Slow-motion videotape of the July 27 accident shows a dark object rising in an arc from a wood near the Lviv airfield close the flight path of the Su-27, which went on to crash into the crowd.
(by Dr. SteveMizrach of Samizdat) October Surprise, Iran-Contra, Noriega, Wackenhut, Iraqgate, and BCCI
Before he died in an ineptly performed 'suicide,' the young journalist Danny Casolaro was working on a book that he claimed tied together many of the 'gates' and 'miniscandals' surrounding the Bush presidency.
The Wackenhut Security Corporation of Miami, Florida, has long been suspected of being a CIA front. The right-wing politics of George Wackenhut, who had ties to Belgian fascists and South American death squads, are well known. But few people realize that Wackenhut, a small company with "only a few" employees, gets some choice assignments, including guarding nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons facilities, the Alaskan Oil pipeline, and several American embassies; or that its board of directors contains several luminaries from the FBI, CIA, and Army Intelligence, including Bobby Ray Inman. Wackenhut has led a covert crusade against whistleblowers at many nuclear power plants, using wiretaps to eavesdrop on them and various 'subtle' techniques to convince them not to talk; it also spied on Chuck Hamel, a critic of the Aleyska Oil Consortium's drilling policies, by setting up a fake environmental-law firm which sought to "pump" him for his sources. Wackenhut may have even used some operatives to try and help topple President Perez of Venezuela through a (failed) military coup. It appears that Michael Riconsciuto, a convicted drug dealer, claims to have met with George Wackenhut, John Amarell (of Wackenhut's Executive Board), and Dr. John Philip Nichols (a CIA operative conducting shady activities on the Cabazon Indian Reservation in the California desert) in Las Vegas in the early 80s to discuss the theft of Inslaw's PROMIS software; he says Wackenhut asked him "how his software work was coming along." (Supposedly, Nichols was using the Cabazon reservation as his own private munitions proving ground, testing things ranging from super-lethal Fuel-Air Explosives and chemical-biological weapons to Electromagnetic Pulse [EMP] generators.)
Conspiracy report on helicopter crash in July 1991 in which several Wackenhut employees were killed. (alt.alien.visitors. via www.totse.com)
8/6/95.
"The dead journalist, Joseph Daniel 'Danny' Casolaro was found dead August 10th in a motel room in West Virginia. His wrists were slashed seven times on each wrist and a suicide note was found nearby. The only manuscript of his book, with accompanying notes, WAS MISSING. "The book, provisionally titled 'The Octopus', was meant to be an explosive expose of misdeeds by the Justice Department under the Reagan administration.
(by Voxfux)
The following article is no longer on the VoxFux website. As of August 8th, 2002 the entire website content has been removed --leaving only a disclaimer warning that the death of the site operator would be a covert forces assassination. It has been the principle focus of State Department and military strategists since presidential National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski outlined it twenty years ago as the principle American “Imperative.” Meaning: To survive, we MUST conquer. But what of all those nations that we will be conquering? According to Brzezinski and his cabal of adherents in the Military and State Department whom his writings are a biblical tome - it’s for their own good. The problem Brzezinski says is that most average American’s don’t have a taste for crusades of global conquest... Unless...there’s a sudden threat.
In his latest book, The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski drills his followers no less than four times that only sudden and terrorfying threats would rouse Americans to the task of global conquest. So now we are standing by waiting for the dirty bomb to make it’s debut as the next threat of the month to capture the limited imagination of the somnambulistic American sheepdom. In the age of simulations this poor mans nuclear bomb, the dirty bomb, is an accurate reflection of the bankrupt and desperate warring American industrialists who assuredly will be the ones wielding it’s terrorfying force against us. (The trail of acquisition of a genuine nuclear bomb is too much to cover for this group so the easiest solution is the dirty bomb)
Brzezinski’s book is the defacto Bible of the Bush Group and now is standard coffee table decor in every office in the state department and pentagon.
JFK: "You know, they have an atom bomb on the third floor of their embassy."
(American College of Emergency Physicians)
One of the most famous misdiagnoses occurred recently in New York when a 7-month-old who had contracted cutaneous anthrax was initially diagnosed as having a brown recluse spider bite, even though these spiders are not native to New York.
Doctors examining scores of protesters are expressing increasing concern that some may be suffering from the effects of nerve gas.
Israeli military sources said the Palestinians are trying to use cyanide or nerve gas in suicide bombings.
It costs less than $10 per person to manufacture and distribute the WMD kits in Israel.
Some released a kind of gas we called ghaz 'aasad ("nerve gas") that had orange or red coloured smoke when they were thrown. If you inhaled it you would get hysterical and you would have to be taken to the hospital. Nothing would stop it. The effect was incredible. You would suddenly find yourself starting to panic for no apprent reason. Everyone around would start to panic and experience extreme confusion.
May 23, 2002
Film critic Ted Shen has perhaps unintentionally stumbled on one of the most terrible blood libels and outrageous statements regarding Israel perpetuated by Palestinians and their supporters, in his review of the film Gaza Strip (Critic's Choice, April 19). Based on this narrative, the Israelis are accused of deliberately poisoning Arab women and children. This propaganda echoes the centuries-old anti-Semitic canard that Jews poison Christian children.
October 2, 1998
The state-run Israeli airline, El Al, admitted on Thursday that its aircraft was carrying a chemical which is used in the production of the nerve gas sarin. A report published by the Dutch health ministry showed that local doctors believed up to 300 residents could be suffering from effects caused by the accident.
(By Barry Chamish -Israeli Conspiracy mongerer)
During much of his youth, Jesus lived in Britain with his uncle Joseph of Armithea, who ran a lucrative tin trading business between Cornwall and Phoenicia.
The population of the Jordan River Basin, which includes Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and southern Syria, has grown six-fold since the late 1940s when it was secure in water. Now it would need about 15 billion cubic metres of water a year to be self-sufficient, but has only three to five billion. Allan says the shortfall is not publicly discussed.
As one senior British official put it: “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”
Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies: Ultimatum Urged To Pentagon Board. Murawiec's PowerPoint scenario, which is reproduced for the first time below, makes him sound like an aspiring Dr. Strangelove.
Will Saddam launch squadrons of his pilots in kamikaze bio-chem or "dirty nuke" attacks upon 7,000 US troops already stationed in the broiling Kuwaiti desert.
A Perth schoolboy's suggestion that rose petals be scattered on the streets of Manhattan to commemorate September 11 has reportedly been taken up.
A three-km (two-mile) thick cloud of pollution shrouding southern Asia is threatening the lives of millions of people in the region and could have an impact much further afield, according to a United Nations-sponsored study.
DARPA's Information Awareness Office is beginning the bidding process for the development of a next-generation information handling system, Total Information Awareness (TIA). The system will capture, cross index and maintain pedabytes of information including: financial, education, travel, medical, veterinary, country entry, place/event entry, transportation, housing, "critical resources", government and communications. By the way: DARPA's Information Awareness Office is run by by John Poindexter, who was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government and destroying evidence.(Metafilter)
Feds Open 'Total' Tech Spy System (Wired.com)
Had Winston Churchill been alive in the months subsequent to Sept. 11 he might well have described U.S. intelligence agencies' performance prior to the attack thusly: Never have so many known so much and done so little.
The bad news: Everyone is going to know your medical history without your approval. The good news: Free prozac. (Metafilter)
MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A black couple called authorities after they found a 6-foot wooden cross burning near their home early Friday morning.
A computer programmer hailed as a hero for remaining with his quadriplegic friend rather than flee the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center was laid to rest on the Mount of Olives in Israel on Monday.
NEW YORK --Authorities charged 19 out of 20 city plumbing inspectors with extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for approval on plumbing projects. The charges come just four months after more than a dozen city tax assessors were charged with bribery.
Elgindy's attempt to liquidate the trust accounts of his children on Sept. 10 might "perhaps" mean he had "pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, and, rather than report it, he was attempting to profit from that information."
Cloned cows producing human antibodies could soon be drafted into the battle against a wide variety of microbes, including those attractive to terrorists.
When scientists figured out that sea water drowned groves of tall trees up and down the coast of Washington state the same year a tsunami hit Japan, they theorized that a massive 9.0 earthquake in the Pacific most likely triggered both events.
Tobacco companies in the 1980's and 1990's put pressure on drug companies to limit their marketing of nicotine gum and skin patches that help people quit smoking, according to a new study of tobacco industry documents.
(spaceweather.com)
AURORA WARNING: A coronal mass ejection (pictured right) billowed away from the vicinity of sunspot 61 on August 14th. It wasn't squarely Earth-directed. Nevertheless, the expanding could strike our planet's magnetic field on August 15th or 16th. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10%-20% chance of severe geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers in New Zealand, northern Europe, Canada and the across the northern tier of US states should be alert for auroras.
BIG SUNSPOT: Sunspot #69 is big. It spans an area equal to thirty-two Pacific Oceans and poses a threat for powerful X-class solar flares. You can see this spot yourself, but never look directly at the Sun. Use safe solar projection techniques.
Here it is hitting Earth from HAARP data in Alaska.
08/12/02
Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria (Aug. 12) - Europe's flooding death toll swelled to at least 74 on Monday as torrential rains unleashed raging waters that swept away Russian tourists, triggered landslides in Germany and Switzerland and shut down shipping on the Danube River in Austria.
In the Czech Republic, rivers overflowed their banks forcing thousands from their homes and threatening the historic capital, Prague, where workers were moving books and important documents to higher floors in the National Library and the Senate. Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla declared a state of emergency in Prague and the regions of Bohemia, Plzen and Karlovy Vary.
Russia was by far the hardest-hit area, with at least 58 deaths. Giant cranes hoisted ruined cars and other debris out of the Black Sea on Monday, and cleanup crews scoured coastal beaches in search of more bodies.
Thousands of Russian tourists who had descended on the Black Sea Coast for their summer vacations were caught in the surprise flooding. Many remain stranded, their cars swept out to sea by a wall of water that came rushing down from the mountains.
As many as 4,000 tourists were still trapped in Shirokaya Balka, a scenic coastal village that was devastated by the flooding, the Interfax news agency reported.
An investigative team was being formed to examine all the deaths for possible criminal charges, prosecutor Nikolai Buzko told the ITAR-Tass news agency. The team was also examining why some buildings had been erected in areas where development is prohibited because of erosion and flooding concerns.
Austria saw its first three casualties in more than a week of unprecedented flooding. Two were in hard-hit towns in Salzburg province, where a firefighter was swept away by a churning river in Mariapfarr. Also a man's body was found floating in a flooded cellar in Hallein. The third was a 48-year-old man who was crushed in a landslide near the village of Kirchheim in Upper Austria province.
``The scene is catastrophic,'' Wilfried Weissgaerber, the national fire brigade commander for the province of Lower Austria, told Austrian radio as he described collapsed houses and washed-out railway tracks.
In Germany, a police officer died after her car went out of control and turned over late Sunday night on the way to Wismar on the Baltic Sea coast, and a 68-year-old woman died of exhaustion while trying to clear her flooded basement in Dresden. Near the city of Jena, another driver was killed in an accident that injured nine others, officials said.
Authorities in Thuringia state issued a flood alert for the Pleisse River, which broke its banks. Firefighters stacked 30,000 sandbags to protect houses from the rising water, and hundreds of German soldiers were helping residents reinforce riverbanks in other critical areas.
In the north, a train derailed near Hamburg after running into a mudslide caused by the rain. No one was injured, though the conductor and a passenger were treated for shock.
In northern Italy, where unusually heavy rain and hail ravaged grapevines, fruit, olives, tobacco and other crops last week, the nation's largest agriculture group estimated the damage at about $300 million. Premier Silvio Berlusconi approved $50 million in emergency aid Monday.
In the Czech Republic, thousands of people fled their homes Monday after several rivers overflowed their banks. In Radotin, a small town west of Prague, a 55-year-old man drowned in the swollen Vltava River, raising the death toll in that country to seven.
Authorities feared the Vltava could flood some areas of Prague, including the famous Kampa island, known for its architecture, and a zoo on the outskirts of the Czech capital. Some animals were moved to higher ground as a precaution.
About 100 patients in a Prague hospital in the flood zone were evacuated Monday.
In eastern Switzerland, torrential rains caused a series of small landslides, including one that cut off a rail line between Chur and Arosa. Another on the Griesalp mountain in central Switzerland swept away a bridge, stranding more than 150 people until an emergency span could be put in place.
Austrian authorities used helicopters to rescue stranded homeowners from rooftops in Linz, about 120 miles west of Vienna, and 4,000 soldiers joined sandbagging operations Monday in the waterlogged provinces of Lower Austria and Upper Austria.
Water levels in the Danube River, which flows through Vienna, were being monitored anxiously. Austria's navigation authority halted all shipping on the Danube Monday as water levels neared 100-year highs, spokesman Reinhard Vorderwinkler said.
In Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart, the sightseeing boat Amadeus sank Monday after being swamped in the flood-swollen Salzach River. There were no injuries.
Police in the scenic Danube town of Krems, meanwhile, said there were reports of evacuated homes being looted.
As Western attention focuses on the unprecedented floods in Europe, Asia faces a far more serious humanitarian crisis. In India, the flooded Brahmaputra River has cut a vicious swath through India's remote northeast, killing hundreds of people, leveling homes, washing away schools and leaving millions homeless. Over 1560 people have died in neighboring Bangladesh. In Nepal, over 400 people have either been swept away by swirling floodwaters or crushed under mudslides in remote mountain villages.
weapons capable of tackling underground enemy bunkers. (theherald.co.uk)
-US Could Dominate The Planet If It Deploys This Weapon In Space
(Interfax News Agency)
8-10-2
MOSCOW (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma has expressed concern about the USA's programme to develop a qualitatively new type of weapon.
"Under the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Programme (HAARP) [website address: http://server5550.itd.nrl.navy.mil/projects/haarp/], the USA is creating new integral geophysical weapons that may influence the near-Earth medium with high-frequency radio waves," the State Duma said in an appeal circulated on Thursday [8 August].
"The significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons. This new type of weapons differs from previous types in that the near-Earth medium becomes at once an object of direct influence and its component.
These conclusions were made by the commission of the State Duma's international affairs and defence committees, the statement reads.
The committees reported that the USA is planning to test three facilities of this kind. One of them is located on the military testing ground in Alaska and its full-scale tests are to begin in early 2003. The second one is in Greenland and the third one in Norway.
"When these facilities are launched into space from Norway, Alaska and Greenland, a closed contour will be created with a truly fantastic integral potential for influencing the near-Earth medium," the State Duma said.
The USA plans to carry out large-scale scientific experiments under the HAARP programme, and not controlled by the global community, will create weapons capable of breaking radio communication lines and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets, provoke serious accidents in electricity networks and in oil and gas pipelines and have a negative impact on the mental health of people populating entire regions, the deputies said.
They demanded that an international ban be put on such large-scale geophysical experiments.
The appeal, signed by 90 deputies, has been sent to President Vladimir Putin, to the UN and other international organizations, to the parliaments and leaders of the UN member countries, to the scientific public and to mass media outlets.
Among those who signed the appeal are Tatyana Astrakhankina, Nikolay Kharitonov, Yegor Ligachev, Sergey Reshulskiy, Vitaliy Sevastyanov, Viktor Cherepkov, Valentin Zorkaltsev and Aleksey Mitrofanov.
August 12, 2002
(Source: The Scotsman)
You might call it, "Jurassic Park: Live!" It's not a stage version of the popular movie, though -- this really is "Jurassic Park" -- live!
They plan to call it the "Pleistocene Park". Located in Siberia, the proposed site is in an area far from humans, which has good grazing for the ancient animals that will roam the grounds. Of course, some accommodation will have to be made for the tourists who come to the park in deference to Siberia's fierce winters, but Akira Iritani is confident that they can do that easily.
Where, you ask, will they get the ancient animals to populate the park? Just as in the movie, they plan to find some viable DNA for creatures like the mammoths and the woolly rhinoceros, and simply recreate them.
They'll artificially inseminate the modern counterpart with the ancient specimen's DNA and get a mixture of old and new characteristics. They'll continue to do that across generations, inseminating the "combination" animal with the ancient DNA until they have a fairly accurate version of what roamed the lands there twenty-thousand years ago.
A team of Japanese and Russian scientists is currently working in the area of the park, located in the Siberian province of Yakutsk. They hope to find samples of animals they can resurrect, and their wish list for DNA is impressive.
The search area has been narrowed to several hundred square meters of tundra, where the team hopes to recover viable DNA from the Siberian tiger, steppe lions, giant deer, ancient foxes and the ancestors of the Siberian horse, as well as mammoths and woolly rhinos. Is it really possible to do that, you ask?
"It probably sounds a little far-fetched, but it's absolutely possible to do this," says Professor Akira Iritani, who is co-coordinating the project from Osaka's Kinki University.
Speaking to The Scotsman - International, he shared his excitement for the project. "The best way to clone one of these animals is to find frozen sperm, but that is very difficult. Alternatively, a portion of muscle, skin or any piece of tissue can be a good source of viable DNA. "The most important thing is to find a good carcass," he declared. "We need to find specimens that were frozen immediately after death and have remained at a temperature of between -25C and -30C ever since."
The team is currently harvesting specimens from the town of Chokurdakh, near the East Siberian Sea and more than 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. They are concentrating on a site identified last year by local people as having numerous cadavers buried in the permafrost. The search area has been narrowed to several hundred square meters of tundra.
Mr. Iritani has been working in collaboration with a university in Bangkok and as soon as usable mammoth DNA has been identified, an elephant will be artificially inseminated with the nucleus. Each generation of crossbred mammoths will more closely resemble the genetic inheritance of its forefathers as females are impregnated with more DNA from the male mammoth.
The same process will be used with the other beasts and, in as little as 20 years, Mr. Iritani says, these long-extinct creatures will once again be roaming the steppe.
"It all depends on getting the good quality tissue, of course, but we will eventually be able to produce many, many animals. At present the success rate for cloned animals is not so high, but in a few years we will have the technology to repair recovered DNA that has been slightly damaged. We'll store any damaged DNA that we find and we're not going to give up this project."
The ultimate aim is the Siberian sanctuary. "The last time I was over there our Russian counterparts showed us to the place they will provide for us to build Pleistocene Park," Mr. Iritani said. "We flew over it in a helicopter and the quality of the grass there seems to be perfect for animals we're working on."
The finished park will cover an area roughly twice the size of Britain. The location has no human habitation. As well as facilities for tourists, the park will need to provide shelter for the animals, as Mr. Iritani believes Siberia's elements were far less severe 20,000 years ago. His search for a frozen mammoth began in 1996 and he is now a leading member of the Mammoth Creation Society, a group based in Japan.
The group has organized several expeditions in search of carcasses and in the summer of 1999 recovered a section of skin from what they believed was a mammoth. Their hopes were soon dashed when it was determined that 90 per cent of the skins DNA sequence matched that of the Indian rhinoceros, although Kazufumi Goto, a professor of reproductive physiology at Kagoshima University and a member of the group, said the discovery was still valuable.
Mr. Iritani says a key part of his quest is to draw attention to melting of the permafrost because of global warming.
August 14, 2002
(United Press International) - In a scientific first with possible implications for endangered species and infertile males, mice bearing testicular tissue transplanted from newborn animals have produced sperm from other species, researchers report.
The authors of the study, published in the Aug. 15 issue of the British journal Nature, contend the feat may lead to novel ways to preserve the lifelines of animals on the brink of extinction and prized livestock, as well as new alternatives for men incapable of siring children. Some scientists not involved in the study questioned whether the research will net such end-results, however.
In the experiments, male mice produced working gametes first from other mice, then from pigs and goats.
"This is the first report of complete spermatogenesis from tissue grafted across species," said study author Ina Dobrinski, assistant professor of large animal reproduction at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in Philadelphia. "The production of functionally competent sperm from three different mammals indicates that testis tissue grafting may be applicable to a wide variety of species."
The advance also marks the first production of operative sperm from immature reproductive tissue, implying the male reproductive cells could be derived even from sexually immature individuals, the authors said. The strategy offers a more plentiful sperm supply than do cryonic methods, in which the tissues to be saved are deep-frozen, they said.
Potential uses of mice with testis grafts include providing tools for studies of the effects of male contraceptives and other drugs on sperm production. The technique also could serve as a model for studying little-understood testicular function, researchers said, although other scientists cautioned against reading too much into the results.
"This is an important study, and it has many possible implications, some clearly of benefit and some that could be highly contentious," Michael Welsh, professor and interim chair of cell and developmental biology at the University of Michigan Medical School, told UPI.
He agreed the findings could serve as important tools for studying sperm production but was less certain about their usefulness for producing sperm from prized livestock or threatened species.
"Because the procedure does not truly allow for endless production of gametes, it will not likely be employed with very valuable animals, except in very rare, unusual circumstances," he said.
Erwin Goldberg of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., saw wide-ranging implications, including "conservation of rare species; ability to predict breeding potential of animals with desirable traits; for example, dairy bulls, thoroughbreds for racing, etc., as well as child cancer patients."
In the studies, Dobrinski and her colleagues grafted tiny amount of tissue from the testes of newborn mice, goats and pigs onto the backs of mice with deficient immune systems. This prevented the disease-fighting agents from attacking the foreign tissue. Pigs and goats were used, in part, because the males of their species are routinely castrated at an early age to avoid the odor they emanate as adults, creating ready-made availability of testis tissue, Dobrinski said.
As many as eight miniature testes developed from the grafted tissue.
"At least 60 percent of grafts grew into functional testis tissue under the skin," Dobrinski said, "and those grafts produced as much sperm, gram for gram, as testes in the donor species. Some grafts grew more than 100-fold."
Previous attempts with similar aims failed to produce sperm, said Dobrinski. She speculated her success may have been due to the ideal environment - in terms of temperature and suitable blood vessels to allow testes growth - provided by the rodents' backs.
"Dr. Dobrinski is one of the few investigators attempting to remove testicular stem cells and transplant them into recipients," said Michael Griswold, interim dean of science at Washington State University's School of Molecular Biosciences. "The fact that she can graft portions of testes from other mammalian species into mice and get sperm produced is an important step forward."
The findings point to the ability of testosterone and other mammalian hormones to cross species lines, said David de Kretser, director of the Institute of Reproduction and Development at Monash University in Australia.
"These data indicate that the hormones produced by the mouse are adequate to stimulate sperm production in a range of species," he said.
Future human-to-mouse grafts could help restore fertility to men who have undergone cancer therapy, the study authors said.
"If it can work between pigs and goats into mouse, then of course a logical implication would be human into mouse," Kent Lloyd of the mouse biology program at the University of California, Davis, told UPI. "The ability to accomplish this successfully has important clinical implications on the ability to manage successfully human reproductive deficiencies preventing or abrogating normal spermatogenesis."
"The study is exciting and valuable for a number of reasons," Douglas Carrell, director of IVF and Andrology Labs and associate professor of surgery, OB-GYN and physiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, told UPI.
"The most surprising aspect is that sperm from one given species can mature in an environment from another species, Carrell said. "It is important to note that this study does not show that the sperm are 'normal.' It only shows that certain aspects of the sperm appear normal or appear to function normally."
A great deal of study will need to be done to determine if the sperm are indeed normal, said Dr. James Ferrar, director of the blood and marrow transplant program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Michigan.
Carrell sees a major application in the potential treatment of boys with cancer who must undergo radiation therapy or chemotherapy that will likely leave them sterile.
"This may allow them to have a small biopsy performed, with the tissue frozen and later used to produce sperm in sufficient quality to assist in obtaining a pregnancy through IVF (in-vitro fertilization)," Carrell said. "It is important to note that it is likely that the tissue could be implanted under the skin of the boy himself, rather than in another species."
Other inter-species grafts could help conserve endangered animals by allowing sperm production from immature males, the study authors speculated.
"So far, the only way of preserving the genetic material from a male animal was to freeze sperm. However, this is only possible if the animal is already sexually mature and produces sperm, and, in the case of rare species, if a protocol to freeze sperm has been worked out," Dobrinski said.
"In our study we showed that testis tissue can be relatively easily frozen before being grafted into mice and still result in spermatogenesis," he said. "Therefore, we envision that this is now a way to preserve testis tissue even from immature animals and at a later point use it to produce sperm in a mouse host to use for fertilization. This would be especially important when animals are lost before they reach puberty."
Lloyd said, "While the method presented here seems to be (at first glance) particularly useful for preserving germlines of immature endangered species ... other methods (sperm cryopreservation, freeze drying, snap freezing, eventually cloning) would suffice for all other applications, and at least cryo/freeze drying/snap freezing, are much easier than the method presented here."
The next phase of the research will involve applying the technique to other species, including primates, generating offspring from the graft-produced sperm and studying spermatogenesis in different species, Dobrinski said.
"This work provides a novel approach to the preservation of male germ cells in mammals with wide ranging applications from basic research to species conservation and clinical reproduction," she said.
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A marketing ploy to turn humans into living adverts is proving a hit with thousands of people who have applied to change their name to a computer game character in exchange for 500 pounds ($770).
Within 12 hours of an offer appearing on a Web site (www.mynameisturok.co.uk), more than 3,000 people had applied to change their names by deed poll to Turok, the hero of a cult dinosaur-hunter computer game, the British company pioneering the scheme said on Wednesday.
"We've been truly amazed at the reaction we've had to the Turok project in such a short space of time," said Shaun White of Acclaim UK, which is the first company to try out so-called "identity marketing."
Each new "Turok" will be paid 500 pounds and given a Microsoft X-Box games console and Turok games in exchange for changing their name for a year.
"I thought it was a really cool idea. Five hundred quid is a hell of a lot of money," Andrew Nettles, a 21-year-old London business student, told Reuters.
"I never chose my name -- my parents gave it to me," said the student who will receive his degree certificate in the name of Turok if he is chosen.
The identity marketing concept was dreamt up by Simeon Cantrell of Britain's Institute of Science in Marketing, which has patented the idea.
"There could be thousands of people called Pepsi, Brylcreem, Toyota and Yahoo happily going about their everyday lives whilst subtly communicating the virtues of their brand namesakes," Cantrell said.
Stock analysts estimate the private prison industry to be a $30 billion to $40 billion business.
(ABCNEWS.com-1998)
"Texas keeps 13,600 prisoners in 39 private prisons and jails."
"Florida, #2 with some 6,000 beds, is considering privatizing."
"26 states and 2 territories have 120 private prisons."
"California spends more on prisons than higher education."
"In 20 years, local, state and federal prison population has tripled."
“What happens when guards go on strike, or the company goes bankrupt or is allowed to lobby for laws that are self-protecting and self-enhancing? Members of the industry have already lobbied for stiffer criminal penalties.”
-American University Law Professor Ira Robbins.
Gulag U.S.A.: The United States is one of the world’s top jailers per capita, and its prisons have suffered overcrowding for decades. With 1.8 million prisoners, 455 for every 100,000 citizens, the nation spends some $21 billion a year on prison construction and maintenance. During the past two decades, America has witnessed the biggest prison construction boom in history.
The Private
Prison Boom
1996 77,584
1997 111,588
1998 142,799
1999 179,884
2000 233,002
2001 276,455
The capacity of private prisons in the United States is expected to double in the next three years.
Stock analysts estimate the private prison industry to be a $30 billion to $40 billion business.
N E W Y O R K—Private prisons provide more efficiency at a lower cost to American taxpayers—a corporate strategy that’s ringing bells on Wall Street.
Investors predict a recession-proof future for these gated communities—though few may ever want to visit them. Stock in the nation’s largest prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, rocketed tenfold on the New York Stock Exchange over the last four years. Shareholders in other publicly traded prison firms have enjoyed similar results.
“I don’t know of any other industry growing this quickly,” says Brian Ruttenbur, prison stock analyst with Nashville-based Sun Trust Equitable Securities. “CCA grew by 30 percent in 1997 and will continue that growth for the next three to five years.”
CCA leads the nation with 52 percent of the market in private prisons, followed by Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which stakes out a 27 percent share. As many as 20 other firms are also claiming a piece of the action, according to analysts.
A Bullish Business Behind Bars
Given that the U.S. prison population more than doubled over the last two decades, their business plans look great on paper.
The United States now locks up more prisoners than any other developed nation on Earth. As of 1996, the nation had 1.7 million inmates under lock and key, including all prisons and jails on the federal state, county and city levels. And existing prisons are bursting at the seams with overcrowding as government budgets choke on spiraling costs.
The number of people behind bars rose an average of 7.7 percent each year since 1990. That trend dipped last year to 4.7 percent, but that’s still enough to fill private cells.
“There is no indication that growth will moderate in the private sector,” says Charles Thomas, a noted University of Florida criminologist who also serves on the board of CCA’s affiliated real-estate holding company.
As the market steadily grows, these corporations have been expanding their prison business at a furious clip. They now make up the fastest-growing sector of the nation’s correctional system—supplying a total 5 to 6 percent of all U.S. correctional facilities.
In 1996, the firms locked up almost 80,000 prisoners in 130 private slammers of every stripe: city and county jails, juvenile facilities, immigration detention camps and federal prisons. By 1997, bed capacity reached 105,000 in 157 facilities.
Sold on promises of cutting expenses by 15 to 20 percent, public officials have eagerly signed long-term contracts that hand over responsibilities of guarding, feeding and rehabilitating their convicted citizens.
Applying the Bottom Line
The prison business exploits its competitive edge by taking advantage of flexibility, says Susan Hart, CCA’s vice president of communications. While rules and purchasing procedures thwart efficiency in the public sector, private firms can always nail down the best deal for supplies and construction.
“If you apply proven business principles to a correctional center, the result is going to be cost savings,” she says.
Another big savings: labor, which accounts for about 70 percent of the operating budgets for prisons. Private guards take home lower wages, although they frequently get stock ownership plans. There are few unions, and some companies avoid providing the generous benefit plans state workers are accustomed to.
Wackenhut was founded in 1954 by former FBI official George Wackenhut, this diversified private security firm first entered the prison business in 1987 when it opened a 250-bed Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center. The company also operates prisons in Australia and other nations. Wackenhut reported $8.3 million in profits on $137.8 million in revenue in 1997.
In 1997, Corrections Corporation of America’s stock doubled to more than $41 a share. Wackenhut’s stock doubled to more than $27. Both stocks fetch more than 50 times last year’s earnings—a price stratosphere rivaled only by fast-growing technology companies.
“We don’t pay a lot of overtime and maintain a part-time work force,” says Pat Cannan, spokesman for Wackenhut Corrections Corp.
High technology also cuts labor costs. Video cameras, infrared security systems and heat detectors reduce the need for guards who now sit at centralized command posts where they can open and close gates simply by touching a computer screen. Design innovations also allow wider fields of vision for watching prisoners, something that reduces personnel needs.
Local officials also willingly cut attractive deals, with offers of free property and tax breaks in exchange for much-needed jobs.
And in an innovative twist, prison companies have been selling their completed prisons to real estate investment trusts, which then lease them back to the parent operation. Tax advantages subsequently increase the company’s profit margin.
After Youngstown, Ohio, sold 100 acres of land for $1 to CCA, the closely affiliated Prison Realty Trust of Nashville then raised an estimated $47 million in cash on the completed prison. Wackenhut Corrections Corp. plans to tap into a similar cash stream this month by raising $113 million on eight prisons.
Pioneers: CCA and Wackenhut
The explosive increase in private prisons began in 1984 when CCA first entered the business. Back then they built minimum-security facilities. Wackenhut landed its first contract in 1986. Now, expansion continues unabated as companies compete for entire state prison systems, including those in New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio.
Tennessee has been flirting with CCA for several years about turning over its 21 prisons and 14,000 inmates to the company’s care.
CCA head Doctor Crants contributed nearly $100,000 to legislators there, making him the single largest contributor in the state, according to The Tennessean newspaper. The support wasn’t returned—legislation for privatizing the prison system was recently withdrawn. But backers vowed to revisit the idea after elections in November.
Nevertheless, such grand plans encourage stock analysts, who remain bullish on private prisons.
“They are volatile, but very powerful performers and have huge potential, even compared to high tech stocks,” says Gary Boston, a PaineWebber research analyst.
(by Dr. SteveMizrach of Samizdat)
October Surprise, Iran-Contra, Noriega, Iraqgate, and BCCI
Before he died in an ineptly performed 'suicide,' the young journalist Danny Casolaro was working on a book that he claimed tied together many of the 'gates' and 'miniscandals' surrounding the Bush presidency. The book identified the web which tied all the scandals together as the "Octopus," a mythical creature with tentacles stretching everywhere. Perhaps the birth of the Octopus lies in the 1980 Presidential election; and its growth occurred under the eight years of the Reagan presidency. Casolaro soon found that the Octopus may have consisted of a 'shadow government' apparatus that went back even further than Bush and Reagan. But what's left of his notes seem primarily to focus on events in the 80s and 90s.
It is very possible that in 1980, Bill Casey and other members of the Reagan team may have conspired with the Iranians to delay the release of the American hostages: they were afraid of an "October Surprise" which might damage Reagan's chances of defeating Carter. Sure enough, the hostages were released right as Reagan was being inaugurated, and in 1981, the first shipment of arms to Iran began. Gunther Rossbacher, an ex-Navy pilot, and two other foreign sources, insist that on October 21st and 22nd, Bush met with Iranian delegates in Paris. The "October Surprise" may have been how Bush and other Reagan team members located the Iranian 'moderates' that played a role in the Iran-Contra scandal. In 1984, the Boland amendment forbade any more military assistance to the Contras. So, in 1985, the underground "Enterprise" - Operation Yellowfruit - began selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to furnish weapons to the Contras. George Bush claims Iran-Contra has nothing to do with him, but other administration figures' records show he was at the secret meetings - Poindexter, in particular. Amiram Nir, an Israeli terrorism expert, insists he discussed Iranian arms deals with Bush, but that can't be confirmed... he died in a mysterious plane crash in Mexico in 1988.
It turns out the Iran-Contra scandal may have been part of a larger arms-for-hostages deal. The Iranians needed weapons in their war against Iraq, and the Reagan administration felt that the Iranians might have been able to convince the Shiite terrorists in Lebanon to release the American hostages held there. Reagan claimed no "quid pro quo," but then he also claimed he really didn't remember much, either. In any case, additional hostages were seized after the 'non-deal', and many may remain in captivity today, including the Lebanon CIA station head. One man who may have known a great deal about the Iran-Contra business was Manuel Noriega, whose name came up in the 1988 Dukakis-Bush debates. Noriega knew about the Contra drug pipeline, because he was a pusher, himself, while on the CIA payroll throughout the 1980s, and during his trial in Miami in 1989, some testimony emerged which suggested he knew something about the Central American end of the Iran-Contra affair and where some on the missing money may have 'disappeared' into.
On the Middle Eastern end, another man who was a delighted beneficiary of American generosity throughout the 1980s was Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The Agriculture Department and other agencies gave Saddam agricultural credits worth millions of dollars which he used to purchase American attack helicopters, chemical weapons for using on the Kurds, and the components of a nuclear weapons program. It is suspected that the CIA and Justice Department overlooked, or aided, the Banco Nazionale Lavoro (BNL) of Italy while it funneled billions in military aid to Iraq. This recently burgeoning scandal, "Iraqgate," suggests we were playing both sides against the middle during the Iran-Iraq war. We were selling arms to both the Iranians and the Iraqis, and the CIA at various points double-crossed both sides. It is no wonder that America is so distrusted in that part of the world. In any case, there were two men that knew too much, and when Bush became president, he had to clean them up, and he would wage two "cleanup wars" to do it.
One link between Bush, Saddam, and Iran-Contra was the corrupt Middle Eastern bank, the Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI). BCCI, it turns out, laundered drug money, financed CIA and Mossad covert operations, and helped Bush, Saddam, and others split over $250 billion in extortion from the sale of Persian Gulf oil. (BCCI also might have had links to the corrupt drug-money-laundering-and-CIA scandals involving Australia's Nugan Hand Bank.) Attorney General Richard Thornburgh squashed an investigation into First American Bankshares, secretly controlled by BCCI, in October 1990; and William von Raab, former U.S. customs official, was fired by Treasury Secretary James Brady for delving too deeply into BCCI. This may have a lot to do with the links between Prescott Bush, First American director Stephens, Bahrain, and Iraq. Bush's family were oilmen, and if there is anything he stood for, it was Big Oil and its interests in the Middle East. (It might be pointed out, incidentally, that it was Norman Schwarzkopf's father who helped boot out Mossadegh in Iran when he threatened to nationalize holdings of British Petroleum.) The mess was in place, and President Bush had a lot of cleaning up to do.
The "Cleanup Wars"
The first "cleanup war" was so-called Operation Just Cause in Panama. We invaded with the ostensibly 'just' cause of arresting a drug dealer and bringing him to justice here in the U.S.. The fact that he was the leader of another country, and that this is a violation of international law, didn't raise a naysayer, although insiders knew that Noriega was working for us before Bush started to see him as a threat. He may have wanted to jail Noriega because of the Iran-Contra secrets he knew. The other ostensible reason was because of Bush family holdings in Panama. It seems that Prescott's friends in the Aoki Corporation of Japan have invested more than $350 million in Panama; their holdings include the luxury resort Caesar Park and the Mariott Hotel. Bush may have been afraid of Noriega nationalizing that property. While Bush claimed to be nailing a dealer, he replaced him with two other dope pushers. Panamanian president Guillermo Endara is a director of the bank used exclusively by the Medellin cartel, and vice president Guillermo Ford is part owner of Dadeland Bank of Florida, which stands accused of laundering South American drug money. This Bush cleanup cost 26 American and 2000 Panamanian (civilian) lives, and several million dollars. It's worth seeing the film The Panama Deception to see some of the chilling secrets of this operation, including hidden mass graves of murdered civilians.
The second 'cleanup war' was Operation Desert Storm, with the purposes of ostensibly 'liberating' Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. It is clear that, in fact, administration official April Glaspie succeeded in goading Hussein into invading Kuwait by saying that the U.S. would not interfere. And that the CIA and NSC provided doctored sattelite photographs making it look like Iraq was preparing to invade Saudi Arabia, when in fact Iraqi troops were nowhere near the Saudi border; further, that the CIA deliberately payed no attention to Iraqi troop buildup prior to the invasion of Kuwait. And that the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, appearing under a pseudonym, told a false story about how Iraqi soldiers were ripping Kuwaiti babies out of incubators. Saddam Hussein had been set up, and now so were the American people, who Bush promised this was about "jobs" and dealing with America's "VietNam syndrome."
The Desert Storm war never accomplished any of its supposed goals. Kuwait does not have 'democracy,' only a returned monarchy hell-bent on seeking blood vengeance on Palestinian citizens. Saddam Hussein was not toppled from power; and the Kurds who were incited to rise up against him received no U.S. help when Republican Guard American-made attack helicopters mowed them down. Saddam's chemical and nuclear arsenal were never eliminated. Instead, what was destroyed was the Iraqi infrastructure, causing thousands to suffer disease, hunger, and deprivation, in addition to the thousands who died in the 'smart' bombings which nonetheless hit plenty of civilian targets; and the environment of the Persian Gulf, when eco-terrorist Saddam Hussein dumped millions of gallons of oil out of his wells and set ablaze thousands of Kuwaiti oil wells. It was a pyrrhic victory, but not for American oil companies, who profited mightily from increased oil prices... and for George Bush, who used his "VietNam syndrome therapy" as an excuse to hold hundreds of parades celebrating his 'victory' nationwide with yellow ribbons and marching soldiers.
The Wackenhut Security Corporation of Miami, Florida, has long been suspected of being a CIA front. The right-wing politics of George Wackenhut, who had ties to Belgian fascists and South American death squads, are well known. But few people realize that Wackenhut, a small company with "only a few" employees, gets some choice assignments, including guarding nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons facilities, the Alaskan Oil pipeline, and several American embassies; or that its board of directors contains several luminaries from the FBI, CIA, and Army Intelligence, including Bobby Ray Inman. Wackenhut has led a covert crusade against whistleblowers at many nuclear power plants, using wiretaps to eavesdrop on them and various 'subtle' techniques to convince them not to talk; it also spied on Chuck Hamel, a critic of the Aleyska Oil Consortium's drilling policies, by setting up a fake environmental-law firm which sought to "pump" him for his sources. Wackenhut may have even used some operatives to try and help topple President Perez of Venezuela through a (failed) military coup, largely for money (rather than politics) it was given by Blanca Ibanez, the mistress of Jaime Luinschi, the former president.
Also, a Wackenhut employee named Ernesto Bermudez was using 1500 'employees' in El Salvador for things he admitted "you wouldn't want your mother to know about" to a reporter from Spy magazine. Candian PM Pierre Trudeau refused to allow Wackenhut to purchase a weapons-propellant plant in Quebec, and it was refused a permit to open a security facility in France because President Francois Mitterand said "we had just gotten rid of the CIA." Wackenhut maintained files on over 4 million suspected 'subversives' of all types, including civil rights activists and antiwar protesters, well into the 1960s, making it the largest private holder of such information. In 1975, after a Congressional investigation into domestic intelligence operations and connections to private firms, Wackenhut turned its files over to the Anti-Communist Church League of America based in Wheaton, Illinois, which is now defunct. Florida Governor Claude Kirk claims to have worked closely with Wackenhut to "fight organized crime," although insiders maintain they were doing anything but fighting the Mob.
But there are direct links between Wackenhut and the 'Octopus'. It appears that Michael Riconsciuto, a convicted drug dealer, claims to have met with George Wackenhut, John Amarell (of Wackenhut's Executive Board), and Dr. John Philip Nichols (a CIA operative conducting shady activities on the Cabazon Indian Reservation in the California desert) in Las Vegas in the early 80s to discuss the theft of Inslaw's PROMIS software; he says Wackenhut asked him "how his software work was coming along." (Supposedly, Nichols was using the Cabazon reservation as his own private munitions proving ground, testing things ranging from super-lethal Fuel-Air Explosives and chemical-biological weapons to Electromagnetic Pulse [EMP] generators.) Ammarell confirms the meeting, but claims it was merely about the sale of a boat! Retired general Richard Secord arranged for the Wackenhut Corp. to work with Iraqi arms dealer Ihsan Barbouti; Wackenhut operative David Ramirez claims that he and Barbouti rode in a truck carrying chemical-weapons technology from Texas to Chicago, and then rode on a plane to Iraq. Ramirez indicates that he thinks Wackenhut may have been part of a "food stamp" scheme to get agricultural credits for Iraq which were in turn used to purchase nuclear-weapons technology, making Wackenhut part of the Iraqgate affair as well.
