the name of province according to the desire of locals.

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Alarming facts:

Few days back I saw a documentary of Talat Hussain (The famous Pakistani Journalist). He was conducting survey of markets of areas adjacent to Afghan border. He showed shops thronged with products especially FMCGs which were:

1. Smuggled directly from Afghanistan or Iran

2. Bought from Pakistani cities but routed through Iran or Afghanistan because the highways joining these areas are troubled due to ongoing war between local Talibans & Pakistani militia.

Fuel was also being brought from these two countries because its cheaper than the one the get Pakistan.

During the interview, shopkeepers, customers & general public expressed their frustration about Pakistani government over its negligence to facilitate them with basic amenities. Few extremists also said that when they have to rely on Afghanistan for all their basic needs, then why don’t the govt. let join Afghanistan.

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“The Nations who forget their history, their geographical boundaries are changed very soon.”

Welcome To CIA-Sponsored Democracy‏

2008-08-19T00:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome To CIA-Sponsored Democracy

President Musharraf leaves office alone, besieged and abandoned. He is not leaving the country into strong hands. In fact, in the hands of the most the corrupt, unscrupulous and dangerous criminals this country ever produced. The regime-change game which CIA had initiated about one year ago finally succeeds. Musharraf’s removal is only a milestone in the larger CIA game of taking over Pakistan's premier intelligence service, the ISI. Now another battle will begin for the control of power centers in Islamabad. Judges will not be restored and governance will not improve. Fasten your seat belts for some very bumpy ride in the coming days. The present leadership is not just incompetent; they are outright dangerous for the country. Now they cannot blame Musharraf for their failures and treasons and army would be watching their moves carefully.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—President Musharraf finally resigns; ill advised, surrounded and abandoned; he chose to take the path of least resistance. He tried to be dignified in defeat and recounted his victories and achievements but the sorry state is that his legacy is Zardari, NRO and a corrupt weak government in Islamabad with a country literally gone to dogs!

He is not leaving the country into strong hands, in fact in the hands of most corrupt, unscrupulous and dangerous criminals this country has ever produced. The regime change game which CIA had initiated about one year ago finally succeeds though his resignation remains only a milestone in the larger CIA game of taking over Pakistan's premier intelligence service ISI.

The CIA sponsored, PPP executed, U.S. backed attempted coup against ISI had begun to unfold a few weeks back with a new ruthless cut throat political strategy and a new target designation. This plan has the following landmarks to be achieved in rapid succession:
Removal of President Musharraf.
Appointment of Mr. Zardari or his man as President.
Bringing ISI again under Ministry of Interior.
Complete take over of Pakistan’s security establishment by CIA.
There is no doubt that both U.S. and Britain are closely monitoring the moves of the army as the Army Chief is also a major hurdle in U.S. plans to bring ISI under MoI. With all the political parties in U.S. pocket, the army and the ISI are the next targets once the President has been annihilated.

Mr. Musharraf could have done better when he had decided to leave. He could have restored the judges to make life miserable for Zardari. He could have revoked the NRO to prevent Zardari from becoming the most powerful man in the country. He did neither and now Zardari is ecstatic and already planning to place his man, women or himself in the President house.

It is scavenging to the core by the political vultures and hyenas and now another battle will begin for the control of power centers in Islamabad. Judges will not be restored and governance will not improve. Fasten your seat belts for some very bumpy ride in the coming days. The present leadership is not just incompetent; they are outright dangerous for the country. Now they cannot blame Musharraf for their failures and treasons and army would be watching their moves carefully.

Last Moment of President Mushraf By Dr Shahid Masood

2008-08-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

Pakistan's Musharraf will resign

2008-08-18T01:25:00.000-07:00

Pakistan's Musharraf will resign

Mr Musharraf denied being an enemy of democracy
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who is facing impeachment by parliament, says he will resign.
The charges against the president include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct.
Mr Musharraf said he had always put the interests of Pakistan and its people first and was confident that the charges against him would not stand.
But he said this was not the time for more confrontation and he was resigning after consulting his advisers.
Truth and lies
Mr Musharraf said that when he took over in a military coup in 1999, Pakistan was going to be declared a failed state and faced great economic challenges.
He said that "false allegations were made against me" by people who "tried to turn the truth into lies".
Dressed soberly in a dark suit and tie, he then started a long defence of the country's economic record, detailing the progress he said it had made under his rule.
He said the problems Pakistan faced could be solved if people worked together and believed in themselves.
Mr Musharraf decided to address the nation as ministers warned over the weekend that impeachment proceedings against him could begin as early as Tuesday of this week.
Mr Musharraf, the former army chief and a key ally in Washington's war on terror, came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
He was forced to give up control of the armed forces last year.
The president's public standing suffered a huge setback in 2007 when he sacked Pakistan's chief justice and nearly 60 judges to prevent them from overturning his re-election as president.
But analysts say the president is still thought to have heavy influence over the military and its reaction will remain crucial.

President Pervez Musharraf: To quit or not to quit

2008-08-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

As Pakistanis all over the world celebrate their country’s Independence Day today, the deflated head of state, President Pervez Musharraf, may say "goodbye" to his post after the third provincial assembly in Sindh – after Punjab and the North West Frontier Province – urged him to resign.
Throughout yesterday, local media speculated that Musharraf would be given a "safe passage" provided he quit without facing an impeachment motion that is likely to be tabled in the parliament this week. Although Musharraf has given no public sign that he plans to resign, political pressure is mounting on him to relinquish power.
Many political observers feel that he should quit rather than face impeachment, since this would result in less embarrassment than being thrown out of office.
‘Two options’
Asked late yesterday whether he would stay in office to help the country, Musharraf told a group of well-wishers, "God willing, I will try". The president spoke at an official function to mark Pakistan’s Independence Day. He was calm and composed.
"He has two options: to stay and fight or quit and go home," Mushahid Hussain, PML-Q secretary-general, told reporters. "If he fights back we are with him. We will support him, and that is the preferred option."
Hussain said that if Musharraf did decide to quit he should first rescind a corruption amnesty he signed last year that benefited ruling party chief Asif Ali Zardari and his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto. The ruling party denies the president has that power.
At least nine militants were killed in a missile strike on their training camp in Pakistan’s south Waziristan region, near the Afghan border, security officials and residents said.

Solid Alliance Pervez Musharraf - George W Bush (Ben Heine)

2008-08-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Solid Alliance Pervez Musharraf - George W Bush (Ben Heine)

Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, acknowledged publicly August 12 that Taliban forces are using Pakistan’s border region as a base from which to launch attacks against U.S. and NATO troops occupying Afghanistan.

“There is support from these areas to Taliban activity inside Afghanistan,” said Musharraf in a joint appearance with Afghan president Hamid Karzai at the closing session of a four-day gathering in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where 600 tribal leaders from both sides of the border participated. “There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistani soil,” he said.

Until July, Pakistani officials were still denying U.S. claims that al-Qaeda and Taliban forces were operating from Pakistan. The government in Islamabad, under pressure from Washington, abandoned its support for the Taliban in 2001 to become a U.S. ally. But it has held back from blocking Taliban activity in its territory. In Pakistan “sections of the military regard the predominantly Pashtun fighters [of the Taliban] as a useful means of retaining influence,” the Financial Times noted August 8.

The U.S.-backed conference was billed by the big-business media as a step toward improving relations between two of Washington’s key allies in the so-called war on terror. They also sought to use it to undermine support for Taliban and al-Qaeda among local tribal groups.

Washington and its imperialist allies are pressing the Pakistani government to show results on its pledge to combat “terrorism.” Since July, Islamabad has deployed tens of thousands of troops to Waziristan, on the northwestern border with Afghanistan, and has launched attacks that have killed dozens of Taliban fighters.

While stressing its preference of collaborating with the Musharraf government, the White House has left open the prerogative of taking further military action unilaterally. U.S. president George Bush said at an August 9 news conference that he expected Musharraf’s “full cooperation in sharing intelligence” on suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban activities and “swift action taken if there is actionable intelligence on high-value targets.”

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama went further, saying on August 8, “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and president Musharraf won’t act, we will.” “We can’t send millions and millions of dollars to Pakistan for military aid and be a constant ally to them and yet not see more aggressive action in dealing with al-Qaeda,” Obama said a week later.

Washington’s demands that Musharraf crack down on al-Qaeda and the Taliban have sharpened the political crisis facing the military leader.

Faced with strong opposition from inside and outside of government, including from Washington, Islamabad backed away August 9 from imposing a state of emergency that “would have given Musharraf sweeping powers to restrict freedom of movement and assembly, and could have extended for another year the term of the current parliament, which is viewed as pro-Musharraf,” the Washington Post reported.

“We are against the imposition of emergency. If Musharraf does so, we will oppose it, and let me make it clear that there is no justification for it,” said Syed Kabir Ali Wasti of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, according to the Post. He said Musharraf was only interested in “ protecting his own interests.”

In face of reports that Musharraf was considering the imposition of a state of emergency U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice made a quick phone call to the Pakistani leader August 9.

“ President Musharraf and the Pakistani government have… demonstrated that they want to cooperate within its laws and Pakistan’s constitution,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack at a news briefing later that day.

Tariq Aziz Mushraf Right Hand

2008-08-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

Who is this personality?
Where was he born?
How will history judge this person?
What would you do, if you are in his position?

Name: Tariq Aziz
Designation: Secretary, Pakistan National Security Council
Importance in political history of Pakistan: Played important role in tying PML with military dictatory. This role is not something new, but was critical for Pervez Musharaf. He also laid the foundation of making Musharaf a political figure.
What will I do: If I’d be forced to work with Musharaf, at least, I’d give him advises not to repeat the same mistakes.

URGENT APPEAL FOR Dr Afia Siddiqui

2008-08-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

URGENT APPEAL FOR DR. AFIA Siqqiqui!

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PAKISTAN/USA: A Pakistani lady doctor remains missing with her three children five years after her arrest

ISSUES: Disappearance; rape; violence against women; torture; right to liberty and security; arbitrary arrest and detention
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Dear friends,

We have received information that Dr. Afia Siddiqui, was arrested along with her three children by a Pakistani intelligence agency in early 2003 and has been missing since then. American and Pakistani intelligence agencies confirmed that she had been arrested in connection with Al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization run by Osama Bin Laden. However, later both agencies denied that she had been arrested. Dr. Afia's whereabouts remain unknown but it is suspected that she is being held in an American detention centre.

CASE DETAILS:

Dr. Afia Siddiqui left her mother's house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh province, along with her three children, in a Metro-cab on March 30, 2003 to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, Punjab province, but never reached the airport. The press reports claimed that Dr. Afia had been picked-up by Pakistani intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggested that she was handed over to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At the time of her arrest she was 30 years and the mother of three sons the oldest of which was four and the youngest only one month.

A few days later an American news channel, NBC, reported that Afia had been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of facilitating money transfers for terror networks of Osama Bin Laden. The mother of the victim, Mrs. Ismat (who has since passed away) termed the NBC report absurd. She went on to say that Dr. Afia is a neurological scientist and has been living with her husband, Amjad, in the USA for several years.

On April 1, 2003, a small news item was published in an Urdu daily with reference to a press conference of the then Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat. When questioned with regard to Dr. Afia's arrest he denied that she had been arrested. This was followed by another Urdu daily article on April 2 regarding another press conference in which the same minister said Dr. Afia was connected to Al Qaeda and that she had not been arrested as she was absconding. He added: "You will be astonished to know about the activities of Dr. Afia" A Monthly English magazine of Karachi in a special coverage on Dr. Afia reported that one week after her disappearance, a plain clothed intelligence went to her mother's house and warned her, "We know that you are connected to higher-ups but do not make an issue out of your daughter's disappearance." According to the report the mother was threatened her with 'dire consequences' if she made a fuss.

Whilst Dr. Afia's whereabouts remain unknown, there are reports of a woman called 'Prisoner 650' is being detained in Afghanistan's Bagram prison and that she has been tortured to the point where she has lost her mind. Britain's Lord Nazeer Ahmed, (of the House of Lords), asked questions in the House about the condition of Prisoner 650 who, according to him is physically tortured and continuously raped by the officers at prison. Lord Nazeer has also submitted that Prisoner 650 has no separate toilet facilities and has to attend to her bathing and movements in full view of the other prisoners.

Also, on July 6, 2008 a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, called for help for a Pakistani woman she believes has been held in isolation by the Americans in their Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, for over four years. "I call her the 'grey lady' because she is almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continues to haunt those who heard her," Ms Ridley said at a press conference.

Ms Ridley, who went to Pakistan to appeal for help, said the case came to her attention when she read the book, The Enemy Combatant, by a former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg. After being seized in February 2002 in Islamabad, Mr Begg was held in detention centres in Kandahar and Bagram for about a year before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He recounted his experiences in the book after his release in 2005. Mr. Imran Khan, leader of Justice Party (T.I) suspects that prisoner 650 is the Dr. Afia Siddiqui and USA and Pakistani authorities are hiding facts of 'Prisoner 650'.

To date, neither the American nor the Pakistani government have come out about the arrest and detention of Dr. Afia in either Bagram or Guantanamo Bay where suspected terrorists are held. On December 30, 2003 Dr. Fawzia Siddiqui, Dr. Afia’s elder sister met with Mr Faisal Saleh Hayat at Islamabad with Mr Ejazul Haq, MNA, regarding the whereabouts of Dr. Afiai. Mr Faisal told Dr. Fawzia and Mr Ejazul Haq that according to his information Dr. Afia Siddiqui had already been released and that she (Dr. Fawzia) should go home and wait for a phone call from her sister.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Dr. Afia Siddiqui, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, for about 10 years and did her PhD in genetics, returned to Pakistan in 2002. Having failed to get a suitable job, she again visited the US on a valid visa in February 2003 to search for a job and to submit an application to the US immigration authorities. She moved there freely and came back to Karachi by the end of February 2003 after renting a post office box in her name in Maryland for the receipt of her mail. It has been claimed by the FBI (Newsweek International, June 23, 2003, issue) that the box was hired for one Mr Majid Khan, an alleged member of Al Qaeda residing in Baltimore.

