CIA Had Secret Plan to Assassinate Terror Foes --Initiative at Heart of Spat With Congress Examined Ways to Seize, Kill Terror Chiefs 13 Jul 2009 A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill 'al Qaeda' operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter. The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn't clear, and the CIA won't comment on its substance. According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts.
New reports of massive spying, criminality by US government By Patrick Martin 13 Jul 2009 Reports in the American press on Friday and Saturday reveal massive illegality in the US government and intelligence apparatus. They demonstrate not only routine violations of democratic rights through illegal spying and wiretapping both at home and abroad, but also disregard for legally required reports to Congress... The military/intelligence apparatus operates according to its own rules, disclosing or withholding information from its supposed civilian superiors only when it is felt politically necessary. What is being revealed... is the existence of a "state within the state," a secret government that continues to function regardless of the individual who inhabits the White House.
Stop bombing us: Osama isn't here, says Pakistan 12 Jul 2009 Osama bin Laden and the top Al-Qaeda leadership are not in Pakistan [right, the latter is in Langley], making US missile attacks against them futile, according to the country’s interior minister. "If Osama was in Pakistan we would know, with all the thousands of troops we have sent into the tribal areas in recent months," Rehman Malik told The Sunday Times. "If he and all these four or five top people were in our area they would have been caught, the way we are searching."
In Afghan war, Brown accused of dereliction of duty 13 Jul 2009 With Britain mourning the recent deaths of eight soldiers, Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces accusations of "dereliction of duty" in his handling of the war in Afghanistan. Pressure has been piling up on the British government after the deaths of eight soldiers on Friday pushed Britain's toll in Afghanistan to 184 from a force of 9,000 -- five more than its total losses in Iraq.
Mounting Casualties in Afghanistan Spur Concern Death --Tolls Compare to Iraq as Number of U.S. and NATO Forces Surge; Criticism of War in U.K. Heats Up 13 Jul 2009 A series of attacks in Afghanistan has left four U.S. Marines and eight British soldiers dead in recent days, stoking concern among U.S. and allied forces over a surge in battlefield deaths, as thousands of troops pour into the country. The mounting deaths have contributed to harsh criticism of the war in a handful of NATO countries that have lost soldiers in recent months, including Canada, Germany and France. It has been an especially divisive issue in Britain, which has lost 15 soldiers in the past 11 days, including the eight killed Friday. Those deaths have brought Britain's total losses to 184, a tally that exceeds the 179 British military personnel killed in Iraq.
Afghanistan: More helicopters will not prevent deaths, Defence Secretary claims 13 Jul 2009 Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, has said that increasing the number of military helicopters in Afghanistan would not prevent all deaths among British soldiers there. Eight soldiers were killed in 24 hours last week, and the Afghan death toll now stands at 184, more than the total suffered in Iraq. Military commanders and opposition parties say that some of those casualties might have been avoided if more troops were able to move in helicopters instead of by road.
Iraq inquiry video shows soldier screaming at prisoners 13 Jul 2009 Video footage shown to the Baha Mousa death inquiry today shows a British soldier screaming abuse at detainees. Six prisoners with sandbags on their heads are seen spread around the edges of a bare room. Their backs are to the walls and their arms are secured with plastic handcuffs. The sound of moaning, whimpering and panting is heard as the detainees are forced to maintain "stress positions".
Baha Mousa public inquiry to examine allegations of torture in British custody 13 Jul 2009 A major public inquiry into the death of an Iraqi civilian called Baha Mousa in British military custody with the former Queen's Lancashire Regiment will begin on Monday. Hotel receptionist Mr Mousa died while being detained by soldiers from the QLR in 2003. The wide-ranging inquiry into his death and the British Army's use of so-called conditioning techniques to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation will take place in central London. While in the custody of the Preston-based Queen's Lancashire Regiment, the receptionist was beaten to death, sustaining 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.
U.K.: We revoked Israel arms licenses, but it's no embargo 13 Jul 2009 The British Embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed Monday that the United Kingdom has revoked a number of arms export licenses to Israel following the Gaza war, but insisted that the move did not constitute a partial embargo. "There is no partial U.K. arms embargo on Israel," the embassy said in a statement to Haaretz. "U.K. policy remains to assess all export licenses to Israel against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria."