Assisting with Barbouti's arms schemes were two partners, James Tully (who sent Bill Clinton's 'draft-dodge' letter to ABC) and Jack Brennan, who currently works as director of administrative operations in President Bush's office. Brennan and Tully had been involved in a $181 million deal to supply uniforms for the Iraqi army, arranging them to be manufactured in Ceausescu's Romania, of all places. Other partners in that deal were Watergate felon John Mitchell and Sarkis Soghnalian, a Lebanese citizen who was credited with introducing Saddam Hussein to Gerald Bull, the inventor of the so-called "supergun." Soghnalian is currently in prison for selling 103 military helicopters to Iraq; and David Ramirez says that Wackenhut considered the Turkish man to be a "valuable client." Two thousand gallons of ferrocyanide - an important chemical-warfare binary ingredient - vanished from a Boca Raton cherry flavoring factory in 1990. That plant was guarded by - guess who - Wackenhut.
Barbouti owned shares in that company, and two others: TK-7, which makes a fuel additive that could extend the range of liquid-fueled missiles such as the SCUD, and Pipeline Recovery Systems, which coats pipes to make them useable in nuclear power plants. He admits having faked his own death several times, and having helped Moammar Khadafi build his infamous chemical-weapons plant at Rabta, Libya. Further, he owns about $100 million worth of real estate and oil-drilling equipment in Texas and Oklahoma. It is widely believed that the Middle Eastern architect is either currently dead (surprise), living in Jordan, or being kept in a CIA safe house in Florida. An engineering company owned by him in Frankfurt had a $552 million contract to build airfields in Iraq. And - no surprise here - Barbouti used the corrupt BCCI bank as his middleman in many deals.
The CenTrust Connection: the S & Ls, the Mob, and BCCI
The S & L failures of '89 were a massive blow to the banking system. Over 200 small savings and loan banks went under - just under half of those in existence - and had their assets seized by the federal 'dummy' company, the Resolution Trust Corp. Largely, this was a problem created by deregulation legislation passed by the congressional banking committees - the legislation allowed the S & Ls to make investments that were extremely risky and fiscally unsound. In fact, the failure can also be seen as the result of several years of deregulation of many industries under the Reagan administration - deregulation that was "bought" by the very industries which were supposed to be policed. But where were the regulators who were supposed to be the 'watchdogs' of the industry? Almost across the board they were 'bought off' by S & L moguls like Charles Keating, paid to look the other way while the S & Ls invested in fraudulent real estate schemes and sham projects which collapsed after a few years. But to maintain a veneer of solubility for their creditors, many S & Ls actually turned to "junk bond" king Michael Milliken, managing to "puff up" their investment profiles with airy money. There may have been even more crooked things going on, as some recent articles suggest that some of the S & L swindle may have gotten into the hands of the CIA and used to fund the Contras- most funds coming from the failed Palmer National Bank and Vision Savings Bank in Houston.
Even more daring reports, such as a recent book by investigative reporter Peter Brewton, suggest the Mafia may have been involved with some of the bank fraud - as they most certainly were with the Vatican Bank scandal in Italy. Author Dan Moldea notes extensive connections between the Hollywood motion picture company MCA, the defense/nuclear contractor General Electric, the corrupt Teamsters' Union, and the Mob. Strangely, former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan had connections to all of the above. The fact that there are close Republican ties to the Teamsters, despite the party's overt anti-labor stance, is very curious; but it must be examined in the light of the Teamsters' "patriotic" support of "guns and butter" and other right-wing stances, and their links to the Mafia. (It is widely suspected that Richard Nixon may have pardoned Jimmy Hoffa after making a deal with the Teamsters to give money to his 1972 presidential campaign - yet another unwritten chapter in the Watergate saga, along with the revelations that he may have tried to frame the Democrats for the assassination attempt on George Wallace.) Anthony Summers believes that J. Edgar Hoover was blackmailed by the Mob for his homosexuality, and that is why the former FBI director continued to deny the pervasiveness of "organized crime." One of Brewton's most amazing revelations is that Bush may have actively attempted to conceal the Texas oil - organized crime - S & L - CIA links during the 1988 campaign: but so did Lloyd Bentsen, who told Dukakis it would be "a losing issue for our ticket!"
The cost for fixing the S & L mess - for returning the depositors in the banks all their savings - will be quite high. Another cost involved in the process will be the liquidation of nearly valueless assets owned by the S & Ls - such as acres and acres of undeveloped land out in the Southwest. The properties of the failed S & Ls are being sold by RTC for businessmen for a steal; and taxpayers are being asked to pick up a large part of the tab. Some estimate that the S & L cleanup may cost each and every taxpayer as much as $1000. Each and every taxpayer, of the 200 million who pay taxes! There are economists who feel the beginning wave of the S & L collapse may have contributed to the massive stock market crash of 1987, and that its impact led to other bank failures and a real estate 'bust' contributing to the 1990 recession. Crooked S & L operators received, on the average, 2.4 years in prison for ripping off America with their white-collar crimes. But a robber who steals $200 from a convenience store gets, on average, 7.8 years. One need not be a math wizard to see something glaringly wrong with that. Why have the federal prosecutors under the Bush administration been so slow to prosecute, and so lenient with their sentences? Could it be connected to the extensive amounts of money that Bush himself got from the S & Ls during his 1988 campaign?
Was there also a link between the failed Savings & Loans and BCCI? It turns out, yes, and the (now defunct) Miami CenTrust bank chairman David Paul is the key. According to a NBC special on the S & L scandal, Dexter Lehtinen, the temporary appointee to the position of federal prosecutor for south Florida, claims he was obstructed by the government from serving subpoenas on many of the big figures connected to Paul. Lehtinen was never confirmed officially for the position after serving in it for several years - some say this was because of things in his background that might lead to a confirmation fight, but others feel it was because he was digging too deeply into CenTrust's failures. Lehtinen now claims that Paul may have bribed many local and federal officials to cover up for money laundering and secret Carribean accounts to sequester 'narcodollars.' Investigators found that Paul lived a lavish lifestyle, buying gold fixtures and priceless art treasures for his office in the CenTrust building. When CenTrust was starting to face insolvency, Paul found a cash influx from an unsuspected source - BCCI financier Farouk, who tried to use CenTrust to launder money from the Banco Nazionale Lavore (BNL) in Italy. The S & L scandal is, it seems, yet another arm within the Octopus.
Bush's Teapot Dome?: the INSLAW Affair
George Bush's predecessor, Ronald Reagan, had a terribly corrupt administration. There were huge numbers of indictments, resignations, scandals, and accusations of corruption and coverrup. Housing and Urban Development, under Sam "the Invisible Man" Pierce, turned a blind eye as shifty Republican financiers raked in profits off of shady deals involving public housing. Savings and Loan regulators allowed S & L's all over the country to make ridiculously unsound investments and disappear into bankruptcy. But the corruption in the Reagan administration may have been nowhere more shocking than in the Department of Justice, whose anti-pornography crusader, Edwin Meese III, was accused of improprieties regarding the transfer of a company called Wedtech.
Bush's new Attorney General, Richard Thornburgh, may have done Meese one better, bringing the Department of Injustice one step further. For it now stands accused of being a software pirate - of having stole the Inslaw PROMIS database program from its creators without recompensating them. That PROMIS is a program that can be used to track political dissidents, among other things, has been noted by many commentators. Because William Sessions of the FBI was investigating Justice's possible role in the Inslaw/BNL affair, Attorney General William Barr suddenly launched an investigation of Session's misuse of his phone for making personal calls and allowing his wife to be at meetings - hardly the most major of offenses among government bureaucrats! Curious infighting as the ship went down, it seems.
According to Riconsciouto, the INSLAW affair might have been, among other things, a political payoff for the role a former political operative and Justice Department official, Earl Brian, played in the October Surprise. INSLAW was originally a nonprofit organization basically of quasi-governmental nature, which went private in the 1980s in an effort to market its software commercially. PROMIS was marketed to law enforcement agencies as an efficient tool for tracking criminal cases. However, its versatility for use in such wide-ranging areas as political intelligence and monitoring caught the eye of the Justice Department - which would require modifying the program's original design. So Brian first tried to seize INSLAW Corp. in an illegally authorized "hostile takeover," and when that failed, basically stole the PROMIS software outright. Copies of the program were thought to be distributed or sold to, among others, Israel, South Africa, some Central American regimes, and perhaps Saddam Hussein - by the Bush administration - all without consent or compensation for the program's original authors. It is believed that some regimes even today still use chilling, modified versions of the program for tracking political dissidents.
Is the Octopus Still Alive?: Mena, Arkansas and a Clinton Compromise
Riconsciouto claims that Clinton, like Bush, has been "compromised" by the CIA. He says that he personally flew planes carrying illegal shipments of arms to and drugs from the Contra rebels which took off from a secret airstrip near Mena, Arkansas - one which apparently existed with the full knowledge and consent of then-governor Bill Clinton. He and others think that Clinton made a basic "deal" with Bush after he won -- Bush would not criticize Clinton or bring up too much about Whitewater or Mena airstrip, and in return Clinton would not pursue indictments against Bush Administration officials. Today, as the Clinton administration battles off a series of its own political scandals, writers for the alternative media still puzzle over the "mainstream" media's total refusal to look at whatever was going at Mena, in 1992 or now. Because then-governor Clinton may have been permitting the CIA to run a small scale "black operation" right in his own state. So it's obvious that Clinton has no interest in pursuing the Octopus, the question then becomes - even if his administration isn't involved, does it still thrive in its own shadowy centres?
Danny Casolaro may have been killed because he got too close to the truth. The Christic Institute may have been SLAPPed out of existence because of it. Even if the Octopus isn't still operating, there are likely to be various "tentacles" of it who want to cover up the roles that they played in it. It may have branched into things that Casolaro hadn't gotten around to investigating yet. Certainly it tied together a series of sinister forces and operations. George Bush was undoubtedly a key figure, but he isn't going to be running for President again. What's more tragic is the way that he and other co-conspirators may have basically gotten off scot-free. And at this point, it's too early to tell what role Clinton and his administration may or may not be playing in keeping the creature going. Which to me is more important than any unwise land investments he and his wife may have made during the 1980s.
HELICOPTER CRASH AT TEST SITE
Conspiracy report on helicopter crash in July 1991 in which several Wackenhut employees were killed.
(alt.alien.visitors. via www.totse.com)
8/6/95.
The following article comes from the 'TC TECHNICAL CONSULTANT', Nov.-Dec., 1991 issue:
"The death of a journalist in West Virginia, plus the jailing of an alleged CIA computer consultant in Washington State may be elements of a much wider scandal that could have serious implications for the Bush White House in 1992.
"What started out as an investigation of an apparent case of pirated software has grown to be a project involving hundreds of journalists all over the world.
"The dead journalist, Joseph Daniel 'Danny' Casolaro was found dead August 10th in a motel room in West Virginia. His wrists were slashed seven times on each wrist and a suicide note was found nearby. The only manuscript of his book, with accompanying notes, WAS MISSING.
"The book, provisionally titled 'The Octopus', was meant to be an explosive expose of misdeeds by the Justice Department under the Reagan administration. Time Magazine also reported that Casolaro's research centered on gambling and attempted arms deals at the Cabazon reservation near Indio (California - Branton).
"Indeed, the scope of Casolaro's investigation was so large that any one of a large number of areas of research could have been the trigger for a possible hit.
"While authorities declared his death a suicide, his relatives definitely stated that Casolaro's mental state was sound, indeed upbeat, after the completion of his book.
"Casolaro started his work nearly two years before, investigating the bankrupting of a small computer software company called Inslaw, allegedly by the U.S. Justice Department. INSLAW, a company headed by Bill and Nancy Hamilton of Washington D.C., had developed a package known as PROMIS--short for Prosecutor's Management Information System--to act as a case management tool for the Justice Department's unwieldy work load.
"Inslaw President Bill Hamilton [NOT the well-known UFO researcher - Branton] has claimed that Ed Meese associate EARL BRIAN was given control of pirated versions of the PROMIS software by Meese to sell back to different U.S. government agencies for great profit. Two courts have so far agreed with Hamilton awarding an 8 million dollar judgement, but a higher court of appeal has quashed the award and the verdict, declaring that it was not the jurisdiction of the lower courts. As of October 9, the case has moved into the realm of the Supreme Court.
"EARL BRIAN OWNS UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL (UPI) and FINANCIAL NEWS NETWORK (FNN).
"According to a Washington man, who claims to have modified the cobol-based software for the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the software was a reward for Earl Brian's role in arranging the so- called 'October Surprise' gambit, the alleged conspiracy to withhold the American hostages in Iran until after the 1980 election which saw Carter removed from power. The 'October Surprise' scandal has taken some time to emerge.
"In a Paris meeting, President Bush is alleged to have met with Ali Akabar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammed Ali Rajai, the future President of Iran and Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms dealer with connections to Mossad, according to Navy Captain Gunther Russbacher who claims to have flown Bush, William Casey--the CIA chief--and Donald Gregg, a CIA operative to that location. Russbacher, who made these allegations in May is now in jail on Terminal Island, convicted on the charge of impersonating a U.S. Attorney.
"The Washington man is MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO who is now waiting for a trial in a Washington jail on conspiracy to sell drugs charges, charges which Riconosciuto claims are manufactured. Indeed, the charge made against Riconosciuto were made one week after Riconosciuto authored and signed an affidavit describing his role in modifying the pirated software.
"The affidavit also claimed that he had been contacted by phone and threatened by PETER VIDENIEKS, a Justice Department employee and Customs official, who Riconosciuto alleged had intelligence ties, as to the possible consequences of his going public with certain information.
"According to Riconosciuto, Videnieks was a frequent visitor to the Cabazon Indian reservation near Palm Springs and visited with tribal manager, John P. Nichols. Nichols was in essence Riconosciuto's boss in a number of enterprises conducted on reservation land and the PROMIS modification was just one of these projects. According to Riconosciuto, in an interview with T.C. conducted from jail, the PROMIS software was modified to install a backdoor access for use by American intelligence services. The software was then sold to 88 different countries as a sort of 'trojan horse' package enabling us to access their intelligence systems. According to Riconosciuto these countries included Iraq and Libya.
"Correspondence between Nichols and other companies, if authentic, indicates that Riconosciuto's claims of his expertise in the area of electronics and armaments appear to be true. Marshall Riconoscuito, Michael's father is a reputed former business partner of Richard Nixon.
"According to Riconosciuto, the fuzzy status of reservation land as 'sovereign' allowed elements of the CIA and organized crime to conduct business uniquely.
"Among the projects worked on during this time were joint projects with WACKENHUT, a company loaded with former CIA and NSA personnel and business ventures with the Saudi Arabian royal family and other unusual projects.
"A joint venture with Southern California Edison will soon be generating power for bio-mass drawn from local waste outlets. Biological warfare projects were investigated with Stormont laboratories looking into the creation of 'pathogenic viruses' and enhanced fuel-air explosive weapons were created and tested in league with Meridian Arms at the NEVADA TESTING RANGE which matched the explosive power of nuclear devices.
"These enhanced weapons gained their power from polarizing the molecules in the gas cloud by modification of the electric field, a technology developed from exploring Thomas Townsend Brown's suppressed work, a knowledge which Riconosciuto claims he gained from working at LEAR in Reno, Nevada.
"Riconosciuto is said to have worked on the enhanced fuel- air explosive weapons with Gerald Bull of Space Research Corporation. Bull, now deceased, later became an arms advisor to Saddam Hussein. It is said that HUSSEIN POSSESSES THE FAE TECHNOLOGY.
"In July, Anson Ng, a reporter for the Financial Times of London was shot and killed in Guatemala. He had reportedly been trying to interview an American there named Jimmy Hughes, a one- time director of security for the Cabazon Indian Reservation secret projects.
"In April, a Philadelphia attorney named Dennis Eisman was found dead, killed by a single bullet in his chest. According to a former federal official who worked with Eisman, the attorney was found dead in the parking lot where he had been due to meet with a woman who had crucial evidence to share substantiating Riconosciuto's claims.
"Both Eisman's and Ng's deaths were declared suicides by authorities.
"Fred Alvarez, a Cabazon tribal leader who was in vocal opposition to the developments on the reservation, was found shot to death with two friends in 1981. Their murder remains unsolved.
"The leader of the House, Thomas Foley, announced last month that a formal inquiry will be initiated into the Inslaw case. Foley appointed Senator Terry Sanford as co-chairman of the joint congressional panel. Prior to his election, Senator Sanford was the attorney representing Earl Brian in his 1985 takeover bid for United Press International and was instrumental in appointing Earl Brian, a medical doctor, to the board of Duke Medical School, of which Sanford is President.
"However, despite repeated requests from journalists to produce photographs showing Riconosciuto together with Brian, and requests to produce his passport showing his alleged trip to Iran, he has not yet done so. Also Riconosciuto failed to be able to describe Peter Videnieks to CNN's Moneyline program, claiming a medical condition prevented him from remembering clearly.
"This led one former intelligence operative to speculate that we may be witnessing a very sophisticated intelligence operation being played out in public.
"Former F.B.I. Special Agent, Ted Gunderson, speaks for Riconosciuto's credibility. Gunderson, who lives in Manhattan Beach, has worked with Riconosciuto for many years in his capacity as private investigator.
"Together, according to Gunderson, they were responsible for thwarting a terrorist operation during the Los Angeles Olympics. According to Gunderson, Riconosciuto was well known in certain circles as a genius in almost all sciences.
"The so-called drug operation broken up in Washington State was an electrohydrodynamic mining operation claimed Gunderson, using Townsend Brown technology. A videotape viewed by this journalist revealed metallic powders and apparent processes unrelated to drug manufacture. Indeed, a government analysis of soil samples revealed the absence of drug contamination, but a high concentration of barium. Barium is often found in high voltage related work.
"Unsubstantiated information from an intelligence source claims that the current situation is the visible effect OF A WAR CURRENTLY GOING ON IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY between a group centered in the CIA called Aquarius (around a powerful center known as MJ-12) and a group known as COM-12 centered around Naval Intelligence. COM-12 is reputedly trying to sustain a rearguard action to sustain and preserve constitutional government and is deliberately LEAKING INFORMATION damaging to the former group." (Take note of William 'Bill' Cooper's pro-constitution, anti-MJ/12 writings and his past association with high levels of Naval Intelligence - Branton)
In the same publication, same issue, there appeared a small article just following the one quoted above. Written by Thomas Zed, the article, titled "WACKENHUT'S CONNECTION WITH THE BLACK PROJECT WORLD" stated:
"The Wackenhut company has a very close connection to the world of BLACK BUDGET PROJECTS. Besides being connected with the Cabazon venture mentioned in this issue it is also responsible, according to jailed computer consultant Michael Riconosciuto, FOR THE SECRET PROJECTS BEING UNDERTAKEN IN DULCE, NEW MEXICO where the JICARILLA INDIAN RESERVATION IS BEING SIMILARLY USED. (Note: The Underground Labs near Dulce are alleged to be tied-in with the Department of Energy, Rand Corp, Los Alamos Labs, MJ-12 and other 'secret government' controlled military-industrial organizations. It is believed to be the largest underground laboratory of it's kind in the United States, and perhaps the world - Branton)
"After sending two of my colleagues there recently AND RECEIVING CONFIRMATION THAT THERE WAS A TOP SECRET MILITARY TYPE INSTALLATION I decided to call the newspaper office and make an educated bluff.
"I identified myself as a freelance reporter from Los Angeles--and told the newspaper that I was doing a story on the Cabazon reservation biological warfare projects that had been undertaken there on behalf of the CIA. I told her that I had heard that there were similar things being done in Dulce and would like to know what was going on.
"The official I spoke to BECAME FRIGHTENED and said, 'I can't talk to you about that! It would be very unprofessional of me to talk to you about that. You'll have to speak to the President of the tribe.' She then hung up.
"I have yet to call back and ask the President of the tribe, but will report on that in the next issue.
"Wackenhut is also responsible for security of a lot of UNDERGROUND FACILITIES in California and Nevada, including the notorious S-4 or Area 51 in Nevada where Townsend Brown flying disk technology (written about in a T.C. recent issue) has been flying and developing for decades.
"A recent helicopter crash at the area, where two pilots and three security guards from Wackenhut flying in a Messerschmit BO-105 helicopter were killed was not at all accidental claimed Riconosciuto, who said that the individuals aboard the helicopter were traveling with sensitive documents.
"Groups are now investigating Riconosciuto's claims."
* * *
On Oct. 20, 1991, California researcher Michael Lindemann, founder of 'The 20/20 Group', gave a lecture before a large crowd of interested investigators which seems to confirm much of that which appears above. Mr. Lindemann began his address by saying:
"How many of your saw the program on CBS Network on May 17th (1991) called 'ABDUCTION'? It was narrated by James Earl Jones. It was really quite a remarkable program, it took the subject of abduction absolutely seriously. This was prime time network, CBS. Of course FOX (network) has done a number of other programs and there have been some outstanding UFO segments on 'UNSOLVED MYSTERIES'. But last night, maybe even a little more remarkable than the FOX 1-hour special, was what came on the news right after. Because in the Fox Network news program that followed in the 10 o'clock segment there was a hard news story about the allegation that the United States government is 'doing business' with greys. I have never seen anything like it... it was a very impressive indication of the way in which this subject is suddenly becoming O.K. to talk about. That says to me there has been a switch 'at the top'...
"In our conversation today I use two terms... and the first of these terms is 'government'. We speak of the government as if it is a single thing. It is hardly that. It is actually a hodge-podge of... power-struggling people, but I would like to break it up into two main categories, and that is: 1) The government that we consider to be our duly constituted, our elected and appointed representatives who attempt as best they can to run a semblance of order or Federal government which follows the dictates of the constitution of the United States. The constitution is, after all, a darn good piece of paper, it is one of the best ever written... If only our government were capable of behaving in even... a resemblance of what is intended in the constitution, probably few of us would have a great deal to gripe about...
"Now that they've failed to do that is not only because they are fallible humans, but also because they are undermined by another government. There is indeed another government operating and that government has immense power and operates primarily behind the scenes. And some other researchers have called it the 'secret government', some have called it the 'high cabal'. And it is a group of people, a very elite group, non-elected, self- appointed people who guide the evolution of (government) policy from behind the scenes. These are people who transcend partisan politics, indeed who transcend the rule of law, and have no thought whatsoever toward the dictates of the constitution.
"These are people who regard themselves as the only true guardians or crafters of geo-political reality. And they regard us, indeed they regard elected officials as 'mere mortals'. These people are the self- appointed 'OLYMPIANS'. They have done many things in the name of an agenda which is their own, that we would consider appalling and reprehensible. Indeed things that are criminal, but they're more than criminal because they have sapped and usurped the rights and privileges and the possibilities of our future. These people are running a king of 'end game' right now. They are trying to determine how 'they' will survive the end time. Whether that end time comes as a kind of biblical apocalypse or... as the catastrophic collapse of the environment... the (so-called) 'population bomb' and all the other things.. whether it comes as a collapse of the banking- system which looks to be only days away, or the collapse of the rest of the world's economy - there are many things that could get us.
"And these people in effect are building their own version of 'Noah's Ark'. And that 'Noah's Ark' they're building is underground. Underground bases, indeed all over the world, but particularly here in the United States. Huge underground bases that have actually festooned the underground geography of our continent in a way that would probably stun and shock you. But they even have an underground government, because you see when the government topside is no longer functional because a nuclear bomb lands on Capital Hill, or whether it comes simply because the chaos has reached a point where they must abandon ship, there is preparation as there has been for decades for continuity of government, all the computers, all the personnel are currently in place and operating around the clock. Yes, they are there friends, we have another government in waiting, a government that you never authorized, that you never said we would pay for, that has cost a CALLOSAL FORTUNE, but it's there underground, ready to take over. And indeed, here in our area, I have focused on the Lancaster (CA) area as an example of one of the many... but even in Lancaster in particular, we know for certain are huge underground bases. These are not only places where incredible research is underway but also places where people will go to live when the 'bleep' hits the blades as they say. And, these are places that are capable of supporting on an ongoing basis some tens of thousands of people. And so across the country it may be possible to 'save' an 'elect' remnant of some hundreds of thousands of people who will be the 'cream' of the civilization that is meant to survive the apocalypse or the downfall... or whatever it is that's out there getting us. 'Mere mortals' will have to fend for themselves. The expectation is, part of the end game is, (that those on the surface) will eventually fight each other into a draw or will die of exhaustion or starvation or brutality. And that eventually the 'mere mortals' will (destroy) themselves and rid the world of excess population, so that the 'cream', the 'remnant' will come forward and claim their 'rightful' place... I must say that there is an immense amount of evidence which does support this exact scenario.
"Let's talk about the term 'aliens', because there are those who claim that there are 'aliens' among us... There are at least... three kinds of aliens represented in the evidence available to us... (he explains these as those presently inhabiting other planetary bodies such as the greys; those hidden among us such as human-like beings who inhabit underground, undersea and in some cases other-planetary regions yet who often walk unnoticed in our societies; and paraphysical entities who inhabit another 'dimension' other than the one we see with our physical sight - Branton) And I think the evidence is very strong that there is a profound 'alien' presence among us... these are people who are here, beings who are here, in large numbers...
"But there is this government that has known about the alien presence for a long time, a government that has been playing an 'end game'. A government that has an agenda of concealment and control, that is operated by terror. In Lancaster, that agenda of concealment and control is what I call the 'Lancaster Syndrome'. It produces strange distortions in many peoples lives...
"First let me tell you about a man who sits today in Pierce County jail outside of Tacoma, Washington. This man's name is Michael Riconosciuto."
Lindemann states that Riconosciuto formerly worked for a corporation called Wackenhut which provides special security protection for high-security areas such as the Nevada Test Site. Michael R. claims that the real reason he was sent to jail was because he swore out an affidavit against the Dept. of Justice. In that affidavit he explained that the U.S. Dept of Justice had 'swindled' the private company INSLAW out of a proprietary software called PROMIS. This software was a database designed to track special groups of people according to various characteristics. It was a very powerful, very capable database. INSLAW developed this in the early 1980's and took it to the Dept. of Justice thinking it would be a good law enforcement software. The Dept. of Justice would be most useful in helping to track terrorists and other troublemakers. They realized that if they could get control of the software, according to Michael R., they could sell it to other countries and make huge profits.
"So the Dept. of Justice allegedly made a deal with the INSLAW Corp. for an exclusive on the PROMIS software, and then they drove INSLAW into bankruptcy by refusing to pay. Lindemann continues:
"The amazing thing is that they were caught. And in 1988 BARONS magazine in the April 4th (1991) issue... contained this fairly astonishing piece of news: 'Presiding judge in the bankruptcy hearing was judge George Basing.' According to BARONS, Judge Basing had found that the justice dept. had personally propelled INSLAW into bankruptcy in an effort to steal it PROMIS software through 'Trickery, deceit and fraud.' On Feb. 2, 1988, Basing ordered the justice dept. to pay INSLAW about 6.8 million dollars (no doubt to be ultimately financed by the friendly American taxpayer - Branton). He postponed at that time a decision on punitive damages which could run as high as $25,000,000. And as it happens, all of that is all in appeal. The justice dept. was not at all pleased with that ruling. It does state that justice is in a sorry state in America. If you didn't know that already, I hope this helps you to understand."
Michael was responsible for doing the modifications on the PROMIS software before selling that software to the Canadian government after it was 'stolen' from INSLAW, and so he had an inside track on this information.
"He explained," Lindemann continues, "that the Dept. of Justice, among other things, prevailed on him in Feb. of this year (1991) not to offer his information in the ongoing lawsuit. One Dept. of Justice official by the name of Peter Videnicks state that if he would cooperate with this request they could promise him certain benefits..." including an assurance given by a Dept. of Justice employee of a favorable outcome in a prolonged custody battle between Michael R. and his ex-wife. According to Michael R., the Dept., of Justice "'...also outlined specific punishments that I could expect to receive... if I did cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee!'
"Now this is just an indicator," Lindemann states, "that the Dept. of Justice definitely has it's own idea of the meaning of justice."
Michael Riconosciuto went ahead and swore out an affidavit against the Justice Dept. alleging grand larceny against the INSLAW Corp. Lindemann stated that none of the threatened punishments ever came about as they found an easier way to frame him, "that is, they busted (framed) him for drugs, and now he sits facing a possible life sentence in the Pierce Co. Jail. But because of that he's very, very scared because he knows now that these guys will take-him-out whenever they darn well feel like it. And so he's talking, he's talking in every way he can... In particular we wanted to ask Michael R. something about some of the things going on at the underground bases. I'd like to read you just a little bit of what Michael Riconosciuto told us recently about that. I asked him, what did he know about the underground bases in the Lancaster area. I'm going to quote now our conversation:
"He said, 'Well, there's extensive stuff in... I call it the 'Edwards position', and then at Nellis over in Nevada, and at the Nevada Test Site.' Then he went on to say, 'Last summer I had a group of guys bagging a whole bunch of files and records, and some equipment out of Wackenhut and they had a helicopter loaded to the nuts and they got shot down before they could get out of there.'
"I don't know how many of you noticed,' Lindemann continues, "but there was an article in the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the 24th of July of this year - FATAL COPTER CRASH AT THE NUCLEAR TEST SITE PROBED. This was the most serious accident which had ever occurred in the history of the Test Site. Five people were killed when this helicopter went down, and the FAA and the DOE and the National Transportation and safety board all converged on the Nuclear Test Site to figure out what brought this copter down. But you may be ASSURED that they will never tell you because it was SHOT down by Wackenhut, and it contained two pilots and 3 Wackenhut personnel according to the article in the L.A. TIMES.
"I said, 'I heard about that. Are you saying that that was a group of, let's say, renegades from the inside who were trying to bolt for the blue and WACKENHUT shot them down? Is that your allegation?' And he said,
"'Yep!'
"And I said, 'Is there anything more that you can say about this?' He said:
"'Not on the phone.'
"I said, 'Were you aware of that before it happened?'
"He said, 'Yes. I told a handful of people that we were hoping to get a big stash of stuff out of there.'
"I said, 'Were they trying to get out of Nellis?'
"He said, 'No, not Nellis, off the Nuclear Test Site.'
"And the information they were trying to get out, what did it pertain to?'
"And he said, 'Guess! I don't even want to talk about it. The worst!'
"And I said, 'The very worst. hugh?'
"And he said, 'yep'.
"Now I don't know of the 'very worst,' do you? I mean I'm not really sure, but it seemed to me, judging from other things that we had talked with Mike about and some of the other things that we've heard from witnesses in the underground bases... the 'very worst' could be one of two main possibilities in my book... The very worst #1) - Really nasty, scary alien stuff. The very worst #2) - Really nasty, scary bio-tech... bio-engineering stuff. There's all kinds of genetic engineering, some of which has to do with the 'creation' of biological warfare agents, some of which has to do with the 'creation' of strange bacteria, and perhaps new strains of chimpanzees and (perhaps) people. There are very, very weird experiments going on, and I thought, 'O.K., fine, maybe one or the other of those things.'
"But our conversation continued and it leaned in one direction so let's just see what he had to say next.
"I said, 'One of your associates seemed to indicate that there was technology operating that would have the appearance of flying saucers, but be absolutely terrestrial. Can you comment on that?'
"And he said, 'Sure, we had some propulsion devices that were, let's say, rather astounding.'
"I said, 'Is this stuff operational?' And he said 'Oh, yes, it's operational.'
"I said, 'O.K., so there are vehicles. Would you say that they belonged in the arsenal, or are they part of a sort of gee- whiz lunatic fringe of science?'
"And he said, 'Oh no, they're part of the arsenal. It's not lunatic fringe stuff, it's all well-funded, it's all very real. I've worked on portions of it, I've worked on teams that have worked on this stuff, and I've seen with my own eyes. The only thing that I have been shielded from, is any REAL (alien) contact. That I've never been brought directly in contact with, in fact, that part has been minimized to me.' (According to many, a malevolent race of non- human 'alien' entities tied-in with the secret government are the TRUE motivators behind many of the control scenarios against mankind, and that many in the secret government have 'sold' themselves and their services to this invading army and act as a type of 'fifth column', in exchange for certain 'physical' benefits - Branton).
"And I said to him, 'In the way you've said that, I get the impression that you assume that there are extraterrestrials (i.e. 'aliens') around.'
"And he said, 'I have no direct knowledge of that, O.K.? That's all. There's alot of strange technology, there's alot of extra-heavy security, O.K.? Anybody who breeches a certain point of security is instantly dead or disappears.
"I said, 'Are you saying that given all the other indiscretions you've shown over the years, that this one would be worst?'
"And he said, 'Yes, I would say so.'
"I said, 'really?'
"He said. 'Yes, Yes! It's like those people who were leaving the Nuclear Test Site, they were summarily blown out of the sky.'
---------------------- "Now, Michael knew (he was talking on a prison telephone - his phone was tapped) indeed, that people who talk too loud, in too much detail about the actual 'alien' situation are liable to run into severe problems. Being that he's already in prison and a sitting duck, he's obviously very careful with his words. But we have talked with some other people who have been more forthright about what they have actually seen in the underground bases.
"One of our sources is a construction worker. He came out of Vietnam, he was a very decorated Special Forces soldier. Among other things he got the Congressional Medal of Honor. And because he was special forces in the Vietnamese war, when he came back stateside he was offered all kinds of bizarre jobs in top security. He felt that those would be too restrictive so he went into construction instead. But because of his military record he had an inside track on a security clearance. He wound up doing construction in the underground bases.
"Now you see, the underground installations are built just like a building is built. You know, you've got to do electrical conduit, you've got to paint the walls! Whose going to do it? It's not going to be the Secretary of Defense. It's going to be a guy like our guy! It's going to be like this fellow whose got a Congressional Medal of honor and now does special electrical conduiting underground. So he's told us what he saw.
"There's a facility called Haystack Butte, it's on the Edwards (AFB) reservation... (Note: At this point Lindemann shows the audience a map of the area encompassing Edwards AFB, the city of Lancaster and Palmdale to the south - which is the sight of 542 where the B-2 bomber is assembled and alot of other secret aircraft. All of the major aircraft and aerospace companies are located in this area, among other places. It also showed the Tahachapi facility west of Lancaster, nicknamed the 'Ant Hill', which is administered by Northrup and which is rumored by some to house underground 'disk' hangers for wingless aircraft built by the Secret-Government- Military-Industrial establishment. In the southeast corner of Lindemann's map the Tejon ranch was visible, which is a large cattle ranch that goes up into the Tahachapi range to the southeast of Bakersfield, California. He also pointed out an extensive underground facility maintained by MacDonnell Douglas, and the Helendale Facility administered by Lockheed. In this same general area is Haystack Butte which is 'jointly' administered, with North American Rockwell involved as well - Branton).
"So what we have here is a situation where you've got our major aerospace companies heavily implicated. I mean this is what is meant by the Military-Industrial Complex. These companies are HEAVILY implicated in super, super secret projects, and at the very top they're all cooperating together. All the 'bidding wars' and every thing that you see are like mid-level smoke and mirrors. But at the very top we're talking about projects that are conducted by all these different people pooling their resources, pooling their information, and indeed pooling their money, which comes in incredible profusion from the Black Budget.
"How many of you have seen the book 'BLANK CHECK'?... It is not a UFO book. I strongly recommend that you read the book 'BLANK CHECK' so that you can understand something about how these projects are funded without your sayso, indeed without the sayso of Congress. Most citizens don't know for example that the National Security Act of 1947 made it illegal to ever say how much money is spent on the CIA. Indeed all of our tremendous alphabet soup collection of Intelligence Agencies. Whether your talking about the CIA, or the NRO, or the NSA or the DIA, etc., all of them are in the same category.
"You cannot say how much these things cost. All you can do if you want to find out is add-up the numbers on the Budget (which is presently at a deficit of well over 4 TRILLION dollars - Branton) that aren't assigned to anything that actually means anything. There are these huge categories that have tens of billions of dollars in them that say nothing but 'Special Projects...' And every year the Congress dutifully passes this bloated budget that has some $300,000,000,000 or more with HUGE chunks of cash labeled like that - 'Special Projects,' 'Unusual Stuff.' - Ten billion dollars. O.K., well where does the 'unusual stuff' money go? Well, it DOES go to 'unusual stuff', that's for sure, and one of the places it goes is that it goes into the underground bases. Indeed TIM said recently since the publication of his book (BLANK CHECK)... MORE Black Budget money goes into underground bases than ANY OTHER kind of work.
"Now I don't believe that 35 billion, which is the approximate size of the black budget money that you can find by analyzing the budget, I don't think that comes CLOSE to the real figure because there is absolutely unequivocal evidence that a great deal of additional money was generated in other ways, such as the surreptitious running of guns and drugs. And one wonderful example of that is coming to light with the B.C.C.I. scandal which I hope you've heard of... a number of very high- ranking American officials are caught in the undertow of the BCCI tidal wave... Even though these guys are tying to pull 'fast ones' on an immense scale they are getting caught. These things don't always work. Indeed they are very, very vulnerable.
Indeed this whole 'end game' is very vulnerable and that's why they feel it requires such secrecy. The American people wouldn't stand for this stuff if they had the information, and that's the reason why we have to get the information out and take it seriously because it really is a matter of our money and our future that's being mortgaged here.
"But my friend who worked in the underground bases, who was doing sheetrock was down on, he thinks, approximately the 30th level underground... these bases are perhaps 30-35 stories deep ('ground-scrapers' as opposed to a 'sky-scrapers' - Branton). As I say they are not just mine shafts, these are huge, giant facilities... many city blocks in circumference, able to house tens of thousands of people. One of them, the YANO Facility (we're told... by the county fire dept. director, the county fire dept. chief who had to go in there to look at a minor fire infraction) there's a 400-car parking lot on the 1st level of the YANO Facility, but cars never come in and out, those are the cars that they use INSIDE.
"O.K., so... a very interesting situation down there. Our guy was doing sheetrock on the 30th floor, maybe the 30th floor, underground. He and his crew are working on a wall and right over here is an elevator door. The elevator door opens and, a kind of reflex action you look, and he saw three 'guys'. Two of them, human engineers that he's seen before. And between them a 'guy' that stood about 8 to 8 1/2 feet tall. Green skin, reptilian features, extra-long arms, wearing a lab coat, holding a clip-board.
"...I tend to believe that story because, first of all because we have other stories like it, but more importantly because he walked off that job that very day. And he was getting paid a GREAT deal of money... If your basically a sheetrock kind of guy, if you can do sheetrock in a place like that then you get paid way more than standard sheetrock wages, you can count on it.
"So, he walked off that job. His buddy on that same crew turned into an alcoholic shortly after. This is an extremely upsetting thing. You know, it wasn't like this alien jumped out and bit his head off or anything, it was just standing there for a few minutes, the doors closed. He has a feeling that that elevator was malfunctioning, otherwise he never would have seen that except by accident.
"In another incident though... at the China Lake Naval Weapons Station, up here at China Lake... near Ridgequest... they were working there on the China Lake Naval Weapons Station and walked by a hanger... They walked by a hanger as they were headed for their trucks to leave for the day. And they had parked their trucks in an unusual place, a place they didn't normally park, because it was an extremely hot day and they wanted to keep the trucks out of the sun. So the Security had given them permission to park the trucks in a place that wasn't normal. So they walked by a hanger that they didn't normally walk by, and they looked in, just kind of glanced in, and saw inside a couple of grays working on something. And of course they were, you know, astonished... And an MP came running over and said: 'Hey, you can't be here! What are you doing here?' And they said: 'Well, Security said we could park our trucks here.' And (the Security Guard) says: 'Well that's fine, but you get out of here because you'll get yourself killed!' So they left. But one of the young guys on that crew couldn't leave well enough alone. The guy we've been talking to said, 'Look, I know what you saw, I know what I saw. I know what we saw at Haystack (Butte), it's all for real, I know what's going on, but don't be a stupid jerk. Leave it alone!'
"This kid didn't leave it alone, and very shortly thereafter he was booted off the base, and three months later he was dead under mysterious circumstances. Now of course we can't say that he died 'because' of this. There's a disturbing pattern of people dying however when they see things they're not supposed to... Michael Riconosciuto makes it very clear in his statement to us that if you go past a certain point your dead or disappear, just like that. We've heard that time and time again. Indeed there are a great many people on the 'inside' who are making it clear that they would love to flee, people like these people that apparently were blown out of the sky, the Wackenhut garbage. These are trained (mercenaries) who have seen things they cannot stand, things that turn their stomach, things that make them want to grab evidence and flee for their lives. And they were blown out of the sky, probably by something equivalent to a stinger missile or something like that. And there are lots of people who want to get out.
"Just an example of the way these people talk, one of them said to us, 'I would trade my $100,000.00 a year salary for a job at McDonald's if I could get out alive. There's a certain despair there, a certain feeling of entrapment. You see there are the people who know what's going on and who have created this agenda and have 'bought-into' it entirely, they are enrolled in it, and they believe that they are indeed the 'Olympians'. They have to employ lots of normal humans like us to do the sheetrocking, to do the grubwork, and those people are in a very bizarre catch-22, because they are given the promise of a salary that they never believed possible. You know... they're going to paint walls all day and they're going to take down a hundred grand a year, this is unusual. That's the up-side of the deal. The down side of the deal is (you know, and they make it very clear)... all these people who get these high security clearances are subjected to INCREDIBLY intimidating indoctrination and intimidation processes... they really do subject these people to tremendous pressure, tremendous intimidation, indeed they do inflict great violence on people (on whom) they 'need' to. They make 'examples' of people..."