Throughout March 2003 flashes of the particulars of Dr. Afia were telecast with her photo on American TV channels and radios painting her as a dangerous Al Qaeda person needed by the FBI for interrogation. On learning of the FBI campaign against her she went underground in Karachi and remained so till her kidnapping. The June 23, 2003, issue of Newsweek International was exclusively devoted to Al Qaeda. The core of the issue was an article "Al Qaeda's Network in America". The article has three photographs of so-called Al Qaeda members - Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Dr. Afia Siddiqui and Ali S. Al Marri of Qatar who has studied in the US like Dr. Siddiqui and had long since returned to his homeland. In this article, which has been authored by eight journalists who had access to FBI records, the only charge leveled against Dr. Afia is that "she rented a post-office box to help a former resident of Baltimore named Majid Khan (alleged Al Qaeda suspect) to help establish his US identity.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and request them to investigate immediately. Dr. Afia’s whereabouts must be confirmed and the safety of her children assured. Regardless of whether Dr. Afia is Prisoner 650 or not the fact is that she has been missing, along with her children for five years. The governments of the USA and Pakistan at first confirmed her arrest and then denied it. Both governments have a duty to report any information they might have on the matter.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letter to the Special Rapporteurs on the Question of Torture, Violence against Women and the UN Working Groups on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and on arbitrary detention calling for their intervention in this case.

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear________,

PAKISTAN/USA: A lady doctor is missing with her three children since five years after her arrest

Name of victim: Ms. Dr. Afia Siddiqui and her three children
Block 7, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh province
The units of the alleged perpetrators: Intelligence agencies of Pakistan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI-US)

I am shocked to know that Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani citizen has been missing with her three children since April 2003, after her arrest by intelligence agencies of Pakistan. The whereabouts of children is also unknown, which is a serious act of negligence on the part of the government with regard to its responsibility to protect the citizen of the Pakistan.

According to the information I have received Dr. Afia was picked-up by Pakistani intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggested that she was handed over to the American FBI. A few days later an American news channel, NBC, reported that Afia had been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of facilitating money transfers for terror networks of Osama Bin Laden.

On April 1, 2003, a small news item was published in an Urdu daily with reference to a press conference of then Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat when, in reply to a question regarding the arrest of Dr. Siddiqui, he said she has not been arrested. But in another report the minister for interior said,"You will be astonished to know about the activities of Dr. Afia." A weekly English magazine in its special coverage on Dr. Afia reported that after one week of the incident, an intelligence agency official, a motor cyclist in plain clothes, came to the house of her mother and warned "We know that you are connected to higher-ups but do not make an issue out of her daughter's disappearance" and threatened her with dire consequences. After this development the whereabouts of Dr. Afia and her children are yet unknown.

What is also of grave concern to me is that when she was arrested by Pakistani intelligence authorities she was handed over to American intelligence agencies without being tried in Pakistan, I do not find any rationale in sending her along with her children to other country when there are Pakistani laws to deal with the suspected terrorists. It is known that President Musharraf handed over 600 suspected terrorists to America.

There are reports that in Afghanistan's prison of Bagram there is a woman prison known as Prisoner 650 and that she has been severely tortured. It is also widely suspected that Prisoner 650 is Dr. Afia Siddiqui. This prisoner has reportedly lost her mind due to constant rape and ill treatment.

I remind you that this is the duty of coalition government under Prime Minister Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani to probe cases of those Pakistani suspected terrorists who have been handed over to foreign forces in the name of war on terror. The government should also inform Pakistani citizens about the whereabouts of Dr. Afia Siddiqui and her children. I also demand that government should also ensure the safety of her children.

Yours sincerely,

_______________

PLEASE SEND YOU LETTERS TO:

1. The Chief
Allied Joint Force Command
Head Quarters Brunssum,
Public Affirs office, P.O. BOX 270
6440, AG, Brunssem
THE NETHERLANDS
Tel. No.: +31 45 526 2409
Email: pio@jfcbs.nato.intHeadquart

2. Mr. George W. Bush
President of the United State of America (USA)
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20500
USA
Email: presidents@presidentsusa.net

3. Mr. Hamid Karzai
President of Afghanistan
Gul Khana Palace
Presidential Palace
Kabul
AFGHANISTAN
Email: president@afghanistangov.org

4. General Pervez Musharraf
President of Pakistan
President's Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422 / 4768; 920 1893 or 1835
E-mail: (please see: http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx)

5. Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani
Prime Minister
Prime Minister House, Islamabad,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: webmaster@infopak.gov.pk or infominister@pak.gov.pk

6. Mr. Farooq Naik
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

7. Mr. Rehman Malik
Advisor for Ministry of Interior
Room No. 404, 4th Floor, R Block,
Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2624
Tel: +92 51 921 2026
E-mail: minister@interior.gov.pk

Thank you

Salman Mansoor

salmanzit@gmail.com

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PAKISTAN/USA: A Pakistani lady doctor remains missing with her three children five years after her arrest

ISSUES: Disappearance; rape; violence against women; torture; right to liberty and security; arbitrary arrest and detention
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Dear friends,

CASE DETAILS:

Dr. Afia Siddiqui [Photo] left her mother's house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh province, along with her three children, in a Metro-cab on March 30, 2003 to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, Punjab province, but never reached the airport. The press reports claimed that Dr. Afia had been picked-up by Pakistani intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggested that she was handed over to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At the time of her arrest she was 30 years and the mother of three sons the oldest of which was four and the youngest only one month.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear________,

PAKISTAN/USA: A lady doctor is missing with her three children since five years after her arrest

Yours sincerely,

_______________

PLEASE SEND YOU LETTERS TO:

1. The Chief
Allied Joint Force Command
Head Quarters Brunssum,
Public Affirs office, P.O. BOX 270
6440, AG, Brunssem
THE NETHERLANDS
Tel. No.: +31 45 526 2409
Email: pio@jfcbs.nato.intHeadquart

2. Mr. George W. Bush
President of the United State of America (USA)
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20500
USA
Email: presidents@presidentsusa.net

3. Mr. Hamid Karzai
President of Afghanistan
Gul Khana Palace
Presidential Palace
Kabul
AFGHANISTAN
Email: president@afghanistangov.org

5. Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani
Prime Minister
Prime Minister House, Islamabad,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: webmaster@infopak.gov.pk or infominister@pak.gov.pk

6. Mr. Farooq Naik
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

Thank you

Salman Mansoor

Salmanzit@gmail.com

The Fall of the House of Bush

2008-07-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

11/19/2007

The Fall of the House of Bush

"The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America’s Future”
Investigative journalist Craig Unger is the author of the new book “The Fall of the House of Bush”. The book examines how neoconservatives secretly forged an alliance with the Christian Right during the Bush presidency and helped make the case for war in Iraq.

CBS: 'Stunning' veteran suicide rate is twice that of non-veterans
CBS News has now completed a five-month study of death records for 2004-05 which shows that the actual figures are "much higher" than those reported by the VA. Across the total US veteran population of 25 million, CBS found that suicide rates were more than twice as high as for non-veterans (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide accounted for 32,439 deaths in 2004).

The Farce of Veteran’s Day; A Holiday For Everyone Except Veterans
How’s your day going? Are you off from work or school? Do you get to spend a three day weekend enjoying yourself?
Well, on this Veterans Day, 25% of the homeless in American are veterans who don’t give a damn about having a holiday of their own, they just want the country that they served to simply treat them like human beings.
America is a land where a baseball player can earn $1.4 billion yet we have people - human beings, families, children and veterans alike living on the streets with no home, no food and no hope. Tell me again about how great our nation is. This is not my America.

US Army desertion rates rise 80 percent since 2003 Iraq invasion; highest rate since 1980

After six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980. The number of US Army deserters this year shows an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

Overall about 4,700 soldiers deserted this year – a 42 percent jump since just 2006.

Ty Ziegel, a Marine, was badly wounded in Iraq. He battled the VA over disability benefits when he returned.

Wounded warriors face home-front battle with VA

Ziegel, a 25-year-old Marine sergeant, knew the dangers of war when he was deployed for his second tour in Iraq. But he didn't expect a new battle when he returned home as a wounded warrior: a fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In Ziegel's case, he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Once he got out of the hospital, he was unable to hold a job. He anticipated receiving a monthly VA disability check sufficient to cover his small-town lifestyle in Washington, Illinois.
Instead, he got a check for far less than expected. After pressing for answers, Ziegel finally received a letter from the VA that rated his injuries: 80 percent for facial disfigurement, 60 percent for left arm amputation, a mere 10 percent for head trauma and nothing for his left lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture.
After pressure from Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the VA acted on Anderson's case. He has since been awarded compensation for a traumatic brain injury.

UPDATE ON THE WATADA 'VICTORY'
U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle issued a temporary injunction barring a second court-martial. The judge said Watada would probably be successful in asserting that his Fifth Amendment rights would be violated by being tried twice for the same crime, otherwise known as double jeopardy.

In Basra, violence is a tenth of what it was before British pullback, general says
So much for the theory that pulling the troops out leads to more violence.

Suffer the Children
Child mortality in Iraq has spiralled because of the tense security situation, deteriorating health services and lack of medical supplies, say experts.
According to a report released in May 2007 by aid agency Save the Children, “Iraq’s child mortality rate has increased by a staggering 150 per cent since 1990, more than any other country.”

State Dept official asks to cancel Blackwater hearing
The lawyer for State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard asked on Saturday that he not be called to testify before Congress on discrepancies between his statements and those of his brother over the brother's ties to the Blackwater security firm.

Report: Blackwater killings were unjustified

Blackwater Advisor Alvin Krongard Resigns
The brother of State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard has resigned from the advisory board of the private military company Blackwater. Alvin Krongard resigned from Blackwater on Friday just days after his bother, the State Department's top oversight official, was forced to admit his brother had ties to the company.
And guess what else? Someone found out that Howard’s brother, Alvin (Buzzy) Krongard, sits on the Advisory Board of Blackwater. When asked about this, Howard told the House Committee that Buzzy had NO connection to Blackwater. He knew NOTHING, not a thing about this, even after a call to his brother. But, but, but after a recess, Krongard knew the jig was up. He admitted that it was true, Buzzy was a member of the Board, but had never, ever told him about it.
Small problem: Brother Buzzy called the Committee and told them that he had, indeed, told brother Howard of his connection to Blackwater. Uh oh. That’s perjury. Howard Krongard LIED UNDER OATH about a matter relevant to an ongoing investigation. Perjury is a crime. Wanna bet nothing happens to the man?
Howard Krongard is obviously not a menace to anyone. He apparently poses no threat to our lives or to the safety of the nation. Let’s all hope that Chairman Henry Waxman doesn’t look too closely into “allegations of perjury” after Thanksgiving, as he has promised to do. And let us all hope that Krongard, like Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and other Bushco criminals continue to escape prosecution and punishment of any sort.

Somalia: What the News Failed to Report

If you take a look at the natural resources of Somalia, they include 'uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves."

Did Afghan bodyguards massacre civilians?
UN report says gunfire from panicking security detail hit most of 180 bombing victims after bomb went off.

UN: Afghan Bodyguards Fired "Deliberately and Indiscriminately" At Crowd
In news from Afghanistan, an internal U.N. report has concluded bodyguards protecting Afghan lawmakers fired "deliberately and indiscriminately" into a crowd two weeks ago after a suicide bombing. The report, which was obtained by the Associated Press, said that as many as two-thirds of the 77 killed and more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire. Most of the dead were schoolchildren.

Iraqi Kurds flex muscles over black gold reserves
Strengthened by the autonomy enshrined in the Iraqi constitution, the Iraqi Kurdish authority launched a regional oil policy in August, signing deals with overseas companies, to first achieve self-sufficiency and later exportation. The authority has signed 20 contracts during the last three months and shows no sign of changing course, despite threats from the federal government to blacklist companies trading with the Kurdish region.

Turkish tanks advancing near borders with Iraq
Turkish tanks were seen advancing towards the Iraqi borders on a background of Turkish threats to raid northern Iraq to hunt down fighters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) holed up in mountainous areas on the Iraqi side of the joint frontiers, border guards and witnesses in Duhuk said on Friday.

Judge slaps White House with restraining order
U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. issued a temporary restraining order today against the White House, ordering its executive office to preserve all records and back-up copies of millions of missing e-mails.
The order was sought by the National Security Archive, a public interest library at George Washington University, and the Washington-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The groups alleged in separate, but now combined, complaints, that the preservation of more than 5 million missing e-mails is vital to the preservation of history as they reveal the inner thinking of President Bush’s top aides between 2002 and 2007.

Pioneering 'heat wave' gun may be used in Iraq
American commanders in Iraq are urging Pentagon chiefs to authorise the deployment of newly-developed heat wave guns to disperse angry crowds or violent rioters. He added that tests were almost complete and the first ADS, also known as the Silent Guardian, could be deployed early next year if the Pentagon allows. The decision is so sensitive that it is expected to be made personally by the defence secretary, Robert Gates, who sent senior representatives to the demonstrations.

FBI's Forensic Test Full of Holes
Hundreds of defendants sitting in prisons nationwide have been convicted with the help of an FBI forensic tool that was discarded more than two years ago. But the FBI lab has yet to take steps to alert the affected defendants or courts, even as the window for appealing convictions is closing, a joint investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes" has found.
But the FBI lab has yet to take steps to alert the affected defendants or courts, even as the window for appealing convictions is closing. The technique known as comparative bullet-lead analysis has been used since 1963. In 2004, however, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that variations in the manufacturing process rendered the FBI"s testimony about the science "unreliable and potentially misleading." The organization said that decades of FBI statements to jurors linking a particular bullet to those found in a suspect's gun or cartridge box were so overstated that such testimony should be considered "misleading under federal rules of evidence."

Suspect in Pearl's killing dies after interrogation: report
The newspaper said Karachi businessman Saud Memon became a key suspect in the case because he owned a nursery where Pearl had been held captive.
Memon's family members and human rights groups said that in April,
the businessman was left in front of his Karachi home badly injured and
emaciated, weighing just 80 pounds (36 kilograms), according to the report. About a month later, he died from what was described as complications
from meningitis and tuberculosis, the Journal said. Pakistani human rights groups have accused the local intelligence service of torturing Memon, according to the paper.

