Breaking: Fort Hood Suspect Faces 32 More Charges --Charges Added to 13 Counts of Attempted Premeditated Murder Already Filed Against Hasan 02 Dec 2009 The Army has charged the Fort Hood shooting suspect with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. These charges are added to the 13 premeditated murder charges filed against Maj. Nidal Hasan in the wake of the Nov. 5 shooting massacre at Fort Hood. The Army said the attempted murder charges filed Tuesday were related to the 30 soldiers and two civilian police officers injured in the shooting at a soldier processing center on the central Texas post.
Taliban vow to resist US surge in Afghanistan 02 Dec 2009 The Taliban vows to boost attacks against the US forces in Afghanistan, following Barack Obama's pledge to deploy thousands more troops to the war-torn country. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi said in a statement on Wednesday that such moves would "provoke stronger resistance." "Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from Afghanistan," AFP quoted Ahamdi as saying. The statement also emphasized that the Americans would face the same fate as the Soviet troops when they retreated in defeat in the 1980s. "This is a colonizing strategy which is securing the colonizing interests of American investors, and it shows that America has dirty plans not only for Afghanistan but for the region," the statement read. [You know you're in trouble when... you realize that the Taliban makes much more sense than the US government. --LRP]
Out-Bushing Bush: US to increase troops in Afghanistan by 40% 02 Dec 2009 The US president has decided to raise the number of American troops in Afghanistan by some 40 percent, a move that would see Washington deploy another 30,000 soldiers. In a live televised speech at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York on Tuesday, Barack Obama said the troops would be deployed in the first part of 2010. "As commander in chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan," he told the cadets.
President Obama orders 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in major escalation of war 02 Dec 2009 President Barack Obama has ordered a major but temporary escalation of the war in Afghanistan, sending an additional 30,000 US troops within six months while pledging to a sceptical American public that he would begin bringing forces home in July 2011... The troop buildup will begin almost immediately, with 9,000 US marines expected to be in place by Christmas in Helmand for an offensive alongside British forces against Taliban strongholds, according to officials on both sides of the Atlantic.
NATO pledges 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan 02 Dec 2009 NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance will send at least 5,000 more troops to fight militancy in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels that the NATO member states were ready to throw their support behind US President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy.
Canada's area of Afghan operations expands 02 Dec 2009 A river runs through it. So do the Taliban. And the rough, dust-blown Arghandab district north of Kandahar city now belongs to Canada. It's a gift from NATO, which has extended Ottawa's area of operations and put it in military command of some 1,600 U.S. and Afghan troops. The forces, already in the country, will have Canada at the helm in the new year and may be reinforced by another contingent.
Rudd to send more police and aid workers 02 Dec 2009 Australia will send more police trainers and aid workers to Afghanistan to help with civilian reconstruction, a core pillar of Barack Obama's new military strategy. Kevin Rudd, who met the President in Washington on Monday, ruled out sending more troops and did not give a number of police and aid workers.
Hoyer Says Bush Officials 'Turned Tail' in Afghanistan 01 Dec 2009 As President Barack Obama prepared to deliver a major speech on Afghanistan, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) lashed out at the Bush regime’s handling of the country, accusing Bush officials of prematurely abandoning the effort there. "Frankly, they turned tail," Hoyer told reporters. "That’s pretty tough language, but I get angry when I hear Vice President [sic] Cheney talking about a job that they started but didn’t finish, and was worse in 2008 in December than it was six years previous, with a resurgent Taliban and a resurgent al Qaeda and a very difficult situation in Pakistan."
Guantanamo Detainee Seeks Dismissal of Charges, Cites Torture 01 Dec 2009 Lawyers for the first detainee from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to face prosecution in the U.S. asked a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss the criminal charges against him, saying his lengthy detention overseas and the use of interrogation techniques "amounting to torture" violated his constitutional rights. In a motion Tuesday, lawyers for Ahmed Ghailani said the U.S. government made a "conscious and deliberate" decision to house him for two years at secret Central Intelligence Agency "black sites" and subject him to so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" in an effort to make him an intelligence asset, rather than bring him to the U.S. in a timely manner to face trial.
Officials: Iraq likely to postpone election 02 Dec 2009 Iraq's scheduled January 'elections' may be postponed by more than a month because of a dispute over an election law, officials said Wednesday, a delay that could threaten the planned U.S. withdrawal of combat troops. It is unclear what a long delay would mean for the United States, which is scheduled to end combat missions in August. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who heads a small bloc in parliament, said a preliminary proposal from various political factions calls for moving the election to Feb. 27, but it also could be further pushed to March 1.
US military: airstrike kills 1 in northeast Iraq 02 Dec 2009 The U.S. military says an American airstrike killed one gunman after a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol was attacked northeast of Baghdad. The military says five gunmen attacked the patrol Wednesday as it was searching a building in the town of Sadiyah in the volatile Diyala province.