In one sense, there is a growing division taking place between the Constitutionalists of America and the 'Alien' controlled segments within the underground bases. This would also include their human 'pawns' who will apparently do anything, even murder their fellow man, in order to continue receiving the technological 'benefits' from their alien masters, to whom they have 'sold' themselves and whose agenda of control and subversion they are serving, whether knowing or unknowingly.
(mediafilter.org)
While Wackenhut has been on best behavior in its push for the top spot in the private prison field, the parent company garnered much unwelcome notoriety. It provided the controversial protection for strike breakers in the Pittston strike. Its contract with the Savannah River Site and Rocky Flats nuclear facilities brought in $39 million in 1992, according to the company's annual report. The company's ubiquitous presence at nuclear facilities and the role of its employees in repressing anti-nuclear demonstrations--including intelligence gathering--has made the term "wackenhuts" synonymous with rent-a-cops. The company has resorted to "dirty tricks" against its perceived foes or those of its clients. As security provider for the Alyeska pipeline consortium, for example, Wackenhut employed unlicensed investigators and questionable methods to find and discredit environmentalist whistle-blowers within the company.
By J. Orlin Grabbe
The Laissez Faire City Times
Vol 5, No 46, November 12, 2001
http://www.orlingrabbe.com/binladin_timosman.htm
11-8-1
The two men headed to the Hilton Hotel in Sherman Oaks, California in the late Spring of 1986 were on their way to meet representatives of the mujahadeen, the Afghan fighters resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
One of the two, Ted Gunderson, had had a distinguished career in the FBI, serving as some sort of supervisor over Special Agents in the early 60s, as head of the Dallas field office from 1973-75, and as head of the Los Angeles field office from 1977-1979. He retired to become an investigator for, among others, well-known attorney F. Lee Bailey. And all along the way, Gunderson, whether or not actually a CIA contract agent, had been around to provide services to various CIA and National Security Council operations, as he was doing now.
In more recent years Gunderson was to become controversial for his investigations into child prostitution rings, after he became convinced of the innocence of an Army medical doctor named Jeffrey McDonald, who had been convicted of the murder of his wife and three young children in the 1970s. This has led to various attempts by the patrons and operators of the child prostitution industry to smear Gunderson's reputation.
Michael Riconosciuto was there to discuss assisting the mujahadeen with MANPADs, Man Portable Air Defense Systems. Stinger missiles were one possibility. If the U.S. would permit their export, Riconosciuto could modify the Stinger's electronics, so the guided missile would still be effective against Soviet aircraft, but would not be a threattto U.S. or NATO forces.
But Riconosciuto had another idea. Through his connections with the Chinese industrial and military group
However, Michael and his father Marshall Riconosciuto, a friend of Richard Nixon, continued to run the Hercules Research Corporation. In the early 1980s Michael also served as the Director of Research for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables, Florida, and the
Riconosciuto's bomb made suitcase nukes obsolete, because it achieved near-atomic explosive yields, but could be more easily minaturized. You could have a suitcase a-neutronic bomb, or a briefcase a-neutronic bomb, or simply a lady's purse a-neutronic bomb. Or just pull out your wallet for identification and... The Meridian Arms Corporation, as well as the Universities of California and Chicago owned a piece of the technology.
But there was more than explosives in the portfolios of the CIA agents who surrounded Riconosciuto like moths around a candle. Both Robert Booth Nichols, the shady head of Meridian Arms Corporation (with both CIA and organized crime conections), and Dr. John Phillip Nichols, the manager of the Cabazon reservation, were involved in bio-warfare work,Äîthe first in trying to sell bio-warfare products to the army through Wackenhut, the second in giving tribal permission for research to take place at Cabazon. According to Riconosciuto, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was in charge of the classified contracts for biological warfare research. Riconosciuto would later testify under oath that
Riconosciuto would make additional claims about
"Ralph Olberg" was an American businesman who was leading the procurement of American weapons and technology on behalf of the Afghan rebels. He worked through the Afghan desk at the U.S. State Department, as well as through Senator Hubert Humphrey's office. Olberg looked after the Afghanis through a curious front called MSH - Management Sciences for Health.
The other man, dressed in Docker's clothing, was not a native Afghan any more than Olberg was. He was a 28-year-old Saudi. Tim Osman (Ossman) has recently become better known as Osama Bin Ladin. "Tim Osman" was the name assigned to him by the CIA for his tour of the U.S. and U.S. military bases, in search of political support and armaments.
Gunderson and Riconosciuto were not on an altruistic mission. They had some conditions for their help. And they had some bad news to deliver. The mujahadeen needed to be willing to test new weapons in the field and to return a research report, complete with photos.
The bad news was that some factions of the CIA didn't feel that Oldberg and Osman's group were the real representatives of the Afghans. Upon hearing this both Tim and Ralph were indignant. They wanted to mount a full-court press. Round up other members of their group and do a congressional and White House lobbying effort in Washington, D.C.
Did the lobbying effort take place? I don't know. There is some evidence that Tim Osman and Ralph Oldberg visited the While House. There is certainty that Tim Osman toured some U.S. military bases, even receiving special demonstrations of the latest equipment. Why hasn't this been reported in the major media?
One week after giving an affidavit to Inslaw regarding the PROMIS software in 1991, Riconosciuto was arrested on trumped-up drug charges. The Assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case attempted to cover up Riconosciuto's intelligence background by claiming to the jury he was "delusional." A TV station came and pointed a camera out at the desert at Cabazon and said, "Riconosciuto says he modified the PROMIS software here." Of course Riconosciuto didn't modify the software out between the cacti and yucca. Sand isn't good for computers. He did the modifications in offices in nearby Indio, California. The AUSA [assistant U.S. attorney] told reporters Riconosciuto had been diagnosed with a mental condition, the implication being "he's making all this stuff up". Yes, there had been a mental evaluation of Riconosciuto. I have a copy of the report. The diagnosis? Here it is: NO MENTAL DISORDER. The Department of Justice consistently and maliciously lied to the jury, just as had been threatened by Justice Department official Peter Viednicks if Riconosciuto cooperated with the congressional investigation of PROMIS.
If the war against Osama Bin Ladin (Tim Osman) is not a total fraud, then what is Michael Riconosciuto doing in prison? Why doesn't he have an office next to Colin Powell so he can give realistic advice on Bin Ladin's thinking? And where is Ralph Olberg?
Thirty-four days before the East African embassy bombings of August 7, 1998, Riconosciuto notified the FBI in Miami that the bombings were going to take place. Two days prior to the bombings he requested of BOP (Bureau of Prisons) officials at the Federal Corrections Institution (FCI) in Coleman, FL., that he be allowed to call
Isn't it time to let Michael Riconosciuto out of prison, and wipe the slate clean of the trumped-up drug charges, and let him be a national security advisor - at least with respect to the government's pursuit of Osama Bin Ladin? Isn't it time to quit pretending Osama Bin Ladin came out of nowhere?
This is not an academic argument. Sources say three dozen MANPADs have been imported into Quebec, Canada, from Colombia (where they arrived from Eastern Europe). The missile shipments followed the "northern" drug route - from Colombia into Canada. The missiles involved are
Rumor Mill News Reading Room Forum MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO IS IN THE HOLE!! Posted By: Rayelan Date: Wednesday, 7 November 2001, 12:55 a.m.
Michael Riconosciuto was pulled from his cell at 5AM this morning (Nov 6/01). He was not able to grab his records. He has been moved from Allenwood to a place he did not want to go. He is in the hole at Springfield, MO. Michael was revealing details of terrorist networks, now communications are severed and he has been taken to a place which is very dangerous for him. Michael J. Riconosciuto 21309-086 Box 4000 U.S. Medical Center Springfield, MO 65801-4000 He is in the hole because he would be attacked by other prisoners if he were in the regular facilities. They will need to move the main-threat person into the hole in order to get him time out of the hole - this won't do him a lot of good because other prisoners are also threats, and he could be beaten & killed. Michael was presented to the people at Springfield as someone who is mentally ill. Fortunately, he got someone to call Allenwood to verify the cancer problem. His new BOP councilors are Mr. Dunn and Mrs. Cunningham. CAPT Newton E. Kendig II., M.D., Medical Director and Phillip S. Wise, Assistant Director are two men who can make a real difference. Please call them and let them know how important it is that Michael be given every opportunity to survive this ordeal. The Federal Bureau of Prisons Central Office is located at 320 First St., NW., Washington, D.C. 20534. Office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday. Phone 202-307-3055. Fax 202-307-0826. Another potential source for assistance would be Congressman Petersen's office. Phone: 814-827-3985. Calls to local representatives would also help. I have spoken with Michael on the phone as recently as Sunday. He told me he has all the information needed to totally expose the terrorist networks. We needed time to unravel them. Now communications with him are cut off. How long he can live in the hole when he is already ill, I don't know, but it is no way to treat a sick man, and no way to treat a person who is attempting to stop a disaster.
(www.washtimes.com)
August 6, 2002
Martin Edwin Andersen
In 1997, the Department of Energy's senior-most professional with hands-on responsibility for protecting the nation's vast stores of nuclear weapons-grade materials from theft or sabotage warned that the fissile materials stored at Colorado's Rocky Flat Environmental Technology Site, near Denver, were "at extremely high risk." A terrorist assault could result in "a little mushroom-shaped cloud" over the nearby mile-high city of more than 1 million people, he noted. That sum-of-all-fears scenario might well have occurred last September 11, except for the courage of a national security whistleblower who, like others who dare speak truth to power, nearly lost his job.
Mark Graf was an alarm station supervisor and authorized derivative classifier at Rocky Flats, where more than 21 tons of uranium and plutonium is stored. Mr. Graf watched while a private security agency, Wackenhut Services, eliminated the site's bomb detection unit, and conducted substandard emergency drills and plutonium inventories after being awarded a security contract.
Worried that more than a ton of plutonium already was missing at the facility, Mr. Graf pleaded with management for redress. No action was taken. In 1995, he blew the whistle to a member of Congress and later went public with his concerns on CBS News. In short order he was reassigned, forced to submit to a psychological evaluation and put on administrative leave. He was only allowed to return to work after being gagged from speaking to Congress, the media and the agency. Mr. Graf was also threatened with being fired, even though his disclosures are authoritatively cited as a key factor in legislation passed as part of the 1998 Defense Authorization Bill, requiring an annual review of the safety and security program.
Mr. Graf, like scores of other national security whistleblowers, are modern Paul Reveres. Like the Revolutionary War hero, they warn us about threats that, in some cases, could quickly become disasters. Like the FBI's celebrated Coleen Rowley, Mr. Graf put his professional life on the line in order to exercise a right that has become all the more precious since September 11 — the freedom to warn.
Unfortunately, legislation now in Congress meant to protect Homeland Security would leave people like the Rocky Flats whistleblowers and Ms. Rowley without meaningful rights to challenge government security breakdowns. A bill passed by the House in late July offers the proposed 170,000 new employees of the Department of Homeland Security only rhetorical protections, based on already woefully inadequate whistleblower protection laws. It would also strip them of due process procedures and remedies to enforce these paper-only rights. As any first-year law student can tell you, rights without remedies are really no rights at all.
In the absence of genuine, enforceable rights, potential whistleblowers privy to crucial information and insights, face the "chilling effects" of possible dismissal, demotion, harassment and blackballing. Each must calculate the duty to country as a trade off with the possibilities of professional and personal survival.
The House version of Homeland Security does not provide for whistleblowers to be reinstated, or to compensatory damages from harm, reimbursement for legal fees, or even a pseudo day in court before a bureaucratic hearing officer. By turning those who do their duty into martyrs, other would-be whistleblowers are convinced to look the other way and remain silent observers.
Ironically, the Government Affairs Committee presided over by Rep. Dan Burton had included real whistleblower protections passed by overwhelming voice vote in their own version of the Homeland Security bill, only to see these stripped out of the legislation passed by the full House. That legislation, like a similar bill being sponsored by Sen. Mark Dayton in the upper chamber, was named, fittingly, the Paul Revere Act.
The Paul Revere initiative is a long-overdue follow-on to the Lloyd-LaFollette Act of 1912, which affirmed the right of federal employees to report their concerns to Congress. Unfortunately, like the House Homeland Security bill, the well-intentioned Lloyd-LaFollette Act did not include judicially enforceable remedies for whistleblowers. As a result, of the 54 cases bought under its provisions in the past 90 years, 53 were dismissed by the courts for lack of remedies.
President Bush and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge have repeatedly called on federal employees to stand with them to protect America against terrorism. But none of us can be protected by cardboard shields, whistleblowers included.
This fall, Congress must give whistleblowers real protection, shielding them within the context of existing laws that also block unauthorized release of sensitive information. Loose lips need not sink ships. As Paul Revere showed us, there are times that raising our voices in alarm can also protect our freedoms and our security.
Martin Edwin Andersen is media director of the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a Washington-based whistleblower protection organization and a reporter for Insight magazine.
Group 4 Falck, a leading global provider of security services, agreed to buy a rival, the Wackenhut Corporation, for $573 million so Falck can expand in the United States, where demand for security guards is rising after the Sept. 11 attacks. Falck, which is based in Copenhagen, will pay $33 for each share of Wackenhut, the chief executive, Lars Noerby Johansen, said. The price was below Thursday's closing price of $34.40. Falck and a bigger rival, Securitas, are buying competitors in the $14 billion market in the United States, which they expect to grow faster than other markets. Wackenhut, which is based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., provides more than 40,000 security guards to companies.
- Mar 08 2002
... the camp, which is managed under contract by an American company, Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, is likely to be much smaller, with detainees having been sent to smaller...
- Feb 13 2002
... Immigration and the company that runs the camp, Australasian Correctional Management, a unit of the Wackenhut Corporation of the United States. One guard ordered the three to their rooms,...
- Dec 02 2001
...Fierce Lobbying for Jobs One of the early leaders in passenger screening was Wackenhut, the Florida-based security giant that guards nuclear power plants,...
- Nov 14 2001
...Wackenhut, the nation's second-largest provider of security guards and related services,...
- Nov 11 2001
Wackenhut Corp, No. 2 provider of security guards, says profit fell 71 percent in third quarter even as revenue rose at all of its businesses; net income falls to $900,000, or 6 cents a share (S)
- Nov 03 2001
... ''are getting much more credence,'' said Alan Bernstein, the chief operating officer of the Wackenhut Corporation, which provides security services and guards. Though companies are reluctant to...
- Oct 17 2001
Richard R Wackenhut, president of Wackenhut Corp, leading provider of private security overseas, declines to predict how Sept 11 terrorist attacks will affect his business, unsure whether current uptick is long- or short-term; believes airline security must be raised to higher standards; photo (M)
- Sep 30 2001
- Sep 17 2000
State of Louisiana agrees in federal court to sweeping changes in operation of juvenile prisons, including steps to protect inmates from abusive guards and promises to provide medical, dental and mental health care; will not place any more young inmates in Jena prison run by Wackenhut Corrections Corp; agrees to bar a company operated by friends of former Gov Edwin W Edwards, which owned a juvenile prison in Tallulah, from managing the prison; photo (M)
- Sep 08 2000
Wackenhut Corrections Corp completes agreement to build and operate maximum-security penitentiary in South Africa (M)
- Aug 12 2000
Wackenhut Corrections Corp, world's largest private for-profit prison company, announces it is abandoning contract to run juvenile prison in Louisiana after New Orleans judge and Justice Dept finds inmates were being physically abused and deprived of adequate food and clothing; Wackenhut says it will seek bids from other states and federal government to convert juvenile prison into one for adults; what will happen to 226 boys at prison is unclear (M)
- Apr 27 2000
State officials in Louisiana assume management of troubled private juvenile prison in Jena, naming new warden as negotiations continue over conditions that critics say are unconstitutional and inhumane; prison's owner is Wackenhut Corrections Corp (S)
- Apr 06 2000
... all laboratory employees were required to view a video made by Wackenhut Corporation, a contractor used by the Energy Department....
- Apr 03 2000
Justice Dept files lawsuit against Wackenhut Corrections Corp and State of Louisiana charging that conditions at a private for-profit juvenile prison in central Louisiana run by Wackenhut are 'dangerous and life-threatening' and asking federal judge to take emergency action to protect inmates (M)
- Mar 31 2000
...In the video Jim Hickok, an employee of Wackenhut, a security contractor used by the Department of Energy, stated that one-third to one-half...
- Mar 19 2000
State Judge Mark Doherty removes six teenage boys from juvenile prison in Jena, La, after finding they had been brutalized by guards, kept in solitary confinement for months and deprived of basic needs and care; prison is run by Wackenhut Corrections Corp, largest for-profit prison operator; photo (M)
- Mar 16 2000
...The prison, owned and operated by the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., opened in 1998 and is one of two privately...
- Feb 25 2000
...Two of the agency's detention centers, Wackenhut in Queens and Elizabeth in New Jersey, are administered by private companies for the agency....
- Feb 20 2000
by Voxfux
Aug 9 '02
VoxFux.com
PAGE URL: http://www.gulufuture.com/future/voxfuxsecretforces.htm
The following article is no longer on the VoxFux website. As of August 8th, 2002 the entire website content has been removed --leaving only a disclaimer warning that the death of the site operator would be a covert forces assassination.
A thorough scientific analysis of the swirl of events, people, nations, motivations, propaganda, personalities and histories involved in this current moment in history, leads to only one conclusion -
That clandestine forces loyal to George Bush Sr. are planning to attack the US population, blame it on Islamic terrorists and use the attacks as a pretext for a total clamp-down on dissent, basic civil liberties, normal democratic processes and in the confusion that will follow they will wage unchecked war and aggression against Iraq, and other nations Islamic and otherwise who have natural resources and particularly oil reserves that this shadowy group of petrochemical and arms industrialists are thirsting for. Their ultimate goal? The conquest of Eurasia.
Three quarters of the worlds population and resources are to be found on the Eurasian landmass. It has been the principle focus of State Department and military strategists since presidential National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski outlined it twenty years ago as the principle American “Imperative.” Meaning: To survive, we MUST conquer. But what of all those nations that we will be conquering? According to Brzezinski and his cabal of adherents in the Military and State Department whom his writings are a biblical tome - it’s for their own good.
The problem Brzezinski says is that most average American’s don’t have a taste for crusades of global conquest...
Unless...there’s a sudden threat.
In his latest book, The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski drills his followers no less than four times that only sudden and terrorfying threats would rouse Americans to the task of global conquest.
With the opening salvo of September 11th behind them, American’s are being, “softened up” right now for their first “Dirty Bomb,” attack. If there was ever so sinister an imaginary catastrophic device that had been so entirely concocted out of thin air, so heavily promoted in the media and ultimately steered to what will almost certainly be the dramatic conclusion of a self fulfilling media stoked prophecy - to be fabricated first in our imaginations then ignited in the real world - It is the dirty bomb. Find out the “Generators” of the dirty bomb “meme” that took off like wildfire eight months ago and you will find the very source of American terrorism.
But it’s not going to be easy. Covert operators like this don’t leave memos of their machinations laying around - They don’t write this in e-mails. But they do leave traces of their presence.
The analysis of the “Chatter,” voxnyc is receiving and interpreting points to only one conclusion - Teams of private ex-intelligence and ex-military operatives under the command structure of the axis of industrialists aligned with the Bush Group of current and ex, intelligence and military operatives, are racing to consolidate total power in the hands of George Bush Jr. in the most ambitious power grab since Adolf Hitler.
To make it very clear our analysis is the following: The much vaunted radiological dirty bomb will NOT be dropped on the American population from any Islamic terrorists but from the shadowy group of American intelligence operatives aligned with George Bush Sr. (the father)
Americans have been made, “aware,” of the dirty bomb for over six months now and have had the dirty bomb “meme” firmly linked to, “Islamic Terrorists.” This is how it’s done. It’s called the, “Back Story.” And it is part of the preparatory propaganda intelligence agencies call a Psy-op (psychological operation). These Psy-ops in actuality comprise nearly 70% of the overall human and capital resources our government devotes to a given geo-strategic objective - only 30% is bullets and bombs. But even with the many millions spent on painting these elaborate Psy-op pictures, it doesn’t take a forensic analysis to uncover some troubling clues within them - Something terribly wrong in the picture. Like a Hollywood special effects extravaganza - all glitz but light on story, these psy-ops which accompany the dirty business of America’s, industry, military, intelligence triad, are the shoddy screenplays leaving much to be desired.
(The 70/30 split is a general rule. But my guess is that with the Bushes - Because of their unique position of owning the Arms companies involved, their percentage of outlay to the bloody component would prove to be abnormally high. Each time a Texas based Raytheon cruise missile rocks some empty valley in Afghanistan, that’s three million dollars in some fat cat crony’s wallet - that fat cat crony is going to “owe one” to the Bushes - It’s called reality.)
In this case the clues point to only one conclusion. In their race towards global domination these intelligence are preparing to initiate attacks of American population centers. And are laying the preparatory groundwork to make those attacks have maximum political and psychological effect.
The analysis is clear - The sheer volume of the psychological info-warfare now being released into the media and principally targeted at the American people containing within it the key indicators, is pointing to an eminent inside attack. If you know your hstory and you know your psychology then you will see the dark hand at work.
What follows is a VERY different explanation of the dreadful attacks of 9/11.
The ruling faction of our government can be characterized as being on a “Kill Crazy Rampage.”
But there are so many people against the New World Order and so many people who have now discovered that the source of terrorism is actually American and at the highest levels of international banks, trade organizations and secret councils - That by the sheer numbers of dissenters, there is safety - How could they possibly kill us all. (for more on that see: voxnyc.com) And even though this dark force's primary goal is industrial dominance not mass slaughter (Except in Africa and parts of Asia), the reality that faces them is very much more daunting than they anticipated - What they have discovered is that truly free market's aren't working as they'd like, commerce isn’t working, economics and resources really are a zero sum game... Things started to get out of hand - City by city throngs of good people took to the streets in extrordinary movements of mass solidarity, resisting their globalization (stultification) forces and capturing the attention and imagination of millions. And so, frustrated, backed into a corner and feeling that this was their moment they struck back. Terrorism. These are the desperate last gasps of a dying industrial paradigm. The old age of heavy industry clawing in vain at the robust age of information as it too gives way to it's baby, the age of bio perfection - bio-vainity.
This terrorism is from old rich men who are dying. It is their last salutations to vitality. Their vain old clutching to vigor as it slips away from them. These attacks are from old people to young people, from rich people to poor people. These terrorist attacks are the most expedient and efficient mechinism they have left to jump start thier futile push for global domination.
So now we are standing by waiting for the dirty bomb to make it’s debut as the next threat of the month to capture the limited imagination of the somnambulistic American sheepdom. In the age of simulations this poor mans nuclear bomb, the dirty bomb, is an accurate reflection of the bankrupt and desperate warring American industrialists who assuredly will be the ones wielding it’s terrorfying force against us. (The trail of acquisition of a genuine nuclear bomb is too much to cover for this group so the easiest solution is the dirty bomb)
Packing nowhere nears the strength of a full on fissionable atomic bomb, the dirty bomb is really more an election strategy than a mass murder.
We can imagine ahead of time the valiant images of George Bush fearlessly entering the radiation perimeter in full radiation gear (the best available) live on CNN. Then we can see in complete clarity the compassionate George Bush visiting the hospital where the young girl, suffering from radiation sickness, is being treated. We can see the American people in a rage of anger. And we can see the rousing images of Bush and his running mate during the next election as they sweep across the Midwest locking up state after state guaranteeing victory.
Here’s how it’s almost certainly is going to play out.
9-11, An inside job? - You better believe it.
The lesson of self induced terrorism as a means to seize the American population and stoke them into a war frenzy, is a deep part of the game plan of the masters of George Bush Jr’s administration - His father, George Bush Sr and the group of industrialists that he serves. Brzezinski’s book is the defacto Bible of the Bush Group and now is standard coffee table decor in every office in the state department and pentagon.
At the same time as being an effective means to rally the mass population for the coming wars necessary to impose the industrialist’s unwanted arrogant Pax Americana on the worlds populations, it is also conveniently and unfathomable a most profitable form of population control as well. With a fear frenzied population under tight control and no need to bow to public opinion or compromise with a reluctant Senate - The sky’s the limit on arms sale’s and profits. Wherever these shadow groups of private clandestine intelligence operators surface, extraordinary patterns of unexplained “suicides”, cancers, car accidents, assassinations, plane crashes, wrecked economies, other accidents, civil wars, oil wars, civil unrests, genocides, suicides and document shreddings, all just...happen.
Here's something that happened. - a little back story.
This is the extrordinary story of a dinner date. A dinner date that was scheduled to happen on march 31st 1981 - the day following the strange assassination attempt on the life of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was the president. And George Bush Sr, the very ambitious former CIA director from Texas was the Vice President.
What makes this dinner date so special that night was it’s two guests. Hold on to your seats because the following news item should send a chill up your spine. The dinner party was to be held at the home of Neil Bush, the vice president’s son. The guest at the dinner party (which was quickly cancelled after news of the failed attempt on the life of the President), was Scott Hinckley the brother of John Hinckley who just that afternoon fired several shots into Reagans chest, coming one half inch from putting his bullet into the heart of the President - a half inch from putting his friend’s father, George Bush, into the White House.
Now lets pause a moment and reflect on that. So far what we have is the son of the Vice President linked to the brother of the guy who just tried to kill the president. Take a moment to absorb that.
Go look it up on Google. Type in (neil bush scott hinckley dinner) See for yourself.
What was the Bush team’s response to this chilling revelation on the planned dinner date? They barricaded themselves behind a wall of the biggest PR Firms in the nation and issued the following statement “This horrible coincidence has been devastating to the Bush Family. Our condolences go out to all involved. And we hope to get the matter behind us as soon as possible.” (sic)
I should hope so.
If I was the Vice President and I had just masterminded a failed assassination attempt on the President of the United States, I too would hope to “put the matter behind me.”
The Bush Team decided to go with the story that it was just a bad "coincidence." In the days that followed, Washington saw the most intensive whitewash of any news item ever whitewashed. What should have been the biggest most investigated story of the 80’s was wiped clean from history. They spun it clear off the front, back or middle pages of all the giant newspapers. The only mention of it EVER to appear on national television was a brief comment by NBC’s John Chancellor who was absolutely floored by the revelation and mentioned it during his newscast against the wishes of NBC management. NBC quickly jumped in and censored it. And the revelation was NEVER MENTIONED ON ANY TELEVISION SHOW EVER AGAIN . Having no chance to make it into the History Books, the story resurfaced with the advent of the Internet, but something is happening there as well. It’s being expunged from the Internet as you read this. In 1999 one could find nearly a thousand independent articles pertaining to this most revealing story, then all of the sudden, one by one the pages and sites relating to the story started to disappear. Today there just a few sites who are keeping the story alive. There used to be thousands of references to it , now there are but paltry few.
But wait, It get’s better. It was revealed in the days following the shooting that since 1970 both George Bush Sr. and John Hinckley Sr (the father of the assassin) were friends and fellow oil industrialists in Texas and Colorado.
How’s that for another coincidence!
Pretty coincidental isn’t it?
Here’s another coincidence, in 1978 Neil Bush lived in Lubbock, Texas while managing his brother George Jr’s (our President’s) campaign for congress. Guess who else lived in Lubbock that year?
John Hinckley Jr.
Is there a chill running down your spine yet? If there isn’t, there should be. Normally this many coincidences would sound alarm bells in a normally functioning democracy and there would about a thousand articles in the major media outlets, or there would be at least one fearless soul in congress who would stand up and demand a congressional investigation. Well there actually was. There was only one congressman who defied this force - congressman Larry MacDonald - But guess what? His plane crashed. Many suspect that the infamous Korean Air 007 flight that was shot down by the soviets as it unexplainably veered into soviet airspace was an insider deal by heavyweights in the clandestine underworld in exchange for certain unfettered Soviet meddling in places like Central Asia and elsewhere in the following years. That’s another coincidence. But back to the tale of two sets of brothers.
One press encounter probed the brothers about weather they and Hinckley associated during that time in Lubbock. Both Neil and George (our current President) responded that it was “conceivable that they had associated, however they couldn’t recollect.” Do you know what that means? It means that at that time the Bush brothers were very aware that there were certain individuals alive in and around Lubbock and possible other places who would be able to refute any flat out denial by the Bushes that they had never met Hinckley. That is why their story had to be that it was, “Conceivable.” Otherwise as we all know in typical politician LieSpeak style the Bush boys would simply flat out reject any claims and vehemently deny such a meeting.
Take a moment and work it out for yourself.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out. You don’t have to have a photograph of all three to know they were together in Lubbock. OTHERWISE THEY WOULD HAVE ISSUED FLAT OUT DENIALS. The bushes stupid move of the “Conceivable” comment tells the whole story. It also reveals that the Bush boys were as sloppy with their covert operations then as they are now. That being said, I’ll leave you with another - Pity the poor persons living in Lubbock who might have been party to or aware of such meetings between the three, because, considering the personalities involved, psychological makeup and history of the Bushes it is in all likelihood that any such person would have long since “committed suicide” or had a “car accident” or “fell out a window.” or some such other “accidental” and untimely death.
Know Your History.
My bet is that even if one were to mount a massive search of all persons who met an untimely death in and around Lubbock from the period from 1981 to 1990 that you may not even find a trace of them in existence any longer. And do you know why? Because that is the Bush speciality. Through executive dominion over public records they carefully and systematically expunge any trace of a person or events in state and federal records systems. If you are the Governor of Texas you simply have your private firm do a routine audit the records systems, locate the records in question, and remove them. There is no one on a state level who would even have he power to challenge you. That’s what Bush Sr. spent a great deal of time and effort doing while he was Vice President and President. First expunging his father Prescott’s nasty little deeds from the records, then his own. Looks like the son learned his lessons well. That’s what they are doing right now - Deleting, rewriting and expunging history. And they are doing it openly. Just try to exercise your Freedom of Information rights. Fat chance.
Time to wake the fuck up.
The Bush group never believably accounted for that chillingly unexplained dinner date. The mainstream press has NEVER visited that story since. It remains one of the most chilling examples of the power of the new dark hand to crush real events that really happened, essentially to shape history at will.
Welcome to the New World Order of deception, assassinations and power grabs.
How many more coincidences is it going to take to wake people up? Answer: The only thing that will wake people up is the coming economic depression - short of that, the American population will swallow any lie, believe any implausible alibi, no matter how bald faced and ridiculous it is, that their leaders can shove down their throats.
How many more plane crashes, civil wars, oil wars, civil unrests, genocides, suicides, document shreddings, car accidents and other accidents are going to keep on coincidentally, “just happening,” before people have the courage to stand up and fight for what’s right? Our so called journalists won’t do it. They are cowards. And if they work for a major media corporation, they are liars as well. And cowardly liars can only shrink the American mind - never liberate it. So turn off your televisions, cancel your subscriptions to USA Today, Times, Newsweek and all he rest of the paid advertisements posing as news and tune into the new forms of internet based media such as whatreallyhappened.com and voxnyc.com - They’re the only shows in town. With Billions of dollars at stake these industrialists behind Bush leave little for chance - all major media are complicit - the raw power grabs going on now make anything Nixon ever did look like charity events. The New World Order power grab has a tenacity not seen since Adolph Hitler. And by now they know they can get away with ANYTHING.
Those who float to the top of this shadowy world like George Bush Sr can, at will, launch terror strikes at the American people and watch the twisted irony as their popularity soars. It’s the oldest formula in the book - the more American citizens they secretly kill and maim the more popular they become. The more soldiers they put in harms way for their own personal vendetta’s and profit motives the more fabulously wealthy they become. It’s a classic formula by now. It works EVERY time. One needs only to examine the history of the fabulously wealthy Bushes since the turn of last century and you will see that it is their formula for arms and oil profits.
Shadowy, “Public Relations,” heavyweights like the Bechtel Group, Wackenhut and a certain now infamous Carlyle group invest heavily only in eventualities that lead to the use of force to control populations, Wackenhut is a government contractor with deep ties to both intelligence agencies and the military. This private contractor is responsible for among other things running America’s prison system. They also have their own very lethal private army - ditto for Bechtel Group. There needs to be an index graphing corporations according to statistics such as, say.... how many Automatic weapons their “Public Relations” group owns. (That issue needs to be on a national referendum along with a few others I’ll suggest later.)
A quick rundown on the Carlyle group.
The Carlyle Group is basically a group of political insiders who buy failing military contractors at bargain basement prices. The reason why they buy the failing discounted companies is because the Defence Department appropriations guidelines require that companies be in existence for a certain time before being allowed to enter government contracts, for the obvious reasons. Then with their insider status and all the requirements and appearances in place, they then do insider deals with their buddies on the inside for this or that weapons system, and cash in big time. That the Carlyle Group in a nutshell. Who’s on the board of Carlyle Group? George Bush Sr, James Baker, John Major, It’s chairman is Frank Carlucci -former Defence Secretary and Princeton University wrestling teammate and pal of current Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
Terror works. History reveals that Americans will quickly cling to their nearest tyrant. As long as he’s an expert liar and doesn’t get caught in a sexual scandal.
Bush is well aware that murder, genocide, theft, financial criminality are all fine, so long as he doesn’t get caught with his dick in some intern’s mouth there is nothing that he can’t get away with. The more instances of the abrogation of basic civil and human rights he implements and the more instances of deception, terror, and war he subjects the American people and the world to, the more the American people willingly cede their long fought rights away. (no big deal here, really because few ever exercise them or know what they are) They have now ceded nearly all their savings - Only the wealthiest have money - the rest of Americans are flat broke. Yet we are told that polls say more than half the American approve of Bush? We are shown images on the major media of people waxing rapturously over Bush. We see images on our television of people getting choked up and clasping their heart in upwellings of tender emotions when Bush appears before them with messages of mock concern for their well being. But in our daily life nearly everyone around us seems to hate this Bush President.
We’re getting polled all right.
It’s called the “fake out.” The news is fake - It’s just that simple. Ditto for the major public opinion polls as well. Nothing is left too chance. Since the 1950’s with the inception of Operation Mockingbird the CIA’s plan was to heavily infiltrate all the major media organizations. And they did just that! The grand old man himself Walter Cronkite revealed the tip of the iceberg by admitting that he had “sometimes” relayed, as news, stories directly handed to him by the CIA. Dan Rather is widely suspected to be a CIA asset as well. The dark force has achieved the operational control of the mass media this much is certain. The widely held belief that Jews control the media is only partly true, they may control the presses and the operations but the dark hand can force their hand at any time, so who is the master of the media? Considering the depth and level of deception which undergirds nearly every facet of American life there is nothing at all implausible to suggest that even the Nielson ratings themselves would in all probability be rigged as well. Remember one thing, assassinating presidents and slaming airliners into towers can sometimes be trickey, but infiltrating or buying polling organizations is a piece of candy. Nothing is left to chance.
Polls are now made to appear to show any disapproval indications towards Bush to be largely split down party lines What this is, is a “masking” technique. Commonly used in psy-ops to couch the question in only two terms each less damaging than the real term which is masked by it’s exclusion.
So if I were, say, the CIA and I was involved in the 9/11 attacks, and revelations-n-shit was hitting the fan and evidence started surfacing linking CIA to the crime, I would immediatly mount a massive campaign to get all of my assets currently positioned at the major polling organizations to issue the following fraudulent poll nationwide:
Question1) Do you think that the CIA failed by overlooking key indicators of the impending attacks and possibly could have done more to prevent the atrocities of September 11th? choose one: Somewhat’ Maybe’ possibly’ probably not’
Question 2) Do you think that the CIA did the best job they could given all the indicators they recieved? choose one: Huh’ Dunno’ What?’ I guess’
This is how it’s done people! By coutching the scenario as only one of two possible benign turn of events you control the discourse and thus control the reality.
They’ll never ask the real question:) “Do you think these CIA motherfuckers are behind the biggest mass murder in American history?” Because they might just get some write ins responses they didn’t anticipate. Yes’ Definitely!’ Fuckin-a-bubba!’ Damn straight!’ You got that right dude!’
Polls are designed to play to the publics predisposition that this country is split down party lines. Designed to make us think that there is actually half the American Population who actually support Bush. That is just fucking laughable - it is false.
Here's what happens when you confront MOST Americans with the article you are now reading. At first people often throw up their hands and shake their heads. (They think you're from Mars.) They've never heard anything like it before. So they continue. When they get to the part about the dinner date. Everyone stops and focuses.
You see a light, light up in their eyes. They say, "Is that true?" You say, "100% true."
They continue, concentrating, silent. They know. They feel it. It’s a little scary and that is why they would rather ignore it - but they feel it. Then they begin to open their minds.
And so like flowers I have seen people open up at just the reading of this paper alone. It is an alarm. It is a siren. And people are hearing it. They instinctively know the truth. Beneath this thin veil of patriotism people are very suspicious, people have a lot of pent up mistrust and frustration and they are ready to explode. They know they are being lied to. They know they were much better off before this return to the same old oil wars, same old energy crises, same old doublespeak. Same old COINTELPRO. Same old governance through deception and lies.
Americans, already widely regarded by social critics to be the most lied to population on earth, are in for an onslaught of lies, assassinations, mysterious questionable suicides, plane crashes, etc, the likes of which are going to make the Nazis look like nice guys. (second referendum must outlaw (again) government officially sanctioned lies, misinformation, to knowingly plant misleading information, disrupt open political processes)
No we don’t support Bush. Very few actually do.
But this fact will never be reported in the major media. This fact will be concealed by layers of fraudulent, “Public Opinion” polls, with leaning inflection and bias, that showour overwhelming support for Bush. That’s how it’s done. And even in the unlikely event that the resistance becomes so obvious so enormous so great, that even fraudulent polls can no longer conceal the reality, Bush knows he can simply ignore the polls, ignore opposition, label them unpatriotic cowards or worse “terrorists” who are “aiding the enemy.” At this point he is beyond public opinion. Public opinion doesn’t matter in the slightest. Only the military chain of command matters - nothing else - least of all public opinion. For even if by some fluke public opinion turned on him irrefutably, well he can simply re-manufacture it in all of one afternoon. With say... A Dirty Bomb.
Just look at the public opinion polls the day before the September attacks - They all said that Bush was in serious political trouble. His popularity was at an all time low - and this coming from polling organizations largely influenced and associated with the Bush organization. But when those planes slammed into the towers, the Bush team knew that they had a winner. They could shape the public’s opinion’s into ANYTHING they want now they thought. And so some of the biggest scumbags on the face of the planet like Guillianni and Bush both on their political balls of their asses, rebounded in all of one morning and rose to the status of Deities. Nearly Godlike. But that was just in the immediate aftermath of the WTC attacks.
Now, months after the attack, the American people are facing record unemployment, the looting of the treasury is nearly complete, the social security trust fund is emptied, and the people are broke and they are pissed off. But guess what? It doesn’t matter.
A few CIA polls later and hey look at the poll! It shows nearly ninety five percent of the are giving their unbounded faith in Bushes handling of our enemies. Sadly most people will be unaware why will suddenly actually, “believe,” they support Bush. In the Brave New World Order, often times by simply shouting it in a large enough mass medium makes it so. That’s the power of propaganda. That’s the power of the corporate media. That’s the power of the big lie.
And it’s a simple task, since the Bush group already has the complicity of the major American opinion machines (CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) in his game plan, the job of shaping public opinion becomes a simple matter. Like clay, they can shape it into any form they want.
The Bush team knows that all it has to do is concoct the most titanic of deceptions for the American people, maim as many of them as he can, invent some credible enemy complete with a manufactured plausible “back story”, say, of bombing some embassies for example, then after executing the mock, (but very deadly) “terrorism,” on the American people, it becomes simply a matter of trotting out the usual suspects, “discovering, “ the pre-planted, “evidence,” and simply relaying the pre written, pre scripted feeble explanations, incomplete and suspicious excuses and blatantly fraudulent “evidence” and Americans will deny even what they see with their own eyes in lieu of whatever implausible evidence is throw at them by the Bush team or as is the case with 9/11, no evidence at all - They’ll just have to take his word for it. Then Bush has only to sit back and watch as the American population is herded into a corral of fear where they will be kept under tight control while Bush and his buddies loot the treasury in order to “protect” the American people with (mock) technology (made in Republican controlled districts) to imbue the people with the comforting illusion of mock security. It works EVERY time.
Time after time the Bushes have successfully defied the intelligence of billions of people world wide with the same old, “CIA book of dirty tricks,” stunts and gotten away with it. But they don’t fool us here at voxnyc. Our semeiotic analysis of George Bush Jr’s, eyes, forehead, speech patterns, vocal stress patterns, gestural positioning and stride point to only one conclusion - That he is hiding his father’s and possibly his own complicity in the World Trade Center Attacks. When the subject of the actual attacks on the towers came up, Bush, some very telling anomalies. The most chilling of Bush’s “slip ups” was during a news conference sometime after the attack
“Did you hear the news, the CIA just found a dirty bomb fragment stamped, “Made in Iraq.” Lets get um!.... Get the picture?
And so it goes. And so it will go. It is a Vox certainty. And so, some such evidence will be, “discovered,” implicating Iraq (who would have guessed). Saddam knows this. He feels it and he’s hunkering down waiting for the war. Soon Bombs will be raining down on Iraq. Many of them manufactured by Texas based arms manufacturers. The Texas economy will boom. The economies of the nonindustrial media based cities like New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco and Seattle and Portland will wane. That’s a big part of the plan. These places don’t vote for the same block of interests that the petrochemical - arms manufacturing axis do. We never vote for these Bush types. And we are NOT UNITED with them, contrary to the massive propagandizing that the Americans have been subjected to since Sept. 11th, would have us believe - This Southern based “axis of evil” has felt all along put on the back burner. The Oil-Arms-heavy industry axis has felt the information age has passed them by. And so they have struck back - with a vengeance! And seized control once again from the media and “clean” industries of the north. So there is ironically once again a North - South struggle, however long gone you believe these memes to be, they are there as plain to see and undeniable. (See Kennedy Assassination)
Saddam’s petting his cat a lot these days... Seriously!