Dershowitz throws a tantrum, but still endorses the use of torture...
The moral argument cannot be qualified by providing support of the workable results for the thing that you find immoral to begin with. In other words, I cannot argue that murder is immoral, but then also state in the same argument that in some cases, the best way to kill someone would be to shoot them. You are confusing two separate arguments and by doing so, muddying your own position on the issue.

Waterboarding in American History
Some high U.S. officials claim not be aware of it, and Judge Michael Mukasey, the President's choice for attorney general, prefers to equivocate, but water boarding has long been a form of torture that causes excruciating pain and can lead to death. It forces water into prisoner's lungs, usually over and over again.
The Spanish Inquisition in the late 1400s used this torture to uncover and punish heretics, and then in the early 1500s Spain's inquisitors carried it overseas to root out heresy in the New World. It reappeared during the witch hysteria. Women accused of sorcery were "dunked" and held under water to see if they were witches.

Muir Beach man cited for cleaning beach
No good deed goes unpunished. At least that's how Muir Beach resident Sigward Moser felt Friday after he says he was threatened with a Taser gun, forced to the ground and handcuffed by a National Park Service ranger for refusing to stop cleaning up the oily beach beneath his home.

Why Is The US Dollar Dropping So Fast

Going back a little in time; by the late in 1960's, the US Govt. started racking up big debts & deficits, one of the reasons for the big increase in debts and deficits was the unexpectedly large expenses incurred waging the Vietnam war (sound familiar)... at that time, the US Govt. was spending more money than they could legally print under the amount of Gold it held in reserve... the US Govt. desperately needed to print more money to fund their war and debts than their Gold reserves would allow, so the US Govt. simply decided to re-write laws (regardless of their long-term financial consequences & Constitutional law) and started the de-coupling process away from backing the US Dollar with precious metals.

Oil leaders' private debate televised by mistake
'Kill the cable, kill the cable,' shouted the security guard as he burst through the double doors into the media room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, followed by Saudi police. It was too late.
On Friday night, during what the participants thought were private talks, Venezuela's oil minister Venezuela Rafael Ramirez and his Iranian counterpart Gholamhossein Nozari, argued that pricing - and selling - oil using the crippled dollar was damaging the cartel.

Chavez starts OPEC summit with 200-dollar oil warning
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez opened an OPEC summit on Saturday with a chilling warning about 200-dollar-a-barrel oil if the United States attacks Iran in a speech that also urged the cartel to be more political.

Saudi minister warns of dollar collapse
The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.
In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers' microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. "There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec."

Chinese TV: Dump the Dollar
Chinese lunchtime television on Friday gave ordinary people a basic tip on how to play the currency markets: sell the dollar!

U.S. dollar loses its value because of dirty politics
The dollar keeps sinking amid near-global concerns about the future of the U.S. currency. Analysts forecast that the greenback will remain weak on the world market in November, and therefore the Russian ruble will trade at around 24 against the dollar.

The dollar's decline: from symbol of hegemony to shunned currency
The decline of the dollar, symbol of US global hegemony for the best part of a century, may have become so entrenched that some experts now fear it is irreversible. After months of huge and sustained turmoil on the money markets, lack of confidence in the world's totemic currency has become so widespread that an increasing number of international traders are transferring their wealth to stronger currencies such as the euro, which recently hit its highest level against the dollar.

Dollar stays weak as Iran joins fray on greenback weakness
The dollar's woes continued for yet another day with Iran's call for oil cartel OPEC to recognise the currency's relentless falls highlighting just how far sentiment on the greenback has deteriorated.

Dollars no good for the Taj Mahal
Foreign tourists to many of India's most famous landmarks will no longer be able to pay the entrance fee in dollars, the government says.

Bush Awards Historian Who Downplayed Abu Ghraib, Said We Need To Bomb ‘Paper Tiger’ Iran
With Bush’s contention that Hanson deserves the award due to the “wisdom for our times” he has offered, it’s important to look at exactly what some of that “wisdom” has been:
-- This summer, Hanson wrote that the “real problem” at Abu Ghraib wasn’t the “American mistreatment” — which he said was the work of a “single rogue jailer” — but the “serial release” of Iraqis, whom he calls “Islamic murderers.”
-- On the Hugh Hewitt show, he claimed America needs to get “beyond talking” with “paper tiger” Iran and consider “starting to forget where the border is and taking out some of these training camps.”
One has to wonder how many young people of appropriate military age in Hanson's family have been so inspired by his rhetoric that they are serving in any branch of the military, or in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Lawmakers Strip Immunity for Telecom Companies from Surveillance Bill
Despite threats of a White House veto, both the full House and the Senate Judiciary Committee passed bills Thursday rejecting blanket immunity for telecommunication companies that cooperated with the Bush Administration’s program of warrantless wiretapping.

Complaints Flood CNN After Beck Smears Ron Paul Supporters As Terrorists

NYC firefighters planning to swift-boat Rudy
9/11 group mulls anti-Giuliani campaign

Indictment, Lawsuit Cloud Presidential Hopes of Ex-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
With the Iowa caucuses 50 days away, more questions about Giuliani's past have emerged in recent days that could threaten his candidacy. On Friday, his personal friend and business partner Bernard Kerik was indicted on 16 counts of federal corruption charges, including bribery and tax fraud. On Tuesday, it was revealed that one of Kerik's former lovers, Judith Regan, had sued Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and accused the company of pressuring her to commit perjury in order to protect Giuliani's presidential ambition. We speak to investigative reporter and Village Voice senior editor Wayne Barrett, author of two books on Giuliani.

What ‘That Regan Woman’ Knows
Ms. Regan filed a $100 million lawsuit against her former employer, claiming she was unjustly made a scapegoat for the O. J. Simpson “If I Did It” fiasco that (briefly) embarrassed Mr. Murdoch and his News Corporation. But for those of us not caught up in the Simpson circus, what’s most riveting about the suit are two at best tangential sentences in its 70 pages: “In fact, a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik.”

Kerik's Royalties Shocker: Gets $75,000 for 9/11 Book
Former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of dollars in royalties from a book published to raise money for the families of heroes killed on Sept. 11, 2001, the Daily News has learned.

Ex-Publisher’s Suit Plays a Giuliani-Kerik Angle

Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004.

Stevia: The FDA's Attack On A Beneficial Supplement
It would at least be understandable if the regulators played with a fair deck and applied equal standards to all alternative sweeteners. But they do not.
Stevia is a natural plant, and cannot be patented. There is no high profit in the product, and it is a threat to the patented molecules like Aspartame, which are high-profit. So Stevia must go. And we see the same thing in drugs, in which naturally occurring or simple treatments which cannot be patented are suppressed in order to force the market towards the patented and high profit products.

Sweet Misery - A Poisoned World
THE Documentary on Aspartame. WATCH THIS!

'Safe' uranium that left a town contaminated
They were told depleted uranium was not hazardous. Now, 23 years after a US arms plant closed, workers and residents have cancer - and experts say their suffering shows the use of such weapons may be a war crime.
It is 50 years since Tony Ciarfello and his friends used the yard of a depleted uranium weapons factory as their playground in Colonie, a suburb of Albany in upstate New York state.
'There wasn't no fence at the back of the plant,' remembers Ciarfello. 'Inside was a big open ground and nobody would chase us away. We used to play baseball and hang by the stream running through it. We even used to fish in it - though we noticed the fish had big pink lumps on them.'
Parrish's team has found that DU contamination, which remains radioactive for millions of years, is in effect impossible to eradicate, not only from the environment but also from the bodies of humans. Twenty-three years after production ceased they tested the urine of five former workers. All are still contaminated with DU. So were 20 per cent of people tested who had spent at least 10 years living near the factory when it was still working, including Ciarfello.
In 1984, having bought the factory from NL for $10 in a deal that meant the firm was exempted from having to pay for its clean-up, the federal government began a massive decommissioning project, supervised by the Army Corps of Engineers. The clean-up did not finish until summer 2007, having cost some $190m. Contractors demolished the buildings and removed more than 150,000 tons of soil and other contaminated detritus, digging down to depths of up to 40ft and trucking it 2,000 miles by rail to underground radioactive waste sites in the Rockies. All that is now left of the NL plant is a huge, undulating field, ringed by razor wire.
Despite this colossal effort, Parrish and his colleagues found high concentrations of DU particles in soil, stream sediments and household dust in the vicinity of the site, deposited long ago when the factory burnt the shavings and chips produced by the weapons manufacturing process: the study estimates that, over the years, about 10 tons of uranium oxide dust wafted from the chimney into the surrounding environment.
Research has shown that DU has the potential to cause a wide range of cancers, kidney and thyroid problems, birth defects and disorders of the immune system. When DU 'penetrators' - armour-piercing shells that form the standard armament of some of Britain's and America's most commonly deployed military aircraft and vehicles - strike their targets, 10 per cent or more of the heavy DU metal burns at high temperatures, producing oxide particles very similar to those at Colonie.
TV footage shot in Baghdad in 2003 shows children playing in the remains of tanks coated with thick, black DU oxide, while there have long been claims that the DU shells that destroyed Saddam Hussein's tanks in the 1991 Gulf war were responsible for high rates of cancer in places such as Basra.
Ciarfello says he was still in his twenties when his teeth 'just started to crumble: they ground down to nothing until they were just these little stumps and I pushed them out with my tongue'. Other members of his family are sick. His son developed a severe kidney condition, while his brother, Frank, can barely walk and also suffers chronic fatigue. A nephew was born with a disfiguring facial skin tumour that has required repeated surgery.
'I knew many people from round here who died young, in their twenties and thirties,' she says. 'We used to play out in the creek that flowed out of the plant site. The water was sluggish, a weird yellow-green colour. We'd splash about in it. Now we know it was laden with depleted uranium.'

Vaccine Ingredients
In a compulsory inoculation program, it is the responsibility of the developers, promoters and enforcers to prove safety and efficacy...
Acel-Immune DTaP for diphtheria - tetanus - pertussis:
formaldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, thimerosal, and polysorbate 80
check out the entire list

Parents ordered to court for kids' shots
Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols ordered parents in a letter to appear at the courthouse Saturday and either get their children vaccinated on the spot or risk up to 10 days in jail.

Parents Kept In Dark About Vaccine Waiver
Parents of children in Prince George's County Maryland were kept in the dark about their right to opt out of vaccines as over a thousand kids were herded into a courthouse to be injected while authorities kept a close watch on advocacy groups and reporters who tried to inform parents that there was no law to mandate the shots.
State Attorney Glenn Ivey, who admitted during a radio interview last week that no law mandated the shots and also that he had chosen not to give his kids the vaccines, confirmed that exemption forms were available from the back of the room. However, when asked if they were aware of the right to opt out, parents were miffed. News reports failed to cite any cases where parents had opted out as a result of signing waiver forms.

Feds 'Lose' Hundreds Of Viruses, Microbes Imported To Hawaii
The state Department of Agriculture lost track of hundreds of viruses and microbes imported to Hawai'i for research purposes over a five-decade period because of a breakdown in the agency's paperwork system.
"So THAT'S what's in this test tube .... OOOPS!

Thousands of teachers abandon Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's education system, once regarded as among the best in Africa, is in crisis because of the country's economic meltdown. Almost a quarter of the teachers have quit the country, absenteeism is high, buildings are crumbling and standards plummeting. In one of the most shocking examples of the Dickensian conditions, a reporter witnessed hundreds of children at Hatcliffe Extension Primary School in Epworth, 12 miles west of Harare, writing in the dust on the floor because they had no exercise books or pencils.

Salt Lake City Mayor: Draw Your Line In the Sand
Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah’s entire congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: “You have failed us miserably and we won’t take it any more.”

Israel promises to use "Baby Nukes" on Iran
As for Israel saying that the nukes used would be only 1/15th of the power of the Nagasaki nukes, to that i say BS. Israel plans on using much larger nukes than the ones in this article.

Israel Accuses IAEA's ElBaradei of Being "Pro-Iranian"
Israel is accusing International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei of being pro-Iranian after the IAEA issued a report that said Iran has in general been cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog agency. The IAEA said Iran has not suspended its uranium enrichment program but that there is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said: "This report is unacceptable. This is further proof of ElBaradei's one-sided and pro-Iranian position."
This is the man who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Israeli police detain self-styled rabbi charged with sexual abuse
Mondrowitz, 60, is wanted in New York for molesting hundreds of children under the guise of a rabbi and psychologist who became highly revered among the Gur Hasidic sect in Brooklyn for his expertise with minors, the Haaretz newspaper reported Friday.

Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

Israel: We won't negotiate at Annapolis
Senior government officials said Saturday night that negotiations themselves would not take place at Annapolis, but rather that the negotiating process would begin "immediately" afterward. No date or venue was given for these negotiations, although they are expected to be carried out by the same teams which have been negotiating the statement to be unveiled at Annapolis.

AFP: Israeli court declines to rule on Gaza sick
Israel's high court on Monday rejected a petition from an Israeli human rights group for the state to change interrogation procedures for Gazans leaving the territory for medical care.

Open Letter to Sir John Holmes, UN Undersecretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
You must be aware of the nightmare now unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is simply dying a slow and painful death at the hands of the children and grandchildren of the Holocaust. This is not an overstatement or exaggerated description of a people long tormented by a sinister occupying power that is hell- bent on decimating them, using the basest and most inhumane of means, such as preventing food and other basic needs from reaching them.

U.S. Customs delays ambulance at border
An ambulance rushing a heart attack victim to Detroit from a Windsor hospital ill-equipped to perform life-saving surgery was stopped for secondary inspection Monday by U.S. Customs, despite the fact it carried a man fighting for his life.

Russia says it may deploy missiles to Belarus
Russia may deploy its newest Iskander tactical missiles in neighboring Belarus in response to U.S. plans for a missile shield in eastern Europe, Russian media quoted a senior general as saying on Wednesday. Asked if the missiles could be deployed in response to the U.S. shield, Major-General Vladimir Zaritsky, head of Russia’s artillery and missile forces, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency: “Why not? Under the right conditions and with the corresponding agreement of Belarus, it is possible.”

