Human trial of swine flu vaccine 'soon' 15 Jul 2009 The federal government has defended its policy of not following the United Kingdom's lead and rushing out a swine flu vaccine. Biopharmaceutical company CSL will start clinical vaccine trials on 240 healthy adults in Adelaide next week. The vaccine is due to be rolled out in October.
W.H.O. Says It Plans to Stop Tracking Swine Flu Cases --W.H.O.: Countries should watch for clusters of fatalities, which could indicate virus had mutated to more lethal form 17 Jul 2009 In a move that caught many public health experts by surprise, the World Health Organization quietly announced Thursday that it would stop tracking swine flu cases and deaths around the world. The announcement, made in a "briefing note" posted on the organization’s Web site late in the day, perplexed some experts, and even baffled a W.H.O. spokesman, Gregory Hartl, who said in an e-mail message, "I don’t have reliable info" about what his agency would track instead.
NHS prepares for 65,000 deaths from swine flu --'Worst case scenario' projected by Chief Medical Officer 255,000 new cases as pandemic claims 29 lives 17 Jul 2009 The NHS is planning for up to 65,000 deaths from swine flu, between three and 10 times the normal winter flu death rate, the Chief Medical Officer says. The figure was a "reasonable worst case scenario", to allow the health service to put in place "robust" plans to deal with the pandemic's first wave, the full scale of which will not be known for months. It was not a prediction of what was expected to happen, Sir Liam Donaldson said yesterday.
CIA Supervisor Claimed He Used Fire Ants On Detainee By Aram Roston 16 Jul 2009 A recently released legal memo describing interrogation techniques showed that Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of "insects" in interrogations. "You would like to place [Abu] Zubaydeh in a cramped confinement box with an insect," Jay Bybee, then a Justice Department lawyer and now a federal judge, wrote in 2002... A CIA supervisor involved in the "enhanced interrogation" program bragged to other CIA employees about using fire ants while during questioning of a top terror suspect, according to several sources formerly with the Agency. The official claimed to other Agency employees, the sources say, to have put the stinging ants on a detainee's head to help break him. The CIA insists, however, that no matter what the man said, it never took place.
CIA Assassin Program Was Nearing New Phase --Panetta Pulled Plug After Training Was Proposed 15 Jul 2009 CIA officials were proposing to activate a plan to train anti-terrorist assassination teams overseas when agency managers brought the secret program to the attention of CIA Director Leon Panetta last month, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The plan to kill top al-Qaeda leaders, which had been on the agency's back burner for much of the past eight years, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight because of proposals to initiate what one intelligence official called a "somewhat more operational phase."
House panel seeks CIA documents 15 Jul 2009 The House intelligence committee has asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-canceled program to kill al-Qaeda leaders, congressional officials said yesterday. The agency spent at least $1 million on the eight-year program before it was terminated last month, a congressional official said. Intelligence officials say it never progressed beyond planning.
Obama goes to bat for Bush wiretap program --Administration will cite national security in seeking dismissal of lawsuit by telephone customers accusing government of illegally intercepting phone calls and obtaining phone company records 16 Jul 2009 President Obama is adamant about maintaining the secrecy of a wiretapping program authorized by George W. Bush, an administration lawyer told a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday. In exceptional circumstances, Justice Department attorney Anthony Coppolino said, the president will invoke secrecy to protect "the sources and methods of detecting terrorist attacks ... the crown jewel of the United States national security administration."
KBR contractor accused of rape granted bond 15 Jul 2009 A judge has granted bond to a man accused of raping a woman in Iraq. Both the suspect and the alleged victim were in the country as contract workers at the time she claims to have been attacked. David Breda is free on $100,000 bond.
Gates: More US troops could head to Afghanistan 16 Jul 2009 The Pentagon's chief [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] said Thursday he could send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year than he'd initially expected and is considering increasing the number of soldiers in the Army. Both issues reflect demands on increasingly stressed American forces tasked with fighting two wars. So far, the Obama administration has approved sending 68,000 troops to Afghanistan by the end of 2009, including 21,000 that were added this spring.