Reports have him in a worried state and constantly clutching at his pet cat. It’s a white long-hair and seldomly do you see Saddam without it. Always talking to it, calling it the Iraqi equivalent of “My Precious.”
Saddam knows he’s being set up but there’s nothing he can do but sit and wait as a force he knows full well but could never prove works to plot his doom. He’s biting his nails a lot and the cat has to wear that funny cone around it’s head because it too has an itch it just can’t scratch. Made in Iraq
Whatever feeble evidence the CIA presents implicating Iraq will be sufficient enough evidence for the hoards of American news watchers and news readers as the war drums start beating and Americans do what Americans do best - have another high tech armchair war.
With the evidence in place and ready to go, the bombs deployed at their designated location. When all is clear, Bushes teams get the “Go Code.”
They ignite the bombs.
Hundreds of civilians in buildings (not related to companies that the Bush group own) will be killed -Several thousand more will have been subject to lethal doses of radiation and will die in the following months. The media will be replete with images of the horrors of radiation sickness, The American people will be whipped into a frenzy. A kill crazy rampage like the Germans before them. Property values in the Northeast and in the large cities will plummet. Houston and Dallas will be enjoying record growth due to the booming local economies centered on oil and arms. The cities in Florida will explode with a migration from the north.
Regular low level FBI and CIA agents, unaware they are being manipulated, will be brought in to, “discover” the pre-planted evidence which will conveniently point towards, you guessed it, Saddam Hussein.
The US military will begin air strikes against Iraq killing many thousands of Iraq’s impoverished citizens. Many US soldiers will be killed in George Bushes war to avenge his father’s honor. As usual the overt objectives will be about morals and the American way of life, blah, blah, blah... But to the trained eye the underlying motives will be the same as they’ve always been - money, resources, markets, ego, vengeance, shame - everything, except a shred of virtue, decency, conscience, humanitarianism, enlightenment.
A note to US military servicemen
Vox is on your side. We want to help you. We believe there needs to be new military exceptions to service. Servicemen need to have a special clause in their terms of enlistment that states, “If the war is an obvious ego driven war based on some retarded Junior President’s, “Daddy’s Big Penis Complex,” that the GI has a right to opt out of service. Thus saving himself from a needless vainglorious premature death.”
Voxnyc supports our military men and we want to help save their lives! Each and every one of them.
Welcome to Rome
Since the invention of this technique of, “Mass population control through self terrorism,” by the Romans and it’s perfection by Hitler’s Nazis the technique of attacking one’s own population then stepping up to be the, “protector” is proving to be the military/industrialist’s most reliable method of control for these problems called domestic populations. The American military used this technique at the turn of the 1900’s to wrest Cuba from Spain. We sank our own battleship the “Maine” and blamed it on the Spanish. The war cry the government designed and trumpeted throughout the American Press with the help of the Media Mogul at the time William Randolf Hearst was “Remember the Maine!” Not very sophisticated semeiotics but enough to rally the American population to support the land grab from Spain. Later we did the same thing in Vietnam in what was known as the “Gulf of Tonklin Incident.” The military set up it’s own ship to get bombed by the Vietnamese so we could invade.
In the most recent revelation of this treasonous technique, documents were unerthed showing that in 1961 the Joint Chiefs of Staff devised detailed plans to kill Americans and blame it on Cuba as a pretext to invasion. The following are some highlights from the Joint Chief’s action plan. “We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo bay and blame Cuba”, “We could develop a Communist Cuban Terror campaign in Miami, Florida or Washington,” “We could foster the attempts on lives of Cuban in the United States wounding them in instances to be widely publicized.,” Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots... ”Use of MIG type aircraft by US pilots could harass US civil air, attack US surface shipping and destroy a US military drone aircraft. An F-86 properly painted would convince air passengers that they saw a Cuban MIG.” By the time these military wacko’s plans reached the then President Kennedy’s desk, Kennedy killed the plan straightaway. See the actual document for yourself Operation Northwoods then ask yourself if it’s possible that the guys that drew up this document could possibly be the same guys who would plot to kill Kennedy rather then wait to be fired by Kennedy which Kennedy was doing at an accelerated rate. The Answer is: They killed him before Kennedy fired them.
The American people, sadly, in their current state will follow like lambs to the slaughter like we have been doing for the past 50 years, like the Germans before and the Romans before them.
The Bush Group leads the darkest criminal triad of oil, arms and political insiders in the history of the world.
The patterns of wars, assassinations, and covert deals involving generation after generation of Bushes is astonishing. Had the Bushes not always aligned themselves with the core of intelligence agencies all throughout the century, without a doubt their criminal exploits would be laid bare or they wouldn’t have committed them in the first place. But not so when the grand patriarch (Bush Sr.) was once the head of CIA then President. There’s no one left to investigate him. And while he was President he succeeded in erasing and expunging nearly any record of his families and his own misdeeds or for that matter ANY records of the Bushes deeds from the official record. There is more, Missing, information about the Bush's Presidency than any other President ever.
Welcome to the fourth Reich. It's shaping up to be a bloodbath.
This highly covert group of intelligence operators has one modus operandi, they are brokers - trading the blood of young American soldiers for one hundred times the blood of the impoverished people unfortunate to inhabit land whose resources US industrialists thirst for.
The Bushes Have NEVER waged war with any population except the very poorest of the Earth’s poor - The impoverished, shirtless and barefooted populations of Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Guatamala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and on and on. And now we are at war with Afganistan - The country with the lowest per capita expenditure on military in the world, right behind Cambodia. That's courage! (The only historical exception to this rule of decimating only impoverished populations is when Prescott Bush, George Sr’s father eagerly financed the Hitler war machine as it rampaged throughout Europe.)
Bushes Jr.’s. grandfather and great grandfather were both merchants of death. The great Grandfather was involved with the Remington Arms Manufacturing Company when, during World War One - they sold 3/4 of all light armaments used in that war - to both sides!
This is what they do - This is ALL they do.
(Vox challenges any Bush spokesman or defender to prove otherwise)
As Director of Union Bank, Prescott Bush eagerly financed the Nazis. It took an act of Congress to order him to cease and desist in aiding Hitler. But is was too late. The family fortune had already been made. And if you know how old families with old money work you will know that they are all very intimate with where their family fortune came from. The Bush men haven’t forgot - their money flows from blood.
Trading blood for money - That's what the Bushes do - THAT'S ALL THEY DO!
As brokers their fee is: All they can grab in the exchange of arms and energy futures - The spoils and plunder of last of the petrol-wars.
The principle objective of the Bush group’s terrorist attacks on American citizens is to consolidate total power - military, police, intelligence, and after the first three, political - in the hands of George Bush Jr. But short of that, the Bushes will be satisfied with their typical “Fallback” objectives - The time honored four year stint at wholesale looting of the treasury, through insider arms dealing.
The Handlers, the Handled, the Puppets, and the Puppetmasters.
It is clear from all historical statistics that George Bush (the son) would not stand a chance at the polls in the next elections. In all similar dire economic situations in American history the incumbent president was unable to achieve reelection. With this in mind and considering the historical facts surrounding the shadowy Bush dynasty it becomes crystal clear to those with a trained eye that it is more likely than not that it was the forces allied behind the Bush group of industries that were behind the 9/11 attacks as a means of ramping up the kinds of intelligence networks that come in handy for things such as a stubborn electorats come election time or some nation unfortunate enough to be sitting on oil or any geostrategic asset which will enhance their arms or petrochemical empires. just as it will be the forces allied behind bush who will be the ones behind the “Dirty Bomb”, and NOT Bin Laden directing his jihad from a cave somewhere.
Bin Laden’s forces will undoubtedly be manipulated into actually being the handlers of the dirty bomb, that much is for sure, but the key point is that, they themselves are being "handled."
In the insular, cellular networks of both espionage and terrorism there one similarity to bear in mind - They are structured nearly identically in terms of hierarchy and secrecy and the cellular nature of both. And they all know the game. The key is that it is clandestine US forces who are setting the Islamic militants up, steering them in the right direction, putting the bomb in their hands, leaving the door open, showing them which door is open, preparing and planting all the evidence and possibly providing them with direct financing. Much has been made of Bin Laden’s paltry 230 million dollars that he is alleged to have. News flash - he's penniless. Except for whatever allowance his US handlers decide to funnel to him. Bin Laden may have been a puppet all along. Witting or unwitting there is a high probability that he was either knowingly working for the US group or was minipulated by them. It's even possible that he thought they would take him all the way but now he has lost his servicability and has been cut loose and he's running scarred. Unable to come forth because he is the most wanted man. He may be unable to tell the world the true nature of his handler (US based) because they would kill him in the Arab world. And such admission would implicate him in the largest mass murder (second only to Bushes' mass murder) Just like the puppetmasters of yesterday overinflated the Russian threat in order to reap arms manufacturing profits off the backs of American workers the puppetmasters of today have puffed up this Saudi militant to be the excuse they use to push American industry, and hegemony up into the ass of Central Asia and from the inside dominate and control Eurasia. Just look at a map. Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the tactical dream prize Uzbekistan. These countries comprise the "Asshole of Central Asia."
That's an Irony, because literally and figuratively, it is up the ass that America is going to give it to the continent and people of Eurasia.
The real force behind the terrorism, is US based and is at the very highest levels of the power elite. They are the true "Puppetmasters."
No doubt Bin Laden’s men are executing the strikes. But the “door” is being "left open" by someone here. This is the key. But the American people are being distracted from seeing this repeating pattern. By focusing attention on the puppets (Islamic warriors) the puppetmasters have successfully distracted us from seeing the real force behind these titanic shifts of power.
A North/South struggle? Well actually, yes.
If you look at the ensuing power shift that has occurred in America you will see that it also correlates with the thesis that the Bush group of industrialists is behind the Attacks on America. You will see that the media rich northern cities in America are suffering at a much higher degree than the industrial/south axis are. You will see that the tight circle of industries that have been traditionally in the bush camp (oil and arms) are prospering enormously. While all the northern cities, who never voted for Bushes anyway, are doing terribly. And while of course there are certain "crossover industries," such as capital and technology (that can play both ends of the field), you will see a clear divide between two camps. The one hand comprising the clean, media rich, service and financial intense industries of the North and on the other hand you have the dirty, arms, petrochemical, manufacturing and heavy industry intense industries of the South (and midwest).
You are witnessing the titanic last gasps of a dying industrial paradigm. Oil, heavy industry, all soon to be dinosaurs on a planet that is simply running out of oil, are all convulsing in one last final desperate grab at power the only way they have left - with airliners slamming into towers.
Diplomacy and politics no longer "get the job done." These forces are using direct action. Terrorism.
Sure Bin Laden's men are carrying out the strikes but make no mistake about it, someone here, left the door open a little too wide for a thinking person to believe it was a mistake
And they're going to do it again.
It’s just too obvious to avoid. We should all be talking about it, shouting it out from the rooftops, writing letters to our congressman (or tying them to rocks and throwing them through their windows.) Our future’s at stake. And the City of New York is at stake. And the lives of Americans is at stake. It is clear in our analysis that there are too many corollaries and similarities to ignore that point directly to military intelligence involvement in the September 11th attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. There are too many facts swirling around these suspicious events that bear the hallmarks of a planned military intelligence style operation.
The stories put out by our government are FAKE and 95% of all corporate "news" is pure fabrication
There are to many suspicious unexplained and uncorroborating questions such as the much hyped mystery stock deals discovered in the immediate days following the attack.
When the questionable stock purchase was traced and linked (by a German investigative team - not our FBI or CIA) to the brokerage house (Brown and co.) of the number 2 man at the CIA, Buzz Krongard, the story took the most precipitous dive into oblivian since the eighties when the story broke that Scott Hinkley (brother of the unsuccessful assassin, John Hinkley) was supposed to dine on the night of the attempt on then President Reagan's life with Vice President Bush's son Neil. Had the old family friend John Hinckley been successful Bush was "waiting in the wings" to take power. Like his fellow Texan, Vice President Lyndon Johnson did, 20 years prior, when, also in Texas, the same industrial axis assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
That Hinkeley-Bush connection story was obliterated in the days following the assassination attempt, just like nearly any reference to the much vaunted and much hyped airline stock connection story was expunged from any reference or further discussion when all leads in that story pionted to the number two man at CIA - Krongard. Don't take my word for it. If you care about your life and that of your children, get out your google search engine and look it up for yourself. Your life depends on it. Type in (Krongard CIA airline) - that should get you what little scraps remain of that story, but it's a biggy.
What should have been the biggest story of the eighties (the Bush / Hinkeley dinner date) was wiped clean from history, and now this connection between the stock transactions and a direct link to the CIA has also been systematically killed from ever being mentioned by corporate media.
It must be just a coincidence because everyone knows that the CIA would never do any evil things such as this.
In the immediate days following the attacks, when the story of the "airline short sells" first broke it was vaunted as the key to uncovering the true persons behind the attack, and before the evidence came in implicating the CIA boss, all fingers pointed to Bin Ladin as the culprit. But when the FACTS came in from abroad linking the transaction DIRECTLY TO THE NUMBER TWO MAN AT CIA, THE STORY WAS NEVER HEARD AGAIN, EVER!
Our government expects us to believe that in this age of Echelon where nearly every transaction, e-mail and phone call is accessible to the NSA that they are "baffled" by who actually made the short sells of those Airline stocks the day before the 9/11 attacks. The stock transactions were placed at the brokerage house (Brown) which just happened to be the brokerage house where the number two man at the CIA (Buzz Krongard) was the CEO of. Hmmmmm.
Sure We Believe You... NOT
People are not THAT stupid. More and more people each day are getting very tired of all this and undergoing rapid change in their formerly closely held beliefs. They don't trust the government. They know the government is lying, they sense very strongly that the government is the one behind the September 11th attacks. They are being propagandized to at a level never before seen. And their anger is building. And there is indications here and there that the secret government's neatly constructed plot is fraying at the edges. There's too many stories out there for them to manage and ALL of them seem like they can unravel at a moments notice.
Here's a big fat government LIE check it out for yourself
I'm talking about the extraordinarily suspicious obviously staged propaganda event which needs immediate independent scrutiny on a national scale. The news release (CIA) read that, Mohammed Atta supposedly had a meeting with a loan officer from the US Agriculture Dept. in order to buy an airplane, strip it of it's seats and transform the plane into a massive flying tank. During this so-called meeting he is alleged to have blurted out reference after reference to terrorism, the "Great" Bin Laden and allegedly grew fascinated by a satellite photo of Washington DC hanging in the woman’s office upon which he supposedly grilled the bureaucrat about the various landmarks of Washington and pressured her to sell the photo to him. (Voxfux gives this story the “Most suspicious propaganda plant of the month award for May 2002)
Now you think about it for a moment.
They want us to believe their story, that this man who supposedly masterminded the most notorious and dramatic military strike in the history of notorious and dramatic military strikes (except possibly Hiroshima), all the while planning and infiltrating the deepest cover to pull off this attack. And we’re supposed to believe that he just walked into a US government office and blurted out the whole plan to some US Government loan officer? Voxfux recommends that a congressional and extra-governmental inquiry starts diving into these stories one by one and start to unravel these blatant and naked lies issued by our government, paid for by our tax dollars, to deceive and manipulate the American population, before this US based secret group of American terrorist industrialists destroys our cities and the very fabric of our nation.
Independent investigators need to look into these fabricated, disinformational , misinformational, fraudulent Intelligence based media psy-op cover stories. The story is a fake plain and simple. designed by a clandestine force using the "doppelganger" technique. This is the technique used by intelligence units to set someone up. A look-alike is sent into to situations to "Make his presence felt."
To make obvious references and connections to the crime which will soon happen. This creates a body of witnesses who in many cases genuinely believe that they saw what they saw. With this evidence and these unwitting witnesses the case to incriminate whoever the target of their impersonation is becomes nearly rock solid. And even if the government produced the videotapes (which they have not)which surely would have existed on every corner and building that Atta had to have walked by in order to get to the Agriculture loan office it still would not mean a thing. We know nothing about the possibly completely fictional and manipulated figures such as Atta and even Bin Laden for that matter. Bin Laden for all we know is bait - dangling on a hook. A paid provacateur - A nurtured pretext for US geostrategists to use for their push for Eurasian hegemony. Or he could be the real thing, an cunning Arab militant - It doesn't matter - either way his handlers are American.
Now let me take you one step further - It's highly possible that the Al Queda operatives or whoever these men were who boarded the planes that morning, didn't even know that it was a suicide mission
That's right. Considering the brazeness of this US secret group and the confidence that this group has that they can simply script the most outrageous scenarios and then execute them (literally) It is not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that it is quite possible that this group simply gave the young terrorists instructions to perform the bloody and dramatic throat cuttings in the main cabin of the plane then go get the pilots and sit in the cockpit believing their handlers when they told them that the plane would be remotely piloted to some Arabic country in a spectacular hijacking, but that they would land in safety.
This is an example of the setting up of a whole nation or race of people based on the carefull preparation of a couple of "Fall Guys" of that same race or nation. This wouldn't be the first time that our military at the highest levels played fast and loose with setting up people as terrorists to use as political evidentiary fodder and as a pretext to a military invasion. This setting up evidence and incrimination works every time. Remember all the cellular phone calls from the passengers who would witness the throat slitting? The stories about their last calls to their loved ones was replete with juicy incriminating morcels to feed the media circus which followed and point directly to, "Islamic Terrorists"
It is NOT implausible even to suggest that their instructions might have been to "mock" slit the throats of someone on the plane who was involved in the plot as well. Possibly they were told that there was going to be no violence at all during their plan - maybe they were told that they were going to make a remotely piloted spectacular "fly-by" of New York City and then the planes would continue onto Afghanistan. To safety. Maybe it was as much a surprise to the eager young politically idealistic militant Islamic warriors when their planes were remotely slammed directly into the towers instead of right by them, as it was to us. But because a shadow government operates the US in complete secrecy, NOT YOUR "ELECTED " OFFICIALS - you will never know. So instead know this... it is not only entirely possible and plausible, it is by all accounts completely probable.
If we were to apply the same standard of, "Justice," to the Bush family as we have applied to the young gang member now held in military custody, then the entire Bush family would be imprisoned and summarily executed.
Finding the handlers who work for the puppetmaster is the key that will unravel the Bush group.
One place to start is to identify the thousand CIA agents who were fired by Admiral Stansfield Turner in 1977 under the orders of President Carter. These disgruntled agents whose speciality was assassinations and election rigging, swore revenge and turned their allegiance to then CIA Director, George Bush Sr. essentially saying, “What next boss.” Now as "Free Agents," there was and is virtually zero restraint or oversight or accountability or even knowledge of their wherabouts or doings - They could do whatever they want. Payments would have been arranged for the agents to continue their service to Bush instead of the US Government through a series of insulating intermediaries. Bush, for sure would have constructed layers of buffers and plausible deny-ability between himself and his squad of private spooks. There may be only two or three persons who Bush trusts enough to be aware of his private clandestine army. Possibly Rumsfeld and Baker are the most prominent and likely to be aware of the schemes. Oil and Arms industrialists linked to Bush would gladly pick up the agents salaries (A mere drop in the bucket compared to the service the agents were sure to perform in exchange. One of these Bush private contractors surfaced during the 2000 campaign election disaster when the story broke that a “retired” CIA Agent, Charles W. Cane was caught with his hand in the cookie jar - actually the ballot box. He was caught “correcting” ballots in the Florida’s Martin County during the election rigging of 2000. And who do you think he was correcting them in favor of? That's right, George Bush. Cane is one of the few of the thousand fired back in 1977 and who went to work for Bush who ever floated to the surface. Most you can never expect to identify.
In the end, the result of this privately held intelligence organization was some of the most suspicious events in the past three decades starting with the October Surprise, which led to the theft of the 1980 election, The attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, the first Iraqi war for oil and many more of Bushes greatest hits.
This is the same group who is going to "Leave the door open." again
The search for this, “gatekeeper,” to American Terrorism should be the central task of any law enforcement professional now. But it’s not going to be easy. Each day the invisible hand throws new tid bits of dis-info, mis-info, info-overload, threats and diversions to deflect the progress of any serious investigation. And their diversionary tactics are enough to occupy nearly 90% of all agents working for the agencies, to keep them busy.
For example, Remember the damaging revelations that “BUSH KNEW” in advance of the terrorist strikes.
Do you remember what happened the following day? The following day the CIA suddenly announced that they had just picked up some “Chatter,” as they called it in “LieSpeak,” satellite phone activity which indicated another terrorist strike was eminent possibly immediately. The Bush team, who had been backed into the corner about the revelations about to explode on his presidency, released a bomb of their own - a fabricated “Fear Bomb.” And that was it - Bushes political tangle evaporated instantly. That is the power of fear and ignorance as a systematic method of control. The media and the American people never even mentioned the revelations of prior knowledge any more, all they talked about was, “Did you hear the news, Bin Laden is going to attack again this weekend!” And so the simpleminded, sheep-minded, cowardly American population, instead of standing up and revolting against this naked diversionary tactic, cowered under the dim blue glow of their cathode ray tubes as it delivered it’s dose of fear, hate and ignorance directly to their brains.
Terrorism works 100% of the time. Terrorism is the most fail-safe method of control. It works every time!
Where are the true heros? (not at the top where they should be.)
Hopefully there will be some “insiders,” intelligence agents who still have their critical capacity intact and are aware that something’s terribly wrong with the whole chain of events. These agents must break away and independently research the very suspicious details that have been uncovered thus far and squelched. A few areas which need investigation outside of official intelligence and law enforcement agencies: Follow up on the airline stock “short sells”, the terrorist flight training schools in FLORIDA, the jihad manuals found . The possible dopplegangers going around making their presence obviously felt, especially the very suspicious Atta/loan officer story. That story is a dis-info cover story.
Also look at the Bin Laden "confession" tape forgery and the very suspicious circumstances surrounding it. Look at the selected still frames comparing the real Bin Laden with the fraudulent Bin Laden as seen in the tape. (Nearly ALL Europeans news agencies believe the tape to be a forgery ONLY American news agencies accept the tape as real and make no mention of the overwhelming GLOBAL accusation that the tape is a fraud. (Use your own eye and mind) See for yourself Fraudulent Bin Laden Video. Like the phony "Oswald Backyard Photos" of yesterday, this video is a fraud. It's typical fabricated evidence, manufactured by the scientists of deception - in the dark shadowy underworld of clanestine power politics.
Osama Bin Laden was manufactured by the CIA
For the purpose of a ready made pretext for a push into Central Asia - which is the principle focus of all power grabs emanating from the upper echelons of the power elite based in the United States. Just as Oswald was designed to be the patsy in the Kennedy assassination, Osama is set up to take the fall for all this terrorism and be the excuse Bush uses as to why we had to invade CENTRAL ASIA and be custodians for all that oil there.
The Dark forces who own and operate the United States no longer have any credible third world adversaries to use as a pretext to invade and plunder so they create them, nurture them, like Oswald was nurtured to be the fall guy in the Kennedy assassination, Bin Ladin is our excuse to move into resource rich central Asia... and get the oil from those nasty Arabs ta-boot.
This is the clearest analysis that is possible considering the pattern of events, historical precedent, personalities and psychological profiles of the individuals involved. The events are flowing with the regularity and precision and characteristic indications of a military/intelligence Psy-op. As the unoriginal politicians love to say, “Make no mistake about it.”
voxfux
Notes:
If this first radiological bomb is not enough to scare the American population into cowering under the protection of George Bush then The Bush cabal will simply declare martial law.
Even the sheep-like American population will object (slightly) but by that time, public opinion will be of little concern to the Bush group. Opinion will rapidly turn against Bush.
But to no avail. With the very sovereignty of the United States in "jeopardy" the Bush operators know that public opinion doesn’t matter in the slightest. Only the military chain of command matters and this they have in their firm grip. It will be explained that the only way they can protect America is to keep the current administration on with "fast track" powers on all matters, legislative, judicial, executive firmly in the hands of the administration.
Then, even new techniques and expertise in election monitoring will fail during the next presidential election, if ever. The forces on the Bush team have sworn to use the, “magicians art,” to, “do what’s right” - to steal the election once again for the Bush cabal. The “Magicians Art,” which is now old school standard operations for ex-intelligence now private contractors for the “Bush Triad,” of oil/arms/and political insiders is the technique they will employ to exploit weaknesses in the next election. The forces have sworn to use the, “magicians art,” to, “do what’s right” - to steal the election once again for the Bush cabal. The “Magicians Art,” which is now old school standard operations for ex-intelligence now private contractors for the “Bush Triad,” of oil/arms/and political insiders is the technique they will employ to exploit weaknesses in the next election. There will be a moment when the boxes containing the ballots will be near a wall or occlusion - that will be the moment where the swap occurs. “Election Monitors,” with all the best intensions are no match for the skills of a competent operative who has been researching the switch techniques in the months approaching the next election over and over again. What’s more, in states like Florida and Texas, these operatives will have full and complete access to the polling facilities in advance and will know every corner, every occlusion, every procedure, every step, every corridor, every avenue those ballot boxes will traverse between the place the votes are cast and the place where the counting will occur. There will assuredly be ten or twenty moments where the boxes will leave the direct eyesight of election monitors, this will be when the operatives who have been rehearsing the switch for almost a year will make the swap.
Short of actually having trusted observers from the Democratic party actually handcuffed to the boxes it may no longer be possible to assure weather not there will ever be a fair election again.
add your own comments
JFK: "You know, they have an atom bomb on the third floor of their embassy."
Jun 26, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Capitol Police have ordered 25,000 gas masks to help protect tourists, members of Congress and their staffs in the event of a chemical or biological attack, a congressional official said Tuesday.
The so-called quick masks will be stored around the building as part of new safety measures put in place after Sept. 11, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The decision to buy the masks wasn't a response to any specific threat, the official said.
"The reason we're doing it is because the Capitol was targeted for a bioterrorist attack, the anthrax attack," the aide said.
Anthrax-tainted letters sent to the Capitol killed two postal workers in October.
Gas masks have been a security feature on the House floor for years, the official said. "The (the police) were basically just trying ton include tourists."
Quick masks aren't quite gas masks, but hoods that filter chemical gases and biological particles through a fitted mouthpiece. They're used by paramedics, firefighters and police officers who first respond to emergencies.
Quick masks sell for $150 each on a Web site hosted by Kennesaw, Ga.-based Brigade Quartermasters.
Telephone calls to the Capitol Police seeking comment were not immediately returned.
Capitol Police, responsible for security at the Capitol's sprawling complex, will tell members of Congress about the masks during a meeting on Wednesday, the official said.
Security has been tightened considerably at the Capitol since the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Metal posts and street barriers are being installed on the perimeter of the building grounds, visitors have their bags searched and the Capitol Police hired 700 more officers.
Jul 2, 2002
(Port Jefferson, Long Island-AP) -- Suffolk County Health Department officials are asking for samples taken from the suspected spider bite victims on Long Island to be tested for anthrax.
Four people were treated last weekend at Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson for what doctors called bites from brown recluse spiders.
Deputy Director of Public Health Martin Mayer told Newsday that now, "You have to think of all these strange things."
Hospital officials have also raised the number of possible spider-bite victims to five since mid-May. At least three other suspected cases have surfaced.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta told Newsday that they would not be investigating the bites.
(American College of Emergency Physicians)
One of the most famous misdiagnoses occurred recently in New York when a 7-month-old who had contracted cutaneous anthrax was initially diagnosed as having a brown recluse spider bite, even though these spiders are not native to New York.
(AP)
NEWARK, NJ: August 12, 2002 — Anthrax spores were found inside a Princeton mailbox tested after workers at a regional mail sorting facility contracted the bacteria in October, Gov. James E. McGreevey said.
The mailbox was removed last week and there is no danger to the public, McGreevey said Monday. He spoke at a press conference with the state attorney general, David Samson, and Louie Allen, special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark office.
"No new cases have been detected beyond the original cases in October 2001," McGreevey said. "With the subsequent removal of the mailbox, no further threat exists."
McGreevey said he did not know when the tests were done. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, declined to say.
The mailbox is a standard blue public drop-box that was located on Nassau Street near Princeton University.
Its mail was fed through the sorting facility in Hamilton Township, and was among 600 chosen to be swabbed for anthrax spores by the U.S. attorney's office in Newark, McGreevey said. He did not know how or why the mailboxes were chosen.
Thirty-nine of the 600 mailboxes have yet to be tested.
U.S. Attorney Chris Christie issued a statement confirming the governor's announcement. He said the matter was under investigation.
Drewniak declined to say what effect the positive test might have on the investigation.
Dr. Clifton Lacy, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services, said the test results came back positive Thursday at the department's Public Health and Environmental Laboratory.
"It was not a field test," he said. "It was a sample done in the laboratory."
Lacy said a department survey of 240,000 emergency room visits and 7,100 stays in intensive care units in and around the state following the October infections turned up no new anthrax cases.
Hamilton handles mail for 46 area post offices and has been closed since Oct. 18. The office processed anthrax-tainted letters sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, U.S. Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy and the New York Post.
(ABCNEWS)
Aug. 12 — Despite Steven Hatfill's strong denials this weekend of any involvement in last year's fatal anthrax attacks, FBI officials told ABCNEWS today there are new questions about the former government scientist.
The FBI has not officially labeled Hatfill, 48, a suspect in the anthrax killings. But officials point to continued questions about the scientist and say they are also unable to clear him.
Perhaps most significant to the FBI, authorities say a police bloodhound reacted strongly to Hatfill and his apartment after being exposed to the scent retrieved from the anthrax letters under a new technology, reports ABCNEWS' chief investigative reporter Brian Ross.
Authorities say the bloodhound evidence does not justify an arrest warrant, but provides a lead which cannot be overlooked.
Also of interest to the FBI is a trip Hatfill made to London last Nov. 15 for a bioweapons training session sponsored by the United Nations, sources said. On that same day, an anthrax hoax letter, with harmless powder, was mailed from London to the office of Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, Hatfill, who spoke out for the first time this past weekend, says leaks from federal officials about him and the resulting media scrutiny are ruining his life. Hatfield said he was a "loyal American" who had "nothing to do with the anthrax letters," and his attorney argued that his case was similar to that of Richard Jewell, who was named as a suspect and then cleared in a bomb blast at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
The FBI has called Hatfill a "person of interest," and has conducted several searches of his home in Maryland — first with his consent and then with a search warrant. A storage facility he rented has also been searched, as well as his girlfriend's apartment.
Despite the attention Hatfill has been receiving, he is not believed to have the ability to make anthrax. The only person in the United States known to be able to make anthrax is a man named William Patrick, who is a friend of Hatfill's, sources told ABCNEWS.
Hatfill's former colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Detrick, Md., say Hatfill worked in the same building where anthrax research was being conducted, had easy access to it and showed what one scientist called "undue" attention to it, Ross reported.
‘Person of Interest’
Hatfill, who worked at Fort Detrick from 1997 to 1999, is one of a group of scientists FBI officials have been investigating for months in the probe of the anthrax letter attacks that left five people dead and at least 13 others ill last fall.
Until last weekend, Hatfill declined to speak out in detail about the ongoing anthrax investigation.
"I am appalled at the terrible acts of biological terrorism that caused death, disease and havoc in America starting last fall, but I am just as appalled that my experience, knowledge and service relative to defending Americans against biological warfare has been turned against me in connection with the search for the anthrax killer," Hatfill said Sunday in a lengthy, prepared statement to the media.
Pat Clawson, a spokesman for Hatfill and his attorney, Victor M. Glasberg, told ABCNEWS.com before the statement that Hatfill is a private person who was not used to dealing with the media, and the statement would be the only time he addresses the press. Hatfill took no questions after his statement, though Glasberg fielded some as Hatfill stood behind him.
Apartment Searches
Hatfill said he remains willing to cooperate with investigators, and that he consented to the June search in an effort to clear his name. Glasberg added Hatfill would have consented to the August search even if agents had not displayed a warrant.
"As a scientist in the field of biological warfare defense, I have never had any hesitation whatsoever in helping the anthrax investigation," Hatfill said.
Hatfill's property has been searched twice in the probe — with his consent in June, and with a warrant on Aug. 1.
Following the first search, agents said they found nothing immediately incriminating in Hatfill's apartment and storage shed.
Hatfill said he understood his background and controversial comments made him a logical subject for investigation, but he objected to government leaks and media zeal that have made him, "the currently designated fall guy."
"This does not … give them the license to smear me and gratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process," he said. "I will not be railroaded. I am a loyal American."
‘Never, Ever Worked With Anthrax’
Hatfill has worked closely with the military and CIA anthrax experts and has frequently shocked his colleagues with his statements and demonstrations of how easily terrorists could make biological weapons, sources said.
Hatfill said Sunday he has received standard government vaccinations or boosters for anthrax but that the last one expired by September 2000, making him just as vulnerable to exposure as any unvaccinated member of the public. He added that although he has commented on bioterror, his work focused on viruses and did not involve anthrax.
"I have never, ever worked with anthrax in my life," he said. "It's a separate field from the research I was performing at Fort Detrick."
In 1999, however, while working for a government contractor, Hatfill commissioned a study detailing how a hypothetical anthrax attack could be carried out by mail.
Hatfill lost his government security clearance Aug. 23, 2001, for reasons that remain unclear. Glasberg declined to answer a reporter's question on the circumstances surrounding the loss of the security clearance.
Hatfill said he later was fired from the government contractor's job and placed on leave at a new job at Louisiana State University largely because of "defamatory speculation, innuendo and other accusations about me."
Biological Attack Novel
Glasberg revealed in the news conference that Hatfill has been working on a novel. Part of the manuscript has been obtained by ABCNEWS affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington.
"This novel written by Steven Hatfill envisions a biological attack on Congress," said Rebecca Cooper, a reporter for WJLA. "It's an attack so deadly that not only do members of Congress and congressional aides become ill, but hundreds of Washington residents become ill and many die as a result."
Glasberg said the novel was stored on a computer seized during one of the searches, and alleged investigators may have leaked it to the media. However, it was unclear how WJLA obtained the manuscript portion.
Sunday, the FBI responded to Hatfill's and Glasberg's remarks, saying, "credible allegations concerning mishandling of evidence will be investigated thoroughly."
Greendale School
Investigators are intrigued by the fact that Hatfill lived for years near a Greendale Elementary School while attending medical school in Zimbabwe, ABCNEWS has reported. Greendale School was the phony return address used in the anthrax letters.
However, Glasberg denied Hatfill knew of such a school in Harare, Zimbabwe.
"There is a subdivision in Harare called Greendale, [but Hatfill] did not live there," Glasberg said. "The information we have is that there is no such Greendale School."
Since the wave of attacks, the FBI has been unable to find out who was behind the anthrax-laced letters. There have been few leads and investigators have admitted that the trail seemed to have grown cold.
Fort Detrick, which also is home to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, has anthrax samples, and the FBI is conducting voluntary lie detector tests at the base. Lie detector tests and interviews are also being conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where researchers have been developing a powdered form of anthrax for testing biological defense systems.
Small quantities of anthrax have routinely been produced at Dugway, and then shipped to the Army's bio-defense center at Fort Detrick, Army officials have said.
Washington Post
August 11, 2002
Reporters bang on Steven J. Hatfill's door at all hours. An Internet Web site labels him "Steven 'Mengele' Hatfill, Nazi swine." Cable talk shows routinely discuss whether he is last fall's anthrax mailer. And twice, the FBI has very publicly swept into Hatfill's Frederick apartment.
Hatfill was once a highly respected researcher and teacher of biological warfare. Now he is doing neither. Since February, he has lost one job and been suspended from another. He had seemingly dedicated his life to combating biological terrorism, but his has become the leading name in the investigation into the most dramatic act of bioterrorism that America has ever seen.
Speaking out for the first time since his name became public, Hatfill said he did not send the anthrax-laced envelopes that killed five people last fall.
"I went from being someone with pride in my work, pride in my profession, to being made into the biggest criminal of the 21st century, for something I never touched," Hatfill said. "What I've been trying to contribute, my work, is finished. My life is destroyed."
It is impossible to judge with certainty Hatfill's version of events. The FBI has declined to say publicly why they have raided his home or discuss any other evidence.
Law enforcement officials have said privately that Hatfill is one of up to 30 "persons of interest" in the investigation, all of whom are being examined because of potential access and expertise in handling anthrax. Authorities say Hatfill has attracted particular attention because of his work in the biological weapons program and his general level of expertise with biological agents. They have painted him as disgruntled and frustrated, with an inflated ego and résumé -- just the kind of person who might wage such an attack.
But Hatfill's attorney, Victor M. Glasberg of Alexandria, said the reasons don't make sense. In fact, Glasberg said, when Hatfill worked at the Army bioresearch lab at Fort Detrick, "he did not do anthrax work. Steve has never worked with anthrax. He has never cultured anthrax. He has never handled anthrax."
Hatfill hasn't been charged. But already, Glasberg said, "Steve's life has been devastated by a drumbeat of innuendo, implication and speculation. We have a frightening public attack on an individual who, guilty or not, should not be exposed to this type of public opprobrium based on speculation."
Glasberg said Hatfill had no motive to commit bioterror. He said Hatfill was not disgruntled or unhappy. "He was totally satisfied that this was an all-out effort to move the [bioterror] program forward," Glasberg said. "You're going to find no expression of frustration."
Hatfill was initially interviewed in January, and then given a lie-detector test as part of a wide-ranging FBI review of the scientific community. Hatfill was told he gave satisfactory answers on the test.
But his name kept resurfacing, both among scientists and on the Internet, and the FBI returned for a two-hour interview in March, and then a voluntary search of his apartment June 25.
The FBI search -- accompanied by reporters, cameras and hovering news helicopters -- thrust Hatfill into an international spotlight. When the attention died down, Hatfill decided to try to salvage his reputation, and Glasberg approached The Washington Post for an interview.
On Aug. 1, four days before the scheduled interview, the FBI raided Hatfill's apartment with a criminal search warrant, again accompanied by the media, which had been tipped to the raid.
"My friends are bombarded," Hatfill said. "Phone calls at night. Trespassing. Beating on my door. For the sheer purpose of selling newspapers and television."
Hatfill, 48, still wanted to tell his side of the story. But during an interview at Glasberg's office, Glasberg did most of the talking, saying it was for Hatfill's protection in case authorities decide to prosecute him. Hatfill sat next to Glasberg throughout the three-hour interview, sometimes trying to answer and being told by Glasberg to stop. Only when asked about the impact of the investigation did Glasberg allow Hatfill to answer.
The FBI declined to respond to Hatfill's or Glasberg's claims. "We've not confirmed anyone's identity," said Van A. Harp, head of the Washington field office, which is leading the investigation.
Hatfill began his career as a medical doctor, receiving his degree from a school in Zimbabwe and adding postgraduate degrees in microbial genetics, medical biochemistry and experimental pathology from colleges in South Africa. His 15 years in southern Africa, at a time when apartheid still existed, has raised eyebrows among Hatfill's accusers. Glasberg declined to discuss those years, saying it was irrelevant to the anthrax investigation, but noted that Hatfill developed his interest and specialty in viruses such as Ebola while in Africa.
Hatfill's résumé detailing those periods has created another storm. Hatfill claimed on a 1997 résumé that he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces. Army records show that he enlisted in the Reserve in 1975, served a year of active duty and attended -- but dropped out of -- Special Forces training. Glasberg declined to comment on Hatfill's military record.
In the mid-1990s, Hatfill's résumé listed a doctoral degree. Glasberg said Hatfill had submitted a thesis to Rhodes University in South Africa and thought he had received the degree but later learned it was never awarded. He amended the résumé in 1999 to "Ph.D. thesis."
Hatfill returned to the United States in the mid-1990s, working first as a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health. In September 1997, under a two-year grant from the National Research Council, he began working at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, the Pentagon's top center for investigating deadly pathogens.
At Fort Detrick, "there's bacteriology research and there's virology research," Glasberg said. "They each have their separate labs. They each have separate decontamination chambers. The lab Steve had access to dealt with viral diseases. . . . The two were separate and didn't mix. . . . He never worked with anthrax at Fort Detrick. He's a viral guy. That [anthrax] is a bacteria."
Chuck Dasey, a spokesman for Fort Detrick, confirmed Hatfill's work history. "It's true he didn't work on anthrax and was never issued vials of anthrax," Dasey said. He said Hatfill was assigned to the virology division as a research associate.
Before Hatfill's grant expired, he took a job with Science Applications International Corp., a defense contractor with an office in McLean. Glasberg said Hatfill became lead instructor for a course in national preparedness for weapons of mass destruction, developed a biological warfare curriculum for the State Department and helped the Air Force design a biological weapons defense program.
In 1999, Glasberg said, a series of hoax letters claiming to contain anthrax were mailed across the country. Hatfill realized that fire and police departments didn't know how to respond.
Hatfill commissioned William Patrick III, a biological weapons expert, to write a report on how to deal with anthrax sent through the mail. "It was a public service," Glasberg said, and Patrick was paid only $500. Hatfill and a colleague took Patrick's report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and submitted it to its bioterrorism preparation center. The CDC was working on the same project, Glasberg said, and produced the same findings and recommendations as Patrick.
The guidelines were distributed to fire and police departments, published on the Internet and remain unchanged today, Glasberg said. But the concept of a report on anthrax mail attacks -- two years before last October's mailings -- intrigued the FBI. In particular, Patrick's report discussed mailing 2.5 grams of anthrax powder, about the same amount contained in the deadly anthrax letters.
Glasberg said Patrick used 2.5 grams because that was the amount of talc he poured into an envelope, as a test, to see how much could pass unobtrusively through the mails. Some media reports have called Patrick's report a "blueprint" for the fatal mailings.
"That lacks any sense at all," Glasberg said. "There is zero data in the report. It shows you what you do after it happens."