China deals blow to Western efforts to punish Iran
China has dealt a blow to Western efforts to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program by dropping out of a meeting to discuss tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Iran calls for US nuclear apology
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the US and its allies should apologise for their treatment of Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Ahmadinejad said the latest report by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed Iran had been truthful about its nuclear activities.

Dishonest Media Reporting And Iran's Centrifuges
There's some seriously dishonest and/or lazy reporting going on in the Western media about Iran's nuclear program and the IAEA report yesterday.

IAEA Again Verifies Iranian Compliance
Even though compliance by Iran is the principal and only conclusion of the current IAEA report, entitled "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 and 1747 in the Islamic Republic of Iran" the neo-crazy media sycophants at the New York Times don't even mention it in their "report" on the IAEA report!

Israel: IAEA's report 'unacceptable'
"You go back and re-write it so we can order the Americans to kill the Iranians for us!"

Why Attack Iran?
More and more people seem to take it as given that a nuclear-armed Iran would use its nuclear weapons to attack the United States. Yet there is no plausible argument, and very little evidence, for that conclusion.
Indeed, for the U.S. government to attack a country that has not attacked us and isn't even threatening to do so would be to commit an immoral, and probably illegal, act. But that's another story.

Fallon: Iranian behavior unhelpful
The Iranians need to realize that the U.S. is ready to stand up to them and the region is concerned about their radical rhetoric, the top American commander in the Middle East said Sunday. Memo to Admiral Fallon: precisely what do you mean in terms of Iran whey you way that "The Iranians need to realize that the U.S. is ready to stand up to them"? Are we truly talking about a military strike, when Russian political officials have stated very publicly that an attack against Iran will be viewed as an attack against Russia?

Russia abandons key Cold War arms treaty

The Russian senate voted Friday to suspend compliance with a key Cold War treaty limiting conventional military forces across Europe, drawing renewed Western criticism.

Russia readies nuclear fuel
Russia readies nuclear fuel bound for Iran - Israel News
Russia's state-run nuclear fuel producer said inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog would later this month start sealing nuclear fuel bound for the Bushehr plant, a major step to shipping the fuel to the Bushehr plant in Iran.

US plans new space weapons against China
The Pentagon is spending billions of dollars on new forms of space warfare to counter the growing risk of missile attack from rogue states and the "satellite killer" capabilities of China. Congress has allocated funds to develop futuristic weapons and intelligence systems that operate beyond the Earth's atmosphere as America looks past Iraq and Afghanistan to the wars of the future.

Intel Chief Blasts 'Cherry Picked' Intel
McConnell also said a new national intelligence estimate on Iran should be complete in about a month, but its key findings will not be released publicly. He says doing so could alert Iran to its intelligence vulnerabilities.

Chinese FM in Iran for nuclear talks
Iran on Tuesday denied claims that it had rejected a visit by UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei ahead of a crucial report on Tehran’s contested atomic drive. Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held talks on Tuesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Iran’s controversial nuclear drive, insisting he wanted to cooperate with Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Ahmadinejad told Yang that Iran wishes “to pursue dialogue and cooperation with the IAEA and the Europeans,” his office said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.

War clouds in the Horn of Africa
As we collect our thoughts and reflect about what a future war could possibly mean to the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia, dark rumors of war are rampant in the African Horn; whether these rumors of war are an indication of an impending war or simply a function of public posturing is something that only the near future can tell. If it happens, a fresh war now could spell disaster of tragic proportions for both countries, but especially for Eritrea. It appears that Ethiopia is determined to take advantage of the desperate internal Eritrean conditions. The recent assessment of the International Crisis Group (ICJ) is apt here: “It would not be surprising if Addis Ababa believes an effort in the near future to stage a coup in Asmara and use force against an Eritrean government that has few friends would also be tolerated in Washington.”
This feverish Ethiopian preparation for aggression on Eritrea has a crucial international dimension, supplied by none other than the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Jendayi Frazer. She has actively been on a personal crusade to orchestrate an international demonization of the Eritrean leader and his regime as part of a coordinated effort to facilitate aggression.

Why Bush Doesn't Have to Suspend the Constitution
President George W. Bush doesn’t have to mimic Pakistan's dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and suspend the Constitution, since he doesn’t have any opposition. The two major political parties are controlled by the same Wire Pullers. Meanwhile, an “Axis of Zionists,” Michael Mukasey at Justice, Michael Chertoff at Homeland Security and Joshua Bolten at the WH, now have a choke hold on key positions in our government.

Amid Pakistani disaster, Bush Homeland Security advisor resigns

US military strike on Pakistan advocated
Two experts have proposed that the US should take pre-emptive action to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons before they fall into the wrong hands.

US envoy to Musharraf returns home with nothing
John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, flew out of Islamabad after Musharraf, a close ally of the US, rejected his call to end emergency rule, to free political prisoners, resign from his post as army commander and hold free and fair elections in January.

Musharraf to step down from army post

Deception: British Reporter Andrew Levy on How the United States Secretly Helped Pakistan Build Its Nuclear Arsenal
Adrian Levy examines how five consecutive US administrations from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush have been complicit in building and protecting Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Levy is co-author of the new book: "Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons."

Crackdown On the Press: General Musharraf Shuts Down Two of Pakistan's Biggest Private Television News Channels
Pakistan's military leader General Pervez Musharraf is still refusing to lift martial law. On Saturday Musharraf met for two hours with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
While John Negroponte was in Pakistan, Musharraf ordered two Dubai-based Pakistani news channels, GEO-TV and ARY One World to be shut down.

U.S. Considers Arming Pakistani Tribes
The New York Times has revealed the U.S. is proposing to start arming Pakistani tribes in an effort to fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. If adopted, the proposal would likely expand the presence of U.S. military troops in Pakistan and directly finance a tribal paramilitary force. The proposal is modeled in part on a similar effort by American forces in Anbar Province in Iraq. An estimated $350 million would be needed to train and arm the paramilitary force known as the Frontier Corps.

U.S. Secretly Aids Pakistan in Guarding Nuclear Arms
Over the past six years, the Bush administration has spent almost $100 million on a highly classified program to help Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, secure his country’s nuclear weapons, according to current and former senior administration officials. While American officials say that they believe the arsenal is safe at the moment, and that they take at face value Pakistani assurances that security is vastly improved, in many cases the Pakistani government has been reluctant to show American officials how or where the gear is actually used.

US eyes Pakistan's nuclear arsenal
The seemingly calamitous developments - which have provoked widespread demonstrations against Musharraf's government - might in fact still fit into the US's grand scheme for the embattled country: to gain control of its nuclear weapons so they do not fall into the hands of Islamist fanatics. Contacts close to the power circles in Pakistan told Asia Times Online that there is a feeling that the US is prepared to take "hurricane" measures to ensure the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. The thinking goes that by changing horses and supporting Bhutto, the US could exploit the current unrest by dictating new terms to Pakistan in the "war on terror" and coerce it into allowing the US to safeguard its nuclear stockpile.

US has no good option in a Pakistan nuclear 'nightmare'
The US armed forces are virtually powerless to prevent Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from falling into Islamist hands if the political crisis in Islamabad spins out of control, analysts warned. Instead, they said, Washington can do little but help to resolve the crisis and preserve its strong ties with Pakistan's pro-Western military elite, whether or not General Pervez Musharraf stays in power.
"There's no good military option at all," Daniel Markey, a former US government policy planner for South Asia, told AFP on Tuesday in Washington.

Israeli President: We are buying up Manhattan, Poland and Hungary
Israeli president: ''we are buying up Manhattan and we are buying up Hungary and we are buying up Romania and we are buying up Poland. And the way I see it, we have no problems.''

'FACEBOOK' BANS SOME ... BUT WELCOMES OTHERS
Following in the footsteps of Daily Kos, Facebook seems to be actively looking for anti-Zionist sentiments on their pages and threatening to ban them.

Police worry about abandoned homes
The thousands of foreclosed homes in recent years in Modesto present a vexing problem for law enforcement officials, including Police Chief Roy Wasden. Banks aren't watching those properties closely, he said.
"As it gets colder, (squatters) will start building fires in these structures, and it's quite dangerous," Wasden said.

Renters losing their homes without missing a payment
While the housing foreclosure crisis of 2007 negatively impacted many home owners with shaky financial histories, thousands of families are losing their homes without ever missing a payment. These residents are renters who had the unfortunate luck of living in houses whose landlords defaulted on their mortgages — a large but little noticed externality of the subprime fallout.

Talk of Worst Recession Since the 1930s
A Wall Street superstar this year who runs Balestra Capital Partners, Jim Melcher, says he's "worried about a recession. Not a normal one, but a very bad one. The worst since the 1930s. I expect we'll see clear signs of it in six months with a dramatic slowdown in the gross domestic product."

Carnage on Wall Street as loans go bad
The scale of the losses that will hit Wall Street banks could approach half a trillion dollars as large numbers of sub-prime home loans go bad.

Business News" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article3155150.ece" target="_blank">'Sub-prime black hole is getting scarier'
Blackstone's president warned that the sub-prime crisis on Wall Street was getting "deeper, darker and scarier" yesterday as the US private equity firm posted a loss for the third quarter, hit by a fall in real-estate revenues and charges related to its initial public offering.

Wachovia Bails Out a Money Market Fund
Floyd Norris is reporting via a tip from a reader that in Wachovia's 10Q, filed Friday, Wachovia reports that "during the third quarter it paid $1.1 billion to purchase asset-backed commercial paper from its Evergreen money market fund, and recorded a $40 million loss."

Bail-out fund proposed by banks for SIV/s.
Bankers from Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. decided upon the structure of a multi-billion-dollar fund to buy distressed debt securities.

Turning The Police State Apparatus Against Dissenters

66 Arrested in Washington State Blocking War Shipments At Port of Olympia
More than four hundred antiwar demonstrators marched through Olympia, Washington Saturday to protest the war in Iraq and the police brutality aimed at demonstrators in the past two weeks. Since November 7th, at least 66 people have been arrested and 150 others injured for trying to prevent military equipment from leaving the Port of Olympia.

Activists Converge on Washington, D.C. for Weekend of Protest Against Hate Crimes, Police Brutality
This week alone, three African American men were shot and killed by police officers in Brooklyn, Chicago and Newark. The weekend's events include a march on the Department of Justice and a rally and concert at the Washington Monument.

Thousands surround Justice Department in hate crimes march
Protesters marched through the streets around the Justice Department Friday to demand federal intervention in the "Jena Six" case and enforcement of hate crime laws against those who hang nooses in public.

20,000 Protest School of the Americas in Georgia
In Georgia, as many 20,000 people gathered outside the gates of Fort Benning this weekend to demand the closing of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- formerly known as the School of the Americas. 11 people were arrested and charged with criminal trespass. The U.S. military uses the school to train Latin American soldiers in combat, counterinsurgency and counter-narcotics. Frequently dubbed the “School of the Assassins,” critics say the school’s graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Protesters at the 18th annual Vigil to Close the SOA included Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich.

Most Presidential Candidates Skip Global Warming Forum
Here in this country, a group of environmental organizations hosted the first ever presidential forum on global warming on Saturday but in attendance were only three candidates -- Senator Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Every Democratic and Republican candidate had been invited. The forum was held two days after the Democratic debate on CNN in Las Vegas which was sponsored by the coal industry.

Over 3,100 Killed in Cyclone in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, at least 3,100 people have been killed and millions made homeless following a devastating cyclone. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society said the death toll could hit 10,000 as rescuers are still struggling to reach remote areas. Tens of thousands of homes have been swept away.

U.N. report: Urgent action needed on 'severe' climate change
IPCC Issues New Warning Over Climate Change
Meanwhile the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a new report warning global warming is destroying species, raising sea levels and threatening millions of poor people. The United Nations' top scientific panel says firm action is needed to avoid more catastrophic events.

The American People are Beginning To Get It
Despite compelling statistical, circumstantial, anecdotal and eyewitness evidence that two presidential and numerous congressional elections have been stolen, this evidence has been discounted, ignored and ridiculed by the mainstream media and, amazingly, by the victimized Democratic Party and its defeated candidates and even by some progressive publications. Even so, a sizeable and growing portion of the American public isn’t buying the official and bi-partisan assurances that the US elections are, by and large, on the level, and that the Bush/Cheney regime is therefore legitimate. For example, an August, 2006 Zogby poll reports that only 45% of the population is “very confident” that Bush and Cheney won re-election “fair and square” in 2004. About a third were “not at all confident.”

11/08/2007

FEMA staff not allowed in toxic evacuee trailers

FEMA Protecting Itself, But Not Evacuees?
CBS News Obtains Emails Indicating Agency Prohibits Its Own Staff From Entering Toxic Trailers - CBS News

There are still 50,000 families along the Gulf Coast living in travel trailers given to them by FEMA. Six months ago we began investigating reports of toxic formaldehyde fumes making some of those people sick. And as Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports, FEMA has done more to cover their own backs than help the people in the trailers. Many of the trailers are loaded with toxic formaldehyde fumes and people are still getting sick.

Toxic Homes for Wildfire Victims?

The Sierra Club — the environmental group that blew the whistle on FEMA when Hurricane Katrina victims were given toxic RV trailers to live in — has warned that some mobile homes en route to victims of the California wildfires have the same excessive formaldehyde levels that sickened some Katrina victims.

Second FEMA Official Quits Over Faked Press Briefing

The staged news conference during the California wildfires crisis last month claimed the job of a second Federal Emergency Management Agency press official today.
Aaron Walker, press secretary for FEMA, submitted his resignation to the administration's chief David Paulison Wednesday afternoon, according to a FEMA official quoted by CNN.
The official said Walker and John "Pat" Philbin, who was FEMA's director of external affairs, bore the "greatest degree of responsibility for the planning and execution" of the news conference on Oct. 23. "They had the greatest ability to stop that train from going down the track, and they didn't," said the official.
Philbin left his job two days after the news conference to become head of public affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell. That job offer was rescinded after Philbin's role in the press conference became clear.

Veterans make up 1 in 4 homeless in US

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday. And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness. The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans. In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

Poll: Iraq war opposition at record high

Support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 31 percent and the 68 percent who oppose the war is a new record.