U.S. ambassador to Iraq unhurt by convoy bomb 13 Jul 2009 A roadside bomb exploded near a convoy carrying U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Chris Hill in southern Iraq, but the envoy was unhurt, the U.S. embassy said on Monday. Hill was traveling in Dhi Qar province, about 300 km (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad, on Sunday when the bomb struck his convoy, U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said.
13 doctors demand inquest into Dr David Kelly's death --13 specialist doctors compiled a detailed medical dossier that rejects Hutton conclusion on grounds that a cut to the ulnar artery, which is small and difficult to access, could not have caused death 13 Jul 2009 The death of Government scientist David Kelly returned to haunt Labour today as a group of doctors announced that they were mounting a legal challenge to overturn the finding of suicide. Dr Kelly's body was found six years ago this week in woods close to his Oxfordshire home, shortly after he was exposed as the source of a BBC news report questioning the grounds for war in Iraq. Unusually, no coroner's inquest was held into his death. The only official verdict has come from the Hutton Inquiry, commissioned by Tony Blair, which concluded that Dr Kelly died from loss of blood after cutting his wrist with a blunt gardening knife. Critics regarded the report as a 'whitewash', and Mr Blair remains acutely sensitive to the accusation that he has 'blood on his hands' over the scientist's death.
New! CLG Pandemic Action Alerts 12 Jul 2009 Petition against mandatory vaccines; contact the White House, US Congress [All hands on deck! Please sign CLG's petition - ours and others with the same goal you see on the Web - and get ready to *raise holy heck* if the deadly, pharma-terrorists' vaccines are mandatory! CLG has been warning of this for years. We have documented, over and over, the fact that the US government was funding and creating killer flu in labs. We cited legislation - passed under Bush two days before Christmas when *no one* was paying attention - giving US pharmaceutical companies full-blown immunity from liability for their deadly products used during a 'health emergency.' We showed that the DoD would carry out military missions and enforce quarantines. Most of these articles would appear on the Web on a Saturday night and vanish within days. The CLG has also revealed numerous deaths -- mathematically odds-defying -- of microbiologists under bizarre circumstances. This ultimate weapon of mass distraction has suddenly emerged so that discussion of the Bush Depression; Bush/Cheney torture, war crimes and treason; and the Iraq/Af/Pak war money pit -- vanishes from the landscape. --Lori Price]
Swine flu virus related to 1918 pandemic 13 Jul 2009 Swine flu penetrates deeper into the lungs and can inflict more damage than ordinary seasonal flu, scientists have found. The discovery could explain why the virus is able to cause severe illness in people with no underlying health problems. Experts also believe swine flu is closely related to strains responsible for the 1918 pandemic which killed up to 40 million people worldwide. [Want to know where it came from? Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice.]
Swine flu 'five times more virulent' --Experts warned that any cluster of deaths could indicate the virus had mutated and become nastier. 13 Jul 2009 Swine flu has been blamed for two more deaths -- of a family doctor and a six-year-old girl -- as the first full analysis of the virus shows it is five times more virulent than ordinary seasonal flu. The first full analysis of the H1N1 virus, published in Nature, shows it causes more lung damage in animals than seasonal flu. For two strains of virus tested, five times less was needed to cause the same damage as seasonal flu.
New flu "unstoppable", WHO says, calls for vaccine 13 Jul 2009 The CDC estimates at least a million people are infected in the United States alone and clinics everywhere are advised not to test each and every patient, so keeping an accurate count of cases will be impossible. The United States has documented 211 deaths and WHO counted 429 early last week. Kieny said WHO would also work to get better viruses [!] for companies from which to make vaccines.
Vaccine May Be More Dangerous Than Swine Flu --Vaccine contains squalene and gp120 By Dr. Russell Blaylock 07 Jul 2009 This virus continues to be an enigma for virologists. In the April 30, 2009 issue of Nature, a virologist was quoted as saying,"Where the hell it got all these genes from we don’t know." Extensive analysis of the virus found that it contained the original 1918 H1N1 flu virus, the avian flu virus (bird flu), and two new H3N2 virus genes from Eurasia. Debate continues over the possibility that swine flu is a genetically engineered virus. ...Baxter Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Pharmaceuticals have had agreements with the World Health Organization to produce a pandemic vaccine. The Baxter company has been associated with two deadly scandals. The first event occurred in 2006 when hemophiliac components were contaminated with HIV virus and injected in tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children. Baxter continued to release the HIV contaminated vaccine even after the contamination was known. The second event occurred recently when it was discovered that Baxter had released a seasonal flu vaccine containing the bird flu virus, which would have produced a real world pandemic, to 18 countries. Fortunately, astute lab workers in the Czech Republic discovered the deadly combination and blew the whistle before a worldwide disaster was unleashed. Despite these two deadly events, WHO maintains an agreement with Baxter Pharmaceuticals to produce the world's pandemic vaccine.