Boris Lederer, who worked with Hatfill at Science Applications International, recalled his colleague's reaction when the anthrax mailings occurred. "It was just shock and complete disbelief that this was happening," Lederer said.
Because he had worked at Fort Detrick, Hatfill understood that he would be questioned by investigators. Glasberg said that after Hatfill took a lie-detector exam in January, the agent told him, "I'm satisfied. I believe you had nothing to do with the anthrax."
But as the investigation ground to a halt, accusations about Hatfill were relayed to investigators, which Hatfill rebutted in a two-hour meeting in March. Among those allegations:
• That he had unfettered access to the Army bioresearch lab at Fort Detrick after his grant ended in 1999. He did not, Glasberg said. "After he stopped working there, he had to be escorted, like everybody," Glasberg said. Dasey confirmed that.
• That he had been given a booster vaccine for anthrax. He did not, Glasberg said. His last anthrax vaccination was in December 1998, and he has not received a shot since then, making him as vulnerable as anyone else, Glasberg said.
• That he removed cabinets from Fort Detrick that could be used to culture anthrax. The cabinets, weighing more than 350 pounds, were moved by truck to a training site for a military exercise and then blown up, Glasberg said.
• That the "Greendale School" listed as a return address on the anthrax mailings is in Harare, Zimbabwe, near Hatfill's medical school. "To the best of our knowledge, there isn't any Greendale School," Glasberg said. "There is a subdivision near Harare called Greendale, but there are Greendales everywhere."
• That Hatfill was disgruntled at losing his security clearance. At Fort Detrick, Hatfill never had nor needed security clearance, Glasberg and Dasey said. Once at Science Applications International, he got low-level security clearance for one project. When he was detailed to work for the CIA on another project, a CIA lie-detector test was ambiguous when he was asked about his days in Africa, Glasberg said. His clearance was revoked pending an appeal.
Virtually none of Hatfill's work at Science Applications International required a clearance, Glasberg said, but the company used its revocation as a reason to fire Hatfill in February. He said the company has since offered Hatfill settlement payments, which he rejected, and more work, which he accepted.
In May, Esteban Rodriguez, a supervisor at the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote a letter lauding Hatfill's "unsurpassed technical expertise, unique resourcefulness, total dedication and consummate professionalism" in helping the military prepare for possible biowarfare in Afghanistan.
In June, still with no anthrax suspect in sight, scientist Barbara Hatch Rosenberg met with the staff of Sens. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). Rosenberg is a biological weapons expert from the Federation of American Scientists and had published two scathing letters attacking the FBI's lack of results. Rosenberg said she has been careful never to mention Hatfill's name, but several media reported that his name was raised in the meeting, which the FBI also attended.
Several days later, agents asked for and received Hatfill's permission to search his apartment. "They cart out 23 bags of stuff from his apartment," Glasberg said. "They swab the walls for anthrax. And if they came up with something, we don't know about it. The agent in charge told Steve, 'This is on instruction from on high.' "
Next, the agents asked Hatfill to take a second lie-detector test. Glasberg wanted to know why, and advised against it. He said the FBI called Hatfill on July 31 and wanted to talk. Glasberg called the agent and left a message offering to schedule a meeting. The next day, the second search occurred.
Glasberg said Hatfill's father received a phone call from a reporter the night before the search, warning him that "something significant" was about to happen. The day of the search, Hatfill hired another Alexandria lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro. Shapiro called Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kohl to introduce himself, Glasberg said, and not long after, Shapiro received a call from a reporter.
Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, said his office was not speaking to reporters about Hatfill. Glasberg said, "It's just absolutely clear this stuff is being leaked to the press for the purpose of giving their investigation high profile, to demonstrate the FBI is on the case, without any regard to the consequences to this man."
Hatfill found a new job at Louisiana State University, teaching federal agents and police how to handle bioterror for $150,000 annually. But after the second search, LSU put him on paid leave for 30 days.
At both Science Applications International and LSU, Glasberg said, Hatfill has been laid off because they were in "the difficult position of having to contend with unproved, defamatory allegations against someone who's becoming increasingly visible."
Glasberg compared the case to that of Richard Jewell, the Atlanta security guard who was a suspect in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and who became a household name even though he had done nothing wrong. "One would think that incidents like Richard Jewell," Glasberg said, "would alert the authorities to the importance of proceeding fairly and discreetly in these investigations."
August 10, 2002
The morbidly obese may soon exchange stomach stapling for stomach shocking with the development of an electric implant that zaps the appetite under control, according to a brief report in today's issue of New Scientist magazine.
The device is called an implantable gastric stimulator, or IGS, and doctors believe it could soon provide severly overweight patients with a safe alternative to the popular, but invasive, stomach stapling.
"My view is the [obesity] program of the future is going to be a program that brings patients in and offers a unique approach for each patient," Dr. Scott Shikora, director of the Obesity Consult Center at New England Medical Center in Boston, told a U.S. newspaper.
Dr. Shikora, lead researcher for the device's U.S. clinical trials, said although bariatric surgery, or stomach stapling, remains the most effective surgical procedure for morbid obesity, the IGS could soon give obese patients their choice of treatments.
The IGS alternative was invented by Valerio Cigaina, an Italian doctor, in 1994 but a New Jersey company later bought and improved on the original patent.
The latest incarnation of the device resembles a pacemaker. It is implanted near the stomach's nerves and sets the pace of a stomach's contractions during digestion by shocking the organ with a low-voltage electric current 12 times a minute. The electric shocks slow down food as it travels along the digestive system and causes patients to stay fuller for longer.
The IGS and stomach stapling are chiefly designed for those patients who are morbidly obese.
Most scientists measure obesity with the body mass index -- calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of his or her height in metres. Scientists consider anyone with an index above 30 obese and anyone with an index between 25 and 29.9 overweight. The "morbidly obese" have an index of more than 40.
In 2002 alone, researchers estimate more than 75,000 Americans will undergo stomach stapling -- almost double the number who had it done in 2001.
The device is the second cutting- edge obesity treatment proposed by international researchers this week as they try to solve the world's rising obesity rate. On Wednesday, scientists in England said they discovered a natural hormone that could, when injected into the bloodstream, also reduce appetite.
Friday, Aug. 23, 2002
NEW YORK, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A business editor at The New York Times, Allen Myerson, died on Thursday after falling from the top floor of the Times' building in midtown Manhattan, a spokeswoman for the newspaper said. Police said his death appeared to be a suicide but that the case remained under investigation. The body of Myerson, 47, was found on the roof of a parking garage next to the Times building on West 43rd Street shortly before 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said. Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. It appeared Myerson fell from the top floor of the 15-story Times building, Mathis said. That floor of the Times is commonly used for receptions.
He had worked at the Times since 1989, she said, and he was assistant business editor for the weekend editions. He lived in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
He is survived by his wife, Carol Cropper Myerson, and they had no children, the Times said. Sources in the New York Police Department said he left a note behind, but the Times said that could not be confirmed.
Police said there were no signs of foul play.
(San Jose Mercury News)
8-11-2
The death in 1953 of a government scientist, Frank Olson, in a fall from a New York hotel window, is one of the most notorious cases in CIA history.
Only in 1975 did Olson's family learn that the CIA had slipped LSD into his drink, days before his death. President Ford apologized for an experiment gone awry, and promised that the government would reveal everything about the case.
But newly obtained documents show that the Ford administration continued to conceal information about Olson -- particularly his role in some of the CIA's most controversial research of the Cold War, on anthrax and other biological weapons.
The documents show that two of the key officials involved in the decision to withhold that information were White House aides Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, today the nation's vice president and secretary of defense.
``These documents show the lengths to which the government was trying to cover up the truth,'' said the scientist's son, Eric Olson, who gave them to the Mercury News. ``For 22 years there was a coverup. And then, under the guise of revealing everything, there was a new coverup.''
Rumsfeld's office referred questions about the withholding of information to the CIA, where a media officer, Paul Nowack, said CIA activities related to Frank Olson's death were investigated by the Rockefeller Commission as well as subsequent congressional committees.
``The CIA fully cooperated'' in those investigations, he said, and ``tens of thousands of documents were released.'' If anyone has new information, he said, ``they should contact appropriate authorities.''
Eric Olson has contended for years that his father was murdered to cover up his research for the CIA. At a news conference in Maryland today, he will reveal the results of his long inquiry into his father's death.
The new documents do not prove those allegations. But they do show that the White House officials were concerned about any public revelation of Frank Olson's work.
Contrary to the official explanation that Frank Olson was an Army scientist, Olson worked for the CIA, at the special-operations division at Fort Detrick, the Maryland laboratory where biological weapons were tested.
Classified research
Eric Olson said this week that a former colleague and friend of his father's contacted him last year and described some of the closely guarded work his father conducted.
He said the colleague told him his father was among scientists studying the use of LSD and other drugs to enhance interrogations, as Cold War tensions ran high and Americans feared that captured soldiers had been brainwashed in Korea.
In the months before his death, the colleague said, Frank Olson had gone to Europe, where he observed the interrogation of former Nazis and Soviet citizens at a secret U.S. base. And, the colleague said, Frank Olson had knowledge of the U.S. biological weapons program.
Eric Olson contends that in the final days of his life, his father became morally distraught over his work and decided to quit. Personnel records show that agency officials were concerned that he was a security risk. Eric Olson believes that the thought of Frank Olson quitting was a motive for the government to want him dead.
In 1993, Eric Olson arranged for his father's body to be unearthed and examined by a forensic scientist, James Starrs. Starrs concluded that Frank Olson had probably been struck on the head and then thrown out of the hotel window.
Starrs' conclusion is one of the tantalizing pieces that Eric Olson has gathered to support his belief that his father was murdered. Friday, satisfied that he has accomplished what he could, Olson intends to rebury the remains of his father.
In late November 1953, Frank Olson, then 43, joined a group of government officials at a conference at Deep Creek Lodge in western Maryland. For days afterward, Olson was withdrawn. His son, Eric, says his father told his wife that he intended to quit his job.
But Frank Olson did not quit. And on Nov. 23 he went to New York with another government official, where he twice visited Harold A. Abramson, a doctor who was one of the first researchers to study the effects of LSD.
Olson returned to Washington, then went back to New York on Nov. 28 and checked into the Statler Hotel. He was scheduled to enter a sanitarium the next day.
But early in the morning of Nov. 29, Frank Olson went through the window of the hotel room he was sharing with a colleague, Robert Lashbrook. Lashbrook told police that he was awakened by the sound of breaking glass.
The Olson family knew little else. But in 1975, a commission headed by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller issued a report on CIA abuses, and an account in the Washington Post included a mention of an Army scientist who jumped from a New York hotel room days after being slipped LSD in 1953.
``We realized they were talking about my father,'' Eric Olson recalled. Family members talked to reporters about their outrage and said they would sue the government. Days later, the family was invited to the White House to meet President Ford. He assured them that they would be given all information about what happened to Frank Olson.
Soon after, family members were invited to lunch with CIA Director William Colby, who gave them a file of documents that amounted to the CIA investigation into Olson's death. But the documents left many questions unanswered about both his work and the circumstances of his death.
The family was told that a lawsuit was unlikely to succeed. Instead, the administration promised to support a private bill in Congress, through which the family received $750,000 to resolve its claims.
``The express understanding was that the government had promised to give us all information, which clearly meant information about his work relationship with the CIA,'' the Olsons' attorney, David Rudovsky of Philadelphia, said this week. ``It now appears that was not the case.''
Son finds clues
Over the years Eric Olson turned up many clues, real or coincidental. There was, for example, the assassination manual that the CIA declassified in connection with its Guatemala activities. The manual, created in the early 1950s, identified ``the contrived accident'' as ``the most effective technique'' of secret assassination.
``The most efficient accident, in simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface,'' the manual stated.
Only recently Eric Olson obtained files from a University of California-Davis history professor that showed White House officials had intentionally withheld details of Frank Olson's death from the family.
The professor, Kathryn Olmsted, came across the records at the Gerald Ford library. They included a memo from Dick Cheney, a White House assistant at the time, to Donald Rumsfeld, the chief of staff, on July 11, 1975, one day after the Olsons first held a news conference.
The memo warned that a lawsuit could involve ``the possibility that it might be necessary to disclose highly classified national-security information in connection with any court suit or legislative hearings on a private bill.''
The documents also include memos written by White House counsel Roderick Hills to the president that were routed through Cheney and other officials. ``Dr. Olson's job is so sensitive that it is highly unlikely that we would submit relevant evidence'' to a court, Hills wrote, regarding a potential suit by the Olson family.
``If there is a trial, it is apparent that the Olsons' lawyer will seek to explore all of the circumstances of Dr. Olson's employment as well as those concerning his death. Thus, in the trial it may become apparent that we are concealing evidence for national-security reasons and any settlement or judgment reached thereafter could be perceived as money paid to cover up the activities of the CIA.''
As a result, Hills urged settling the case out of court.
Associated Press
July 25, 2002
HATFIELD, Pa. (AP) - A candy factory worker died after being submerged in a 1,200-gallon vat of liquefied chocolate, police said.
Yoni Cordon, 19, of Philadelphia, was discovered in the vat by co-workers at the Kargher Corporation on Tuesday, authorities said.
Police said they believe Cordon had been working on a platform near the opening of the vat, which is used for mixing and melting chocolate.
Nobody saw Cordon fall and it was unknown how long he was submerged before he was found, Hatfield Township police detective Patrick M. Hanrahan said.
Hanrahan said foul play was not suspected and the death was being investigated as an accident.
8/7/02
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A platform at the Aquarium of the Americas collapsed Wednesday evening, dumping 10 people straight into a tank teeming with sharks.
There were no serious injuries reported, but two people were taken to Tulane University Hospital for minor cuts and bruises they sustained after hitting artificial barnacles as they fell, aquarium spokeswoman Melissa Lee said.
The accident happened while members of the aquarium were on an after-hours behind-the-scenes tour. The platform they were standing on is used by keepers to feed the sharks and is not usually open to the general public, Lee said.
The steel footbridge in the Gulf of Mexico exhibit allows visitors to peer down into a 400,000 gallon tank home to everything from a few dozen nurse and sand tiger sharks to turtles, schools of redfish and stingrays.
Erin Rooney, 14, was on the catwalk with her family when it collapsed.
"It just cracked. We held onto the bars and swam to the sides," she told WVUE-TV.
Her father, Dan Rooney, was frantically searching for his 2-year-old grandchild, when he saw someone hand the toddler to another person on the stable part of the catwalk.
"I was just praying none of the sharks got agitated from all of the splashing and everything. I mean, they got sharks in there bigger than me," he said.
Though at 10-feet long and 400 pounds the sharks may seem intimidating, they had already been fed and are generally docile, Lee said.
The sharks are used to seeing divers in their tank on a regular basis, but seeing so many people tumble in at once was probably startled them, Lee said.
"I've been told they took off and went to the other side of the exhibit," she said.
Staffers at the aquarium are trained to deal with emergencies like this one, Lee said, and reacted quickly to the chaotic scene, pulling people from the waters using nearby flotation devices.
"They knew exactly what to do and they did it," she said.
8-9-2
BOSTON (UPI) -- A Massachusetts retiree has died from a rare form of flesh-eating bacteria he apparently contracted while fishing, a report said Friday.
It started with a sore little finger.
Albert Holt Jr., 69, of Marion, Mass., an avid fisherman, was hooked in both hands last month while taking a bluefish off a line.
His son was able to cut one of the hooks out, but the other had to be removed at a hospital.
Two weeks later, on July 15, he came home from another fishing trip in his 24-foot homemade skiff complaining of soreness in his pinkie finger.
According to Friday's New Bedford Standard Times, his wife, Linda, at first did not believe anything was seriously wrong, but as the pain intensified, she took him to Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
A doctor there initially believed the swelling in the finger was just gout, prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug, and sent him home.
A few hours later that night, however, the whole hand had swelled up and turned black, and Holt went back to the hospital. The doctor this time said he had never seen anything like it, and Holt was rushed to the New England Medical Center in Boston.
Doctors there diagnosed Holt's illness as photobacterium damsela, a rare but virulent marine pathogen that advances much quicker than other types of flesh-eating bacteria.
While more common forms of bacteria that eats the soft tissue under the skin -- known as necrotizing fasciitis -- afflict some 1,500 people per year, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2000 there were just 17 known cases of the faster-moving bacteria that killed Holt.
Racing against time to stay ahead of the rapidly spreading bacteria, doctors performed surgery four times on Holt over the next 24 hours, first removing his hand, then his arm, then portions of his back and side.
As his vital organs began shutting down in the following days, Holt was put on life support, but that was shut off on July 30, and Holt died 38 hours later.
"He loved fishing, and it was just a freak thing" that he became infected, Linda Holt said.
"It could have been on a fish," she said. "It's a bacteria that lives in the water."
Because Marion is a fishing community, Linda Holt cautioned others who come home from fishing feeling an acute pain or soreness, particularly in an extremity, to take it seriously and immediately see a doctor.
"We wouldn't want what happened to Al to happen to someone else," she said. "It was horrendous."
Sun Aug 11, 2002
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai woman killed herself by jumping into a pit of more than 100 crocodiles, shocking crowds of onlookers at a Bangkok reptile farm on Sunday.
The woman, 40, climbed a 6-foot-high fence and jumped into a concrete enclosure at the Famut Prakarn Crocodile Farm on the outskirts of the Thai capital, a tour guide who witnessed the event said.
A crocodile dragged the woman into a pond and several animals swarmed over and tore her body apart.
"She did not cry or scream when she was bitten," Tanet Virayaporn, the tour guide, told Reuters. "It happened so quickly. Nobody could do anything."
Police said the woman had left a suicide note in which she complained about her husband and apologized to family members.
Hundreds of people were visiting the crocodile farm, a popular tourist attraction, when the woman committed suicide.
08/07/02
LONDON (AP) - An invasion of tiny jellyfish has killed hundreds of thousands of salmon at fish farms off an island in Scotland, an official said Wednesday.
The jellyfish, known as solmaris, are killing the salmon by clogging their gills and suffocating them at the fish farms near the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Western Isles, said Alan Anderson, managing director of Western Isles Sea Foods.
The solmaris are traveling in large clouds through the water, he said.
Other species of jellyfish in the shoals are believed to be poisonous and to inject histamine through their stings with the result that the fish die.
Anderson said the ``disaster'' has destroyed nearly all the salmon at two fish farms near the island, with 750,000 dying at one and 150,000 at another, for a combined financial loss of more than $3 million.
``We have never suffered this before,'' he said, adding that some believe the jellyfish may have made their way into the Atlantic from the Pacific by attaching themselves to vessels passing through the Panama Canal in Central America.
Low oxygen levels caused die-off, biologists suspect
(FLORIDA TODAY)
Jul 22, 2002
Junk fish and keepers, more than 200,000 of them, clogged the marshy banks of Lake Poinsett in one of the largest fish kills state biologists have seen in the lake in decades.
"It's just very hard to even put a number on. It's unbelievable," said Bob Eisenhauer, a biologist with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Bass, bluegill, specks and catfish -- some up to 20 pounds -- lined the marshy areas of the lake Monday.
It's the second consecutive year the lake's seen a bad fish kill, and biologists expect more fish will suffocate as a slug of low-oxygen water makes its way downstream in the St. Johns River.
"You've got the potential for urban runoff coming out of canal systems," Eisenhauer said.
He suspects the die-off was caused by a combination of heavy rains, channeling of the St. Johns River and more dying plants rotting in the river.
The upper basin of the St. Johns had been rechanneled for decades to prevent floods and irrigate farms. Once-slowly sprawling portions of the river have been sped up.
"The water's coming down the system possibly faster," Eisenhauer said. "We're talking about 80 years of drinking with this upper basin."
More water moving faster means more stirred up rotting plants, organic matter that usually rests along the bottom. As the plants break down, bacteria consume the oxygen in the water.
An extended drought also may have led to more rotting vegetation in the marshes -- land plants that die when the river rises again.
Last August, an estimated 56,000 fish suffocated in Lake Poinsett, south of State Road 520, mostly bass and panfish. The kill included trophy bass 8 to 10 pounds, covering more than 8 miles around the 5-mile-long lake.
It was one of several kills on the upper St. Johns last year, including a 75,000 bass and bream die-off in Lake Sawgrass south of U.S. 192 and a 1,500 bass kill in Lake Washington west of Melbourne. The C-54 Canal south of Palm Bay also saw fish kills.
Eisenhauer drifted through clumps of dead fish Monday near State Road 520, trying to quantify the kill in Lake Poinsett.
He found oxygen in the water is only half as high as it needs to be for fish to survive. Fish start to die when oxygen in the water drops below three parts per million.
"The highest I got was 1.5," Eisenhauer said.
He expects more fish kills in coming weeks, taking a potentially significant bite out of recreational fishing in the region.
"It'd make a sportsman cry," Robert Barnette said of what he saw out on the lake while fishing Sunday.
"Oh man. It's a mess out there: 15- to 20-pound catfish," said Barnette, 59, of Port St. John. "They were just everywhere."
08/09/2002
LONDON (Reuters) - An escaped parrot was reunited with his owners on Friday -- after telling rescuers his name.
Animal welfare officer Debbie Sheppard said she discovered the bright green bird perched on a fence in the western English town of Swindon and took him to her home.
To her astonishment he started to "laugh and squawk" -- saying the name Basil over and over again. A check with the local police revealed a parrot of the same name had been reported missing.
"My husband couldn't believe it when he started to talk; he was coming out with all sorts of things. Once he started, he couldn't stop," said Sheppard, who works for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Basil's relieved owner Ann Bradley said the bird was a very good mimic.
"He's just like a tape recorder. He'll copy the telephone and say 'hello' before we've had a chance to pick it up -- and tell my children to get ready for school."
to allow marketers to look at your medical information. The bad news:
Everyone is going to know your medical history without your approval. The good
news: Free
prozac. (Metafilter)
August 8, 2002
(THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
The Russian mob was ready to kidnap or kill the United States' highest-ranking military officer in 1998 but was thwarted by his Army security detail, according to newly released military reports.
The "after action review," a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, tells a dramatic story of armed mob suspects preparing to block exit routes on a one-way street and standing on a rooftop as Gen. Henry Shelton, his wife and aides dined in St. Petersburg, a hot spot for violent crime families, on June 18, 1998.
Gen. Shelton, a Vietnam combat veteran, retired in 2001 after a four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Washington Times first reported the St. Petersburg incident the day after it occurred but with few details. A Pentagon spokesman at the time discounted the report, never revealing that so many sinister-looking people had gathered around the restaurant, that the figures were clearly armed or that an agent lay on top of the chairman and his wife to protect them from gunfire.
"I don't think it's helpful to discuss security details," the spokesman said then. "I don't think this is a story." The spokesman, who was a member of the dinner party, later told the Associated Press: "We had already finished dinner. We left in a very orderly and transparent fashion."
As the number of sinister-looking people outside the Senate Restaurant reached 13 and a van pulled up with more suspicious figures, the lead Army bodyguard sprung into action.
The agent whisked the Shelton entourage to the street. Noticing a man on the roof beginning to move, he pushed the four-star general and his wife into the back seat, then lay on top of them as their sedan sped back to the Palace Hotel.
Later that night, special Army agents, who guard Pentagon VIPs, discovered that an unidentified mafia figure had been at the hotel with a gun.
"It was obvious to everyone on the detail that what was occurring outside the restaurant was not a typical [KGB] surveillance team and they were starting to become very proactive as time passed," wrote a senior agent in his report.
"As the numbers grew to as high as possibly 13, the detail realized they were outnumbered and out gunned. I strongly feel the only reason we got everyone out was because the vehicles we suspected as being blocking vehicles did not have a driver in the seat when we surprised them and departed early."
The agent added, "After further investigation later in the evening, it was discovered the individuals outside the restaurant were possibly connected to one of three local crime families in the Russian mafia. It was later told to the security detail a hit had taken place on an American sometime in 1997 by the mafia at the same hotel the chairman was staying."
In 1997 and 1998, St. Petersburg was the site of a number of mob killings. Assassins gunned down businessmen, political leaders and other mobsters. At least one killing took place in the Palace Hotel, according to press reports. One prominent government reformer was fatally shot by a sniper perched on a roof.
A Sept. 11, 1998, Army award citation to one Army agent reads, "His efforts directly thwarted a terrorist incident from occurring."
The Times obtained copies of the "after action review," a citation and a sketch of the scene that day on Galernaya Street, while doing research into whether the Russian mob had links to al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's global terrorist organization.
Some U.S. officials say the mob has provided al Qaeda with equipment; other officials say there are no confirmed reports on any ties. The Times obtained the documents through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
Gen. Shelton, who was in Russia for talks with his counterpart and to tour military facilities, was guarded by the Protective Services Unit, an arm of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Belvoir. Army warrant officers are trained as special agents and are briefed on threats, including the Russian mob.
One agent, whose name was blacked out by Army officials, provided a two-page detailed report on what happened that day.
After the entourage arrived at the restaurant about 8 p.m., special agents stationed on the sidewalk began noticing the arrival of suspicious-looking men, some in cars, some in a truck, at both ends of the one-way street. Then one appeared on a rooftop across the street.
As the dinner progressed, agents counted 13 figures. Some men wore vests used to conceal weapons. One agent walked past two of the men and saw a handgun in one man's waistband.
When a truck arrived and rendezvoused with some of the men, the senior agents decided to evacuate the restaurant.
"We quickly exited the doorway, and I noticed movement up high and to my left at the top of a building," said the agent, who was the man assigned to personally protect Gen. Shelton. "I then forced Gen. Shelton and his wife into the limo with the help of [another agent]. I spread my body across the general while holding his wife on the floor of the limo. I shouted three times, 'Go, go, go,' to the driver, and we left the area as fast as possible."
About 11 p.m., a man wearing a vest and concealing a firearm appeared in the Palace Hotel lobby. Before the bodyguard could make it down to the lobby, the man left. A hotel employee said the man's name, in Russian, means "heavy."
"When I asked what he meant by heavy, he then explained that it meant Russian mafia," the agent wrote. "I then realized this was more than eight agents could handle and I ordered all agents in from outside of the hotel and placed everyone on the sixth floor for security reasons."
Gen. Shelton continued his visit the next day. No further incidents were reported before he returned to the Pentagon.
An Army medal citation to one agent reads, "His proactive, quick and decisive decision making, directly thwarted a possible kidnapping or assassination attempt directed against the chairman. This incident took place during the hours of darkness in St. Petersburg, Russia, a high threat area."
(BBC)
8 August, 2002
The vapour trails left in the atmosphere by jet aircraft have a significant impact on the weather, according to new research.
Scientists in the United States used the grounding of planes following last year's terrorist attacks to show how temperatures changed when flights were at a standstill.
The strips of cloud left by jets in the sky have long been thought to influence the temperature.
But until now, this has been impossible to measure.
For three days, American skies were empty
The grounding of flights for three days after the 11 September attacks gave scientists in the US a unique opportunity to see what the weather would be like without these vapour trails.
They compared temperatures at 4,000 weather stations across the country with figures for the previous three decades at the same time of year.
Their findings, reported in the journal Nature, show that the gap between daytime and night time temperatures was more than one degree Celsius larger than normal when flights were at a standstill.
This is thought to be because the jet trails reflect sunlight and trap heat.
That makes the day cooler and the night warmer where air traffic is heavy.
However, the effect is almost certainly outweighed by the global warming influence of greenhouse gases, created by the burning of fuel including emissions from jet engines.
(pacifica.org)
Dec '99
Doctors examining scores of protesters are expressing increasing concern that some may be suffering from the effects of nerve gas. Physicians say that while they have no definitive proof that Seattle police used nerve gas, many protesters are exhibiting symptoms consistent with the inhalation of some form of what are known as neurotoxic agents.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that Seattle police ran out of department-issued tear gas and pepper spray last Tuesday afternoon, on the day that 50,000 protesters took over the streets of the city. The report said that a handful of officers "took matters into their own hands, getting permission to empty the munitions stores of nearby police departments. In addition, some drove around in a sport-utility vehicle to buy chemical agents from a local law enforcement supply business." Meanwhile, a police captain flew to Casper, Wyoming - where Defense Technology, the company that makes the tear gas is based - to pick up a stock of gas from federal agents.
Although manufacturers of tear gas, pepper spray and other chemical weapons have claimed in the past that their products are harmless and do not cause permanent bodily damage, there have been lawsuits filed against some of these manufacturers that claim the opposite. This year, the Ottawa Carleton Police Services Board in Canada sued Defense Technology Corporation -suppliers of tear gas and pepper spray to the Seattle Police based in Casper, Wyoming -because their product does seem to cause long-term respiratory harm to some people.
And the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against a U.S. company, Federal Labs, for supplying tear gas to the Israeli Army, which was used on Palestinians in the West Bank and resulted in the loss of life.
(FreeSpeechRadiNews/Pacifica Radio)
March2002
Correspondent Rafael Krafft with a special report about a new type of gas used by the Israeli army against Palestinian demonstrators .Doctors who have treated victims of the gas say it may be a type of nerve gas.
listen
This report says this tear gas was black, as opposed to the usual white. The symptoms produced were similar to those seen in the documaentary below and lead to over a hundred immediate hospitalisations and several month long stays.
No organo-phosphates were found in the victims. But the doctors described the symptoms as being different to the usual ones. They also said that efforts to have the substances investigated further had met with disinterest. This stuff is obviously a new crowd dispersal product though possibly still labelled tear gas. What it is exactly needs to be investigated to find out whether it is safe and tested, whether it's use is officially sanctioned, or whether some rogue IDF members have added it to their arsenal. Or indeed whether it is being "tested"/showcased upon Palestinian insurgents by the industrial-military complex. Well as far as I can understand it's not really nerve gas just an unidentified tear gas. If it were nerve gas like sarin the victims would most likely all be dead. Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary evidence as they say. Without scientific proof this remains hearsay. Several possibly hysterical symptoms caused by a differently colored gas than usual.
In February 2001, the Israeli military used a yet-unidentified gas on Palestinian civilians in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Click here to download a PDF (2.2MB) file of transcripts from interviews with patients, doctors, ambulance drivers and others describing this incident in detail. These interviews were recorded by James Longley during production of his documentary film, Gaza Strip, and are provided here for the curious reader.
(Canadian Jewish News)
Feb. 15 '99
WORLDTRIBUNE.COM
June 6, 2002
TEL AVIV -Palestinian militants are believed ready to deploy lethal gas in suicide attacks against Israeli targets.
Israeli military sources said the Palestinians are trying to use cyanide or nerve gas in suicide bombings. They said the first attempt to use cyanide gas against an Israeli target was in the March 27 suicide bombing in a hotel in Netanya in which 29 Israelis were killed.
But the Palestinians were unable to install the cyanide in the belt used by the suicide attacker, the sources said. They said the work with cyanide has been taking place in at least one two laboratories in the West Bank, including An Najah University in Nablus, Middle East Newsline reported.
"We are talking about an intention," Brig. Gen. Ron Kitri, the army spokesman, said.
The sources said Israeli military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi, warned a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that Palestinians were seeking to weaponize cyanide in suicide attacks. The general said Palestinian insurgents are being aided by Hizbullah, Iran and Syria in their efforts.
The effort to use cyanide was part of a Hamas effort in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. A Hamas agent, Abbas Sayed, was arrested on May 9 and later acknowledged that he obtained help in trying to develop weapons using cyanide and nerve gas from Hizbullah.
By Stephen Bryen
(The Baltimore Sun)
June 24, 2002
WASHINGTON - With all the steps the Bush administration and Congress are taking to protect Americans, I have been waiting for the most important one: Civilian defense. Right now, those of us who are at ground zero in Washington are defenseless.
I agree it is a great idea to stockpile iodine pills against radiation sickness and to build up a supply of vaccine against smallpox. It is also logical to develop new and better vaccines against anthrax.
But let's face it. All of this won't mean much if there is no distribution system and if people are not prepared to use the antidotes and vaccines. And hardly anyone has a proper gas mask to protect against airborne pathogens, chemical gases like the nerve gas sarin or airborne particles from a radiological bomb.
Why do Americans, particularly those in high-risk areas such as Washington and New York, lack gas masks, atropine to fight nerve gas and other vital supplies? Or training and information on what we should do if there is an attack?
You can't really expect people to take homeland defense chief Tom Ridge's security warnings very seriously if Americans don't know what to do or how to respond.
And you can't expect people to remain calm if they are not prepared in the event of an attack. Panic is a major factor that terrorists count on to cause more death and destruction.
Can you imagine tens of thousands of Washingtonians trying to get out of town if the unthinkable happens? But getting out is the only strategy people have to protect themselves. And if it is a bioterror attack, perhaps smallpox, a mass exodus will spread the disease, making matters infinitely worse and close to, if not, unmanageable.
In Israel, every family gets a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) protective kit from the government. The kit contains gas masks for the family and atropine to be used in case of a nerve gas attack. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, one of Israel's most special neighbors, has lots of nerve gas, which he mixes up in cocktails with other poisons, declassified intelligence reports confirm. He is ruthless; he may have killed more than 100,000 Kurds in the 1980s, destroying whole villages, such as Halabja.
Chemical and biological weapons are spreading everywhere. The Palestinians have used rat poison and cyanide, which they are mixing into their bombs. There are intelligence reports of attempts to dump chemical agents into the Sea of Galilee in a bid to poison Israel's water supply. There are rumors the Palestinians have nerve gas, which may have been supplied by Mr. Hussein, or perhaps the Iranians or Syrians through Hezbollah.
Al-Qaida also has cyanide, ricin and nerve gas (a vial marked sarin was found in one of the al-Qaida caves). And there is no doubt they were smuggling radiological materials from Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia for a dirty bomb. One large shipment was stopped in Uzbekistan on its way to Pakistan and then to al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan.
It costs less than $10 per person to manufacture and distribute the WMD kits in Israel. People are taught how to make a sealed room if there is an attack, the kind of dos and don'ts they need to know and to keep tuned to radio or TV. There is a well-developed and effective distribution system for the kits, and they are periodically updated to ensure they remain effective.
In the United States, there are no government-supplied WMD kits, and while there are very well trained people in many American cities, including Washington, they are not connected to any system to inform the public.
In Israel, when Iraqi Scud missiles rained down on urban areas during the Persian Gulf war, there was no panic. There was a lot of fear, but people followed the advice they received from the civil defense system. One example was how the audience at a performance of the Israel Philharmonic in Jerusalem donned gas masks when an alert sounded during a Scud attack. The concert continued, and people stayed in their seats.
Good homeland defense presupposes a confident public that can't be panicked or stampeded by terrorists. This means real civilian defense. The Israeli model tells us a lot about how to go about training America's families, chiefly those in high risk areas, to deal with all kinds of potential terrorist threats.
The president, Congress, Mr. Ridge and all of us should insist we move forward immediately on protecting each and every American. It is surprising more hasn't been done by now. Waiting can be fatal.
Stephen Bryen was deputy undersecretary of defense for trade security policy during both Reagan administrations.
The Baltimore Sun
November 11, 1999
(BBC World Service)
The wife of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, Soha Arafat, has accused the Israelis of poisoning Palestinians and polluting their water supplies.
In a welcome for the wife of President Clinton, Hillary, to the West Bank town of Ramallah, Mrs Arafat said eighty percent of water sources used by Palestinians had been contaminated by chemicals, and the daily and intensive use of toxic gases by Israeli forces had led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children.
The office of the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, reacted angrily by saying Mrs Arafat's comments had no connection to reality and it accused her of poisoning the atmosphere of the Middle East peace talks. Mrs Clinton was in Ramallah to launch an American funded health care project in the West Bank and Gaza -- during a trip which correspondents say is aimed primarily at garnering support among the large number of Jewish voters in New York state where she may run for the Senate.
December 1987 onwards
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Tear gas was another thing that got 'better'. People adapted to the first gas really quickly. You used to pick up the cannisters after everything was over, out of curiosity. They were new, with "Made in USA" written on them. They had production dates on them that would say, for example, "6th April 1988" and here they were being used on 10th April 1988 in the West Bank. We were getting the newest and best quality stuff!
They also used smoke grenades, grenades that started fire when you threw them, and even some that released a kind of gas we called ghaz 'aasad ("nerve gas") that had orange or red coloured smoke when they were thrown. If you inhaled it you would get hysterical and you would have to be taken to the hospital. Nothing would stop it. The effect was incredible. You would suddenly find yourself starting to panic for no apprent reason. Everyone around would start to panic and experience extreme confusion.
During one of the demonstrations in our village, the soldiers were having a really hard time breaking it up. They summoned a helicopter which began to drop these strange bouncing gas bombs which make it impossible to breathe.
The best way to deal with these things was to quickly bury them in sand or put them in a bucket of water. Obviously, it's a lot more difficult to get hold of something that's leaping around on the ground. The best time to grab them is as they land. So, you watch them throwing them from the helicopter, and tear off towards them as they fall towards the ground. This one helicopter dropped one, I ran towards the place where it looked like it was going to fall.
As I arrived, I suddenly realised that they were dropping stones. It took us a minute to work out what was happening. We stupidly relaxed for a minute and then the actual bombs came down. The stones had been a decoy. Four or five of us got really screwed. It became necessary for others to come and carry us away from the place before we were able to breathe again!
At least 43 alleged fatalities resulted from teargas use during the first year of the Intifada, it is clear that babies, young children, and old people are particularly suceptable. In addition, teargas can be fatal when used in enclosed spaces and when the cannisters are fired directly at people.
Chicago Reader
May 23, 2002
Film critic Ted Shen has perhaps unintentionally stumbled on one of the most terrible blood libels and outrageous statements regarding Israel perpetuated by Palestinians and their supporters, in his review of the film Gaza Strip (Critic's Choice, April 19). Based on this narrative, the Israelis are accused of deliberately poisoning Arab women and children. This propaganda echoes the centuries-old anti-Semitic canard that Jews poison Christian children. Such baseless, ridiculous, and despicable lies that have been propagated by high-level Palestinian officials as well as Chairman Arafat's wife Suha, do not even deserve to be dignified by a defense. These accusations are an effort to both openly and not very subtly try to equate Israeli activities with the worst atrocities committed in the 20th century and should not be given credence or legitimacy by any fair media source.
Though understanding that a mistake can occur in a review of a movie, I am distressed by Mr. Shen’s reactions to letters asking him to clarify this error ("Letters" section, April 26). No dictionary definition of the term "nerve gas" can change the fact that to the average reader the meaning of the accusation that Israel engages in chemical warfare against civilians is clear. Nor does changing the wording to "toxic" suffice to describe tear gas used by most police and army agencies in the world to disperse demonstrators with an aim to minimize casualties.
In his April 19 Critic's Choice review, Mr. Shen writes that the movie "offers a ringing indictment of the Sharon government." Since the director of the movie started filming in January 2001, and since Mr. Sharon was not elected prime minister until February 6, 2001, and was not sworn in as prime minister until March 2001, it is by no means certain that the incident in question took place under his leadership. As popular as it has become in some circles to place the blame for the lack of peace solely on Prime Minister Sharon, the future of the Middle East and the prospects for peace will unfortunately not be decided by a popularity contest between leaders. Over the last decade, Israel has had more than five prime ministers. All of them negotiated, in one way or another, with Yasser Arafat. All of them declared their readiness to make the painful concession needed to achieve peace. Therefore, it seems that the absence of peace and the prevalence of violence in our region should be attributed to the one person who has led the Palestinians during that entire time: Yasser Arafat, the man who chose terror, lies, and death as a way of life, as a profession, as a destiny, and as a mission. It is Arafat's features that float above Jenin and Netanya, Jerusalem and Nablus, Afula and Bethlehem. It is Arafat that disperses pain and sorrow, deception, incitement, desperation, and destruction. It is his lack of leadership and vision that is the cause of the terrible misery inflicted on both the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples.
In contrast, the Israel Film Festival, which opened in Chicago May 2 and ran through May 9, illustrates a very different example of how an artistic event can introduce its country's cultural achievements without trying to score political points by attacking others. The Israeli films presented in this festival were selected based on their artistic merit and not for their ideology or propaganda value. Thus they represent a balanced view of both Israel's film industry and Israel, and are not intended to serve as vehicles designed to portray a skewed, inaccurate view of the Middle East conflict to the people of this great city.
DAVID ROET-DEPUTY CONSUL GENERAL OF
ISRAEL TO THE MIDWEST
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Ted Shen replies.-
Despite the objections of Mr. Roet and the many others who’ve weighed in, director James Longley has well-documented evidence that hundreds of Palestinians were the victims of something that was clearly worse than tear gas. The film is being shown next week in Rogers Park (see listings for information) and is also available on video (through Longley's Web site, littleredbutton.com), so people who are interested can see it for themselves. This particular attack occurred a week after Sharon was elected, but it's only one of a series of incidents Longley included in the film that form his criticism of
October 2, 1998
(BBCNEWS)
The El Al plane crashed into a block of flats
Israel has said that the chemicals being carried by a cargo plane that crashed into a block of flats in Amsterdam in 1992 were "non-toxic".
The state-run Israeli airline, El Al, admitted on Thursday that its aircraft was carrying a chemical which is used in the production of the nerve gas sarin.
But a statement from the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, quoted by Israel radio, said "the material was non-toxic and was to have been used to test filters that protect against chemical weapons".
"Israeli Government and aviation authorities acknowledged that the cargo included 190 litres of the chemical dimethyl methylphosphonate, but they insist the material was non-toxic and that it had been clearly listed on the cargo manifest in accordance with international regulations," the radio said.
Special correspondent Ben Brown: "Sarin is one of the deadliest substances concocted by man"
On Wednesday the Dutch media, citing the plane's freight documents, said the plane was carrying the chemical, which was being taken from a US factory to the Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona near Tel Aviv.
The Israeli authorities and the Dutch parliament have both ordered further investigations into the crash.
Questions raised
Local MEP Maartje Van Putten: outraged
The local MEP for the area, Maartje Van Putten said she was outraged that the plane had been allowed to fly over the city carrying such a cargo.