Brent Wilkes convicted of corruption
A U.S. District Court jury has convicted Brent Wilkes on all 13 counts in his corruption trial. The Poway defense contractor had been accused by prosecutors of leveraging more than $600,000 in cash bribes and thousands more in gifts to ousted Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham in exchange for Cunningham's influence in securing more than $80 million in government contracts.

Pentagon Forbids Marine to Testify

The Bush administration blocked a Marine Corps lawyer from testifying before Congress today that severe techniques employed by U.S. interrogators derailed his prosecution of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist. Asked last week to appear before the panel, Col. Couch says he informed his superiors and that none had any objection.
Yesterday, however, he was advised by email that the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, "has determined that as a sitting judge and former prosecutor, it is improper for you to testify about matters still pending in the military court system, and you are not to appear before the Committee to testify tomorrow." Mr. Haynes is a Bush appointee who has overseen the legal aspects of the Pentagon's detention and interrogation policies since Sept. 11, 2001. The email was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Iraq Plans to Confront Security Firms on Guns

The Iraqi interior minister said Wednesday that he would authorize raids by his security forces on Western security firms to ensure that they were complying with tightened licensing requirements on guns and other weaponry, setting up the possibility of violent confrontations between the Iraqis and heavily armed Western guards.

Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists

CBS News has learned Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct.

Edwards advocates combat 'expeditions'

Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, who has stepped up attacks on rival Hillary Clinton for her plans to continue combat missions against Al Qaeda in Iraq, said yesterday that he would also carry out "expeditions" against that insurgent group - but from bases outside the country.
You know, "War-lite!" Tastes just like war but less filling on the news.

Bankruptcy Law Backfires On Banks

Banks tried to stick it to the consumer by changing credit card laws, instead borrowers are sticking banks with depreciating houses.

Head of National Childrens Museum in DC arrested for child porn and soliciting.

The chief operating officer of the National Children's Museum in Washington was arrested Tuesday on child pornography charges, accused of using his work computer to send explicit images to others - including an undercover New York City detective.

50 States Sued to Block Computerized Vote Counting

On October 2nd we posted an article in which we announced that the Clean Election Lawsuit was being expanded to all fifty states. We said we were in the process of filing an amended complaint to name all of the nation’s chief election officials as defendants. The lawsuit seeks an Order from the Court prohibiting the use of all voting machines and to force election officials to instead use utilize paper ballots and to count and total all votes by hand, always in full view of the public.

A Flashback to the Horrors of America's Past: The Return of Water Torture

Water torture or drinking by force, a method of inflicting pain as punishment or to extract information, has been around as long as man has been near water. One of the earliest written records of the practice is the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC), which decreed that if a person suspected of sorcery survived a dunking in the Holy River, he was innocent. Throughout the centuries, societies have continued to use water as a tool to terrorize and no doubt, torturing with water survives today over other ancient practices such as quartering or burning chiefly because water leaves no incriminating marks on the victim.

Abu Ghraib "Pattern Of Torture” implicates Bush

Torturing of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was not episodic, but rather systematic and intentional, and can be attributed to instruction from President George W. Bush and his top officials to “take off the gloves” in prisoner interrogations, according to an article published today in Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal.

Wexler Will Urge House Judiciary Committee to 'Schedule Impeachment Hearings Immediately'

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter Calls for Impeachment Hearings!

“It is the duty of the Vice President to faithfully execute the laws of the United States of America and to defend the Constitution. There is growing evidence that the Executive Branch has ignored some of our laws and has attempted to bend the Constitution to its will.

FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago

The alert, like similar FBI and Department of Homeland Security terror alerts issued over the past five years at holiday times, raised questions about the credibility of the information.
The bulletin acknowledges that U.S. intelligence officers are uncertain as to whether the information is real, and intelligence officers say there is a concern that it could be "disinformation."
Great way to encourage lots of holiday spending..... booga-booga!

Israel admits there will be no peace after the summit

It looks like Israel is really serious about the upcoming 'peace talks'... according to the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (which btw means lightening in Hebrew), there will not be a planned invasion of the Balata refugee camp until AFTER the talks are finished.... key word is AFTER.

US okays $155m arms package for Israel

The US Congress on Wednesday approved a $155 million arms package for Israel, aimed at the development of the Hetz and David mid-range defensive missile systems and for the development long-range defensive missile systems. The arms package is still pending the approval of the US House of Representatives and President George W Bush. The Israeli defense establishment was pleased with Congress' decision, which effectively increases Israel's missile development budget by 30%.

Op-Ed: Israeli occupation: Injustice in our name

I am Jewish. I state that at the beginning of this op-ed so that when you read it, you will not immediately discount me as anti-Semitic.
We single out Israel for the same reason that others single out Darfur or Burma: because there are atrocious human rights abuses occurring in a specific socio-political context. But more importantly, we focus on Israel because it is the number one recipient of US foreign aid, most of which is in the form of military grants. As American citizens and taxpayers, a better question might be: “Why not focus on Israel?”

Pakistan police arrest 400 Bhutto supporters: party

Pakistani police rounded up about 400 supporters of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto in a crackdown hours after she called for mass protests against emergency rule, her party said Thursday.

U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers

Musharraf, of course, has been a crucial American ally since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, and the U.S. has rewarded him ever since with over $10 billion in civilian and (mostly) military largesse. In fact, however, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants.

Ron Paul now a frontrunner, in the race to win it

Paul did well raising over 5 million in the third quarter with over 5 million in cash on hand at quarter’s end. At that point his candidacy should have been recognized by media outlets as the real deal but instead media outlets have continued to rely on their own polls to determine a candidate’s viability.

U.S. GMO Rice Caused $1.2 Billion in Damages

Trace amounts of genetically modified varieties of rice that were found commingled in the U.S. rice supply in 2006 caused more than $1.2 billion in damages and additional costs, the environmental group Greenpeace International said on Monday.

AIDS "Vaccine" Clinical Trial Leads To HIV Infections In Volunteers Who've Never Had The Virus

Energizer "D" Battery Exposed
Energizer's "D" rechargeable is really an "A" in a plastic shell.

11/01/2007

FEMA lies, Rice gives Blackwater immunity in Iraq

FEMA Admits It Held Fake Press Conference about California Wildfires; FEMA Staffers Posed as Journalists
On Tuesday, FEMA staged a fake press conference with agency staffers posing as news reporters. One FEMA staffer who pretended to be a journalist has since been promoted to become head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

News > Metro -- FEMA to face scrutiny during its response to California wildfires" href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071024-1640-cnsfema.html" target="_blank">FEMA to face scrutiny during its response to California wildfires
By designating San Diego and other fire-ravaged counties as major disaster areas Wednesday, President Bush trained a spotlight on his Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is intent on proving it has learned some hard lessons from its slow response and poor coordination after Hurricane Katrina.

FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA
Very smooth, very professional. But something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness. Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters.

White House Withholds Hundreds of Abramoff Documents

Today Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding to turn over more than 600 pages of documents relating to the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that are being withheld because they involve internal White House deliberations.
When Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges in January 2006, White House officials stated emphatically that Mr. Abramoff was a virtual stranger to the White House. President Bush said, "I don't know him." White House spokesman Scott McClellan asserted that "there were only a couple of holiday receptions that he attended, then a few staff-level meetings on top of that."

Despite the refusal of key witnesses to provide testimony, the Committee has learned that some senior White House officials had regular contact with Mr. Abramoff.
In response to the Committee's document request, the White House produced approximately 3,700 pages of documents. These documents generally involve communications between White House officials and Mr. Abramoff or members of his lobbying team. The White House refused, however, to produce over 600 pages of documents relating to Mr. Abramoff because they "contain internal deliberations among White House employees, or that otherwise implicate Executive Branch prerogatives." The White House also made a number of redactions in the pages produced to the Committee. Given the prior statements by White House officials, it is surprising that there would be this volume of documents of internal deliberations involving Mr. Abramoff.

Reports of Blackwater immunity deal embarrass Rice
"Press reports today indicate that DS (Department of State) agents offered grants of immunity to Blackwater employees after the September 16 shooting incident in Baghdad. Are these reports accurate?" Biden asked in a statement.
"If so, who authorized these grants of immunity? Was there consultation with the Department of Justice prior to such grants of immunity?" the Democrat asked.
The New York Times Tuesday said officials in the State Department's investigative unit, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, made the immunity offer though they lacked authority to do so.
Most of the guards involved in the shooting were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything they said in interviews as long as their statements were truthful, the Times reported. And one law enforcement official told the Washington Post that some Blackwater guards cited the immunity promises in refusing to be interviewed by the FBI, which took over the investigation this month.
McCormack Tuesday sought to distance Rice from the scandal, emphasizing that her attitude is that "if there are individuals who broke rules, laws or regulations, they must be held to account." It was Rice who had asked the FBI to take over the investigation, he added.
"These companies will not get immunity and will be subject to Iraqi law," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP.

White House says Bush plans administrative orders to govern, avoiding Congress

It's not quite signing statements, where President George W. Bush used legal means to "interpret" laws, allowing him to avoid Congressional directives, but the White House is now planning to implement as much new policy "as it can" by administrative order "after concluding that President Bush cannot do much business with the Democratic leadership."
"White House aides say the only way Bush seems to be able to influence the process is by vetoing legislation or by issuing administrative orders, as he has in recent weeks on veterans' health care, air-traffic congestion, protecting endangered fish and immigration," the Post authors write. "They say they expect Bush to issue more of such orders in the next several months, even as he speaks out on the need to limit spending and resist any tax increases."

Feds want to survey, possibly clean up vast garbage pit in Pacific

The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a stewy body of plastic and marine debris that floats an estimated 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, is a shape-shifting mass far too large, delicate and remote to ever be cleaned up, according to a researcher who recently returned from the area. But that might not stop the federal government from trying.
Charles Moore, the marine researcher at the Algalita Marina Research Foundation in Long Beach who has been studying and publicizing the patch for the past 10 years, said the debris - which he estimates weighs 3 million tons and covers an area twice the size of Texas - is made up mostly of fine plastic chips and is impossible to skim out of the ocean.
The Garbage Patch is not a solid island, as some people believe, Moore said. Instead, it resembles a soupy mass, interspersed with large pieces of junk such as derelict fishing nets and waterlogged tires - "an alphabet soup," he called it.
"But before we embark on a huge removal process," Bamford said, "we need to understand what we're dealing with."
The dramatic growth in plastics use over the past two decades is what distresses activists like Moore. The annual production of plastic resin in the United States has roughly doubled in the past 20 years, from nearly 60 billion pounds in 1987 to an estimated 120 billion pounds in 2007, according to a study by the American Chemistry Council, which represents the nation's largest plastic and chemical manufacturers.
Keith Cristman, a senior director of packaging at the American Chemistry Council, said the plastics industry is aware of its connection to marine debris and said the council is working with federal and state agencies to put more recycling bins on California beaches in an attempt to stop plastic bottles and bags from making their way to the sea.

Leading Australian Scientist Tim Flannery on Global Warming and the Worsening Dangers of Climate Change Denial
Tim Flannery, an Australian mammologist, palaeontologist and field zoologist, he has discovered and named more than thirty new species of mammals. He has been described as being in the league of all-time great explorers such as David Livingstone.
Flannery might be best known as the author of the bestselling book "The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change."
Earlier this year he was named 2007 Australian of the Year.

Environmental Journalist Bill McKibben on the Links Between Global Warming & the California Wild Fires
"This is the kind of disaster we see more and more of as we begin to change the basic physics and chemistry of the planet we live on," says McKibben, who is organizing the Nov. 3 Step It Up National Day of Climate Action.

Environmentalists alarmed by 'mass dolphin suicide'

The mysterious "mass suicide" of 152 dolphins washed up on Iran's coast over the past month has alarmed environmentalists, with the blame pointed at regional fishing practices.
At the end of September, 79 Striped Dolphins were found washed up off the southern port of Jask in southern Iran, and last week another 73 dolphins were found dead in the same area.
Pictures of rows of dolphin corpses in the sand have been widely featured in Iranian newspapers, which said the dolphins had "committed suicide" - behaviour the animals have exhibited on occasion in the wild.
Tests of the US Navy's super sonar produced the same results in Hawaii.

Dolphins could have followed sick leader

The mass death of more than 150 Striped Dolphins in southern Iran over the last month could be due to the herd of mammals following a sick dominant male, said a UAE-based marine expert.
Or, more likely, the US Navy is playing with their Super Sonar again, as the described behaviors of the dolphins matches what we saw here in Hawaii during tests of the system.

IRAQ: Power plants shut due to lack of fuel

The Catastrophic Military Occupation of Iraq is Rarely Described Accurately in the U.S. Media

"From the invasion until now, with few exceptions the so-called mainstream media in the West has portrayed a drastically different picture of what Iraq is really like under U.S. military rule. We regularly see stories from the military point of view, and rarely, if ever, how catastrophic the occupation has made life for the average Iraqi. Thus, most people are in no way getting an accurate picture of what has occurred, or what is occurring today."

Iraq fears border crises overtaking agenda

Tensions in northern Iraq between Kurdish guerrillas and neighboring countries are threatening to dominate Iraq's diplomatic agenda, taking attention away from some of the country's most pressing needs, Iraqi officials indicated Wednesday. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki met with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of Iran and asked him to intervene on Iraq's behalf at the meeting of Iraq's neighbors that starts Thursday in Istanbul.

Blogger wins monumental ruling in favor of bloggers

Though the court doesn't equate bloggers and journalists generally, it gives Smith the same protection given to journalists.

A nonlethal ray gun originally slated for fielding in 2010 could be deployed as soon as next year.

Deployment of ray gun pushed up
With the unit mounted on the back of a vehicle, U.S. troops can operate a safe distance from rocks, Molotov cocktails and small-arms fire. The beam penetrates the skin slightly, just enough to cause intense pain. The beam goes through clothing as well as windows, but can be blocked by thicker materials, such as metal, wood or concrete.
The most determined volunteer lasted only a few seconds Thursday. The stinging was done by Senior Airman Robert Hudspeth, a 21-year-old senior airman from Florida. Sitting in the Humvee nearly 800 yards away from the circle, Hudspeth used a joystick and a computer screen to send the beam on its way.