US Dept of Defense - Iraqi Police Arrest 8 Terror Suspects 02 Dec 2009 Iraqi police arrested eight terrorism suspects today... military officials in Iraq reported. A Salahuddin provincial police unit and U.S. advisors searched two buildings in a rural area north of Baghdad for a suspected al-Qaida [al-CIAduh] in Iraq member coordinating suicide bombings in the region. Based on preliminary questioning and evidence discovered, police arrested four criminal suspects. In a separate operation near Sadiyah, northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi police arrested four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members.
Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies --The use of depleted uranium in U.S. and coalition weaponry in the 1991 war and the 2003 Iraq invasion is well documented. 01 Dec 2009 ...The spotlight is on a stealth killer likely to stalk Iraqis for years to come. Incidences of cancer, deformed babies and other health problems have risen sharply, Iraqi officials say, and many suspect contamination from weapons used in years of war and accompanying unchecked pollution [depleted uranium] as a cause. "We have seen new kinds of cancer that were not recorded in Iraq before war in 2003 [when the US arrived], types of fibrous (soft tissue) cancer and bone cancer. These refer clearly to radiation as a cause," said Jawad al-Ali, an oncologist in Iraq's second city of Basra.
'In terms of size and potential, the Basra region remains one of the most attractive areas of future growth for the international oil industry.' Oil Companies Look to the Future in Iraq 01 Dec 2009 More than six and a half years after the United States-led invasion here that many believed was about oil, the major oil companies are finally gaining access to Iraq’s petroleum reserves. The companies seem to have calculated that it is worth their while to accept deals with limited profit opportunities now, in order to cash in on more lucrative development deals in the future, oil industry analysts say. [Will Iraq's (real) insurgency allow this corporaterrorism to continue?]
Blackwater founder cutting ties with company 02 Dec 2009 The man who built Blackwater USA into one of the world's most
Erik, Prince Of Spies: CIA Targeted Al Q in Germany Without Telling Germany by Marc Ambinder 02 Dec 2009 In a new Vanity Fair article, Blackwater CEO Erik Prince... offers details on the targeted assassination program that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated earlier this year... According to Prince, the Blackwater team traveled to Germany, surveilled Al Qaeda financier Mamoun Darkazanli, and prepared to assassinate him. The CIA did not inform its own station chief that the team was in the country, and they did not inform the host country. What Prince describes is a serious violation of NATO intelligence sharing arrangements -- and certainly provides an example of why the CIA's association with Blackwater became so controversial within the agency... As recently as two months ago, Prince and a team were overseeing intelligence missions in one of the Axis of Evil countries -- Iran, probably -- from a location inside the United States.
Iran releases five British yachtsmen 02 Dec 2009 Iran has released five British nationals who were detained by Iranian naval forces after their yacht strayed into southern Persian Gulf waters. "Five Britons, who have been detained after their illegal entrance into the waters of the Islamic Republic near Siri island, were freed a few hours ago," Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday.
Minot Missile wing now in Global Strike Command 02 Dec 2009 The men and women of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base became part of Air Force Global Strike Command Tuesday. Global Strike Command is the Air Force's newest major command and will oversee all of its nuclear forces. The nuclear-capable assets the intercontinental ballistic missiles of Air Force Space Command come under Global Strike Command as of Tuesday.
High court makes "historic" terrorism evidence ruling --The decision is another judicial defeat for ministers over security measures, beefed up after the September 11 attacks. 01 Dec 2009 London's High Court ruled against the British government on Tuesday over the use of secret evidence to deny terrorism suspects bail in what campaigners called an "historic" judgement. The government expressed disappointment at the "unhelpful" verdict, handed down over the case brought by two men suspected of terrorism-related activities... The court ruled that a person could not be denied bail solely on the basis of secret evidence.
Feds 'Pinged' Sprint GPS Data 8 Million Times Over a Year By Kim Zitter 01 Dec 2009 Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with customer location data more than 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009, according to a company manager who disclosed the statistic at a non-public interception and wiretapping conference in October. The manager also revealed the existence of a previously undisclosed web portal that Sprint provides law enforcement to conduct automated "pings" to track users. Through the website, authorized agents can type in a mobile phone number and obtain global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the phone.
Heads up! HHS lunatics want billion$ for US pharmaterrorists to make new vaccines using dog cells and genetically engineered E.Coli. U.S. health-threat response to be reviewed 02 Dec 2009 Citing the balky swine flu vaccination campaign and other shortcomings in the nation's medical defenses, a top Obama administration official has announced a major review of the government's efforts to develop new
New US vaccine production techniques: Genetically modified insect cells, E. coli, caterpillar ovaries 24 Nov 2009 Spurred by $487 million in federal funding, a sprawling new vaccine factory is opening in North Carolina Tuesday that will produce shots using dog cells instead of chicken eggs. A Connecticut biotech company has also applied to sell a vaccine employing a radically different approach involving a genetically engineered virus infecting insect cells... Baxter International won approval last month to sell an H1N1 vaccine in Europe that uses a decades-old line of African green monkey kidney cells, and it is working on a vaccine for the United States. Protein Sciences of Meriden, Conn., has applied to the FDA for approval to sell a vaccine made by genetically engineering flu genes into a worm virus, which then infects cells from caterpillar ovaries to produce the necessary proteins to make vaccine. VaxInnate of Cranbury, N.J., for example, produced an experimental H1N1 vaccine using genetically engineered E.coli bacteria, and Vical of San Diego just won a $1.25 million contract from the Navy to develop an H1N1 vaccine that involves injecting DNA sequences from the virus directly into people.