A spokesman for El Al said they had informed the Dutch authorities at the outset of the investigation into the crash, which killed four crew members on the plane and 39 people in the apartment complex.
"Everything was done in accordance with international regulations," he said.
The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed that it had already known about the presence of chemicals on the plane.
Survivors' complaints
Up to 300 people are believed to be suffering from the effects
Since the crash, six years ago, many residents near the site of the crash have complained of mysterious illnesses.
A report published on Wednesday by the Dutch health ministry showed that local doctors believed up to 300 residents could be suffering from effects caused by the accident.
They range from depression and nervousness to fatigue and listlessness.
Cargo was heading to Israeli plant
Correspondents say that the activities of the Ness Ziona institute, which was to receive the chemical, are classified.
But it is believed to be a facility for the manufacturing of chemical and biological weapons and antidotes for such arms.
DMPP has other uses beyond nerve gas. It is also used in building materials as a flame retardant, and transporting sensitive chemicals by air is a well-tried practice.
BBC Europe correspondent David Eades says, however, that as a country which insists it does not manufacture weapons of mass destruction - and nerve gas is one of those - Israel is bound to come under suspicion as to the purpose of this cargo.
Israel has accused Syria, Iraq and Iran of developing chemical and biological weapons.
Sarin nerve gas was used in March 1995 by the Japanese cult, Aum Shinri Kyo, which released it in the Tokyo underground, killing six people and injuring more than 3,000.
(By Barry Chamish -Israeli Conspiracy mongerer)
8-7-2
Without British Freemasonry there would be no modern state of Israel. In the 1860s, the British-Israelite movement was initiated from within Freemasonry. Its goal was to establish a Jewish-Masonic state in the Turkish province of Palestine. Of course, that would mean dealing with the Turks at some point down the line, but first the country would have to be repopulated with Jews. And the idea wasn't to bring in more of the same religious Jews who already were the majority in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but the kind of Jews who would eventually accept the Masonic view of history.
Initially, British Jewish Masonic families like the Rothschilds and Montefiores provided the capital to build the infrastructure for the anticipated wave of immigration. However, luring the Jews to Israel was proving difficult. They, simply, liked European life too much to abandon it. So Europe was to be turned into a nightmare for the Jews.
This led to the rise of pogroms and Zionism. The leader of Zionism, Theodore Herzl certainly had some British support but he apparently was not thinking in terms of a Masonic state. He died mysteriously in 1905 at the tender age of 43, and the movement fell into British hands under the immoral leadership of one Chaim Weizmann.
Then things began moving quickly. British Masons like Arthur Balfour and Herbert Samuel led the campaign for official British recognition of a Jewish homeland during World War One. At the same time, a million British troops, badly needed in the trenches of Europe, were sent marching to Palestine to oust the Ottomans.
When the war ended, the campaign for a Jewish state went into full speed at Versailles. In 1919, The Royal Institute Of International Affairs was founded in London and two years later, the Council On Foreign Relations began its nefarious activities in New York. Their agendas called for a world governmental takeover and a global religion based in Jerusalem.
So far, so good for the Jews one might think. In fact, the British finagling led straight to the Holocaust, which Mason Winston Churchill refused to prevent or disrupt, right to the next attempt at a Holocaust called the Oslo Peace Accords, which began with a meeting in London in November 1992 between arch-criminals Beilin, Hirshfeld and Pundak and members of the outlawed PLO. Since then, secret meeting after secret meeting have taken place between Israel's "peacemakers" and British Freemasons. The results are there for everyone to see.
The British have turned on Israel, but for reasons very few could even contemplate considering seriously. However, the reasons are deadly serious. What follows is information privy to only the very highest degrees of British Freemasonry and British Royalty. Upon threat of agonizing death, these secrets are to be withheld from the meaningless masses of humanity.
Perhaps only several thousand people in all Britain and Israel are aware that British Freemasonry and Royalty are totally convinced that Jesus was King Of Britain and was stoned to death in London, at Ludgate, the location of St. Paul's Cathedral. This conviction is based on a history many are going to find insulting. Nonetheless, it is vital to understand the thinking that has led to the 20th century slaughter of the Jews and the current attempt to annihilate Israel.
Initiates into the deepest secrets of British Freemasonry are taught that Jesus was born with an identical twin, Judas Thomas. Their mother Mariamne was the granddaughter of King Herod. She was raped by a Roman soldier named Tiberius Julias Abdes Pathera. In his time, Jesus was known as Yeshua Ben Panthera.
The twins had very different personalities. Judas Thomas was violent and irresponsible. He led a revolt of Galileans against the Romans. The Galileans were, in fact, from Gaul, a captured Celtic Roman province with a highly hostile population. Judas Thomas took his revolt to Rome and in his 33rd year was ordered crucified by Pontius Pilate. However, invoking royal Herodian privileges and a large bribe, his uncle Joseph of Arimathea persuaded Pontius to replace Judas Thomas on the cross with another victim. Judas Thomas was sold into slavery and died much later in India.
Jesus, meanwhile took his priestly vows seriously. He was cousin to John the Baptist, the chief Rabbi of the Essenes and second in line to take over the position. With the executions of John and Judas Thomas, Jesus became the chief rabbi of the Essenes.
During much of his youth, Jesus lived in Britain with his uncle Joseph of Armithea, who ran a lucrative tin trading business between Cornwall and Phoenicia. While in Cornwall, Jesus learned the secrets of the Druids, a Celtic religion which was closely allied with the Essenes. Both shared a belief in fraternal love and a strict set of fatal punishments for those who betrayed the mysteries of their faiths. And both demanded a rigorous three stage initiation process for those wishing to be privy to those mysteries.
Jesus was in Rome at the time of his brother's crucifixion. He and his family and followers escaped the city in the wake of the crackdown on Zealots following Judas Thomas's revolt. Most went to Marseilles and from there spread throughout Gaul and Britain. Jesus and his wife fled to Britain.
Yes, wife. According to British Freemasonry, he had four of them. His first, a Nabatean named Cypros produced five children, the most famous being Caradoc, a future king who would fight Rome with savage success.
But it was the second, Mary Magdelene who was even more significant. Her father was an early British Celtic king and she a Celtic princess. Their children and all their descendants produced the British royal lineage. With this marriage, Jesus became a Celtic royal and he was given a suitable new royal name, Jesus Cunobeline.
Shortly after his arrival in Britain, Jesus Cunobeline and his family were given royal jurisdiction over a huge tract of land in southern Wales. It is for this reason that the Prince Of Wales is considered a direct anscestor of the first king of modern Wales, Jesus Cunobeline, with privileges that extend to all of Judaism and Israel.
Just before Emperor Claudius attacked Britain, Jesus abdicated his crown to his son Caradoc, who defeated the Romans at every turn. But through trickery, he and his father, Jesus Cunobeline were captured and shipped in shackles to Rome. Caradoc appealed to the Roman Senate for clemency and was granted it on condition that Britain never fought Rome on its soil again. He accepted the proviso and he and his entourage were given a palace of their own. Jesus lived there for seven years.
Then he sailed to Egypt to learn the secrets of the Egyptian mystery schools. He was an honored student and soaked in the secret handshakes, cryptic messages and graduated revelations. The Christianity of Jesus became Freemasonry.
Jesus wanted to share his new complete Essene/Druidic/Essene religion and that proved his undoing. He was stoned to death in London, aged 63, for betraying his vows and revealing the secrets of the mystery schools.
However, back in Rome, presbyters had combined the lives of Jesus and Judas Thomas to create a rapidly growing religion. The British-born Roman emperor Constantine of York, a direct descendant of Jesus, and his mother Helena saw a great advantage in spreading a publicly accepted story of Jesus to create unity in the empire, while keeping the true story alive amongst the most trusted of British royalty and their closest allies.
Constantine gathered a British army and smashed his way to Rome. Shortly after, in 330, he convened a conference of presbyters in Nicaea to unify Christianity. Final gospels were voted on and a New Testament created. But to assure that his empire's newly official religion never forgot the Israelite roots of Jesus and the British royal line, Constantine tacked the Jewish scriptures onto the New Testament.
As far as British freemasonry is concerned, they are both the true Jews and true Christians. This, they reason, is the right that comes with knowing the secret truth of Jesus.
And when they re-created Israel in their distorted image, the Freemasons had no room in the country for those Jews they considered deluded. Through Chaim Weizmann, they eliminated religious Jews and patriotic Jews from the Zionist movement. They were condemned to die in Europe.
Those who did arrive in Israel were thoroughly inculcated in socialist, secular, occultic values. Israel was to be transformed into a Masonic Jewish state ruled by their rightful leaders, the Freemasons of Britain.
But something unexpected happened during the 1930s. The religious Jews, both of Israel and Eastern Europe, rejected this peculiar Zionism as a foreign growth on G-d's intended Judaism. And non-religious, but patriotic Jews led by the likes of Jabotinsky, Begin and Shamir fought to expel the British from their land. And they fought so well that the British ordered their Jewish Masons like Teddy Kollek (33rd degree) and Yitzhak Rabin (32nd degree) to betray their fellow Jews and turn them over to the British or to murder them outright.
The British Freemasons and their Jewish quislings managed to do the bidding of the British, to the point of joining them in an attack of Egypt in 1956. There was still hope that a British Freemasonic Israel could yet be created by the Ben Gurions, Weizmanns and Dayans they had placed in power. But in 1977, all illusions were smashed by the election of Menachem Begin as prime minister. Since then, Britain has declared a covert war against an Israel that turned to G-d and Jewish patriotism instead of rule by Masonry. The Oslo process begun in London in November, 1992, was their ultimate revenge.
(The Associated Press)
CINCINNATI (August 11, 2002) - A pilot for a Delta Air Lines subsidiary would not fly Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior from Cincinnati to Toronto because the pilot thought Melchior posed a security risk, an Israeli radio station reported Sunday.
Melchior, who was being escorted by State Department officials, told Israel Radio that he waited on the plane Friday for more than an hour before the pilot evacuated it, saying there was a security risk.
When Melchior disembarked, he said he was told he was not allowed to get back on the plane.
"The security officials and the company all put pressure on him, and there were negotiations," Melchior told the station. "But the pilot is sovereign on his aircraft, and he is empowered to make such a decision, and he did it in spite of all the pressure from the company and security officials."
The Israeli radio station did not identify the subsidiary airline that Melchior planned to fly with. Melchior said he flew out on another Delta plane about a half-hour later. He has since returned to Israel.
The Israeli embassy in Washington had taken the matter up with the State Department, Melchior said.
Officials with the Atlanta-based airline would not discuss the incident. "We don't comment on our security incidents," Delta spokeswoman Catherine Stengel said Sunday.
This is the third time an Israeli official has been pulled from a flight because of a pilot's sense of a security risk, the radio station reported. The others reportedly were Alon Pinkas, the Israeli consul general in New York, and a bodyguard of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
"This singling out of Israeli diplomats ... and removing them from a plane in such a manner, and the very fact that we are Israelis (is deemed) to pose a security risk, is intolerable," Melchior said.
July 20.02
The Times of India
India's children of Israel find their roots
LONDON: More than 2,000 years after they first claimed to have set foot in India, the mystery of the world's most obscure Jewish community - the Marathi-speaking Bene Israel - may finally have been solved with genetic carbon-dating revealing they carry the unusual Moses gene that would make them, literally, the original children of Israel.
Four years of DNA tests on the 4,000-strong Bene Israel, now mainly based in Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Ahmedabad, indicates they are probable descendants of a small group of hereditary Israelite priests or Cohanim, according to new results exclusively made available to the Sunday Times of India.
The priests are scattered worldwide but genetically related in a distinctive fashion that leaves just a billion to one chance of a mistake in identifying who the Bene Israel really are, says Tudor Parfitt, Jewish Studies professor at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
Parfitt, who initiated and led the research, says this is the first concrete proof that “exiles from Palestine made it as far as India and managed to maintain Judaism in the sea of Hinduism and Islam”.
Contacted in the Israeli town of Ramla, 15 miles from Tel Aviv, where he emigrated from Mumbai, Aharon Daniel expressed doubt about the new findings. “Many scientists have claimed to have found Israeli or Cohanim genes in tribes in black Africa and other communities around the world and many here were sceptical about this,” he told STOI.
But some analysts said that Daniel's doubt could be a reflection of the shoddy treatment given to a few of the 30,000 Bene Israelis who returned to the Promised Land in the early '50s, soon after the state of Israel was created. Their Indian appearance, cricket-playing, sari-wearing, curry-eating and Marathi-speaking habits led to a bitter battle for recognition as “real Jews”.
The name Bene Israel literally means Children of Israel and their unsubstantiated legend of origin holds their ancestors to be Jews fleeing persecution in Palestine in 175 BC.
According to the legend, seven men and seven women survived a shipwreck near Navgaon village on the Konkan coast. Their descendants became thoroughly Indian except for observing Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, as a weekly holiday. The practice led them to be known as Shanwar Teli, Marathi for 'Saturday oilpressers'.
It was only in 1964, that the Israeli prime minister declared they were genuinely Jewish and should be allowed to return home (to Israel) and inter-marry.
But now, the new study goes one better. By studying certain genetic markers on the DNA chain, found only in male descendants of Aaron, Moses' elder brother, who founded the line of Jewish priests, the Bene Israel could well claim to be the purest of the pure.
Prominent Bene Israelis include poet Nissim Ezekiel and actress Pearl Padamsee.
The new research has also found preliminary genetic evidence to show the declining community of Black Jews of Cochin left Israel in remote historical times.
The new data, which is to feature in leading Western scientific journals over the next few months, comes after painstaking efforts to genetically source the origins of India's other, self-professed “lost” Jewish tribes, including the Manipuri Jews and the Telugu-speaking Jews of Guntur.
“We took DNA samples, but there was nothing that could prove they were related to other than the general family of mankind”, said Parfitt, who has researched Indian Jewry since 1984.
Catholics reject evangelization of Jews
(Boston Globe)
8/13/2002
The Catholic Church, which spent hundreds of years trying forcibly to convert Jews to Christianity, has come to the conclusion that it is theologically unacceptable to target Jews for evangelization, according to a statement issued yesterday by organizations representing US Catholic bishops and rabbis from the country's two largest Jewish denominations.
Citing teachings dating back to the Second Vatican Council, and statements by Pope John Paul II throughout his papacy, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared unequivocally that the biblical covenant between Jews and God is valid and therefore Jews do not need to be saved through faith in Jesus.
''A deepening Catholic appreciation of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, together with a recognition of a divinely-given mission to Jews to witness to God's faithful love, lead to the conclusion that campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church,'' declares the document, ''Reflections on Covenant and Mission.''
The declaration, which was negotiated by the bishops and an organization representing Conservative and Reform rabbis, demonstrates the dramatic changes in Catholic thinking about Jews and Judaism in the wake of the Holocaust. In the decades since Hitler's attempt to exterminate Jews during World War II, the church has rejected its longtime position that Christianity superseded Judaism and instead has embraced Judaism as a legitimate faith both before and after the life of Jesus.
''The significance is far more than theological, because for centuries it was the refusal of Jews to embrace Christian teachings that legitimized the persecution, and often murder, of Jews in communities throughout Christendom,'' said Robert Leikind, New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. ''What the bishops have done here is decisively separated themselves from that history and indicated once and for all that Jews have an authentic relationship with God and an authentic mission in the world, and therefore there is no reason for, or logic in, trying to evangelize Jews.''
Jesus and his early followers were Jewish, but those who embraced Christianity began to turn on those who did not more than a millennium ago. Violence by Christians against Jews began with the Crusades and anti-Semitism intensified during the Middle Ages and informed the Nazi effort during the Holocaust.
Catholic teaching began to shift dramatically in the early 1960s, when the Second Vatican Council declared that ''the Jews must not be presented as rejected by God.'' Since then, Catholics have abandoned efforts to convert Jews and have emphasized in religious teachings that Jesus was Jewish.
Catholic and Jewish officials said the statement was the sharpest definition to date of the evolving relationship between Catholics and Jews. Cardinal William Keeler, the archbishop of Baltimore and the bishops' liaison for Christian-Jewish relations, called yesterday's declaration ''a significant step forward in the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community in this country.''
However, the declaration puts the Catholic Church at odds with evangelical Protestants, particularly the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country. In a 1996 resolution, the Southern Baptists declared, ''whereas Jesus commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ... we direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the gospel to the Jewish people.''
At the time, the Southern Baptists decried ''an organized effort on the part of some either to deny that Jewish people need to come to their Messiah, Jesus, to be saved; or to claim, for whatever reason, that Christians have neither right nor obligation to proclaim the gospel to the Jewish people ... we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.''
The Southern Baptists' stance has not changed since, according to spokesman John Revell. ''The drive behind not just the Southern Baptists but all evangelical Christians is the conviction that Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life with God the Father, and anybody who seeks eternal life through any other means will fail,'' Revell said. ''There is a misconception that Southern Baptists have targeted Jews. We haven't targeted Jews. Our focus is to get the good news of Jesus Christ to all people, including Jews.''
Eugene J. Fisher, the director of Catholic-Jewish Relations for the bishops' conference, said the document issued yesterday acknowledges the divide between Catholics and evangelical Protestants on the issue.
''This is a free country and that principle of freedom of faith means I can't complain about their freedom, but here there might be a theological difference as well as a pastoral difference in understanding the relation of Christ's church to the Jewish people,'' he said.
Fisher said Catholic efforts to convert Jews ''dried up'' after the Second Vatican Council. He cited as an example the Sisters of Zion, a religious order that once focused on trying to convert Jews, but after World War II decided on interfaith dialogue instead.
Yesterday's declaration ''caps a development in a certain theological direction, by pulling it all together,'' he said. ''In the US, the motivation of the American bishops to watch that development closely is very strong, because of the dialogue with the world's largest Jewish community, which is in the US.''
The rabbis and bishops have been meeting twice a year for two decades and have issued statements on such topics as the environment and hate crimes. They said they hope yesterday's declaration will influence Catholic-Jewish dialogues and help end ''the continuing ignorance and caricatures of one another that still prevail in many segments of the Catholic and Jewish communities.''
08/06/02
LONDON (AP) - A young British couple took off for their vacation in Australia and ended up in Sydney - Nova Scotia that is - because of a little glitch in their Internet ticket purchase.
``I thought, 'oh my gosh, we're in Canada!''' 19-year-old Emma Nunn said Monday, standing beside Raoul Sebastian in sunny Sydney, northeast Canada, population 26,083.
The pair, speaking to British Broadcasting Corp. TV, smiled gamely and explained that when they landed in Canada they thought it was the first leg of their long journey to the Pacific.
``It was really, really confusing,'' said Sebastian, also 19. ``We thought we were going to wait here and a big plane was going to turn up and take us to Australia. It didn't quite happen that way.''
They hadn't realized anything was wrong when they boarded an Air Canada plane at London's Heathrow Airport because the airline does fly to Australia, the Daily Express quoted them as saying.
But they began to get suspicious when the jet touched down in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and passengers were told to board a 25-seater plane.
``I said I really can't see a small plane like this going all the way to Australia,'' the tabloid quoted Nunn as saying.
The problem, apparently, began in the clicking of boxes on the Internet site.
But in the best British spirit, the two are enjoying themselves anyway for a week in the small industrial town on the coast of Cape Breton Island.
``He's in heaven with the cars and seafood,'' Nunn said, looking fondly at Sebastian.
``Definitely,'' he confirmed.
Aug 9, 2002
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trying to do the "right" thing by drinking eight full glasses of water a day may do little more than make a person run to the bathroom, a researcher said on Friday.
Newspaper articles, health and beauty magazines all advise drinking at least 8 full glasses of water a day totaling 64 ounces for optimal health -- an approach called "8x8" by proponents.
But Dr. Heinz Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire said there is no scientific evidence to back up this advice, which has helped create a huge market for bottled water.
"After 10 months of careful searching I have found no scientific evidence that supports '8x8'," Valtin, who has written textbooks on the subject of human water balance, said in a telephone interview.
Writing in the American Journal of Physiology, Valtin, a kidney specialist, said people forget that the food they eat also contains some water.
The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council ( news - web sites) has recommended that people take in about one milliliter of water for each calorie of food eaten.
This adds up to two liters, or 74 fluid ounces on an average 2,000-calorie diet. But the National Research Council also noted that much of this is already contained in food.
"I did 43 years of research on that system -- the osmoregulatory system. That system is so precise and so fast that I find it impossible to believe that evolution left us with a chronic water deficit," Valtin said.
LOW ON FLUID
If a person gets low on fluid, the body compensates by bringing fluid back out of the kidneys and by slowing the loss of water through the skin, Valtin said. Thirst kicks in long before dehydration starts, he added.
"It does it very quickly and very accurately and it does so in minutes," Valtin said.
He said he and colleagues became concerned after seeing dozens of newspaper and magazine articles urging people to sip water all day. "I started talking to my colleagues and asking them 'Do you know of any evidence for this?'. Invariably, they said, 'No I think it's a myth'," Valtin said.
The journal asked him to review all the scientific studies he could find and he concluded that someone misinformed has been telling people to drink large amounts of water when most do not need to.
"I am referring to healthy adults in a temperate climate leading a largely sedentary existence," Valtin said. "Persons with certain diseases must have large volumes of water -- kidney stones are probably the most common example."
The rest can just drink enough to slake thirst -- and this includes coffee, tea, and even beer -- despite their diuretic effects, Valtin said.
He hopes people will be relieved of the guilt of not getting enough water, and of the expense of buying bottled water to drink throughout the day.
"There is also the possibility that if you drink a lot of water that happens to be polluted then of course you get more pollutants," Valtin said.
"Then there is the inconvenience of constant urination, the embarrassment of having to go to the bathroom all the time," he added.
And overdoses of water can cause water intoxication that can lead to confusion and even death. Water intoxication is one deadly effect of taking the drug Ecstasy, for instance, because it makes people thirsty beyond their physical needs.
(usnews.com)
8/12/02
The tap water was so dark in Atlanta some days this summer that Meg Evans couldn't see the bottom of the tub when she filled the bath. Elsewhere in her neighborhood, Gregg Goldenberg puts his infant daughter, Kasey, to bed unbathed rather than lower her into a brew "the color of iced tea." Tom Crowley is gratified that the Publix supermarket seems to be keeping extra bottled water on hand; his housekeeper frequently leaves notes saying, "Don't drink from the faucet today." All try to keep tuned to local radio, TV, or the neighborhood Web site to catch "boil water" advisories, four of which have been issued in the city since May to protect against pathogens. "We've gotten to the point where I'm thinking this is just normal," Evans says. "It's normal to wake up and take a bath in dirty water."
In a nation where abundant, clear, and cheap drinking water has been taken for granted for generations, it is hard to imagine residents of a major city adjusting to life without it. But Atlanta's water woes won't seem so unusual in the years ahead. Across the country, long-neglected mains and pipes, many more than a century old, are reaching the end of their life span. When pipes fail, pressure drops and sucks dirt, debris, and often bacteria and other pathogens into the huge underground arteries that deliver water. Officials handle each isolated incident by flushing out contaminants and upping the chlorine dose (Atlanta says its water meets health standards despite its sometimes unappetizing appearance), but no one sees this as a long-term solution. America's aging water infrastructure needs huge new investment, and soon.
Decayed pipes alone would be a serious challenge. Now, add these: Providing water free of disease and toxins is ever more difficult, as old methods prove inadequate and new hazards emerge. Shortages have become endemic to many regions, as record drought and population sprawl sap rivers and aquifers. Then there's the threat, unthinkable a year ago, that now seems to trump all others: terrorism. Put it all together, and it's easy to see why concern over clean drinking water might someday make the energy crisis look like small potatoes.
"The idea of water as an economic and social good, and who controls this water, and whether it is clean enough to drink, are going to be major issues in the country," says economist Gary Wolff, at Oakland's Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security. In March, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman called water quantity and quality "the biggest environmental issue that we face in the 21st century."
Water providers say that Americans can still trust the product on tap. "People should feel good about their water. Water is safe and we're working hard to keep it that way," says Thomas Curtis, deputy executive director of the American Water Works Association. But the Natural Resources Defense Council's Erik Olson detects a "schizophrenic" element in industry assurances. "They say we need hundreds of billions of dollars to fix the system, but when people ask, 'Is there a public-health issue?' they say, 'No, no.' But clearly, there's a public-health problem."
Both the sanguine and the worried agree on one thing: High costs will force the nation's water delivery system to evolve into something quite different. Citizens will be asked to pay more and use less. And big business, still a minor player in this country's water scene, is seeking a leading role. Private industry promises needed new capital and greater efficiency, but the jury is still out on whether it can deliver. Witness, for instance, the plight of Atlanta, which in 1999 became the largest U.S. city to privatize its water system. Already the city is weighing whether to nullify its 20-year contract with United Water, a subsidiary of the French company Suez.
Buried troubles. For now, issues of ownership, infrastructure, and health have been back-burnered while governments grapple with the threat of water system terrorism (box, Page 25). Terrorism, however, cannot long postpone action on the fissures spreading in the 700,000 miles of pipes that deliver water to U.S. homes and businesses. Three generations of water mains are at risk: cast-iron pipe of the 1880s, thinner conduits of the 1920s, and even less sturdy post-World War II tubes. While refusing to call it a crisis, Curtis says, "We are at the dawn of an era where utilities will need to make significant investments in rebuilding, repairing, or replacing their underground assets." Cost estimates range from EPA's $151 billion figure to a $1 trillion tally by a coalition of water industry, engineering, and environmental groups. The AWWA projects costs as high as $6,900 per household in some small towns.
Health is at risk if nothing is done. Already, water mains break 237,600 times each year in the United States. An industry study last year found pathogens and "fecal indicator" bacteria at significant levels in soil and trench water at repair sites. Of the 619 waterborne disease outbreaks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked between 1971 and 1998, 18 percent were due to germs in the distribution system. Researchers also question whether Americans are getting sick from their drinking water far more often than is recognized. "Is this happening below the radar screen, with low-level [gastrointestinal] things, where people will stay home from work, or be miserable at work, and not ever go to the doctor?" asks Jack Colford of the University of California-Berkeley. He is leading a major EPA-CDC-funded study comparing disease rates between participants who drink tap water through a sophisticated filter and those using a fake look-alike filter. Harvard researchers reported in 1997 that emergency-room visits for gastrointestinal illness rose after spikes in dirt levels that still remained well within federal standards.
Quality concerns. Just keeping up with federal regulations is increasingly difficult. The next five years will see more new rules than have been adopted in all the years since enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974. Environmental advocates blame the logjam on delays in addressing many health hazards. The arsenic standard, which produced an uproar early in the Bush administration, was years in the making. The EPA ultimately approved the same standard President Bill Clinton chose in his last days in office–reducing the arsenic limit from 50 to 10 parts per billion. The change of heart coincided with a National Academy of Sciences report, released to little notice the week of September 11. It indicated that even the Clinton standard was weak: As little as 3 ppb arsenic carries a far higher bladder and lung cancer risk than do other substances EPA regulates.
New science has also undermined confidence in older methods of purify- ing water. Chlorination has been one of the 20th century's great public-health achievements, smiting the deadliest waterborne diseases, cholera and typhoid. But this sword has developed a double edge. Nearly 200 women in Chesapeake, Va., sued their water system, claiming that miscarriages they suffered in the 1980s and 1990s are traceable to trihalomethanes, chemicals produced when chlorine reacted with their region's murky river water. While pregnancy-risk research is hotly debated, the EPA decided that cancer risk from chlorine by-products is high enough that it ordered water system reductions earlier this year. Localities have already spent millions of dollars converting to another disinfectant, chloramine (a chlorine and ammonia mix), which curbs some byproducts.
Cities and towns are finding that they must deal with new science on contaminants at a much faster pace than the EPA can regulate them. This summer, Bourne, Mass., the southern gateway to Cape Cod, had to close three of its six drinking water wells, having discovered they were contaminated with perchlorate, a rocket fuel component that leaked from a nearby military reservation. Across the country, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, serving 17 million people, announced in April that its new treatment system "will remove a large portion of perchlorate" leaking into a major regional reservoir, Lake Mead. But U.S. News has obtained material distributed at a June 11 MWD board meeting showing the treatment was not working as hoped.
The EPA is still studying possible drinking water limits for perchlorate as well as for MTBE, a gasoline additive meant to reduce air pollution that proved to be a frighteningly efficient groundwater pollutant. (South Tahoe and Santa Monica, Calif., last month obtained big settlements from oil and chemical companies to help restore MTBE-poisoned water supplies.) And in April, a U.S. Geological Survey report revealed that streams nationwide are laced with prescription and over-the-counter drugs and even caffeine.
Pollution is shrinking water supplies for communities at the same time that burgeoning population and weather are causing severe shortages. Norman, Okla., with 95,700 people the largest system currently afoul of arsenic standards, very likely will shut down some wells even though it expects average daily water demand to more than double in the next 40 years. "We don't want to be a poster child" for arsenic contamination, says utilities director Brad Gambill. This summer, more than 40 percent of the nation–over twice the normal rate–has suffered drought conditions. "Normally, we get tons of flowers, but now we have nothing growing," says Donna Charpied, a farmer in Riverside County, Calif., pointing to withered plants on her small homestead. Some ecologists believe global warming will make drought the norm in much of the West. Drought breeds anger: The CIA predicts that by 2015, drinking-water access could be a major source of world conflict.
Some cities have already instituted drastic conservation programs. Santa Fe has restricted lawn watering, leading New Mexicans to decorate yards with spray-painted artificial flowers. In parched Denver, a conservation campaign encourages residents to shower in groups. Omaha has an odd-even residential address lawn-watering program.
One spring Satur- day morning this April, Chuck Maurer of San Antonio realized while brushing his teeth that he and his neighbors had become victims of a water conservation program gone awry. "It was grotesque," he recalls. "The water was brown in color and cloudy with particulates, and a really bad odor. It was sewer water." Precisely. The San Antonio Water System had accidentally cross-connected his neighborhood's drinking water lines with pipes delivering treated sewage water to a public golf course. Watering fairways and greens with "reclaimed water" has become popular in water-short tourist areas, especially Florida. But experts say such systems require extra care to keep sewage from entering potable systems.
Big business to the rescue.With immense challenges ahead, U.S. drinking water systems are considering something never tried here on a large scale: privatization. In March, Indianapolis announced a $1.5 billion agreement with USFilter, the largest U.S. privatization to date, and in May, San Jose, Calif., voted to consider privatizing. Private firms helped supply water to Boston as early as 1796, and utilities have long hired outside contractors to build, but not operate, plants and distribution systems. But over the past five years, an IRS ruling that helped firms obtain longer-term tax-free water contracts, combined with politicians' push for deregulation and municipal-system breakdowns, opened the door for firms to actually manage systems. Only 15 percent of utilities are investor-owned, but in recent years, a handful of big water corporations, mostly foreign owned, have moved onto the U.S. scene: from France, Suez and the media-water conglomerate, Vivendi; from Germany, the utility RWE. (One domestic player with giant ambitions was Enron's water subsidiary, Azurix, which had touted a plan to plumb the Everglades and manage the water.)
Congress is considering hiking federal funding for infrastructure, but the Bush administration encourages the privatization trend, saying that water systems cannot expect to get all the dollars they need from Washington. Says G. Tracy Mehan, EPA assistant administrator for water: "I think the needs are so great especially when you see the demands of homeland security and the federal budget. Private capital is one of several options that are going to have to be considered much more than they have been."
One private-sector success story is Leominster, Mass., a town of 40,000, which signed a 20-year deal with USFilter in 1996. Before then, "our treatment plant was totally corroded. We fixed leaks by putting out old coffee cans to catch the water," says Mayor Dean Mazzarella. USFilter saved the city money it then used to upgrade a 60-year-old filtration plant that was "held together by wire and chewing gum," says city environmental inspector Matthew Marro.
Experience in other countries suggests that privatization can, indeed, pour needed capital into drinking water. Investment in the United Kingdom increased more than 80 percent after it turned to total privatization. "Public-private partnerships are going to sweep the U.S," says Andrew Seidel, president of USFilter. "The country has 50,000 different water systems, and those will consolidate into bigger systems aligned with private companies and able to handle the growing number of water-treatment issues."
But in Atlanta, the experience has not been so positive. This summer, Mayor Shirley Franklin sent a formal notice to United Water that the city was dissatisfied with its performance under the 20-year contract signed with the city's previous administration. Problems cited by Franklin included the firm's staffing levels, bill collection, and meter installation. Atlanta had hoped to halve the $49 million annual cost of running its water system by privatizing; one city official says savings are less than $3 million. "You have to keep in mind that a public-private partnership is an ongoing dialogue between the customer and its private partner," says United Water spokesman Rich Henning. "We certainly have struggled. But within the last six to nine months we have dedicated more resources, and we've been listening more to the client." He calculates Atlanta's savings to be about $15 million a year but says the city should be using that money to address the infrastructure problems that United Water inherited.
Gordon Certain, president of the civic association of North Buckhead, the neighborhood hardest hit with water-quality problems, says United Water is unresponsive to complaints. "They're acting kind of like they have a 20-year contract," he says, wryly. (Of course, they do.) The company's response to complaints has ranged "from polite to totally inappropriate," he says. "They told one woman who wanted her water tested that she should get it tested herself." But resident Jacques Davignon thinks privatization "has only made the finger-pointing much more complex." He says the company and the city should share responsibility. "Let's not get on TV and beat United Water up," he says. "Let's do a little forward thinking, come up with a strategic plan."
Private enterprise also has rushed in with water-shortage solutions. The agribusiness firm Cadiz Inc. wants to store water in the barren Mojave Desert, where tidal waves of dust sweep across salt-rimmed dry lakes. The water, taken from the Colorado River and from an indigenous underground aquifer, would flow to thirsty Los Angeles during droughts. "Storing and selling aquifer water will be the key to California's future," says Mark Liggett, Cadiz's senior vice president.
Jim André, a desert biologist working in the Mojave, says Cadiz has no impartial scientific study of the potential impact. Environmental groups warn that drawing groundwater from the Mojave will create a dust bowl similar to California's Owens Lake region, a water grab that inspired the film Chinatown. But Cadiz says it has a monitoring system to prevent overpumping. "We have solicited tons of input from all groups for our environmental assessment," Liggett says.
Creative solutions. Other ideas seem somewhat fanciful. Ric Davidge, a former Reagan administration official, wants to siphon 10 billion gallons of water each winter from northern California rivers, pump it into 850-foot-long plastic bladders, and ship it downstate. Other entrepreneurs suggest melting Alaska icebergs. Oilman T. Boone Pickens hopes to pipeline water from Texas's Ogallala aquifer to water-short cities like San Antonio and Dallas.
Privatization projects are also dogged by accountability concerns. Industry sources worry that the terrorism vulnerability assessments U.S. water systems are developing will wind up in corporate parent offices overseas, possibly unprotected from disclosure. In New Orleans, an official highly familiar with its water system told U.S News that the Big Easy's move toward privatization lacks oversight. "The whole approach to having companies bid for the water system was 'public, catch us if you can,' since after bids were taken the public had only 10 days to examine the proposals," she says.
Privatization worries have even made it to Broadway: In the comedy Urinetown, a firm privatizes toilets and raises toilet fees. Residents caught urinating in other places are arrested. "With private control, who guarantees that the less well off will get affordable water, and who picks up the cost if the private company fails?" asks Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project, a research institute in Amherst, Mass.
Progress report. Indeed, the financial viability of some leading water companies has been called into question recently. Cadiz lost $2.5 million in the most recent quarter; the firm recently tried to reduce its debt through a deal with Saudi Prince Al Waleed ibn Talal, but in July the effort collapsed. Suez's water arm saw revenues grow by just 1 percent. Vivendi, though experiencing revenue growth of 12 percent, made major missteps in its media division that have left it laden with debt and is divesting its stake in one water investment, Philadelphia Suburban.
Nor have private companies, by and large, delivered savings to consumers. In fact, most private water providers surveyed by U.S. News charged higher-than-average rates (table). George Raftelis, a Charlotte, N.C., industry consultant, points out that unlike public utilities, private firms do not enjoy tax-exempt financing, are subject to income taxes, and must return profits to shareholders. Moreover, "privatization does not equal competition," says Janice Beecher, director of the Institute of Public Utilities at Michigan State University. "After bidding, you're transferring the monopoly powers of a public utility to a private company." She suggests cities and towns award shorter contracts and make public utilities and private firms compete.
Citizen outcry over the water rates private firms charge has boiled over into riots in countries such as Bolivia. But so far in the United States disputes have been hashed out in the political process. Peoria and Pekin, Ill., both are moving to deprivatize their water systems, having determined that if private ownership continued, future rate increases would be as much as 60 percent higher than if the systems were publicly run. Because other communities have done the same, Curtis of AWWA does not see a mass movement to privatize: "Some are looking at it, and some are trying to move in the other direction."
But the harsh reality is that the price of drinking water will most likely rise whether private industry or government manages the system. The EPA estimates that the water bill consumes only seven tenths of 1 percent of U.S. household median income; Americans spend more than triple that on bottled water and filters. A recent Harvard School of Public Health analysis pointed out that rates in many developed countries are significantly higher. "[W]ater rates have been insufficient to cover long-run costs," such as maintenance of pipes and plants, let alone larger issues such as preserving clean rivers and surrounding watershed, the report said.
"People think water is free because it falls from the sky," says Seidel of USFilter. "Well, it is–but treated, filtered, and piped water isn't." Privatization advocates contend that only market-oriented pricing can force H2O-hogging Americans to conserve. "Unless you put a market-determined price on something, it is not respected," says Clay Landry, a research associate at Bozeman, Mont.'s Political Economy Research Center. "Right now, who even thinks about the cost of water coming out of their tap?"
But public officials are loath to hike rates for fear of burdening lower-income families. That's certainly a problem in big cities, but even more so in small towns, where, lacking economies of scale, water treatment and distribution is more expensive. Consultant Raftelis found that water bills in small systems average 25 percent higher than in large ones he has surveyed. The new arsenic rule is projected to cost households under $1 annually in the largest systems but over $300 in those serving fewer than 100 customers.
Economist Wallace Oates of the think tank Resources for the Future says arsenic's economic realities make a case for abandoning national standards and letting localities weigh costs and benefits on their own. Congress and the EPA already let small water systems operate with less regulation and enforcement–some will have 14 years, instead of four years, to meet the new arsenic rule. The Bush administration is studying whether to relax small-system standards even more. Yet all but a fraction of health violations occur in small systems, which serve some 50 million citizens. "What you have is a two-tier drinking water system, and that's pretty troubling," says NRDC'S Olson. He argues that health and efficiency require a major consolidation among the 54,000 U.S. water suppliers. Says EPA's Mehan, "Citizens and systems are going to have to look at this option."
Turning off the tap.Citizens are certainly looking at other options, but less with an eye to changing the system than to just protecting themselves and their families. "We're looking at having a plumber put a filter on our entire house," said Atlanta resident Davignon. In the meantime, he buys bags of ice and water from the supermarket, adding, "I hate to pay for water, but if it's undrinkable, or the kids can't bathe, you do it." Already, 76 percent of Californians rely on bottled or filtered water. "We have reached a breaking point beyond which central treatment can no longer go," says Peter Censky, executive director of the Water Quality Association, which represents filter makers. Joseph Cotruvo, a former EPA water administrator, agrees: "You wouldn't think of drinking orange juice out of a pipe, would you? I wouldn't be surprised if 25 years from now the thought of drinking water as a beverage rather than a commodity will dominate."
The drive toward bottled water and filters will, however, widen the gap between haves and have-nots, a result some hope technology can prevent. "[G]oing into the 21st century, you can't get the kind of long-term improvements in water quality that are needed without the next generation of technology," says Olson. A few U.S. water systems are trying disinfectants used in Europe: ozone, ultraviolet light, and perhaps the best purifier (used by bottlers Pepsi and Coke), reverse-osmosis membrane technology. "It removes just about everything," says Olson, "so you don't have this contaminant-of-the-month approach."
And yesterday's clean water may not be clean enough for the future. L. D. McMullen, chief executive officer of the Des Moines water system, believes as the population ages and more people have compromised immune systems, cities and towns will have to provide water much lower in contaminants than they do today. "We will totally have to deliver water to customers in a totally different way," he says. "You may see what I like to call 'neighborhood polishing units,' that develop ultrapure water in the neighborhoods and deliver it to homes" through much smaller pipe systems. Households need relatively little superclean water, McMullen points out, since less than 15 percent of "drinking water" is drunk or bathed in. Most goes to flushing toilets and watering lawns.
Des Moines has learned from experience that its citizens will pay for such improvements: In 1992, the city raised water rates 25 percent to build the world's largest removal plant for nitrate, an agricultural runoff that can reduce infants' oxygen uptake (blue-baby syndrome) and cause other ills in adults. But whether public water systems tackle their challenges on their own or turn the job over to private enterprise, or some combination, the changes ahead will require a revolution in how Americans think about drinking water. "People's knowledge of water comes from beer commercials, focused on the land of sky-blue waters, or mountain springs and aquifers underlying some Wisconsin hillside," says Censky of the Water Quality Association. "The public thinks water in these sources is pure, but it's not. Really, pure water is a man-made
08/06/02
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Doom-laden forecasts that fierce competition for scarce water resources will one day spark armed conflict in the volatile Middle East sound plausible enough.
Possible water wars may be among the worries preying on the minds of participants at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development opening in Johannesburg on August 26.
But although population growth has fuelled water demand that now far exceeds the Middle East's dwindling supply, the deficit has rarely led to hostilities, apart from some Syrian-Israeli skirmishes in the northern Jordan Valley in the 1960s.
Tony Allan, a professor at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, says the answer to the conundrum lies in the availability of "virtual water" on the world grain markets.
Noting that producing a tonne of wheat requires 1,000 tonnes of water, he argues that wheat imports have spared governments the need to find scarce freshwater to grow food at home.
"By the year 2000, the Middle East and North Africa were importing 50 million tonnes of grain annually, satisfying the largest demand for water in the region -- food production.