US soldiers shy from battle in Iraq
Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here in upstate New York say that morale among US soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid"
missions.

Middle East Analyst & Historian Juan Cole on U.S. War Plans Against Iran, Turkey and His New Book "Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East”
As President Bush seeks $196 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we speak to Juan Cole about Iraq war and whether the war could spread to Iran and Turkey.

Republican Senator Calls for Unconditional Talks
Amid growing contention among Democratic presidential contenders about US policy toward Iran, a senior Republican lawmaker has appealed to President George W. Bush to pursue "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks" with Tehran.
The appeal, which was sent to Bush by Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel two weeks ago, noted that Washington's diplomatic efforts to use economic pressure to persuade Iran to freeze its nuclear program were "stalling" amid "growing differences with our international partners" that are likely to continue widening.

Basra in the grip of militias
Amid warnings that southern Iraq could erupt into civil war when British troops withdraw, Basra's chief of police has publicly admitted that his forces have been unable to clamp down on growing militia warfare in the city.
In recent months, rival Shia factions have been battling for control of the city which is considered the second largest in the country and home to Iraq's only port.

Pentagon Sharing Intel With Turkey on PKK
The Bush administration has admitted to sharing key military intelligence with Turkey that could be used for a full-scale assault on Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. Turkey has deployed an estimated one hundred thousand troops on its Iraq border in what it calls an attempt to stop Kurdish rebel attacks. On Wednesday, the Pentagon said it’s assisted Turkey with spy planes and information on Kurdish positions. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the region tomorrow. On Wednesday, State department spokesperson Sean McCormack denied U.S. backing of a Turkish attack.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack

Compelled Iraq duty angers U.S. envoys
Hundreds of U.S. diplomats Wednesday vented anger and frustration over the State Department's decision to force Foreign Service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some calling it a "potential death sentence."

U.S. Diplomats in Uproar Over Mandatory Iraq Assignments
The Washington Post is reporting the State Department is facing an internal uproar over new rules that would force U.S. officials to serve in Iraq. The dissent was heard Thursday at a town-hall meeting of hundreds of U.S. diplomats in Washington.
One Foreign Service Officer received “sustained applause” after calling service in Iraq “a political death sentence” that otherwise would have been closed were it anywhere else in the world. Another officer complained the State Department refused to pay for her medical treatment after she returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Diplomats were informed last week that nearly fifty vacant positions would be filled in Iraq through mandatory assignments. It’s believed to the first time officials have been ordered into foreign posts since the 1960s.
Memo to State Dept. employees -- "they" don't care about you, either.

Giuliani Faces Investigation Of 9/11 Radios
The investigation, which will examine how the FDNY ended up using faulty equipment during the terrorist attacks and why Giuliani gave a no-bid contract to Motorola for that equipment, has been endorsed by New York City Councilman Eric Gioia, chair of the city's oversight and investigations committee.
Calls for an investigation were first proposed by filmmaker Robert Greenwald who has documented Giuliani's handling of 9/11 in a series of shorts for Brave New Films. In The Real Rudy: Radios, Greenwald documents how radios used by the FDNY on 9/11 were the same ones that malfunctioned during the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers. When - eight years later - Giuliani finally purchased new communications equipment for $14 million from Motorola, it was never field-tested.
A week later, the equipment was recalled after a firefighter's mayday went un-heard. Giuliani reissued the old batch of radios. And on 9/11 when a police helicopter warned that the North Tower could collapse, more than 120 firefighters remained inside.

LA TIMES: Straitjacket Bush
Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.

Hysteria Over Iran
The American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to reality. Norman Podhoretz, the neoconservative ideologist whom Bush has consulted on this topic, has written that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "like Hitler … a revolutionary whose objective is to overturn the going international system and to replace it in the fullness of time with a new order dominated by Iran and ruled by the religio-political culture of Islamofascism." For this staggering proposition Podhoretz provides not a scintilla of evidence.
Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of Finland's and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?

The Neocons' Crazy Dream of World War III

The two greatest human catastrophes of the 20th century were World War I (10 million deaths) and World War II (62 million deaths). In February 2002, neocon journalist Norman Podhoretz (a leading warmonger who is currently senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani) wrote an article calling for a new World War.

Cheney Nods Off During Meeting On Calif. Wildfires
Staffers claimed he was "meditating."

Donald Rumsfeld charged with torture during trip to France
Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld got an unpleasant surprise during his visit to France today when human rights groups filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor before the “Court of First Instance” (Tribunal de Grande

Instance) charging the chief architect of President George W. Bush's "war on terror" with ordering and authorizing torture.

Army Needs More Contracting Personnel

The demands of supplying soldiers in combat require an additional 1,400 military and civilian personnel with the authority to sign contracts, a new report finds.
U.S. officials familiar with the report, which was to be released Thursday, did not say how much the additional personnel would cost. The Army's contracting work force now has just over 10,000 people.

US troops will be in the Middle East for next 50 years, says Abazaid
US troops could be in the Middle East for another 50 years, according to the longest serving commander of the Qatar-based US Central Command.
General John Abazaid, who retired in May, said the "strategic situation" in the region - the rise of extremism and the global dependence on oil - would necessitate a long-term presence.

Petraeus Personally Introduces Disgraced Ahmed Chalabi To U.S. Troops In Iraq
For Petraeus to proudly introduce troops to Chalabi is particularly unfitting, considering that Chalabi has repeatedly put the lives of U.S. troops in danger in Iraq. Before the war, Chalabi provided faulty intelligence on Iraq’s supposed weapons programs, helping launch the war.

Getting Waterboarded
There is a version of this where the victim is strapped to a board that is actually tilted head down at about 30%. Far more water can be used, indeed to the point of completely filling the mouth, sinuses and trachea, but since gravity keeps the water from rushing up into the lungs, actual drowning is prevented, regardless of how close it feels.
This is what Mukasey says he doesn't think is torture.

Mukasey Losing Democrats' Backing
Nominee Unsure If Waterboarding Breaks Torture Law.

Sen. Kennedy vows to oppose Mukasey nomination

U.S. Terrorism Advisor: Waterboarding is Torture
A top U.S. advisor on terrorism has publicly denounced the interrogation technique of ‘waterboarding’ as a form of torture. On Wednesday, Malcolm Nance said he had witnessed hundreds of waterboarding exercises while working at the US departments of Homeland Security, Special Operations and Intelligence. Nance says the practice is taught at a US Navy training facility in San Diego. Waterboarding simulates the experience of drowning by strapping a victim to a board and forcing water into their lungs through a cloth covering the face.

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey is facing a potential rejection from the Democrat-controlled Senate over his waterboarding stance. Mukasey said this week he does not know if waterboarding amounts to torture. Legal experts interviewed by the New York Times say Mukasey’s evasive response could be a deliberate attempt to avoid laying ground for prosecutions against U.S. officials who’ve practiced waterboarding. Mukasey’s nomination goes before the Senate next week.

Mukasey's nomination runs into trouble
Judge Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general ran into trouble Thursday when two top Senate Democrats said their votes hinge on whether he will say on the record that an interrogation technique that simulates drowning is torture.
Separately, a Democrat familiar with the panel's deliberations said Mukasey may not get the 10 committee votes his nomination needs to be reported to the
Senate floor with a favorable recommendation unless he says, in effect, that waterboarding is torture. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely.

CIA chief backs rendition flights
Gen Hayden said programmes such as extraordinary rendition produced what he said was irreplaceable intelligence.

Bush Foreign PR Czar Resigns
The senior Bush administration official tasked with promoting U.S. foreign policy worldwide has resigned. On Wednesday, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes announced she will step down later this year. Hughes oversaw a series of marketing campaigns aimed at foreign countries.
A recent forty-seven nation poll from Pew Global Attitudes found the U.S. image in Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East is “abysmal.” Over the past five years favorable ratings of Americans declined in 23 of 33 countries surveyed.

Monks Return to Streets of Burma in Protest
In Burma, hundreds of monks marched in the temple town of Pakokku Wednesday. It was their first protest since the military junta’s crackdown on a mass uprising. Witnesses say the monks chanted prayers but refrained from political statements. The march comes ahead of a return visit from UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari. Speaking in Thailand, the exiled Burmese opposition leader Maung Maung called for increased international pressure on the military junta. The U.S. oil giant Chevron is among several international firms with close ties to the junta.

HRW: Burmese Junta Relying on Child Soldiers
Meanwhile Human Rights Watch is accusing the Burmese junta of filling its depleted armed forces with an increasing number of child soldiers. Human Rights Watch Burma consultant David Scott Mathieson says children as young as ten years old are being forced to enlist.

21 Convicted, 7 Acquitted in Madrid Train Bombing Trials
In Spain, twenty-one people have been found guilty of involvement in the 2004 train bombings that killed one-hundred-ninety-one people in Madrid. Seven of the accused were acquitted of any role in the bombings including one alleged mastermind. Juan Carlos Vives Segura of the Terrorism Victims Association said he is disappointed with the verdict.

Kansas Church Ordered to Pay $10.9M for Cheering Soldier Funeral
Back in the United States, a jury has ordered a homophobic Kansas church to pay millions of dollars in damages for cheering the funeral of a U.S. marine because they believe U.S. deaths in Iraq are a punishment for tolerance of homosexuality. On Wednesday, jurors ruled that Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church owes the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder $10.9 million for emotional distress. Church members attended Snyder’s 2006 funeral with signs reading “You’re going to hell” and “God hates you.” Snyder’s father, Albert Snyder, welcomed the verdict.

Albert Snyder

Church members say they plan to appeal.
If it is punishment, it's more likely punishment for this type of stupidity.

Two former body armor company execs indicted for insider trading, fraud
David H. Brooks, 53, the former CEO of DHB Industries Inc., and Sandra Hatfield, 54, the former chief operating officer, were charged in a superseding indictment with manipulating DHB's financial records to increase earnings and profitmargins, thereby inflating the price of DHB's stock.

Body Armor Execs Indicted For Fraud, CEO and COO of Supplier To Troops
Allegedly Manipulated Records to Inflate Stock, Pocket $200M
David H. Brooks, 53, the former CEO of DHB Industries Inc., and Sandra Hatfield, 54, the former chief operating officer, were charged in a superseding indictment with manipulating DHB's financial records to increase earnings and profit
margins, thereby inflating the price of DHB's stock.
David H. Brooks became notorious for throwing his daughter a $10 million Bat-Mitzvah at the same time his body armor was accused of defects that endangered the lives of our troops wearing it What we need to find out is just how this particular crook GOT the contract in the first place? Who agreed to pour millions of US tax dollars into this guy's pockets?

Kuwaiti firm blamed for Baghdad embassy flaws gains new jobs
The Kuwaiti contractor that's building the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad — behind schedule and plagued by allegations of shoddy construction and safety flaws— is still winning lucrative new contracts to build U.S. diplomatic installations overseas.

U.S. Army Accused of Hiding Chemical Weapons Information

Citizen groups trying to stop the U.S. Army from shipping waste from deadly VX
nerve agent from Indiana across eight states to Port Arthur, Texas say sources who wish to remain anonymous told the groups that the Army had withheld crucial information from the public and a federal judge during a hearing on the shipments last July.

STRESS MESS IN U.S.
We're stressed out, we can't sleep, we're drinking too much - and it's getting worse.
Warmonger's burden?

Torture, Paramilitarism, Occupation And Genocide
Relief from these type abuses are nowhere in sight as leading Democrats condone them and now assure extremist Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey's nomination won't be challenged. He promises business as usual that's bad news for supporters of the law. He earned his bona fides as a US District Court

Southern District of New York judge by ruling Jose Padilla, a US citizen, could be imprisoned without trial and held indefinitely by the military.

IRAQ: Child prisoners abused and tortured, say activists
"Our investigation started after families brought their five sons to our organisation looking for psychological help for their children who were recently released from

prison, and what we found out was shocking," Rabia'a added.
According to Rabia'a, child prisoners between 13 and 17 are being accused of
supporting insurgents and militias.
"The five children showed signs of torture all over their bodies. Three had marks of cigarettes burns over their legs and one couldn't speak as the shock sessions
affected his conversation," Rabia'a said. "It is against international law that protects children and we call for interventions in all Iraqi prisons to save the lives of these children."
So are lots of other things that have been perpetrated in the name of the "War on Terror."

Michael Chertoff Calls Iran, Venezuela Relationship 'Troubling'

Iran and Venezuela are united in their disdain for the U.S. Some reports have indicated that Chavez won't hesitate to cut off his country's oil supply to the United States if it launches an air strike or any military action against Iran. Chertoff suggested that his department and indeed the intelligence community are tracking the growing ties between these two nations and the potential threat it could pose.

Who created their need for an alliance?

Oil Hits Record Above $90 on OPEC Report

Oil futures jumped to a new record close of $90.46 a barrel Thursday on news that OPEC production increases aren't coming as fast as expected and that the cartel won't announce new output quotas when it meets next month.
Prices rose in early trading on growing concerns about conflict in the Middle East and declining supplies of crude in the U.S.
They got a further boost after Dow Jones Newswires reported that Oil Movements, a company that tracks oil tanker traffic, said crude shipments from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members will grow more slowly than anticipated through early November.
Mission Accomplished.

Iraq threatens to cut off oil to Turkey if sanctions approved
The speaker of Iraq's parliament warned Turkey on Thursday that his government would cut off the flow of oil from northern Iraq if Ankara followed through on its threat to level economic sanctions against the country.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's comments came a day after Turkey's top leadership agreed to recommend the government take economic measures to force cooperation by Iraqis against Kurdish rebels who have been staging cross-border attacks against Turkish troops.

DEPLETED URANIUM Outrage is Sweeping Hawai’i

“The Strykers and the legacy they would leave are not welcome on Hawai’i.”
Krisztine Samu is an outraged Hawai’i resident and tells the Army so
during public testimony at the U.S. Army Stryker Brigade Public
Hearings in Waimea, on September 26, 2007. She is outraged by the
military’s shameless and continued contamination of her home, Hawai’i
Island.