The reality behind the swine flu conspiracy By Irina Galushko 26 Nov 2009 ...[T]he WHO may find itself coughing up explanations, as more and more scientists and health researchers, and even journalists, are starting to question the organization’s motives behind raising the alert so quickly. According to the Danish Daily Information newspaper, the WHO and pharmaceutical companies are suffering from the profit bug. Or, to put it simply, the chief health care organization in the world has teamed up with the drug makers to create a phantom monster -- and to rake in cash by selling a remedy for it.
Conn. AG probes flu drug prices 01 Dec 2009 Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has begun asking major pharmacies for details about their Tamiflu pricing policies as part of an investigation into complaints of erratic and excessive prices for the flu drug. Blumenthal has asked CVS Caremark Corporation, Rite Aid Corporation and Walgreen Co., for immediate information, including details about their current prices and prices pre-dating the current H1N1 flu pandemic and ensuing Tamiflu shortage.
Seattle police shoot man suspected of killing police officers --Suspect shot and killed days after four officers died in execution-style ambush 01 Dec 2009 A lone policeman on routine patrol today shot and killed an accused child rapist at the centre of a huge manhunt after the murder of four other police officers in a Seattle-area cafe. Maurice Clemmons, 37, managed to elude the police for two days as law enforcement officials laid siege to an empty house and trawled the Seattle area. He was eventually confronted by an officer patrolling a working-class district of the city who spotted a stolen car in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
$24 million settlement reached over disabled parking permits --Texas settles class action lawsuit filed against Department of Transportation 02 Dec 2009 The State of Texas will pay $24 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed against the Department of Transportation more than a dozen years ago claiming that the $5 fee the state charged for disabled parking placards violated federal law. The settlement represents one of the largest -- if not the largest -- single checks the state has written to settle a legal claim, according to the comptroller's office.
Britain faces return to Victorian levels of poverty 30 Nov 2009 Labour's strategy for tackling poverty has reached the end of the road and Britain risks a return to Victorian levels of inequality, according to a major two-year study seen by The Independent.
FDIC: Quarter of U.S. households have limited or no access to banks 02 Dec 2009 One-quarter of American households -- about 60 million people -- have limited or no access to banks or other traditional financial services, with low-income and black families among the hardest hit, according to a government report released Wednesday. The report [a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. survey] found that nearly 22 percent of black households and 71 percent of families earning less than $30,000 do not use banks.
New York state lawmakers vote against gay marriage 02 Dec 2009 New York state lawmakers voted against legalizing gay marriage on Wednesday, dashing hopes of gay rights activists that it would become the sixth U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to wed. The New York state senate voted down the legislation 38 votes to 24. Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat who supports gay marriage, had said he would sign the bill into law if it were passed.
America's Hottest Species: New Report Highlights America's 10 Most Global-warming Endangered Species as Decision-makers Gather in Copenhagen 01 Dec 2009 America’s top 10 endangered wildlife, birds, fish, and plants affected by global warming are highlighted in a new report released today by the Endangered Species Coalition. The report, America's Hottest Species, demonstrates ways that our changing climate is increasing the risk of extinction for 11 species on the brink of disappearing forever. "Global warming is like a bulldozer shoving species, already on the brink of extinction, perilously closer to the edge of existence," said Leda Huta, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition.
Quick action! Help Polar Bears Protect their Home--Support Critical Habitat (NWF) 02 Dec 2009 The federal government just proposed designating more than 200,000 square miles of sea, ice and land as critical polar bear habitat. This could give polar bears a fighting chance against the global warming that's pushing this iconic species towards extinction. But, the U.S. Department of the Interior may allow more oil and gas drilling to occur in the same area, disturbing the habitats that polar bears need to raise their young, and increasing the risks of devastating oil spills. Send the message to the Department of the Interior to make sure they keep their commitment to protect polar bears!
Supreme Court Overturns Decision on Detainee Photos 01 Dec 2009 The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a lower court’s order that called for the release of photographs of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan being abused tortured by American military personnel. The high court told the lower court to re-examine the issue. The justices sent the case back to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, which ruled in 2008 that the pictures should be released to the public. But at the request of the Obama administration, the Second Circuit later postponed its own order, setting the stage for the administration to take the case [Department of Defense v. A.C.L.U., No. 09-160] to the Supreme Court.
CLG: A Tiger Woods-free zone --By Lori Price 01 Dec 2009 Instead of covering, oh, I don't know... the Chilcot Inquiry or the Af/Pak troop/KBR/Blackwater surge, we're talking about a busted window on the SUV of this corporate butt-kisser. That and the two bimbos who wormed their way into a White House dinner because a moron in the Secret Service wants to send the world a message that you can *get* to President Obama. Now, imagine if the sinewy blonde was an overweight male Muslim. My God! The guy would already be on death row. I can just see the lower-thirds on Faux News: 'Muslim Terrorist Inches From Obama at White House Dinner.'