US taxpayers fund training of Afghan police: General McChrystal asks for more support in Afghanistan 16 Jul 2009 The new US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has spoken in Washington about the growing instability in the country. Speaking to Reuters, he said the security forces, especially Afghan troops and police, should be bulked up. He said moves to further increase the size of the Afghan security force would require an international commitment to recruit, train and equip Afghan soldiers.
Israeli warships rehearse for Iran attack in Red Sea --Israeli warships have deployed to the Red Sea for what has been described as a rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran. 16 Jul 2009 Israeli and Egyptian officials said two ships had sailed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. Media reports in Israel said the two Saar-class missile ships had been sent as a "message" to the Tehran government. Israel has also deployed a submarine using the Suez Canal, but it has since returned to the Mediterranean. Defence experts in Israel said this week that the naval activity had been publicised with the intent of sending a message to Iran.
Mystery surrounds crash of 'fit to fly' Iran plane 16 Jul 2009 With Armenia's civil aviation organization confirming that the Caspian Airlines plane that crashed in Iran on Wednesday had passed all pre-flight safety inspections, the cause of the disaster remains a mystery. Flight 7908 went down near the Iranian city of Qazvin in the village of Jannat-abad at 11:33 am local time on Wednesday, killing all 168 people onboard. The plane, a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154M, was flying from Tehran to Yerevan in Armenia.
Our sanctions at work: 168 dead in Iran By Jane Stillwater 15 Jul 2009 According to the Associated Press, "A Russian-made Iranian passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, nose-diving into a field northwest of the capital and shattering into flaming pieces." And politicos all over the world are responsible for this disaster. If your country voted to sanction airplane parts to Iran, you personally killed all these people. Every single one. When are human beings ever finally going to grow up, start to evolve and put an end to all these stupid Stone Age power struggles that cost American taxpayers at least $110 for every man, woman and child on the planet? We need to stop acting like cavemen!
GC releases derailed report on Iran election 16 Jul 2009 Iran's Guardian Council has published a 'detailed report' on the country's latest presidential election, which shows how complaints about the results were dealt with. Earlier in July, the council's spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodei had announced that the report would be published to resolve any ambiguities that some people may say was surrounding the election process.
Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies 15 Jul 2009 A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find -- grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies. Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot -- that's right, "EATR" -- "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels... when suitable," reads the company's Web site. That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.
It's hard to find honesty in Western policy: envoy 14 Jul 2009 Iran's ambassador to Indonesia says finding "honesty" in Western countries' internal and foreign policies is very difficult. Ambassador Kamalvandi Behrouz noted that measures taken by the West in many countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, clearly illustrate the unjust Western policies, IRNA reported on Tuesday.
Can anyone stop Blair becoming the first president of Europe? Former PM is strong favourite to be given job -- if he can demonstrate that he wants it. 17 Jul 2009 Tony Blair is now an official candidate for the position of first president of Europe. But his ambition could be thwarted by a catch-22 – he may not secure the post unless he campaigns actively, yet he does not want to throw his hat into the ring unless he is sure of landing the job.
Fatal blasts hit Jakarta hotels 17 Jul 2009 At least six people have been killed in two separate explosions at luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, police say. The country's Metro TV reported that one blast hit the Ritz-Carlton and the other, the Marriott Hotel. Television footage showed the facade of one of the hotels had been torn off by the blast.
Part 1 of 4: Were Mini-Nuke Bombs the Cause of the WTC Destruction? By Barry Ball, Barbara Ellis, and Russ Hallberg --Portland 9/11 Legislative Alliance 16 Jul 2009 This is the second article in a four-part series stemming from our organization’s crafting and presenting a proposed bill in late 2008 to nine members of the U.S. House. It urges an independent investigation by national and international experts in science/technology to determine which of the 14 major theories about primary causal agents--fire and thermite to directed energy weapons--destroyed the World Trade Center Twin Towers. Since then, four other major theories have surfaced (nuclear reactors, mini-nuclear bombs, plasmoid gas, and flurorine) which will be included in the revised bill presented to key House members in Fall. [Part 1 is here.]