Know all the stuff TSA steals from you at the airport? They sell it on eBay!
Craziest items?
"There are always lots of plastic fake swords that people buy at Walt Disney World, so there are probably lots of mad kids."
"We've received hundreds of pairs of fuzzy handcuffs and other ... paraphernalia--I wanted to create funny Valentine's Day kits, but folks here thought taxpayers wouldn't like it."
"Brass knuckles, crutches, and piñata sticks. And we once got a cane with a knife inside it."
"Lots of ulus--round Eskimo chopping blades. Also, a Sit'n Putt. It's a short-handled putter designed to be used while you're on the potty."

The Shame of Diego Garcia
In their resistance to the islanders' claims, Blair and the Foreign Office were clearly protecting the interests of their American allies, for whom the geopolitical

importance of Diego Garcia as a strategic base had recently been augmented by its use, and the use of some of the ships moored there, as fabulously remote offshore prisons in which to hold and interrogate "high-value" al-Qaeda suspects.

War on Iran: White House Leak: Cheney's Plan for Iran Attack Starts With Israeli Missile Strike

High-ranking military experts say an attack would lead to world economic chaos, or even what Bush calls 'World War III.'
In the scenario concocted by Cheney's strategists, Washington's first step would be to convince Israel to fire missiles at Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Tehran would retaliate with its own strike, providing the US with an excuse to attack military targets and nuclear facilities in Iran.

US: No objection to Egyptian nuclear program

The White House on Monday said it had little information about Egypt's plans to relaunch its nuclear power program but declared itself "generally supportive" of civilian atomic power.
"I don't know a lot about it. In general, we are supportive of countries pursuing civil nuclear energy. It's clean burning. It provides electricity in a clean-burning and affordable way for citizens," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning!"

Pentagon chief calls planning for Iran strike "routine"

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday characterized U.S. military planning for a strike on Iran as "routine".
"I would characterize it as routine," Gates told reporters on a flight en
route to Washington, when asked about any U.S. planning for military
action against Iran.

Attack Iran and you attack Russia
The barely reported highlight of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Tehran for the Caspian Sea summit last week was a key face-to-face meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A high-level diplomatic source in Tehran

tells Asia Times Online that essentially Putin and the Supreme Leader have agreed on a plan to nullify the George W Bush administration's relentless drive towards launching a preemptive attack, perhaps a tactical nuclear strike, against Iran. An American attack on Iran will be viewed by Moscow as an attack on Russia.

Putin warns against sanctions on Iran
"Why worsen the situation and bring it to a dead end by threatening sanctions or military action?" Putin said in a veiled reference to the U.S. push for harsher international sanctions against Tehran. "Running around like a madman with a razor blade, waving it around, is not the best way to resolve the situation."

Dialogue Undermined by White House's Iran Sanctions

The white house doesn't want dialogue. This is another example of its "my way or the highway" approach to foreign policy, which has, of course, turned out so magnificently in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, this administration also believes that a potential war with Russia as a good thing as well, in light of the fact that Russia is not likely to sit idly by if the us attacks Iran.

China opposes sanctions against Iran

China believes that "the unbridled use of sanctions should not be encouraged," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.
His comments come as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was in Beijing to call on China to back new sanctions against Iran.

US speeding up anti-missile plans: Moscow

Washington's negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic over installing the defences "have not only not been suspended, but additional measures are being taken to speed them up," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin. "There is the impression that the United States is trying to make the realisation of its plans irreversible," Kamynin said in a statement.

An American attack on Iran will be viewed by Moscow as an attack on Russia.

Putin warns Europe over Iran, Kosovo ahead of summit with EU leaders in Portugal
Russia's President Vladimir Putin made a new warning to Europe over the Iran nuclear standoff and Kosovo's push for independence ahead of a summit with EU leaders here today.

MSNBC: "Giuliani’s team includes a prominent neocon who advocates bombing Iran as soon as possible"

Romney open to Iran 'bombardment'
Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday he would be willing to use a military blockade or "bombardment of some kind" to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.

McCain: Iraq Pullout Bad For Israel

In a message to the majority of American Jews who oppose continued U.S. presence in Iraq, Arizona Sen. John McCain on Tuesday told the community’s largest umbrella group that a “surrender” now would harm Israel’s security. “If you believe that the State of Israel is going to be more secure if the U.S. fails in Iraq, we have an honest difference of opinion,” McCain told leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

White House On $2 Trillion Iraq War: ‘Not Worried About the Number’
As long as their cronies rake it all in.

House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill
There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.
"Thought Crime Bill" Could Ensnare Peaceful Activists
Ostensibly, the bill targets United States citizens because of its constant reference to basic Constitutional protections, but this has led some to fear that it is intended to shut down free speech on the Internet and stifle patriot and alternative talk radio networks.

The bill is H.R.
1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention
Act of 2007 and passed Congress after a bipartisan vote
on October 23rd.

HPV Vaccine – When Profits Come Before Safety
Gardasil is a vaccine manufactured by Merck & Co., which targets the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and was approved by the FDA in June of 2006. It is administrated in three doses over a six-month period at a cost of between $360-400 per person, making it one of the most expensive vaccines of all time. It has been recommended for girls and young women, and there has been a push by some to make the vaccine mandatory in some states. This would translate into even more profits.

Photo suggests quick cleanup of suspected Syrian nuclear site
Only CNN could take a photograph that shows nothing, and spin it into proof of guilt.

Boy confesses to starting California fire that FOX News claimed Al-Qaeda started

With no new evidence, Fox continues to ask: Did al Qaeda burn California?

Fox & Friends, the conservative cable channel, was panned Wednesday for
breathlessly reporting a sketchy, four-year-old FBI memo as if it offered new information linking America's enemies in the "Global War on Terror" with a plot to burn down southern California.
The morning team was back at it Thursday, as anchor Alisyn Camerota introduced a segment on the fires that again mischaracterized and over-inflated warnings from a 2003 interview with an al Qaeda detainee.

Fox News Runs With Al Qaeda Wildfires Conspiracy Theory
Neocon mouthpiece channel Fox News continues to run programming today suggesting that Al Qaeda terrorists may have infiltrated the US and started fires in California that have devastated acres of land and have forced one million people from their homes over the past week.

Al Qaeda is behind Global Warming!

Taliban Fighters Move in Near Kandahar for First Time Since 2001

Several hundred Taliban fighters have moved into a strategic area just outside the southern city of Kandahar in recent days and clashed with Afghan and NATO forces, according to Canadian and Afghan officials.
The fighting, which began Tuesday, is the first time large numbers of Taliban have been able to enter the area just north of the city since 2001. Control of the area, known as the Arghandab district, would allow the Taliban to directly threaten Kandahar, southern Afghanistan’s largest city.

Afghanistan is lost, says Lord Ashdown
Nato has "lost in Afghanistan" and its failure to bring stability there could provoke a regional sectarianwar "on a grand scale", according to Lord Ashdown.

RACISM BOOED OFF STAGE IN AMERICA

Piss on racism! That's essentially what the students at Emory University had to say to David Horowitz and his 'message' of Islamo-Fascism.

The Middle East Conflict: Zionist Quotes

"There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"

US to speed up stealth fighter delivery to Israel
During meetings Defense Minister Ehud Barak held at the Pentagon last week, US defense officials agreed to allow Israel to begin receiving the aircraft as early as 2012, when delivery to the United States Air Force is set to begin.

"We asked that for every two jets manufactured for the US, one be manufactured
for Israel," a senior defense official said, adding that acquisition of the aircraft would greatly increase Israel's deterrence as Iran races toward nuclear power.
Israel admits Iran is not really a threat!

Israel sees Palestinians too 'exhausted' to rebel

Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, told a parliamentary committee that while failure at the conference could provoke some violence, it would not reach the same level as the Intifada, or uprising, that began in 2000 when the last major peace initiative collapsed.
"In my estimation ... the Palestinians are exhausted. There isn't the energy in the public and there also isn't the leadership right now that could spur such resistance," Diskin was quoted by a parliamentary spokesman as telling lawmakers.

Report: “360 Palestinian children are imprisoned by Israel, facing harsh conditions”

The Wa’ed Society for political prisoners and ex-prisoner, reported on Monday that the Israeli army continued its violations against the Palestinian people, continued the arrest campaign, and that currently there are 360 Palestinian children still imprisoned in several Israeli prisons and detention facilities.
The number of Palestinian children currently imprisoned by Israel is 360, the society said, and added that the imprisoned children are facing harsh conditions, mistreatment and repeated attacks.

Israel approves Gaza power cuts

Israel's defence minister has approved sanctions against Gaza, including cuts in

the supply of electricity and fuel to try to halt rocket attacks.
Rocket launchers are electric-powered? This seems calculated to enrage the Palestinians more.

Israeli troops invade southeast Gaza

Israeli troops rolled into southeast Gaza Strip Thursday morning and bulldozers
leveled agricultural lands, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

Lebanese sources: Troops open fire on IAF planes over Lebanon

The siege of Gaza is going to lead to a violent escalation

This week the collective punishment of the people of Gaza reached a new level, as Israel began to choke off essential fuel supplies to its one and a half million people in retaliation for rockets fired by Palestinian resistance groups. A plan to cut power supplies has only been put on hold till the end of the week by the intervention of Israel's attorney general.

Khameneh'i Enters the Iran-American War of Intimidation

2008-07-27T03:32:00.000-07:00

(IPS) The Iran-America war of verbal menaces and intimidation escalated to new heights on Wednesday after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i warned that America would “receive twice for each blow to Iran”.

Iranian political analysts said this is the first time that Mr. Khameneh’i personally enters the arena, meaning that he is taking seriously the possibility of a military strike by the United States over Iran.

The Americans must realize that in case of aggression against Iran, their interests would suffer anywhere possible in the world.

“The Americans must realize that in case of aggression against Iran, their interests would suffer anywhere possible in the world”, Ayatollah Khameneh’i threatened, speaking in a meeting with a group of workers.

His bold and uncompromising warning came 48 before the meeting of the United Nations Security Council to study the latest report of the international nuclear watchdog’s general director on the state of Iranian nuclear activities.

Last month, the 15-members Security Council gave Iran one month to suspend all its atomic activities, including enriching uranium and come along with the demands formulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at proving that its nuclear projects are for peaceful aims.

But not only Tehran rejected the demands, but it announced that it has joined the nuclear club by enriching uranium up to 3.5 per cent.

“We are allergic to the word [suspension]. The westerners do not stop asking us to suspend (nuclear activities), but they never spell out why it is so necessary to suspend our works, something which is our absolute legal right”, Mr. Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator pointed out on Tuesday, echoing the exasperation of the Iranian regime with both the IAEA and the international community.

He also warned that in case the UNSC decides sanctions against Iran, Tehran would “suspend” its cooperation with the Vienna-based IAEA and added that in case Iran is attacked, it would continue its nuclear programmes “underground”.

"The Iranian nation and Government are for peace and security. But, if the US ventured into any aggression on Iran, Iran will retaliate by damaging the US interests worldwide twice as much as the US may inflict on Iran", the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted the leader as having told his audience.

“This is the first time that Khameneh’i personally makes such menaces, for, until now; he had let free any of the officials to empty its anger against the Americans. That he decided to join the unabated war of words and waves, insinuations and intimidations that rages between Tehran and Washington, it means that the Iranian leadership is taking the preparation of an air strike over Iranian nuclear and military installations by the Bush Administration seriously”, one Iranian diplomat told Iran Press Service on condition of not being identified.

Earlier in the week, Iranian fundamentalist President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhad had threatened to leave the international nuclear watchdog in case it continues to “ignore Iran’s righteous rights to possess nuclear technology”.

"If the UN nuclear agency creates problems for Iran, we would be obliged to rethink our membership in the agency. If we reach the conclusion that three years of intrusive examination of Iranian sites by IAEA was useless, we may reconsider our membership with the agency", he pointed out.

“What we have got in the 36 years of our membership in the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) that is supposed to help us acquiring nuclear technology. Not only we got nothing, but they are asking us to give up what we have mastered ourselves”, he said angrily, adding that Iran is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and is paying its membership fees every year, “but, the agency did not provide Iran with any technical assistance”.

Iranian reaching Europe recently described the political atmosphere in Iran as “tense”, quite militarized, but calm as before the storm”.

All these niceties by the authorities aimed at the hearts and soul of the population points to their concern over a possible American military strike.

“While the Armed forces are in virtual state of alert, the authorities, with Ahmadi Nezhad on the lead, are engaged in a nationwide charm offensive”, one students told IPS, hinting, among other signals, that during his latest press conference, the President gave a go to female journalists, including those who were not wearing the black chador, saying, jokingly, that “since we are celebrating women’s Day, it is normal to reserve to the women most of the questions.

He also tried to appear more “human”, less “serious” and even tried, -- although without much success – to draw some laughter from the press corps saying: “They accuse me to be a killer. But I’m a small teacher. I have never in my life killed one ant and hope would never do”.

One day before, he created surprise when he ordered the Iranian Physical Education to “prepare the best of places for women in all stadiums (allowing them to watch football matches).

The move is certain to please millions of Iranian women who, because of discriminatory Islamic laws, are, among other discriminations, barred from stadiums during soccer games.

In another move, despite the police announcements of the start of drastic measures against "bad Islamic behaviours, mosly un-Islamic dress by women", no arrest has been reported and no change in the attitude of those women described as "barby toys".

“All these niceties by the authorities aimed at the hearts and soul of the population points to their concern over a possible American military strike”, another Iranian traveler said, adding that “the more there is talking about American attack, the more the regime wins in popularity”. ENDS KHAMENEHI MENACES 26406

Secret sale of UK plutonium to Israel

2008-07-26T01:44:00.000-07:00

Secret sale of UK plutonium to Israel

The UK supplied Israel with quantities of plutonium while Harold Wilson was prime minister, BBC Newsnight can reveal.

The sale was made despite a warning from British intelligence that it might "make a material contribution to an Israeli weapons programme".

Under Wilson, Britain also sold Israel tons of chemicals used to make boosted atom bombs 20 times more powerful than Hiroshima or even Hydrogen Bombs.

In Harold Macmillan's time the UK supplied uranium 235 and the heavy water which allowed Israel to start up its nuclear weapons production plant at Dimona - heavy water which British intelligence estimated would allow Israel to make "six nuclear weapons a year".