"The remaining 10 percent of water demand for drinking, domestic and industrial use may soon be met through low-cost desalinated seawater," Allan writes in a study due to appear soon in the SAIS Review, a journal published by Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
The Middle East, the world's most water-challenged region, depends on fresh surface and groundwater for farming, unlike temperate regions, where naturally occurring soil water provides up to 90 percent of the water used to produce crops.
Allan says the region ran out of water resources to meet its strategic needs for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses, in 1970. While "virtual water" in the form of imported grain has eased regional water tensions since then, its availability has weakened the incentive to use water more efficiently.
"Every year, farmers and traders in the Middle East move volumes of water equivalent to the flow of the Nile into Egypt, or about 25 percent of the region's total available freshwater," Allan writes.
The imported grain is artificially cheap thanks to years of North American and European agricultural subsidies.
This bounty has enabled Middle Eastern leaders to propagate what Allan calls the fantasy of "claiming that water deficit problems are being solved domestically and that their countries are achieving self-sufficiency in water and food production."
For the past 50 years, he says, governments have leaned on this outside resource to implement otherwise unsustainable water allocation policies, while keeping their "virtual water" imports "invisible economically and silent politically."
NEGOTIATING PEACE, NOT WATER
The population of the Jordan River Basin, which includes Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and southern Syria, has grown six-fold since the late 1940s when it was secure in water.
Now it would need about 15 billion cubic metres of water a year to be self-sufficient, but has only three to five billion.
Allan says the shortfall is not publicly discussed. Nor is the inability of Israel, Jordan or the Palestinians to meet their food needs from their own freshwater resources. "Instead, policymakers speak of running out of water in the future."
This tendency to play down the urgency of increasing water scarcity has impeded prospects for rational negotiations on equitable use of available freshwater, Allan contends.
He cites the 1994 peace agreement between Israel and Jordan whose provisions on water failed to distinguish between reliable water resources and those vulnerable to drought.
When drought inevitably recurred within four years of the agreement, Israel's failure to deliver the negotiated volume of water triggered a political crisis.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a final settlement at Camp David in July 2000 and at Taba, Egypt, in early 2001 focused on territory and Jerusalem, rather than water.
The Saudi-inspired peace plan approved at an Arab summit in March this year offered to trade full Arab recognition and normal relations with Israel for a complete withdrawal by Israel to its 1967 borders. Water was not mentioned.
This does not mean water has become unimportant to Israel or the Palestinians, Allan cautions, noting that the Joint Water Committee set up under the 1993 Oslo Accord has met regularly, even after the Palestinian revolt flared in September 2000.
In the next couple of decades, Allan forecasts that Israel and its Jordan Valley neighbours will be desalinating one billion to 1.5 billion cubic metres of seawater to supplement the freshwater available to meet non-agricultural needs, which account for only 10 percent of total water demand.
"Many Israeli water professionals have realised that manufacturing water will be much easier than negotiating it," he concludes.
7th August 2002
(Ananova)
Environmental campaigners have called on the Government and retailers to do more to reduce the amount of pesticides found on fruit and vegetables sold in supermarkets.
Friends of the Earth said stricter guidelines should be put in place to minimise the amount of chemicals found on food on sale in stores across the UK.
The call comes after a survey by the organisation found that 60% of fruit and vegetables sold in Somerfield over the last four years contained pesticide residues.
Pesticides were found on nearly half of all produce tested from other leading British supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Safeway.
The results are based on data collected since 1998 by the Pesticides Safety Directorate, which is publishing its due to publish its latest figures.
The Pesticides Residues Committee of the directorate routinely examines a range of commonly-bought food and drink from apples, lettuce and carrots, to sausages, milk, eggs, and baby food.
According to Friends of the Earth, 60% of fruit and vegetables sold at Somerfield contained pesticide residues in tests between 1998 and 2001.
The next highest were M&S and Safeway at 49%, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda at 48%, Waitrose at 46%, Co-op at 43% and Morrisons at 42%.
Results from the last set of tests found chemical levels in 11 of the fruit and vegetables above Maximum Residue Levels (MRL), a standard regarded as acceptable in agriculture. The study also detected eight pesticides which are not approved for use in the UK.
The latest results include tests carried out in the first quarter of 2002 on butter, lettuce, milk, minced meat, sausages, sweet potato, carrots, and tomatoes. In addition there are figures from the last quarter of 2001 on apples, courgettes, marrow, eggs, yoghurt and fromage frais, baby food, and orange juice.
(sfgate)
August 1, 2002
LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- The 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death is coming up on Aug. 16, and now his hairdresser wants to kill off another Elvis myth -- that the King's hair was always picture perfect.
Larry Geller says although Elvis' hair "was beautiful and looked cool" it was actually thin and brittle.
It was so bad in fact, that Gellar often had to fix the singer's hair 12 times a day and ended up creating a shampoo, gel and hairspray combination to treat it.
Most shocking is this: Elvis' trademark dark locks weren't naturally black. Gellar says Elvis was a sandy blonde whose hair eventually turned shock white.
Gellar says Elvis was very image-conscious and always wanted his hair to look perfect, though he thinks if he were alive today he'd let his hair go natural white and have the same short, trimmed haircut as actor James Brolin.
08 August 02
NewScientist.com
Influenza virus has been identified in samples from people stricken with a "mystery illness" in Madagascar. Local officials have reported 156 deaths and 1291 cases since June.
The Institut Pasteur in Madagascar says it has isolated influenza A (H3N2) from two of 39 samples from Fianarantsoa province, where the outbreak is thought to have started. Influenza epidemics are common in Madagascar, but it is not yet clear whether influenza is the major cause of the sickness and deaths.
"We are awaiting samples from Madagascar to do more detailed analysis. But the indications are that the two isolates are similar to flu viruses circulating elsewhere in the world, such as in the northern hemisphere last winter," says Alan Hay, a virologist at the National Institute of Medical Research in London, one of the WHO's flu reference centres. None of these viruses caused significant epidemics.
"One hundred and fifty six deaths is a lot. It might be that there are other extenuating circumstances or secondary infections," Hay says. "There has been mention that a significant proportion of cases are positive for malaria. We don't yet know the true picture."
There are three types of influenza virus: A, B and C. Two subtypes of influenza A, H3N2 and H1N1, infect people.
But the influenza A strains are in constant genetic shift. Small changes in the make-up of the virus happen continually. And occasionally, major changes in a strain that infects birds, for example, can allow the virus to cross to people, causing serious epidemics or pandemics.
Influenza is reported in Madagascar every year, Hay says. H3N2 viruses were identified in the country between October 2001 and May 2002. But the severe sickness and deaths appear to have started in June.
(NEWSWEEK)
Aug. 19 2002
While still wrangling over how to overthrow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration is already looking for other targets. President Bush has called for the ouster of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Now some in the administration—and allies at D.C. think tanks—are eyeing Iran and even Saudi Arabia. As one senior British official put it: “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”
IN A STATEMENT BROADCAST into Iran in mid-July, Bush promised unspecified U.S. “support” to “Iran’s people” as they “move toward a future defined by greater freedom.” And early this month, a top Bush aide said the current regime—both the elected government of reformist Mohammed Khatami and the unelected mullahs who dominate public life—was ineffectual. Speaking to an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs, National Security Council aide Zalmay Khalilzad did not call outright for a regime change in Iran, but didn’t argue when a questioner asserted that this was the policy’s aim. Khalilzad did not indicate any plan to use force, but promised to “reach out” to the Iranian people and find “ways and means” of helping them.
Richard Perle, chairman of Bush’s Defense Policy Board, recently invited a controversial French scholar to brief the outside advisers on “taking the Saudi out of Arabia.” When word leaked to the press, the Bush administration strongly denied it wanted to oust the Saudi royal regime. Still, some insiders continue to whisper about the possibility. Syria and even Egypt are now under discussion in neoconservative circles, along with North Korea and Burma.
IN A STATEMENT BROADCAST into Iran in mid-July, Bush promised unspecified U.S. “support” to “Iran’s people” as they “move toward a future defined by greater freedom.” And early this month, a top Bush aide said the current regime—both the elected government of reformist Mohammed Khatami and the unelected mullahs who dominate public life—was ineffectual. Speaking to an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs, National Security Council aide Zalmay Khalilzad did not call outright for a regime change in Iran, but didn’t argue when a questioner asserted that this was the policy’s aim. Khalilzad did not indicate any plan to use force, but promised to “reach out” to the Iranian people and find “ways and means” of helping them.
Richard Perle, chairman of Bush’s Defense Policy Board, recently invited a controversial French scholar to brief the outside advisers on “taking the Saudi out of Arabia.” When word leaked to the press, the Bush administration strongly denied it wanted to oust the Saudi royal regime. Still, some insiders continue to whisper about the possibility. Syria and even Egypt are now under discussion in neoconservative circles, along with North Korea and Burma.
“The thinking in the administration is really evolving toward the idea of promoting democracy and regime change—an overhaul of the Arab and Islamic world, rather than dealing with it as it is,” says Kenneth Katzman, a leading expert on Iran who works with the Congressional Research Service. Some military strategists worry that the talk of overthrowing other nations could jeopardize any invasion of Iraq. Tony Blair, the only foreign leader who might join in a U.S.-led intervention in Iraq, is asking tough questions. “He wants to know a lot more about what the administration’s real agenda is,” says a top Blair aide. Some Iraq-invasion scenarios under review have U.S. carriers steaming into the narrow Persian Gulf—a place where they’d be vulnerable to missile strikes from Iranian shore batteries. Richard Murphy, a former top State Department official dealing with the Mideast, warns the United States could lose Iran as a needed ally. “They will be pretty cautious about putting their hands firmly in ours, knowing we have a knife headed for their back.”
Associated Press
Monday, August 12, 2002; 8:18 PM
WASHINGTON –– The Justice Department has chosen Sept. 11 as the starting date for a new program that will require tens of thousands of foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed at the border, U.S. officials announced Monday.
The security program, developed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will begin at several unnamed ports of entry and will mostly affect those from Muslim and Middle Eastern countries.
After a 20-day testing period, all remaining ports of entry will implement the new system on Oct. 1, 2002.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the program will correct some of the problems that led to the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The vulnerabilities of our immigration system became starkly clear on Sept. 11," Ashcroft said. "This system will expand substantially America's scrutiny of those foreign visitors who may present an elevated national security risk. And it will provide a vital line of defense in the war against terrorism."
Congress required the Justice Department develop a stricter entry-exit system in sweeping anti-terrorism legislation signed by President Bush late last year.
Under the new program, the fingerprints of many foreign visitors will be matched against a database of known criminals and a database of known terrorists.
The government says the security system will target:
–All nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.
–Nonimmigrant aliens whom the State Department determines to present an elevated national security risk, based on criteria reflecting current intelligence.
–Aliens identified by INS inspectors at the port of entry, using similar criteria.
Some immigration advocates say the program is treating visitors unfairly.
"This is a fancy way of racial profiling," said Carl Baron, an immigration attorney and researcher at the University of Texas. "Just on the basis of where a person is from the government is going to subject them to these measures. You're going to see fewer Middle Easterners willing to come to the United States and I wonder whether that isn't the real agenda."
INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said the criticism was unfounded.
"The real agenda is to improve security in the United States and improve the knowledge of who is coming and what their business is here," Strassberger said. "The terrorists were able to exploit what they perceived as weaknesses. We can make sure that won't happen again."
During a pilot project using the same technology to identify wanted criminals attempting to re-enter the United States, the INS has received an average of about 70 fingerprint "hits" a week. The fingerprinting led to the arrest of more than 2,000 wanted felons between January and July.
The PowerPoint That Rocked the Pentagon
The LaRouchie defector who's advising the defense establishment on Saudi Arabia.
By Jack Shafer
August 7, 2002,
Diplomatic china rattled in Washington and cracked in Riyadh yesterday when the Washington Post published a story about a briefing given to a Pentagon advisory group last month. The briefing declared Saudi Arabia an enemy of the United States and advocated that the United States invade the country, seize its oil fields, and confiscate its financial assets unless the Saudis stop supporting the anti-Western terror network.
The Page One story, by Thomas E. Ricks ("Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies: Ultimatum Urged To Pentagon Board," Aug. 6), described a 24-slide presentation given by Rand Corp. analyst Laurent Murawiec on July 10, 2002, to the Defense
Policy Board, a committee of foreign policy wonks and former government officials that advises the Pentagon on defense issues. Murawiec's PowerPoint scenario, which is reproduced for the first time below, makes him sound like an aspiring Dr. Strangelove.
Just who the hell is Laurent Murawiec? The Post story and its follow-up, also by Ricks, do not explain. The Pentagon and the administration insist that the presentation does not reflect their views in any way. The Rand Corp. acknowledges its association with Murawiec, but likewise disavows any connection with the briefing. (Neither Murawiec nor Rand received money for the briefing, Rand says.) According to Newsday, Defense Policy Board Chairman Richard N. Perle, a former Pentagon official and full-time invade-Iraq hawk, invited Murawiec to brief the group, so Perle can't exactly distance himself from the presentation. But he can do the next best thing—duck reporters' questions. Murawiec also declined reporters' inquiries, including one from Slate.
The first half of Murawiec's presentation reads calmly enough, echoing Fareed Zakaria's Oct. 15, 2001, Newsweek essay about why the Arab world hates the United States. Its tribal, despotic regimes bottle up domestic dissent but indulge the exportation of political anger; intellectually, its people are trapped in the Middle Ages; its institutions lack the tools to deal with 21st-century problems; yadda yadda yadda.
But then Murawiec lights out for the extreme foreign policy territory, recommending that we threaten Medina and Mecca, home to Islam's most holy places, if they don't see it our way. Ultimately, he champions a takeover of Saudi Arabia. The last slide in the deck, titled "Grand strategy for the Middle East," abandons the outrageous for the incomprehensible. It reads:
Iraq is the tactical pivot
Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot
Egypt the prize?
Because none of the Defense Policy Board attendees are talking candidly about the session, it's hard to divine what "Egypt the prize" means or if Murawiec's briefing put it into any context. It sounds a tad loopy, even by Dr. Strangelove standards. The Post report does mention a "talking point" attached to the 24-page PowerPoint deck that describes Saudi Arabia as "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent" in the Middle East. That's extreme talk even by the standards of the anti-Saudi editorialists at the Weekly Standard and the rest of the invade-Iraq fellowship.
Who is Laurent Murawiec, and where did he learn to write like this? The George Washington University Elliot School of International Affairs' Web site lists him as a faculty member, but it lists no current or future classes by him. The site's biographical page adds that he's a graduate of the Sorbonne University, that he worked as "A foreign correspondent for a major French business weekly in Germany" (isn't that kind of vague?) and is the co-founder of GeoPol Services SA, "a consulting company in Geneva, Switzerland, which advised major multinational corporations and banks." It also lists him as a former adviser to the French ministry of defense and the translator (into French) of Clausewitz's On War.
A sweep of the Web shows that he lectured on Islamic terrorism in Toronto on March 11, 2002, under the aegis of the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies. He wrote an article titled "The Wacky World of French Intellectuals" in the Middle East Quarterly, co-edited a Rand Corp. book, and made these comments at a Nautilus Institute conference. When he spoke on panel with Richard Perle at the American Enterprise Institute on Dec. 1, 1999, Murawiec was introduced as having just moved to the United States after "a dozen years" of working as managing director of GeoPol in Geneva, "a service that supplies advice to European clients, similar to what Kissinger Associates offers from New York, except without the accent." That is a bit of an overstatement. A Google search of "Murawiec and GeoPol" produces 12 hits. Compare that to the 10,300 hits on Google for "Kissinger Associates."
Murawiec's résumé would predict many Nexis hits, but a search of his name reveals just five bylines: Twice already this year, Murawiec has contributed to the neocon publication the National Interest, on the subject of Russia. [Correction: Murawiec wrote for the National Interest once in 2000 and once in 2002. The topic both times was Russia.] In 1999 he wrote for the Post's "Outlook" section on "internationalism," and in 1996 he contributed a piece to the Journal of Commerce on Russia. His only other Nexis-able byline is a dusty one from the Jan. 23, 1985, edition of the Financial Times, which describes Murawiec as "the European Economics Editor of the New York-based Executive Intelligence Review weekly magazine."
Executive Intelligence Review, as scholars of parapolitics know, is a publication of the political fantasist, convicted felon, and perpetual presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. It's not clear exactly when Murawiec left the LaRouche orbit. An article by LaRouche that appeared last year in Executive Intelligence Review calls Murawiec "a real-life 'Beetlebaum' of the legendary mythical horse-race, and a hand-me-down political carcass, currently in the possession of institutions of a peculiar odor." In 1997, LaRouche's wife Helga Zupp LaRouche wrote in Executive Intelligence Review (republished in the LaRouche-affiliated AboutSudan.com Web site) that Murawiec "was once part of our organization and is now on the side of organized crime." The truth value of that statement surely ranks up there with LaRouche's claim that the Queen of England controls the crack trade. To say, zero.
When Murawiec departed LaRouche's company is unclear, but Dennis King, author of 1989's Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, thinks it came when many followers split as LaRouche's legal problems grew and climaxed with a 1988 conviction for conspiracy and mail fraud. "[Murawiec] was not a political leader," says King, "but a follower who did intelligence-gathering."
Now that Murawiec has assumed such a vocal place in the policy debate, the man who gave him the lectern owes us the complete back-story. Over to you, Richard Perle.
******
Laurent Murawiec's 24-slide presentation to the Defense Policy Board was obtained by Slate and is presented here in type-treatment that approximates the original.
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Taking Saudi Out of Arabia
Laurent Murawiec
RAND
Defense Policy Board
July 10, 2002
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Taking Saudi out of Arabia:
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Contents
The Arab Crisis
"Saudi" Arabia
Strategies
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The Arab Crisis
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The systemic crisis of the Arab World
The Arab world has been in a systemic crisis for the last 200 years
It missed out on the industrial revolution, it is missing out on the digital revolution
Lack of inner resources to cope with modern world
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Shattered Arab self-esteem
Shattered self-esteem
Could God be wrong?
Turn the rage against those who contradict God: the West, object of hatred
A whole generation of violently anti-Western, anti-American, anti-modern shock-troops
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What has the Arab world produced?
Since independence, wars have been the principal output of the Arab world
Demographic and economic problems made intractable by failure to establish stable polities aiming at prosperity
All Arab states are either failing states or threatened to fail
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The Crisis of the Arab world reaches a climax
The tension between the Arab world and the modern world has reached a climax
The Arab world's home-made problems overwhelm its ability to cope
The crisis is consequently being exported to the rest of the world
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How does change occur in the Arab world?
There is no agora, no public space for debating ideas, interests, policies
The tribal group in power blocks all avenues of change, represses all advocates of change
Plot, riot, murder, coup are the only available means to bring about political change
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The continuation of politics by other means?
In the Arab world, violence is not a continuation of politics by other means -- violence is politics, politics is violence
This culture of violence is the prime enabler of terrorism
Terror as an accepted, legitimate means of carrying out politics, has been incubated for 30 years ...
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The crisis cannot be contained to the Arab world alone
The crisis has irreversibly spilled out of the region
9/11 was a symptom of the "overflow"
The paroxysm is liable to last for several decades
U.S. response will decisively influence the duration and outcome
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"Saudi" Arabia:The old partnership
Once upon a time, there was a partnership between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia
Partnerships, like alliances, are embodied in practices, ideas, policies, institutions, people -- which persist after the alliance has died
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"Saudi" Arabia
An instable group: Since 1745, 58% of all rulers of the House of Saud have met a violent demise
Wahhabism loathes modernity, capitalism, human rights, religious freedom, democracy, republics, an open society -- and practices the very opposite
As long as enmity had no or little consequences outside the kingdom, the bargain between the House of Saud and the U.S. held
Means, motive, opportunity
1973: Saudi Arabia unleashes the Oil Shock, absorbs immense flows of resources -- means
1978: Khomeiny challenges the Saudis' Islamic credentials, provoking a radicalization and world-wide spread of Wahhabism in response -- motive
1979-1989: the anti-Soviet Jihad gives life and strength to the Wahhabi putsch within Sunni Islam -- opportunity. The Taliban are the result
The impact on Saudi policy
Wahhabism moves from Islam's lunatic fringe to center-stage -- its mission now extends world-wide
Saudis launch a putsch within Sunni Islam
Shift from pragmatic oil policy to promotion of radical Islam
Establish Saudi as "the indispensable State" -- treasurers of radical, fundamentalist, terrorist groups
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How Saudis see themselves
God placed the oil in the kingdom as a sign of divine approval
Spread Wahhabism everywhere, but keep the power of the al-Saud undiminished
Survive by creating a Wahhabi-friendly environment -- fundamentalist regimes -- throughout the Moslem world and beyond
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The House of Saud today
Saudi Arabia is central to the self-destruction of the Arab world and the chief vector of the Arab crisis and its outwardly-directed aggression
The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader
Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies
A daily outpouring of virulent hatred against the U.S. from Saudi media, "educational" institutions, clerics, officials -- Saudis tell us one thing in private, do the contrary in reality
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Strategies
What is to be done?
During and after World War I, Britain's India Office backed the House of Saud; the Foreign Office backed the Hashemites. The India Office won
But the entire post-1917 Middle East settlement designed by the British to replace the Ottoman Empire is fraying
The role assigned to the House of Saud in that arrangement has become obsolete -- and nefarious
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"Saudi Arabia" is not a God-given entity
The House of Saud was given dominion over Arabia in 1922 by the British
It wrested the Guardianship of the Holy Places -- Mecca and Medina -- from the Hashemite dynasty
There is an "Arabia," but it needs not be "Saudi"
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An ultimatum to the House of Saud
Stop any funding and support for any fundamentalist madrasa, mosque, ulama, predicator anywhere in the world
Stop all anti-U.S., anti-Israeli, anti-Western predication, writings, etc., within Arabia
Dismantle, ban all the kingdom's "Islamic charities," confiscate their assets
Prosecute or isolate those involved in the terror chain, including in the Saudi intelligence services
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Or else ...
What the House of Saud holds dear can be targeted:
—Oil: the old fields are defended by U.S. forces, and located in a mostly Shiite area
—Money: the Kingdom is in dire financial straits, its valuable assets invested in dollars, largely in the U.S.
—The Holy Places: let it be known that alternatives are being canvassed
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Other Arabs?
The Saudis are hated throughout the Arab world: lazy, overbearing, dishonest, corrupt
If truly moderate regimes arise, the Wahhabi-Saudi nexus is pushed back into its extremist corner
The Hashemites have greater legitimacy as Guardians of Mecca and Medina
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Grand strategy for the Middle
East
• Iraq is the tactical pivot
• Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot
• Egypt the prize
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(arabicnews.com)
8/10/2002
The Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz on Thursday received a telephone call on late Wednesday night from the US defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. During the telephone conversation, Rumsfeld expressed his own personal regret together with the US defense department over what was stated in a US recommendation report about Saudi Arabia.
(TalibanNews.com via opposong immoderate Rantburg.com)
7/30/2002
The report of an attempt to murder King Fahd is the talk of the moment in the Gulf. It is claimed that on July 14, the monarch’s bodyguard fought off a band of 5 to 7 intruders, who gained entry to the palace courtyard in Jeddah through one of the main gates after setting off a large explosive charge. Three of the would be assassins were killed; the rest fled when armed reinforcements poured in from neighboring princely palaces, together with a contingent of the special Saudi counter-"terror" force. The bodies were identified as Saudi members of al Qaeda who fought in Afghanistan, escaped through Iran and arrived home last January. The identity of one of the dead assailants seriously heated factional tempers in the royal family; he is said to have been a member of the Uteiba tribe, loyal adherents of crown prince Abdullah.
So, we get a hit attempt on the old man, then a week later one prince dead of natural causes and the next day another of unnatural causes. A week after that another one. And yesterday the head of the World Association of Muslim Youth. Doing a quick scan of Rantburg back to September 11th of last year, I come up with no — that's zero — dead Soddy princes...
For some months, the Sudeiri princes have warned Abdullah that his permissive policy toward returning al Qaeda fighters — and the lavish living allowances awarded them from religious institutions and charities — would lead to trouble in the kingdom. Some have hired out as bodyguards protecting the princes of Abdullah’s faction, religious leaders and tribal chiefs in the Jeddah district. Sudeiri prince Salman, governor of the Riyadh region, was fiercest in his criticism. He warned Abdullah that by making Saudi intelligence and security services grant the returning Mujahideen clearances as bodyguards for official personalities, he was effectively opening the door to al Qaeda’s penetration of the national security agencies.
Another car accident in Arabia.
Dr. Mane'a bin Hammad Al-Juhani, who was a member of the Consultative Council (Majlis Al-Shura) as well as Secretary-General of the Riyadh-based World Assembly for Muslim Youth (WAMY), was killed in a car accident in Riyadh early today. Funeral prayers will be performed at Al-Rajhi Mosque in Riyadh following afternoon prayer tomorrow.
PRINCE SULTAN BIN FAISAL BIN TURKI KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT
July 23, 2002
The Royal Court has issued the following announcement: Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al-Saud has passed away at the age of 41 early today as a result of a car accident. Funeral prayers will be held today after the Asr prayer at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh.
DEATH OF PRINCE AHMAD BIN SALMAN ANNOUNCED
July 22, 2002
The Royal Court has issued the following announcement: Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz passed away at noon today in Riyadh's King Faisal Specialist Hospital where for the past two months the 44-year-old prince had been receiving medical treatment. Funeral prayers will be held tomorrow, Tuesday July 23, 2002, following Asr prayer at Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh.
A Saudi prince and two other people have died in the searing heat while making desert car journeys, and Saudi police warned residents Tuesday to postpone trips while the summer heat wave persists. Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, 25, died Monday during a desert trip in the province of Remaah, 55 miles east of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The Saudi Royal Court announced the death, saying the prince died of thirst. The prince was believed a distant relative of King Fahd.
The bodies of two other Saudis were found in the desert of al-Qoseem province, 200 miles east of Riyadh, according to a police statement carried Tuesday by the official Saudi news agency. "They were on a trip with three other friends when their car broke down," said the statement quoting Brig. Abdulkader Talha, deputy director of al-Qoseem police. "They left their friends behind to get aid, but their friends made it home safely while the two men lost their way in the desert and died."
(The Guardian-London)
Nov 7, 2001
2001 Project Censored Award Winner
Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11
by Greg Palast and David Pallister
FBI and military intelligence officials in Washington say they were prevented for political reasons from carrying out full investigations into members of the Bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist attacks of September 11.
US intelligence agencies have come under criticism for their wholesale failure to predict the catastrophe at the World Trade Centre. But some are complaining that their hands were tied.
FBI documents shown on BBC Newsnight last night and obtained by the Guardian show that they had earlier sought to investigate two of Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington and a Muslim organisation, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), with which they were linked.
The FBI file, marked Secret and coded 199, which means a case involving national security, records that Abdullah bin Laden, who lived in Washington, had originally had a file opened on him "because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - a suspected terrorist organisation".
WAMY members deny they have been involved with terrorist activities, and WAMY has not been placed on the latest list of terrorist organisations whose assets are being frozen.
Abdullah, who lived with his brother Omar at the time in Falls Church, a town just outside Washington, was the US director of WAMY, whose offices were in a basement nearby.
But the FBI files were closed in 1996 apparently before any conclusions could be reached on either the Bin Laden brothers or the organisation itself. High-placed intelligence sources in Washington told the Guardian this week: "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis".
They said the restrictions became worse after the Bush administration took over this year. The intelligence agencies had been told to "back off" from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.
"There were particular investigations that were effectively killed."
Only after the September 11 attacks was the stance of political and commercial closeness reversed towards the other members of the large Bin Laden clan, who have classed Osama bin Laden as their "black sheep".
Yesterday, the head of the Saudi-based WAMY's London office, Nouredine Miladi, said the charity was totally against Bin Laden's violent methods. "We seek social change through education and cooperation, not force."
He said Abdullah bin Laden had ceased to run WAMY's US operation a year ago.
Neither Abdullah nor Omar bin Laden could be contacted in Saudi Arabia for comment.
WAMY was founded in 1972 in a Saudi effort to prevent the "corrupting" ideas of the west ern world influencing young Muslims. With official backing it grew to embrace 450 youth and student organisations with 34 offices worldwide.
Its aim was to encourage "concerned Muslims to take up the challenge by arming the youth with sound understanding of Islam, guarding them against destructive ideologies, and instilling in them level-headed wisdom".
In Britain it has 20 associated organisations, many highly respectable.
But as long as 10 years ago it was named as a discreet channel for public and private Saudi donations to hardline Islamic organisations. One of the recipients of its largesse has been the militant Students Islamic Movement of India, which has lent support to Pakistani-backed terrorists in Kashmir and seeks to set up an Islamic state in India.
Since September 11 WAMY has been investigated in the US along with a number of other Muslim charities. There have been several grand jury investigations but no findings have been made against any of them.
Current FBI interest in WAMY is shown in their agents' interrogation of a radiologist from San Antonio, Texas, Dr Al Badr al-Hazmi, who was arrested on September 12 and released without charge two weeks later. He had the same surname as two of the plane hijackers.
He was also questioned about his contacts with Abdullah bin Laden at the US WAMY office.
Mr Al-Hazmi said that he had made phone calls to Abdullah bin Laden in 1999 trying to obtain books and videotapes about Islamic teachings for the Islamic Centre of San Antonio.
To view the BBC television broadcast of the Palast investigation, go to http://www.GregPalast.com
(http://www.gordonthomas.ie/154.html)
Preempt. The word is on a thousand tongues in a dozen capitals. You hear it as far apart as Beijing and Washington.
In the corridors of London’s Whitehall and in the halls of European power.
Not a day goes by without it being spoken, many times, in Israel’s defence headquarters, the Kirya, in Tel Aviv.
It can be heard in Aman, Damascus and Cairo – over and again. And, of course, in the very focus of the world, Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad.
Preempt. Will he strike first against the ever approaching war machine of the United States?
In war rooms around the Western world, the question has been honed down to one scenario.
Some time between now and the onset of the holy month of Ramadan, Iraq launches from its southern city of Iraq a scud missile. Its warhead is filled with one of the deadliest poisons on earth: VX nerve gas.
As it streaks through the desert night sky towards its target – the American military headquarters in Kuwait – three of Saddam’s armoured divisions roar out of Basra towards the Kuwaiti border. They have less than 40 miles to travel.
That is the preemptive scenario senior officers at America’s Central Command have warned President Bush could happen. Worse, they have told him that “at best there is only a 50/50 chance of preventing the Basra breakout from succeeding”.
Anthony Cordsman, a former director of Intelligence Assessment at the Pentagon and a ranking expert on Saddam’s potential tactics, told Globe-Intel:
“It will be most difficult to stop Iraq from entering Kuwait – the more so as Saddam is clearly ready to accept massive damage from our counter air strikes.”
While President Bush has rejected Saddam’s proposal to have a meeting with the head of the UN inspection team, the fact is that Bush also knows his planned assault on Iraq holds more dangers for him than he is publicly admitting.
There is the danger from Saddam’s estimated 40 tons of chemical and biological weapons.
There is the possibility that Iraq has sufficient nuclear material – obtained from North Korea – to create at least one “dirty bomb”.
There is the very real risk that Saddam will launch squadrons of his pilots in kamikaze attacks. Unlike their Japanese predecessors in World War Two, who often had some distance to fly before they reached their targets, Iraq’s suicide bombers are only minutes away from some of the 7,000 US troops already stationed in the broiling Kuwaiti desert. Many are in tent camps close to the Iraqi border.
While US forces have been inoculated against anthrax and are training in chemical/biological warfare suits they will have to wear all the time once hostilities start, the truth is that these precautions have reduced their fighting capability.
Preempt. The real danger is that Israel, sensing that the Basra breakout will also be the precursor to an attack on Tel Aviv, will launch its own preemptive assault.
John Pike, an analyst with the respected Global Security says that “Israel is a factor no one can factor in with certainty.”
Senior members of Israel’s own intelligence community have told Globe-Intel that should Iraq launch a bio/chemical attack against the country, then the retaliation will “almost certainly” include a suitable nuclear response.
Israel has over 200 nuclear weapons at its facility in the Negev Desert. In the past weeks, a number of weapons have been deployed to front-line Israeli Air Force squadrons.
Preempt. When could such at attack come? While Israel remains America’s closest strategic partner in the Middle East, it may, in the end, not follow any pre-planned battle plan Washington is preparing.
Tel Aviv sources Globe-Intel have spoken to say Bush’s rejection of Saddam’s invitation to discuss the idea of allowing UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq now makes war inevitable.
They predict it will come, in the words of one Mossad analyst, “sometime between early October and January 2003”.
The one certainty is that a preemptive Iraqi strike against Kuwait would inevitably wreck the battle plans now being put together for an all-out assault on Saddam.
“We would have to divert a huge number of troops, or even assemble another coalition to liberate Kuwait”, said a high-level Pentagon source.
There are other imponderables. What would Iran do? There is mounting evidence that it is building up its own nuclear capability. Washington has already warned Moscow about continuing to supply such materials to Teheran.
Then there is the role of China. Will it seize upon US preoccupation with Iraq to reinforce its own power base in Iran?
Syria and Egypt are also two problems that remain unresolved for Washington. While its leaders remain politically opposed to any attack on Iraq, its people might rebel and drive its hard-line military leaders to strike against Israel.
The only certainty is that the furnace summer heat may turn out to be the precursor to something ever fiercer in the Middle East.
(The Associated Press)
08/14/02
LONDON (AP) - Opponents of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein shot and wounded his younger son in an assassination attempt in Baghdad two weeks ago, the Iraqi National Congress opposition group said Wednesday.
A spokesman for the London-based group said Saddam's 35-year-old son Qusai, was shot in the arm as he drove in a convoy through the elite Mansour district of the Iraqi capital on Aug. 1. Recent reports had suggested Qusai is being groomed to succeed his father as leader of Iraq in an attempt to improve international relations by showing a fresh face while still giving Saddam nominal control of the country.
``There was an assassination attempt by a group belonging to the Iraqi patriotic opposition in Baghdad,'' said the spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He did not identify the group by name.
Saddam's older son, Odai, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in December 1996. He was shot about 10 times while waiting in his car in an upscale district near Baghdad.
Entifad Quanar, an official at the Iraqi National Congress' Washington office, said Qusai was shot by two men riding in an Oldsmobile who managed to intercept his convoy.
He said the assailants escaped, but were later caught at a checkpoint in the city and shot and killed by Iraqi forces.
There was no independent confirmation of the shooting.
U.S. intelligence officials in Washington were skeptical of the report and said they had no information to verify the claim.
Qusai leads the elite Republican Guards and the Special Security Organization, the military unit entrusted with the protection of the president. Last year, he was elected to the ruling Baath party's leadership, significantly boosting his chances of succeeding his father.
Odai (Uday), who had to walk with the aid of a cane for a while after surviving the assassination attempt against him, had previously been considered the more likely successor.
Unlike his elder brother, Qusai keeps a low profile in public life, and it is said that most Iraqis would not recognize him.
8-11-2
(Mossad Outlet Debka.com)
8-11-2
10 August: America's offensive against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq has begun as an exercise in gradualism rather than a D-Day drama. DEBKAfile 's military sources report that tens of thousands of US, British, French, Netherlands, Australian troops may take part in the campaign, openly or covertly, but not in massive waves that fling themselves telegenically on Baghdad.
The fact of the matter is that American military concentrations are already unobtrusively present in northern and southern Iraq. The US campaign to oust Saddam is therefore unfolding already, albeit in salami-fashion, slice by slice, under clouds of disinformation and diversionary ruses - like the latest statements by President George W. Bush (No date set yet for the offensive) and British premier Tony Blair (Plenty of time before the war begins), or the grave reservations issuing from the Russian, French and German leaders. The peasoup of deception is further thickened by utterances in the last 48 hours from Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and the Saudi crown prince Abdullah. They warn Washington that attacking Iraq would be a terrible mistake, one which they want no part of.
DEBKAfile's military sources attempt here to pierce some of the thickets of confusion with a few facts on the ground:
A. Special US forces entered the Kurdish regions of north Iraq towards the end of March nearly four months ago, to set up local Kurdish militias and train them for battle.
B. At around the same time, Turkish special forces went into northern Iraq in waves that continued through April, fetching up in Turkmen regions around the big oil towns of Mosul and Kirkuk.
C. Meanwhile, the Americans threw a ring of bases - using existing facilities and adding new ones - around Iraq. They have since been pouring into those bases US armored ground units, tanks, air, navy and missile forces, as well as combat medical units and special contingents for anti-nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. According to our sources, the noose around Iraq extends from Georgia and Turkey in the north, Israel, Egypt and Jordan to the west, Eritrea and Kenya in the southwest, and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain to the south.
Furthermore, a large US armada, including aircraft carriers, has assembled at three points: the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
D. Since June, American and Turkish construction engineers have been working in northern Iraq, building and expanding airfields and air strips to make them fit for military use.
(Details of this operation appear in an earlier report on this page.)
First US Military Steps
In the past week, once those preparations were in place, the United States carried out two military operations:
1. Tuesday August 6, at 0800 hours Middle East time, US and British air bombers went into action and destroyed the Iraqi air command and control center at al-Nukhaib in the desert between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The center contained advanced fiber optic networks recently installed by Chinese companies. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources say the raid made military history. For the first time, the US air force used new precision-guided bombs capable of locating and destroying fiber optic systems. The existence of such weaponry was hitherto unknown.
Following the destruction of the facility, about 260 miles (415 kilometers), southwest of Baghdad, waves of US warplanes swept in from the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia and from US aircraft carriers in the Gulf and flew over the Iraqi capital.
The Iraqi air force and anti-aircraft system held their fire on orders from above. This deep air penetration told the Americans that the early warning radar system protecting Baghdad and its environs from intrusion by enemy aircraft and missiles was inactive.
2. Two days later, on Wednesday night, August 8, Turkey executed its first major military assault inside Iraq. DEBKAfile's military sources learn from Turkish and Kurdish informants that helicopters under US, British and Turkish warplane escort flew Turkish commandos to an operation for seizing the critical Bamerni airport in northern Iraq. This airport, just outside the Kurdish region, lies 50 miles north of the big Iraqi oil cities of the north, Kirkuk and Mosul. With the Turkish commandos was a group of US special forces officers and men. Bamerni airport was captured after a brief battle in which a unit of Iraqi armored defenders was destroyed, opening the airport for giant American and Turkish transports to deliver engineering units, heavy machinery and electronic support equipment, which were put to work at once on enlarging the field and widening its landing strips.
The American unit, reinforced, went on to capture two small Iraqi military airfields nearby.
The Turkish expeditionary force in northern Iraq now numbers some 5,000 men, in addition to Turkish air force contingents.
DEBKAfile's military experts explain that with Bamerni airport and the two additional airfields the Americans have acquired full control of the skies over the two oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as over the Syrian-Iraqi railroad, which they can now cut off by aerial bombardment. A prime strategic asset, this railroad is Saddam's back door for taking delivery of his illegal overseas arms purchases, which are ferried from Syrian ports to Baghdad by the Syrian-Iraqi railway. On the return journey, the same railway carries illegal Iraqi oil exports, over and above the quantities allowed under UN sanctions, out to market. The Iraqi war effort and the Syrian treasury depend heavily on the revenues accruing from these smuggled oil sales.
The battle over this airfield was in fact the first important face-to-face engagement between a US-led invasion force and Iraqi troops. It was carried out seven hours before the Iraqi ruler delivered his televised speech to the nation, on the 14th anniversary of the bloody eight-year Iraq-Iran war. In that speech, Saddam threatened American troops going to war against Iraq that they would return home in coffins.
Next Steps
Just before the Saddam address, US spy satellites and planes detected unusual movements by elite Republic Guard units in the capital. They appeared to be digging positions below ground on the banks of the Tigris. Some military commentators were convinced the Iraqi ruler had decided to bury himself and his key associates in fortified bunker-type positions. He was said to be counting on American reluctance to engage in urban warfare in Iraqi towns for fear of large-scale-casualties that would force them to withdraw.
DEBKAfile's military experts see little sign of this tactic - aside from the initial report. In fact, the bulk of the Iraqi army is concentrated in three regions outside Baghdad - the Kurdish regions of the north, the H-3 and al Baghdadi air bases opposite the Jordanian border in the center, and along the Saudi and Kuwaiti frontiers, in the south.
In the north, the Iraqi armored divisions, which are massed opposite the Turkish border along the Little and Big Zeb Rivers, show now sign of movement in response to US-Turkish activity.
Iraqi concentrations in the center and south have been augmented somewhat but not substantially.
Iraq's military passivity in the face of US-led advances and strikes is beginning to worry the American, Turkish and Israeli high commands. They suspect that Saddam is playing the same fog-of-war game as Washington, so as to put them to sleep and then catch them unawares.
Such sudden action could take the form of an Iraqi missile or bomber attack on Israel using warheads loaded with radioactive, chemical or biological materials, a combined missile-terrorist strike to sabotage Saudi oil fields, or a mass terrorist attack in the United States.
The sharpest alert to a threat to Iraq's southern neighbors came not from military intelligence but from international oil dealers, who warned that Saddam Hussein if attacked may well decide to set fire to Saudi and Kuwaiti oil fields, sending oil prices skyrocketing above US$ 40 per barrel.
Israel's Concerns
Israel faces three threats, all of them in the realm of the unknown:
a. An Iraqi missile attack, when the size of Saddam's arsenal has not been reliably established.
DEBKAfile 's military experts dispute the assessment heard this week from retired Israeli military leaders that the Iraqis have only a few missiles. The truth is that no one outside Iraq knows how many Saddam has cached or what advanced missile technologies he has secretly developed. According to one estimate, Iraq may have accumulated between 70 and 150 warheads, or maybe more.
b. A WMD threat, when no one knows what Saddam has up his sleeve - whether radiological bombs with a limited radius, or a more highly developed type. The same questions apply to Saddam's biological and chemical warfare capabilities.
c. Notwithstanding the presence of US forces in Jordan and the strategic-defense relationship developed between Jordan and Israel, the possibility of the old Eastern Arab Front coming back to life against Israel, though unlikely, cannot be entirely ruled out.