Senate Likely to Vote on Sotomayor in August 17 Jul 2009 Judge Sonia Sotomayor completed her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday... Over her four days in the witness chair, Judge Sotomayor provided Republicans little ammunition with which to block the Senate from approving her elevation to the Supreme Court, where she would become the nation’s first Hispanic justice.
Senate Republicans Won't Block Vote on Sotomayor --Decision All but Ensures Confirmation to Supreme Court 17 Jul 2009 Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor won virtual assurance of rapid confirmation yesterday when Senate Republicans announced that they do not intend to block a vote that would make her the first Hispanic on the nation's highest court, concluding three days of intense questioning.
JPMorgan Chase earns $2.7 billion --Banking giant easily surpassed Wall Street's estimates for the second quarter 16 Jul 2009 JPMorgan Chase once again proved that it has been one of the better-run banks during the financial crisis after reporting quarterly results that blew past Wall Street estimates. Buoyed by a solid performance in its investment banking division, the company said Thursday that profits in the second quarter rose 36% from a year ago to $2.7 billion, or 28 cents a share.
Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions 17 Jul 2009 A half-dozen senators friendly to labor have decided to drop a central provision of a bill that would have made it easier to organize workers. The so-called card-check provision -- which senators decided to scrap to help secure a filibuster-proof 60 votes -- would have required employers to recognize a union as soon as a majority of workers signed cards saying they wanted a union. The abandonment of card check was another example of the power of moderate Democrats to constrain their party’s more liberal legislative efforts. Though the Democrats have a 60-40 vote advantage in the Senate, and President Obama supports the measure, several moderate DemocRATs opposed the card-check provision as undemocratic.
Sycophancy we can believe in: Obama looks for Republican healthcare backing 16 Jul 2009 President Barack Obama sought on Thursday to persuade Republicans to support overhaul of the U.S. healthcare industry, his signature domestic policy goal, as the measures moved on a fast-track through congressional committees with only Democratic support.
Detroit Public Schools moves closer to bankruptcy and privatization By Walter Gilberti 16 July 2009 Detroit teachers and schools employees are in danger of having their jobs, wages and benefits sacrificed in the interest of an anti-public schools agenda driven by Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb and the Obama administration. In a two-pronged attack on the continued existence of public schools in Detroit, Bobb has hired four private professional education management firms to oversee instruction at 17 Detroit high schools, while, at the same time, ratcheting up his earlier threat to institute bankruptcy proceedings.
Previous lead stories: Some Guantanamo Bay Prisoners May Be Held Indefinitely --DoD lawyer: Any detainee, even if acquitted, could be held indefinitely 10 Jul 2009 An Obama administration official told Senators Tuesday that some detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility will most likely be held indefinitely if they pose a threat. The official spoke at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing... At a Senate hearing, Defense Department lawyer Jeh Johnson described one group of prisoners that will remain behind bars. "There will be at the end of the review a category of people that we in the administration believe must be retained for reasons of public safety and national security, and they're not necessarily people that we'll prosecute," Johnson said. Johnson also said any detainee, even if acquitted, could be held indefinitely. "And we've gone through our review period and we've made through the assessment the person is a security threat....I think it's our view that we would have the ability to detain that person," Johnson said.
US military resumes Guantanamo tribunals 16 Jul 2009 The US military has resumed the controversial Guantanamo tribunals for the first time in months with a series of pretrial hearings. The US President Barack Obama suspended the proceedings shortly after taking office in January but announced in May that some of the cases would continue, drawing criticism from human rights activists. On Wednesday, prosecutors sought delays pending a review in the cases of three defendants, said Joe DellaVedova, a Spokesman for the Military Commissions at the US naval installation in Cuba.
CIA death squads 'copied Mossad' 15 Jul 2009 Former US officials claim CIA was to hire assassination teams modeled after the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad's targeted killing specialist squads. On Tuesday, Newsweek quoted some former senior officials as saying that in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the former administration approached the Central Intelligence Agency to form the teams. The officials, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the White House broached the issue with CIA's espionage wing, the Directorate of Operations.