Last August on BBC Newsnight we revealed the first British/Israeli deal, the sale of the heavy water, but the government responded by telling the International Atomic Energy Agency the UK was not a party to any sale to Israel and that all it did was sell some heavy water back to Norway.

Hundreds of shipments

Using Freedom of Information, Newsnight has obtained top secret papers. They show Foreign Minister Kim Howells misled the IAEA and that Britain made not one, but hundreds of secret shipments of nuclear materials to Israel.

Tony Benn, who was Minister of Technology in 1966, is shocked to learn of the sales

Tony Benn became Minister of Technology in 1966 while the plutonium deal was going through. The nuclear industry was part of his "white heat of technology" brief but no one told him that we were exporting atomic energy materials to Israel.

"I'm not only surprised, I'm shocked," he says, adding that neither he nor his predecessor Frank Cousins, who was a member of CND, agreed to the sales.

Benn says he always suspected civil servants were doing deals behind his back but he never thought they would sell plutonium to Israel. "It never occurred to me they would authorise something so totally against the policy of the government."

Dimona

Back in August 1960 covertly taken photos of a mysterious site at Dimona in Israel arrived at Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) in Whitehall. A brilliant analyst called Peter Kelly immediately realized they showed a secret nuclear reactor and he alerted the rest of British intelligence.

Kelly recognized it was a French reactor and soon discovered where the heavy water to run it had come from.

Selling plutonium to Israel was against UK government policy

Britain had bought heavy water from Norsk Hydro in Norway for its nuclear weapons programme but found it was surplus to requirements and needed a buyer. The papers obtained by Newsnight show that a company called Noratom acted as a consultant and arranged the deals in return for a 2% commission.

Britain knew all along that Israel wanted the heavy water "to produce plutonium" and Israel paid the full military price - £1 million - to avoid safeguards to stop the plutonium being used to make nuclear weapons.

Kelly discovered a charade was played out with the UK and Israeli delegations sitting in adjacent rooms while Noratom ferried separate contracts to and fro so Britain could say they hadn't signed a deal with Israel.

Cover story

Once the press heard about Dimona in December 1960 there was an international outcry. Israel put out a cover story that it was a small research reactor. This did not fool Kelly. Using the figure of 20 tons of heavy water he estimated that Israel could build a reactor capable of producing "significant quantities of plutonium".

Michael Crick has used Freedom of Information to obtain secret papers

British intelligence learnt there was also a reprocessing plant and concluded "the separation of plutonium can only mean that Israel intends to produce nuclear weapons". Kelly even discovered that an Israeli observer had been allowed to watch one of the first French nuclear tests in Algeria.

Kelly and his colleagues in intelligence soon found their views about Israel were being challenged by Britain's representative at the IAEA Mike Michaels, who worked for one of the main figures in Harold Macmillan's Cabinet - Lord Hailsham.

Michaels received a JIC report early in 1961 estimating Israel would take at least three years to make enough plutonium and then another six months to work out how to make a bomb.

But it occurred to him that a friendly power might give Israel a small sample of plutonium to speed up the process. "Perhaps the French have supplied a small quantity for experimental purposes as we did to the French in like circumstances some years ago," he noted in the margin of the report. A few years later Michaels persuaded the UK to sell Israel a small sample of plutonium when he was aware - as this note shows - that this might cut months off the time it took them to get the Bomb.

Invitation

The Israeli nuclear chief, Ernst David Bergmann, personally invited Michaels to Israel. Kelly warned Israel might use Michaels as part of a disinformation campaign to show "everything is above board". Michaels was given VIP treatment. He met not only Bergmann but Shimon Peres and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion - the three fathers of the Israeli Bomb.

As Kelly suspected, Michaels' report gave Israel the all clear and he handed it to Hailsham at a crucial time, two days before Ben Gurion met Harold Macmillan at Downing Street.

Tony Benn thinks it inconceivable that Harold Wilson knew of atomic exports to Israel

In 1962 the Dimona reactor started turning uranium into plutonium, thanks to the heavy water Britain had delivered, but Michaels continued to protest Israel's innocence.

Then at the beginning of 1966 UK Atomic Energy Authority made what they remarkably called a "pretty harmless request". They wanted to export 10 milligrammes of plutonium to Israel. The MoD strongly objected and Defence Intelligence wrote directly to say the sale might have "significant military value".

The Foreign Office told UKAEA "It is HMG's policy not to do anything which would assist Israel in the production of nuclear weapons" and therefore they blocked the sale.

Sale

Michaels wrote angrily "to protest strongly" against the decision. Five years earlier he had noted such a sale could speed up the Israeli bomb programme, now he was powerfully advocating just that. He said small quantities of plutonium were not important and anyhow if we didn't sell it to the Israelis someone else would. The Foreign Office gave in and the sale went ahead. Kelly believes Mike Michaels knew all along that Israel was after the Bomb. He died in 1992.

Tony Benn is incredulous that Michaels never referred the Israeli nuclear sales to him or Frank Cousins. They were after all the ministers in charge of Britain's nuclear industry including imports and exports. "Michaels lied to me. I learned by bitter experience that the nuclear industry lied to me again and again".

The atomic files, which have been classified until now, detail hundreds of nuclear deals with Israel flagged up as sensitive.

Benn's initial reaction to whether Harold Wilson knew about atomic exports to Israel was "it's inconceivable". Then he muses: "Harold was sympathetic to Israel," before concluding that this was probably a conspiracy by civil servants and the nuclear industry to flout HMG policy.

Nuclear Agreement between India - USA

2008-07-24T03:24:00.000-07:00

There are lot of talks about 1 2 3 Agreement between India & USA and it
almost led to the topple of Central Government. In this mail I am trying
to explain the commercial & technical aspects relating to this Agreement
which I have read and sharing with you.

What is 123 Agreement?

This is called 123 Agreement because this comes under USA 's Atomic Power
Act Section 123.
Let's see how India 's (Indians?) Sovereinty & Independence are
pledged...

(1) After this Agreement USA will supply all fuel, machinery / equipment
& technology to India for producing Nuclear Power.

(2) All these days from about 22 Nuclear Power Plants, India is
producing power as well as Atom. It's a high security / secret that
from where which is produced, how much is produced, where it is
supplied, what research is being done with that, etc. to anybody. But
if we sign this Agreement, we have to disclose these secrets and also
agree to 14 of our Nuclear Power Plants to be under the scanner of
International Atomic Power Organisation.

(3) The fuel utilised to produce Atomic Power can be recycled for reuse
and this plant will be under direct supervision of IAPO.

If India does nuclear test, this agreement gets cancelled. But

(1) USA will take back all the machinery / equipments / technology
supplied to India thus far.

(2) Those 14 plants will continue to be under scanner irrespective of
the status of the agreement.

On the other hand, if any of the commitments given by USA is breached by
them, then there is no clause for cancelling this agreement.

The agreement is apparently like this... USA can either hug India or
slap India . India will not ask why are we hugged or why are we slapped.
On the other hand, India cannot hug or slap USA for breach of agreement.

This is only capsule so that easy to read and digest.

Subject: India Pledged.... Part 2

Requirement of Power

The most important requirement for India 's Economic Growth in the coming
years will be the power & infrastructure. The argument put forth
favouring the 123 Agreement says that we need Nuclear Power Production
to be increased to meet the demand.

Power Production in India

Presently following are the figures:

Thermal Power 66%

Hydel Power 26%

Solar & Wind Power 5% - Presently Rs.600 Crores are spent for producing
this power.

Nuclear Power 3% - If this is to be increased to 6%, it
requires additional Rs.50,000 Crores.

Naturally it will be wise to increase other 3 modes of power production
rather than the expensive & dangerous Nuclear Power. Isn't??

URANIUM

We used to import Uranium from various other countries. After the
Pokran Test, we are not getting it. To augment the supply, we need to
sign the 123 Agreement to get Uranium from USA . But we will have to
declare to USA from which power plant India takes raw material for
producing Atom Bomb. Why should we disclose our internal secrets to
those rascals ? Will any one allow an outsider to continuously monitor
what's happening in your Hall & Kitchen of your house? Other study
reveals that Uranium is available in India aplenty. Only hurdle is the
acquisition of land. To produce Atomic Power & Bomb in the next 40
years, the requirement of Uranium is 25,000 MT whereas the availability
is 78,000 MT across India .

PLUTONIUM

Presently 35% of Plutonium is used to produce Atomic Bombs. After
signing the Agreement, we will be allowed to use only 10%. Who are those
rascals to restrict the usage of our natural resource ? That is though
you are capable of cooking & eating 10 idlis as your breakfast, you are
allowed only 3 idlis henceforth. How can it be? Why should we accept
this?

THORIUM

As told by Dr.APJ, we have abundant Thorium. In fact we are the 2nd
largest producer of Thorium next only to Australia . India has to
explore this further for producing power. For your information, in
South India - particularly around Kanyakumari, the availability of
Thorium is abundant.

INDIA-IRAN-CHINA

USA does not like the amicable relationship between India-Iran and also
India-China. If India-China relationship gets stronger, then both these
can rule the Eastern Part of the Globe which USA wants to break as per
their divide & rule.

By signing this agreement, USA wants India to depend on it for producing
power which is going to be a crucial factor in future. There is a talk
of bringing Natural Gas from Iran to India with a big pipeline project.
USA doesn't like this proposal.

Atomic Power Technology

Whether power is produced or Bomb is produced, using Atomic power
without spoiling the infrastructure and without allowing the radiation
is always under threat. Moreover preserving the wastes coming out of
Atomic Power Plants is expensive & unsafe.

There was an accident in Three Miles Island in USA . To close this plant
nearly USD 200 Crores spent with tons & tons of concrete but yet to be
fully closed.

In an another accident at Soviet Union 's Serbia Plant, even the next
generation child are affected due to the radiation.

It will be very very expensive to defuse & close down an Atomic Power
Plant than its construction cost.

France

France has got 56 Nuclear Power stations producing 73% of the country's
total power requirement. They are catching up the problem of
eliminating the wastes / emissions from out of those plants at the same
time increase the power production capacity. Government of France is
now thinking how to reduce the power consumption in the country.

Conclusion

In view of the above danger, rather than signing the agreement and
pledging India to USA , it will be prudent to increase the Solar & Wind
Energy and more importantly Hyder Power Production can be increased by
linking all rivers across India and by constructing DAMS. (Ofcourse Dam
construction projects can be given to L&T's B&F Sector:-)

The whole process of this Agreement started in the year 2005 when
Manmohan visited USA . In a span of just 2 years a major decision of
signing this agreement has taken place with political motive. On the
contrary, neither this Government nor any other earlier Central
Government could not amend the Constitution thereby nationalise the
rivers across the country thereby effectively utilise the water
resources for both Agriculture purpose and producing Hydel Power. What
an irony?

Whenever someone is helping the needy, you can't expect the TERMS AND
CONDITIONS BETWEEN THE needy and the helper to be EQUAL??? BUT

(1) the helper's ulterior motive should be seen with broad eye because
he is capable of digging a grave behind you and

(2) better to be self-sufficient and explore new avenues with available
resources.

INDIA-CHINA- USA

India is very rich in Culture, follow Religions, Value Ethics, Level of
Education is Very Good.

China is also rich in Culture, follow Religion, better disciplined.

USA does not have Culture, does not have Ethics, only want power over
others. Particularly wants a firm footing in South Asia . Remember the
introduction EURO by European Countries and it is stronger than Dollar?
So their "DAL" cannot be boiled at " EUROPE ". They are trying in India
as already Pakistan is in their clutches.

Feedback

Above is only a capsule of information. It will be easy & better to
have an interactive session in a Hall with good aauidence on topics such
as this.

New Unreleased Video of Benazir Bhutto Murder

2008-07-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

A Rare Unreleased Video of Benazir Bhutto Murder - last few seconds before the shooting

Lal Masjid Ghazi Shaheed Last Interview about Shia Commondos

2008-07-13T01:26:00.000-07:00

Lal Masjid Ghazi Shaheed Last Interview about Shia Commondos

US warns Iran on missile threat

2008-07-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

US warns Iran on missile threat

Some of the missiles tested on Wednesday could reach Israel

The US has said it will not hesitate to defend its interests and those of its allies as Iran continues missile tests.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US had increased its security in the region and Iran should not be "confused" about US capabilities.

Iran tested missiles on Wednesday that could reach Israel, and on Thursday carried out further tests.

Meanwhile French energy giant Total has said it will not invest in Iran because it is too politically risky.

New tests

Condoleezza Rice was speaking during a visit to Georgia.

She said: "We take very strongly our obligation to defend our allies and we intend to do that.

"In the Gulf area, the United States has enhanced its security capacity, its security presence and we are working closely with all our allies... to make [sure] they are capable of defending themselves."

The Iranian military said on Thursday its Revolutionary Guards had carried out further medium- and long-range missile tests overnight.

The tests included the first night test of the Shahab-3 missile, said to have a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles), along with shore-to-sea, surface-to-surface and sea-to-air missiles, state media reported.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says this appears another gesture of defiance following the international condemnation of Wednesday's tests. Media reports appeared to be delivered as a matter of pride.

Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money'

Christophe de Margerie
Chief Executive, Total

Ms Rice said it was about time Iran "got on the right side of the international community".

The first test of the updated Shahab-3 missile, which could strike Israel, was on Wednesday.

Gen Hoseyn Salami, the Guards' air force commander, said the tests demonstrated Iran's "resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language".

State media quoted him as saying: "Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch."

William Burns, the top official handling Iranian issues at the US state department, said the launch was "very disturbing, provocative and reckless".

'Big blow'

Meanwhile, the head of Total, Christophe de Margerie, told the Financial Times the company's planned development of the huge South Pars gas field in southern Iran would not go ahead.

"Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money'," he said.

Total was the last major Western energy group to have seriously considered investing in the country's huge gas reserves.

Analysts say the move will be a big blow to the Iranian energy industry.

It means Iran is now unlikely to significantly increase its gas exports until late into the next decade, they add.

Mustafa Kamal addressed Business Community 4-July-2008 Part1

2008-07-08T00:28:00.000-07:00

Mustafa Kamal addressed Business Community Part 2

2008-07-08T00:22:00.000-07:00