CBS "60 Minutes" documentary on 1976 U.S. swine flu epidemic 19 Jun 2009 It aired only once and was never shown again. (Video)
Everyone in the UK to be vaccinated against swine flu pandemic 13 Jul 2009 The entire UK population is to be vaccinated against with swine flu following the death of the first healthy British patient. The NHS will receive the new vaccine in the next few weeks and is expected to fast-track the drug through regulatory approval within five days. However, NHS Scotland chief executive Kevin Woods recently said in a letter to local NHS board officials: "According to current delivery estimates vaccine for 100 per cent of the population could be received by November 2010." [Yeah, they might want to lower their estimates. The other day I saw a comment: 'We'll take your shot after you take ours.']
Swine flu strikes Downing Street – and almost reaches G8 summit [Damn. I must say, that would have solved nearly every one of the world's problems.] 13 Jul 2009 The first case of swine flu has struck Downing Street and it nearly caused a diplomatic crisis. Gordon Brown's senior climate change adviser Michael Jacobs was banned from attending the G8 summit in Italy for fear he would pass the contagious disease to Barack Obama and other world leaders. It is understood that Jacobs contracted the disease while involved in climate change talks in Mexico.
Sotomayor hearings: Feingold takes a swipe at Bush administration 13 Jul 2009 Sen. Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, singled out what he called one of the most important qualities for a Supreme Court justice: courage. He brought up courage while recounting actions by the high court to counter anti-terrorism efforts by the Bush administration. The implication: The court showed courage standing up against President [sic] Bush. He noted that, in recent years, the Supreme Court repeatedly rebuffed the Bush administration on a number of fronts.
Sotomayor Addresses Senators as Her Confirmation Hearing Begins 13 Jul 2009 Sonia Sotomayor, the first nominee to the Supreme Court by a Democratic president in 15 years, told the Senate Judiciary Committee today, on the opening day of her confirmation hearing, that her judicial philosophy can be distilled to just a few words: "fidelity to the law."
Text of Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor 13 Jul 2009 Text of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, as delivered.
Obama Selects Alabama Doctor as Surgeon General 13 Jul 2009 President Obama has chosen Regina Benjamin, a family physician from Alabama, to be the next Surgeon General, filling a key public health post ahead of an expected surge in the H1N1 flu next fall. Benjamin gained fame through her public efforts to rebuild her rural health clinic after Hurricane Katrina devastated it. She founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in 1990 and rebuilt it after the hurricane.
AIG seeks to pay $235 million in bonuses By Andre Damon 13 July 2009 American International Group (AIG), the credit insurer that received a $40 billion government bailout in March, last week requested government approval for paying out $235 million in bonuses to its top employees. When, in March of this year, AIG announced that it planned to pay over $165 million dollars in bonuses, a public outcry arose. On March 19, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a measure to tax executive bonuses at companies receiving TARP assistance. The bill stalled in the Senate after Obama came out against it.
Previous lead stories: H1N1 flu: UK to vaccinate 30 people an hour in 'military-style operation' --Swine flu vaccine to be cleared after five-day trial 12 Jul 2009 When the new vaccine for swine flu arrives in Britain, regulators said this weekend, it could be approved for use in just five days. Regulators at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said the fast-tracked procedure has involved clinical trials of a "mock-up" vaccine similar to the one that will be used for the biggest mass vaccination programme in generations. It will be introduced into the general population while regulators continue to carry out simultaneous clinical trials. The first patients in the queue for the jab - being supplied to the UK by GSK and Baxter Healthcare - may understandably be a little nervous at any possible side effects. A mass vaccination campaign against swine flu in America was halted in the 1970s after some people suffered Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system.
Cheney Ordered C.I.A. Concealment of Terror Program 12 Jul 2009 The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday. The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program [Cheney's 'executive assassination ring,' revealed by Seymour Hersh?] from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush regime had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.
Probe of Alleged Torture Weighed --White House Has Resisted Inquiry 12 Jul 2009 Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with administration officials who would prefer the issues remain in the past, according to three sources familiar with his thinking. The White House successfully resisted efforts by congressional Democrats to establish a "truth and reconciliation" panel.