The gloomiest scenario envisages Iraqi units surging through Jordan to attack Israeli from the east concurrently with a Syrian-Hizballah strike from the north - a combined assault that may sweep King Abdullah into the fray against Israel.
The Jordanian king is an unknown quantity, untried in war situations. Therefore the odds on his executing an about-face as radical as this cannot be estimated with certainty. Israeli war planners, however, are not ignoring this possible peril, however improbable.
August 11, 12:05 PM
A Perth schoolboy's suggestion that rose petals be scattered on the streets of Manhattan to commemorate September 11 has reportedly been taken up.
Joshua Tan, 14, from the northern Perth suburb of Kallaroo, responded to a World Trade Centre website invitation to submit ideas on how to commemorate the anniversary, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
In his email the teenager suggested rose petals could be scattered in the streets to remember the victims and celebrate the victory of the spirit of the people, like in Roman times.
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday emailed back saying Joshua's suggestion would form a key part of the September 11 commemorations.
"I can't believe that I'm on the other side of the world and my idea has been taken on board," Joshua told the paper.
"I just had a feeling I wanted to do something and be part of it."
08/11/02
LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - A three-km (two-mile) thick cloud of pollution shrouding southern Asia is threatening the lives of millions of people in the region and could have an impact much further afield, according to a United Nations-sponsored study.
It said the cloud, a toxic cocktail of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles, was damaging agriculture and changing rainfall patterns across the region which stretches from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka.
The lives of millions of people were at risk from drought and flooding as rainfall patterns were radically altered, with dire implications for economic growth and health.
"We have an early warning. We have clear information and we already have some impact. But we need much, much more information," U.N Environment Programme chief Klaus Toepfer told a news conference.
"There are also global implications not least because a pollution parcel like this, which stretches three km high, can travel half way round the globe in a week."
Toepfer said the cloud was the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural wastes, dramatic increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries and power stations and emissions from millions of inefficient cookers.
He said the U.N.'s preliminary report into what it dubbed the "Asian Brown Cloud" was a timely reminder to the upcoming Earth Summit in Johannesburg that action, not words, was vital to the future of the planet.
"The huge pollution problem emerging in Asia encapsulates the threats and challenges that the summit needs to urgently address," he said.
"We have the initial findings and the technological and financial resources available. Let's now develop the science and find the political and moral will to achieve this for the sake of Asia, for the sake of the world," he added.
RESPIRATORY DISEASE RISK
Professor Victor Ramanathan, one of the more than 200 scientists involved in the study, said the cloud was cutting the amount of solar energy hitting the earth's surface beneath it by up to 15 percent.
"We had expected a drop in sunlight hitting the earth and sea, but not one of this magnitude," he said.
At the same time the cloud's heat-absorbing properties were warming the lower atmosphere considerably, and the combination was altering the winter monsoon, leading to a sharp reduction in rainfall over parts of north-western Asia and a corresponding rise in rainfall over the eastern coast of Asia.
The report calculated that the cloud -- 80 percent of which was man-made -- could cut rainfall over northwest Pakistan, Afghanistan, western China and western central Asia by up to 40 percent.
Apart from drastically altering rainfall patterns, the cloud was also making the rain acid, damaging crops and trees, and threatening hundreds of thousands of people with respiratory disease.
Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen -- one of the first scientists to identify the causes of the hole in the ozone layer and also involved in the U.N. report -- said up to two million people in India alone were dying each year from atmospheric pollution.
"If present trends as they are continue, then we have a very serious problem," he said.
The report called for special monitoring stations to be set up watch the behaviour of the cloud and its impact on people and the environment.
"The concern is that the regional and global impacts of the haze are set to intensify over the next 30 years as the population of the Asian region rises to an estimated five billion people," the report said.
A spokeswoman for environmental group Friends of the Earth said urgent action was needed.
"Actions must include phasing out fossil fuels and replacing them with clean, green, renewable energy and tough laws to protect the world's forests," she said.
(Space.com)
05 August 2002
They are big, black, and triangular. In UFO folklore they are proof-positive that planet Earth is a rest stop for joyriding, but road-weary, extraterrestrials.
A just released study by the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), based in Las Vegas, Nevada, sheds new light on the dark and mysterious craft. They offer a more down-to-earth hypothesis.
NIDS researchers contend that these type vehicles are lighter-than-air, blimp-style craft of the U.S. military's making. Likely powered by "electrokinetic" drive, the lifting body-shaped airships have been skirting the skies from perhaps the early to mid 1980s.
Estimated to be 600 feet long and 300 feet wide, with a height of 40 feet, the Black Triangle could weigh as much as 100 tons. Courtesy of National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS)
Illinois sighting
NIDS has followed up on their study of last year that correlated sightings of large triangular or delta-shaped objects with Air Force Materiel Command and Air Mobility Command bases throughout the United States. Matches were made suggesting flight paths in and out of certain base locations.
The new assessment focuses on what four police officers, and more than a dozen others observed on January 5, 2000: A large, silent, low-flying black triangular shaped object. It flew on a southwesterly direction between Highland, Illinois and Dupo, located less than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from St. Louis, Missouri.
Part of the flight path took the enormous object near the perimeter of Scott Air Force Base.
NIDS does not come up with definite conclusion regarding the origin of the object sighted in Illinois.
However, the reports jibe with over 150 separate reports of sightings of large triangular or deltoid shaped objects. Those eyewitness accounts, accumulated by NIDS, have mainly come from the United States. A small number of the sightings they have on file come from Canada and Europe.
Ballooning expectations
To bolster their case about military airships being taken for UFOs, analysts at NIDS make a historical note.
Lighter-than-air vehicles held all records for payload, distance, duration, and altitude within the first four decades of the 20th century - even with the advent of the airplane. In fact, save for rocket-powered research aircraft, like the X-15 and the space shuttle, all absolute altitude records are still held by high-altitude scientific balloons.
NIDS makes the case that Big Black Deltas, or BBDs, are U.S. Defense Department airships. They are so large they can carry massive payloads at low altitudes, cruising at speeds three to five times as fast as surface ships.
Among a range of NIDS observations, the group believes the BBDs are powered by electrokinetic/field drives, or airborne nuclear power units. These craft also fly at extreme altitudes, high above conventional aircraft and the pulsing of ground-based traffic control radar.
Elecrokinetic propulsion means that no propellers or jets are used. A hybrid lighter-than-air craft would rely on aerostatic, lift gas, like a balloon. No helicopter-like downwash would be produced. Except for a slight humming from high-voltage control equipment -- and in older BBD versions an occasional coronal discharge -- a Big Black Delta makes no noise.
Given a slew of BBD capabilities -- from silent running, diminished drag, elimination of sonic shockwaves, to operation from ground level to full vacuum -- NIDS calls for pushing this black world technology out into daylight for commercial benefit.
Wheat from the chaff
"What we're trying to do is transform unidentified flying objects, UFOs, into IFOs, or identified flying objects," said Colm Kelleher, deputy administrator for NIDS.
"We want to limit the number of cases that are unidentified in our data base. The more that are identified, obviously the less we have to work on. That's our prime motivation& to eliminate the wheat from the chaff," Kelleher told SPACE.com.
NIDS has amassed some 1,000 cases that are under review. Of those, about 200 are Big Black Delta sightings. In the last year or two, BBD reports have been on the rise.
Kelleher said that military may well be ready to take the wraps off the black triangle vehicles. The Illinois case, for instance, has been built on hours of public views of the mystery airship. "That's not exactly stealth mode. It's inevitable that it will be declassified," he said.
Leaping across the sky
"There appears to be an increase in deployment of these vehicles," Kelleher said. "The only time you see these things are when they are leaving or coming in. A lot of these sightings are at night. Our information is that they spend a long time aloft, weeks at a time. They can be thought of as ocean-going ships, rather than aircraft," he said.
Over the years, the BBDs appear to fall into different size categories. "The ones that dominate our database are very, very large. They are low-flying, silent, and are reported to be about the size of a football field," Kelleher said.
The BBDs have been seen accelerating very rapidly from a hovering position. "They can look as though they are leaping across the sky. Being silent, it's almost spooky," Kelleher said.
Heavy lifting
L. Scott Miller, professor of Aerospace Engineering at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, said the idea of a large, still-classified airship floating about is on the mark.
"I do think that a large airship, with a heavy lift and other mission objectives, has been built," Miller told SPACE.com.
Miller is also a distinguished lecturer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and specializes in black aircraft and the world of secret flight.
The NIDS research documentation parallels, about 50 percent of the time, a theory that Miller has detailed in his AIAA talks for some two years.
"Lockheed has shown a great deal of interest in airships for many years. The real question is whether the Department of Defense has committed to buy and use such machines," Miller said.
Stealth blimp
Large airships are of benefit to the military.
They are capable of carrying extremely large and heavy payloads at a reasonable speed, for which there is a real mission need, Miller said.
The U.S. airlift fleet is getting old, taking a great beating in the last 10 years in such locales as Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Some new aircraft are making it into the inventory, but they still have limits. For instance, to move loads of tanks and other gear requires lots of flights and support.
"An airship that could carry a large number of tanks, troops, and supplies into a region overnight would be fantastic," Miller said.
Lockheed Martin's Stealth Blimp from 1982
Miller does take issue with the NIDS study's view of a black triangle's propulsion. "Interesting, but I'm not sure it is necessary," he said.
"I suspect that a neutrally buoyant aerodynamically lifting airships using conventional prop-rotor systems would be useful in implementing a practical airship design," Miller said. Such a vehicle could be a cross between the V-22 Osprey -- a craft having short wings and thrust vectoring rotors -- and a blended wing aircraft, he said.
Miller said that by careful shaping, the systems used, and carefully orchestrating operational procedures, the vulnerability of an airship in a combat environment could be reduced.
"Low altitude flights, at night, and an awareness of enemy capabilities would be critical. Indeed, slow flight at the right time can render enemy radar useless. A 'stealth blimp' would be feasible in this respect," Miller said.
Black world wizardry
Still, the true nature and use of the black triangle craft remains a head scratcher.
"I suspect that the people in Illinois saw an airship of some type. Is it operational? I don't know. Would it be 'sexy enough' for the Defense Department inventory, compared to other high-tech aircraft like the B-2? I don't know," Miller said.
"Each sighting requires a great deal of analysis. A witness's perceptions of speed, acceleration, and size are likely of very little value," Miller said. "I have taken an approach of first identifying needs -- or mission requirements -- and technology availability. Then I compare those with the cold raw, simple facts of a sighting, not the conjecture or guess work of a witness," he said.
"I suspect that, as a result, perhaps up to 30 percent of the recent 'Triangle UFO' sightings are of black world aircraft, jets or airships," Miller concluded.
(Discovery News)
Aug. 9 — The fabled treasure of El Dorado may lie in tunnels and caves at the bottom of a lake in the Peruvian Amazon, according to a Polish-Italian explorer who has returned from a three-week reconnaissance trip in search of the legendary city.
According to Jacek Palkiewicz, best known for discovering the real source of the Amazon river in 1996, Paititi should lie 105 kilometers (65 miles) northeast of Cuzco — the ancient capital of the Inca empire — in the unexplored Madre de Dios River basin.
"We are just a step away from the city. We have pinpointed a 1.5-square- mile plateau with a lake and pre-Incan stone buildings totally covered in vegetation. Terrestrial radar confirmed the existence of an underwater labyrinth of caverns and tunnels. An ideal place to hide the Inca treasure the conquerors didn't succeed in finding," Palkiewicz told Discovery News.
The place would coincide both with legend and ancient documents. While stories of a waterfall and a square lake leading to Paititi abound, a 17th- century document states that the city is "further the lands and the mountains, ten days towards the east of Cuzco."
Moreover, a 16th century manuscript, recently discovered in the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus, describes the Kingdom of Paititi as "a very wealthy city adorned with gold, silver and precious stones."
According to the document, the city was discovered and evangelized at the end of the 16th century by Jesuit missionaries. Palkiewicz believes the Vatican never revealed Paititi's location, fearing a gold rush and mass hysteria.
El Dorado has lured many explorer over the past five centuries: among them famed British army surveyor Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, who left in search of Paititi in 1925; and more recently, a 1972 Franco-American expedition led by Bob Nichols; and the 1997 exploration of Norwegian anthropologist Lars Hafksjold. They all vanished in the jungles.
The latest explorer to set off in search of the legend, Palkiewicz will begin a final, systematic search in October. With a budget of more than $1 million, the expedition will include scientists specializing in the study of caves and the help of state-of-the art technology.
"I'm pretty sure we will come back with extraordinary news," he said.
But other experts are skeptical.
"The whole idea that the Incas fled Cusco for the jungles, bearing there treasures en masse, has no real evidence behind it. The climate and the constant threat of very real diseases that the highlander Incas had no defense against, such as Leishmaniasis, rule out that hypothesis. And the idea of a city under a lake, although quite romantic, seems quite unlikely," Boston anthropologist Gregory Deyermenjian, who has conducted various searches for Paititi since 1984, told Discovery News.
(Rense via Malin Space Science Systems )
8-10-2
Inca City, Mars proven to be part of a perfectly circular collection of structures!
New photographic evidence shows how Inca City, Mars fits into a massive complex of anomalous structures that form a perfect circle on the surface of the Red Planet!
This is elegant proof of intelligent construction on a grand scale.
These massive structures were first identified as potential city ruins by Dr. Dan Burisch in the late 1990s. Intensive research isolated many more anomalous artifacts in the region and led the way to the publication of his findings in the book Eagles Disobey: The Case for Inca City, Mars. I only wish Dr. Burisch could see this new evidence. I know what he'd say...."It's so good to be proven right!!!" Unfortunately, he resides under heavy guard when he is not working at S4, and any contact with the public has been strongly discouraged. The people in charge of the Blk-Ops projects he is working on were less than pleased that his name and findings with regard to Mars were ever made public. Dr. Burisch endured the loss of his academic credentials rather than back down from his position that Mars, especially Inca City Mars, held one of the keys to the question of extraterrestrial life, and its relationship to human life.
The foundation-like structures seen in the images that Dr. Burisch used for his initial research were not broad enough to show the full extent or scope of the find. In fact, when one of the team sent in a request to see surrounding images, NASA responded by saying that those frames were private and not available to the public. But now that's all changed, thanks to the amazing improvements in technology, and what seems to be a change in attitude concerning the release of nearby images. The MOC camera permits us to see the full area surrounding Inca City, and as a result we now know that Inca City is only a small part of a massive, perfectly circular collection of anomalies!
It's nothing short of spectacular!
8-8-2
WASHINGTON - In a development bordering on what the American Civil Liberties Union called "surreal," the on-line magazine Salon.com today revealed that the Department of Justice is forwarding incoming Operation TIPS calls to the Fox-owned "America's Most Wanted" television series.
"This is like retaining Arthur Andersen to do all of the SEC's accounting," said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "It's a completely inappropriate and frightening intermingling of government power and the private sector. What's next - the government hires Candid Camera to do its video surveillance?"
"If it continues to cooperate with the government on Operation TIPS, America's Most Wanted should move networks and rename itself 'Big Brother,'" King said.
The author of the Salon article, David Lindorff, reportedly signed up for TIPS more than a month ago, heard nothing and followed up last week with a phone call to the Department of Justice, the agency responsible for overseeing the proposed program. The department gave Lindorff another phone number, which it said had been set up by the FBI. When he dialed that number, Lindorff was greeted by a receptionist for "America's Most Wanted," which features reenactments of unsolved crimes and then asks the public to phone in leads and tips.
Shocked that the number did not connect to the FBI, Lindorff was told, "We've been asked to take the FBI's TIPS calls for them." The ACLU today said that, not only does the Operation TIPS program on its own pose serious threats to the American ideal that neighbors not be expected to inform on neighbors, but the program, when coupled with the power and profit incentives of television, could enhance its resemblance to Big Brother through sensationalism and the thirst for advertising revenue.
Even before its partnering with Fox Television, the Operation TIPS program has come under a barrage of criticism from both the left and the right. House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-TX), one of the most powerful and conservative members of Congress, introduced a measure in his chamber's version of the Homeland Security legislation that would prohibit the implementation of TIPS and other similar measures. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has also opposed the proposal, saying "We could be vigilant, but we don't want to be vigilantes."
"Why stop with America's Most Wanted?" King added. "If a sensational story is what it was looking for, the Department of Justice should have just hired Jerry Springer as its public information officer."
John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, appeared on Larry King Live (CNN) Thursday night and denied any and all participation in the TIPS program saying this was a bogus press release generated by the ACLU and 'complete nonsense.' Though 'America's Most Wanted' operates on a similar theme as TIPS envisions, and King noted the dangers of people abusing AMW to persecute innocent individuals, Walsh said they knew were confident of their investigative system and are extremely cautious about what tips they currently follow up on regarding the criminals on the most wanted list.
Feds Open 'Total' Tech Spy System
(Wired.com)
Aug. 7, 2002 PDT
Had Winston Churchill been alive in the months subsequent to Sept. 11 he might well have described U.S. intelligence agencies' performance prior to the attack thusly: Never have so many known so much and done so little.
On Wednesday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will begin awarding contracts for the design and implementation of a Total Information Awareness (TIA) system.
It's a system which, it hopes, will ferret out terrorists' information signatures -- clues available before an attack, but usually not correctly interpreted until afterwards -- and decode them prior to an assault. It's a task, the Information Awareness Office (IAO) says, that is beyond "our current intelligent infrastructure and other government agencies."
TIA program directors make it clear they also believe the task to be beyond current technology, noting that they are primarily interested in revolutionary advances in science, technology or systems and "development of collaboration, automation and cognitive aids technologies that allow humans and machines to think together about complicated and complex problems."
So insistent are they on building a better mousetrap -- or, more accurately, a brand new terrorist trap -- that they have officially warned potential contractors that not a dime will be invested in "research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to existing technology."
According to the IAO's blueprint, TIA's five-year goal is the "total reinvention of technologies for storing and accessing information ... although database size will no longer be measured in the traditional sense, the amounts of data that will need to be stored and accessed will be unprecedented, measured in petabytes."
It is precisely the thought of petabytes of raw data being under the control of an agency with limited public accountability that troubles civil liberties activists like Lee Tien, senior staff attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"We should resist the expansion of any 'data-veillance' program that doesn't have adequate safeguards and accountability," Tien says. "This program sounds like a counterpart of the movement toward requiring a national ID card. People like to think of that as an identification system, but it's actually a tracking system.
"The Total Information Awareness program, with its ability to provide persistent storage of everything from credit card, to employment, to medical, to ISP records, is a recipe for civil liberties disaster unless there are provisions for citizens to find out who is looking at their records and to see and correct those records."
"What I don't want to see is a system that's the worst of both worlds, unable to predict acts of terrorism in a timely manner because of the sheer mass of mostly irrelevant information clogging its channels, but perfectly attuned for intimate spying on regular citizens and activists like Martin Luther King."
Even in these early days, Tien's concerns have some resonance. Among the topics DARPA spokespersons would not discuss in connection with this article were the program's budget, whether the technology was being developed for deployment by an existing intelligence department or a new "super spy" agency, and which program elements the contracts being issued this month cover.
"This DARPA project sounds a lot like Spielberg's Minority Report premise of 'PreCrime,'" said security consultant and author Richard Forno, referring to the fictional law enforcement office that arrests folks before they commit a crime.
"I mean, I'm a geek, but my two degrees are in international relations. Does that mean if all of a sudden I start buying books on terrorism, bio-war or current affairs, I'm going to be labeled a potential bad guy?"
Aug 9, 2002
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for digital-music fans.
In a July 25 letter released late Thursday, some 19 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle asked Ashcroft to prosecute "peer-to-peer" networks like Kazaa and Morpheus and the users who swap digital songs, video clips and other files without permission from artists or their record labels.
The Justice Department should also devote more resources to policing online copyrights, the lawmakers said in their letter.
"Such an effort is increasingly important as online theft of our nation's creative works is a growing threat to our culture and economy," the letter said.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
The recording industry says peer-to-peer services cut into CD sales, and has been battling them in court since 1999, when the five major labels sued pioneer service Napster Inc.
A U.S. federal judge ordered Napster to shut down its service in July 2001, but upstarts like Kazaa and Morpheus soon took its place. Kazaa, which in addition to music allows users to swap movies and other media files, said this week that its free software had been downloaded 100 million times.
Music labels have not ruled out suing individual users, and have pushed for the right to flood peer-to-peer networks with bogus files, or disrupt them by other means.
While a debate has raged on Capitol Hill over the proper balance between copyright and technological innovation, U.S. law-enforcement authorities have taken a minimal role.
The Justice Department filed a supporting motion siding with the record labels in the Napster case, but has brought no cases of its own.
The move was welcomed by the Recording Industry Association of America , which represents the five major labels --Bertelsmann AG , Vivendi Universal, Sony Corp ., AOL Time Warner Inc . and EMI Group Plc .
"There is no doubt, mass copying off the Internet is illegal and deserves to be a high priority for the Department of Justice ," said RIAA Chairman Hilary Rosen in a statement.
An analyst for a digital civil-liberties group said the Justice Department probably had better things to do with its time.
The letter "implies that Justice should be going after relatively innocent behaviors that I suspect most Americans don't think warrant the time," said Alan Davidson, an associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
On the other hand, "we would much rather see current authorities be used before Congress goes and creates brand new laws," Davidson said.
A staffer for Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who signed the letter, said that lawmakers did not want FBI agents to arrest casual users but instead go after operators of network "nodes" that handle much of the traffic.
Among those signing the letter were: Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden; Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner; Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott; Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers; North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble; and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
09/08/2002
(ABC RadioAustralia)
The Mount Pago volcano on New Britain in Papua New Guinea is erupting as a large mass of lava builds up in its crater.
Over 7,000 locals have been moved to safer locations from villages near the volcano.
Vulcanologist, Wally Johnson, says the last major eruption at the site was during the first World War, and this one is likely to impact heavily on local industries.
"The entire area has been one of considerable development during the last 20 or 30 years."
"A major palm oil development scheme having got up and running and has attracted a lot of people from outside so the population has increased quite dramatically," he says.
The eruption is throwing ash up to six kilometres into the air and lava had been detected at the top of the crater and at vents on the mountainside.
The situation is decribed as intensifying and unpredictable.
Mount Pago is located about 50 kilometers south of Kimbe, the provincial capital.
TOKYO (AP) - A volcano erupted on a deserted Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean Monday, spewing smoke and ash into the air for the first time in 63 years, officials said.
The volcano on Tori Island, part of a chain of small islands 360 miles south of Tokyo, last erupted Aug. 18, 1939, Meteorological Agency spokesman Yohei Hasegawa said.
An agency official confirmed the eruption during a flight over the island in a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, after a ship reported smoke rising from the mountain, he said.
The island, home to an endangered albatross species, has not been inhabited since the Meteorological Agency withdrew its scientists from an observatory there in 1965 after a major earthquake, Tokyo city official Yuichiro Shimozawa said.
About 30 residents lived on the island until they were evacuated just after the 1939 eruption, he said.
In 1902, the volcano erupted, killing all 125 residents on the island.
August 10, 2002
(SEATTLE POST)
A whale was struck by a ship that docked in Elliott Bay yesterday, but it wasn't known whether the vessel killed the whale or if it was already dead.
The Tokyo Express, which is owned by the German shipping line Hapag-Lloyd, docked at Terminal 18 on Harbor Island yesterday afternoon. Its bow had gored and carried the whale, believed to have been a minke.
The whale, believed to be a minke, is visible broken in half at the waterline at the bow of the ship. Grant M. Haller / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Click for larger photo
"It is most unusual for whales to be struck by boats," said Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. "They usually get out of the way. So the question arises whether the whale was dead or sick before it was struck."
Aug 3, 2002
(1010 WINS)-BABYLON, N.Y. -- A 25-foot whale that had been floating in the Atlantic Ocean since Thursday has washed ashore at a state park on the south shore of Long Island, state officials said Saturday.
The humpback whale surfaced on Field Two at the Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island just before 7 p.m. Friday, according to Julika Wocial, a marine biologist at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.
Biologists at the Foundation were performing an autopsy on the whale.
"We didn't see any obvious cause of death once we were at the scene," Wocial said.
She said the humpback's death was likely unrelated to the dozens of whale carcasses that surfaced on Massachusetts shores earlier this week. Humpbacks are balene whales, which typically do not strand on the beach.
"It is natural that we get a few balene whales every year that are just floating dead on the water," Wocial said. "Hopefully we'll find something once we do the autopsy."
The whale was spotted floating in the ocean on Thursday, said George Gorman, a spokesman for the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Gorman said all the beaches at Robert Moses State Park were open on Saturday.
BY SUSAN COCKING
Miami Herald
Aug. 12, 2002
IN THE FLESH: Sturgeon such as this one have been troublesome.
If last year was the summer of the biting shark, then this is the summer of the leaping sturgeon.
Three Florida boaters have been struck by the giant, jumping, bony-plated fish since Memorial Day weekend. Four more sturgeon-human collisions or near-misses have been reported during the past seven years.
On Aug. 4, Brian Clemens, 50, who lives near Panama City, was struck in the chest by a sturgeon he estimates at five to six feet as he drove his 14-foot fishing boat along the Choctawhatchee River. Clemens was knocked backward off his seat and lost control of the boat, which plowed into the riverbank and threw him on shore. He suffered a cracked sternum, two broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and got 16 stitches in his knee. The fish jumped back into the water. The boat is a wreck.
''We hit head-on,'' Clemens said. ``I didn't have time to duck, dodge, or do anything. It splattered me.''
On July 4, Danny Cordero, 19, of Perry was riding his personal watercraft on the Suwannee River with his girlfriend when a sturgeon knocked both overboard. Cordero cracked some teeth and suffered facial cuts.
During Memorial Day weekend, Newberry Elementary School principal Lacy Redd, 34, was boating on the Suwannee with her husband and three children when a sturgeon estimated at six feet long and weighing about 130 pounds struck her in the chest and chin.
''It knocked me unconscious,'' Redd said. ``I had three broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a pretty severe concussion. I count myself lucky all three kids are OK.''
Law enforcement officers released that fish back into the river.
NUMEROUS QUESTIONS
What's going on here, some Florida residents want to know. They are besieging the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with sturgeon questions reminiscent of last summer's string of shark bites in Florida and the Bahamas.
''We had a call earlier in the week, `are they attacking people on purpose?''' said USFWS biologist Patty Kelly. ``That's ridiculous. It's a purely random act.''
According to Kelly, sturgeon have been around forever in Florida and worldwide. Distinguished by rows of bony plates that line their body like alligators, they can grow more than nine feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds.
Once thriving in Florida, their numbers declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of overfishing for their succulent meat and to make caviar from their eggs. That decline was worsened by the construction of dams and floodgates, which prevented sturgeon from traveling from open water into rivers to spawn.
The Fish and Wildlife Service listed sturgeon as threatened in 1991, which means no one is allowed to catch and keep them. Since then, said Kelly, their numbers seem to be stable. However, boat traffic is on the rise.
''It's more likely there are more people using the rivers,'' Kelly said. ``We have no documentation of increasing numbers of fish.''
Kelly, who has helped catch sturgeon in gill nets for scientific studies, said they are not deliberately malicious to humans.
''Sturgeon have no teeth. They're very docile,'' she said. ``They don't try to bite you. They just try to get away.''
Kelly said they feed primarily on bottom-dwelling crustaceans and worms. So why do they leap into the air?
''That's the million-dollar question that nobody has the answer to,'' Kelly said. ``Some fish jump to escape predators, but [sturgeon] have no predators. So we just say they jump because they can.''
BAD TIMING
Clemens had seen sturgeon jump frequently on the Choctawhatchee before he was struck, but never worried about it. He still doesn't believe the fish meant to hit him.
''They're doing what they've been doing for 1,000 years,'' he said. ``It was a bizarre accident. My timing sucks. I just wanted to go fishing.''
Doctors say it will be at least two months before Clemens can resume his favorite hobby. Discharged on Aug. 8 from Panama City's Bay Medical Center, he has difficulty breathing and must take pain pills for his broken bones. His entire chest and belly are an ugly purple-pink from his collision with the sturgeon and ejection from the boat.
''If I had gone in the water, that would have been it,'' Clemens said. ``I hurt so bad. Nobody would have ever known what happened. That fish was gone.''
The injured Clemens lay on the riverbank for about a half-hour, unable to contact his wife Joy by cellphone, when two passing fishermen came to the rescue.
''His chest was swollen. It was getting blacker,'' said rescuer Gene Boyett. ``He had a big hole in his knee. He spat up a pretty good bit of blood. He said, `you're never gonna believe this, but the biggest fish just hit me in the chest. It was a sturgeon.'''
Boyett said he never doubted Clemens' story, especially since they spotted four more large jumping sturgeon on the way back to the boat ramp.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators also believe Clemens, especially since one of their officers reported a near-miss with an airborne sturgeon last year on the same river.
''He was patrolling on a personal watercraft and a sturgeon jumped in front of him,'' said commission spokesman Stan Kirkland. ``He braced for impact and it missed hitting him by inches. He said it really shook him up.''
In 1999, a Gilchrist County sheriff's deputy was knocked down when a 106-pound sturgeon leaped into his patrol boat on the Suwannee. The fish died.
Three years before that, Larry Foshee of Pensacola suffered minor injuries when a sturgeon jumped into and out of his boat on the Yellow River. And in 1995, restaurant owner James Nessmith was roughed up by a sturgeon that jumped into his boat on the Suwannee.
PROTECTING SPECIES
Ironically, the boating safety threat posed by leaping sturgeon is getting wide media attention at the same time the Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to beef up protection for the species in the Gulf of Mexico.
The FWS proposes to designate 1,600 river miles and 2,333 square miles of bays and Gulf waters from Louisiana to Florida as critical habitat for the sturgeon. That designation would tighten restrictions on federal agencies and firms that have federal contracts in performing projects such as building dams, dredging, or filling in wetlands.
The irony is not lost on Lacy Redd, who still suffers numbness and pain from her sturgeon encounter.
''They talk about [sturgeon] being extinct, but you certainly see them here,'' she said. ``I certainly would hate to see it become so populated that people couldn't enjoy Florida's rivers.''
13 August, 2002
(BBCNEWS)
A fatal virus that has killed seals throughout northern Europe has returned to UK waters, wildlife experts have confirmed.
Tests carried out on five seals found off the coast of Lincolnshire and East Anglia have confirmed they died from phocine distemper virus (PDV).
The animals - two adults and three pups - were found two weeks ago and taken to the Norfolk Wildlife Hospital.
The disease was last found in Europe in 1988, when some 18,000 seals - or half the northern European total - were wiped out.
The virus returned to Denmark in May 2002, and has so far killed 2,000 seals in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Holland and northern France have also been affected.
Since then, wildlife experts have warned it was only a matter of time before the virus hit British shores.
Initial results of tests carried out on seals found at the end of July proved negative.
However the RSPCA which runs the wildlife hospital, said latest results were positive.
The highly infectious virus is similar to dog distemper and cannot be treated.
It attacks the seals' immune system and leaves them open to infection.
Harbour seals can travel hundreds of miles in days, causing the virus to spread quickly.
Aug 9, 2002
(1010 WINS)-MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A black couple called authorities after they found a 6-foot wooden cross burning near their home early Friday morning.
The cross was found at about 3:30 a.m. as it leaned against a fence near the home of Robert and Betty Love, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. The Loves live there with their children.
The fire spread to nearby brush and was extinguished by fire officials.
Kaplan said the incident was being investigated as a bias crime by the prosecutor's office, and the attorney general's office of bias crime.
Aug 8, 2002
(1010 WINS)- Jewish charities in New York and other cities say their insurance premiums are climbing out of sight because of fears of terrorist attacks on their buildings, forcing them to cut programs for children, the elderly and the poor.
"The word `Jewish' is an unwelcome word in the world of insurance today," said Mike Scheinblum, who volunteers as risk manager for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, which raises money for dozens of Miami Jewish agencies. He called the premium increases for Jewish groups "passive discrimination."
In some cases, Jewish organizations have reported that premiums for property insurance have doubled since Sept. 11.
Some insurance companies are no longer offering terrorism coverage as part of their overall property insurance policies, or they are offering it at prohibitive rates.
As a result, some Jewish organizations are going without terrorism coverage, leaving themselves open to financial ruin if their buildings or employees are attacked.
"It would bankrupt a nonprofit to have terrorism insurance," said Lewis Stolzenberg, executive director of the Jewish Community Center of New York City's Staten Island. The agency is facing an overall insurance increase of 50 percent to $500,000 and has had to eliminate a shuttle service for senior citizens.
The higher premiums are in addition to the tens of thousands of dollars that some Jewish charities are spending on security, including 24-hour guards and surveillance equipment.
Insurance industry representatives deny Jewish groups are being singled out. They say other businesses and nonprofit groups are also seeing their premiums rise, too, because of the danger of terrorism.
"I do not think that it's directed against Jewish risks in particular," said Vera Inman of Seitlin, a firm that represents Florida insurance providers.
Tami Torres, a spokeswoman for the Florida Insurance Department, said that state regulators are unaware of any price gouging and that the insurance market is tight all over in Florida.
Gary Bomzer of the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in Miami said he has had to cut back on after-school programs for children and services for the elderly because the center's property insurance premiums doubled this year to $274,000 -- and that is without the terrorism coverage that used to be part of the policy.
"I have a 104-year-old man who comes in for a free hot lunch every day," said Bomzer, whose agency helps over 5,000 people each year. "Where is he supposed to go?" He added: "Every extra penny paid out to an insurance company means I can't help a family whose child has Down syndrome."
John Fishel, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the country's second-largest federation after New York's, predicted his agency's premium will go up as much as 50 percent, and the policy will probably not include terrorism coverage.
"The cost of coverage was dramatically impacted by 9/11," he said.
Ed Rosen, director of the Dave & Mary Alper Jewish Community Center in Miami, said premiums went up $110,000 this year, forcing him to lay off staff and cut programs. The agency runs a summer day camp for 600 children, a camp for needy children, an athletic program, and services for the elderly.
In Congress, the House and Senate have passed plans that would subsidize terrorism insurance. But legislators have yet to reconcile the two versions, despite appeals from business and nonprofit groups.
Jewish and consumer groups complain that in cases where terrorism coverage is still available, the policies are inadequate.
"They come with a whole host of exclusions -- such as biological, radiological and chemical attacks -- the very types of attacks our leaders have warned us to be on the lookout for," said Marty DePoy of the Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism.
(Miami sun-sentinel.com)
August 8 2002, 11:26 AM EDT
FORT LAUDERDALE – Broward’s second amateur terrorist pleaded guilty Thursday morning to a single conspiracy count in federal court.
Imran Mandhai, a 19-year-old community college student from Hollywood, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to use arson or explosives to destroy property used in interstate commerce -- the Florida Power & Light plant at Port Everglades, other substations in Broward, among other targets
The Pakistani immigrant will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas on Oct. 17. He faces at least five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years. A fine of up to $250,000 could also be levied.
Mandhai’s plea comes almost two weeks after his friend, Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, 24, of Hollywood, pleaded guilty in federal court to an indictment that could have put him in prison for up to 20 years. Jokhan’s testimony would have given the U.S. a powerful tool in the courtroom against Mandhai.
Mandhai was accused of recruiting Jokhan to a terrorist cell of 25 to 30 mujahedin whom he hoped would eventually be activated by Osama bin Laden, according to the government. Mandhai had no apparent connection to bin Laden's al-Qaida organization or the Sept. 11 attacks.
Jokhan and Mandhai, who both worshipped at the Darul Uloom Mosque in Pembroke Pines, also visited a mosque in Miramar to recruit others, Jokhan acknowledged in his plea.
Mandhai developed his plan with the aid of a government informant, Howard Gilbert, a 33-year-old Jewish FBI operative who infiltrated Darul Uloom on a classified intelligence-gathering operation. Gilbert was later taken off the case and replaced with a cooperating witness identified only as "Mohammed."
Mandhai's attorneys and family have said both men were entrapped by the two informants. They have also argued that the FBI didn't regard the men as a threat because agents confronted them in May 2001 and didn't arrest Mandhai until February and Jokhan until May.
But prosecutors said the two were deadly serious about launching a jihad, or holy war, in post-Sept. 11 America. They said Mandhai and Jokhan discussed jihad and the strategic bombing of power stations in Pembroke Pines, Dania Beach and Miami Lakes, and near Miami International Airport. Other targets included the Israeli consulate in Miami, Jewish-owned businesses in Weston, and Jewish Community Centers in Aventura and Broward County, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman said at a May 28 hearing.
"Jokhan even mentioned Mount Rushmore," the prosecutor said. Prosecutors said the two imagined creating a state of anarchy, at which time they would issue a list of demands, including no help for Israel, free all Muslims in U.S. jails, and for the United States to withdraw from the Middle East.
(NYT)
High-ranking Bush administration officials said yesterday that the administration received a report from a foreign government in recent weeks about potential threats against such targets as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and a major landmark in Chicago.
An F.B.I. spokesman cautioned that the reports were not specific, but the administration officials said the locations were given as examples of targets that might be attacked.
Officials said it was unclear whether the foreign government had specific information indicating that those American landmarks were targets. But the report that a Qaeda cell might be planning to strike was passed along to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Homeland Security and other agencies involved in analyzing terrorist threats.
The report came from a person whom the foreign government described as having previously provided reliable information, officials said. But they characterized the information as very general.
Federal and local officials said the report did not prompt the heightened security over the weekend at the Golden Gate Bridge. They said the weekend alert in San Francisco was prompted by an anonymous tip on Friday that a terrorist might be planning to crash a military jet into the bridge.
The Office of Homeland Security later discredited the tip, officials said, and the state of alert in San Francisco was downgraded on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, the authorities in New York increased security around the Brooklyn Bridge and other East River crossings over the weekend.
One law enforcement official said the alert in New York had been included in a warning about possible terrorist strikes at bridges in San Francisco and New York. The official did not know whether the increased security in New York was prompted by the bogus tip last Friday or by the more general threat report given to the C.I.A. two weeks ago.
The heightened security in New York was still in effect on Monday.
Over the weekend, the police in New York City increased scrutiny of vehicles that crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and other bridges, with officers stopping any car or truck deemed suspicious, the official said. Also, police boats patrolled the waters under the Brooklyn Bridge and around the East River and additional Emergency Service Unit officers were on patrol, the official said.
Other law enforcement officials in New York characterized the threat information about the Brooklyn Bridge as "old." One federal official said he knew of no new specific threats against a New York landmark.
In Washington, a spokesman for the F.B.I. said that the bureau did not issue any new specific warnings this month about a possible terrorist strike against an American landmark.
But the spokesman said the F.B.I.'s National Infrastructure Protection Center, which issues terrorist warnings to state and local law enforcement agencies, did issue a warning on July 31. He said the notice warned only that Al Qaeda might be planning attacks on unspecified bridges and power plants. He characterized this information as a repetition of earlier concerns about a possible threat.
"We never mentioned a specific city, or power plant, or bridge," the spokesman said. "We didn't have anything specific on the Golden Gate, or the Brooklyn Bridge, or on Chicago."
Administration officials in Washington said that the intelligence report from the foreign government, which they declined to identify, was the second report that the administration had received in recent months about possible plans to attack major monuments in the United States. The first came from Abu Zubaydah, a senior aide to Osama bin Laden, who last spring told American officials of plans to strike the bridge in the "Godzilla" movie.
The officials said the C.I.A. was uncertain whether the report provided by the foreign government was an "echo" of the earlier Abu Zubaydah warning that had circulated in militant Islamic circles.
The foreign intelligence report did not mention a specific target in Chicago, officials said.
In Chicago, spokesmen for the F.B.I., the Chicago Police Department and the Mercantile Exchange said they had not heard of any specific threat against their buildings and therefore have not increased security.
One administration official said that the report was so unspecific that it "didn't keep me awake at night." He called the information "interesting" and "disturbing." "But we get interesting and disturbing stuff all the time," he said.
Aug 8, 2002
(AP)-JERUSALEM -- Israeli soldiers arrested nine foreign activists, including three Americans, during a protest against Israel's occupation of Palestinian towns, and police said Thursday the detainees would be deported.
Among those taken into custody was Adam Shapiro, 30, a New York City Jew who spent a night in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters, at a time when the compound was under siege by Israeli forces.
Shapiro shared breakfast with the Palestinian leader and about six aides. He later gave the media an account of conditions inside.
Afterward, Shapiro's parents received death threats and temporarily fled their Brooklyn home.
On Wednesday, about 40 members of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement and 250 Palestinians participated in a protest march Wednesday near the village of Hawara on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus.
Nine demonstrators were arrested.
Shapiro's wife, Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American, said the group members were roughed up by Israeli soldiers and police during the march.
Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, denied soldiers used undue force.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the nine were arrested for rampaging and attacking police officers, and were being held pending deportation.
In addition to the three Americans, five French and one Irish citizen are slated for deportation. The other two Americans were identified as Javier Cortez, from Los Angeles, California, and Charles Williams from Illinois.
Aug 6, 2002
(1010 WINS)-A computer programmer hailed as a hero for remaining with his quadriplegic friend rather than flee the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center was laid to rest in Israel on Monday.
In an act of final closure, the family of Abraham Zelmanowitz, 55, buried his remains next to his parents at the cemetery overlooking Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, a revered resting place for many religious Jews.
"We are fulfilling his final wishes," said his sister-in-law, Evelyn Zelmanowitz, who was among a small group of family members who accompanied Zelmanowitz's remains from New York.
"He's able to have a final resting place, which is something that we all had hoped for, for his sake and ours too, some place we could come to mourn him and pay tribute to him," she said.
Zelmanowitz, whose remains were identified late last week, was hailed as a hero and praised by President Bush for his act of compassion.
Zelmanowitz, who worked for insurer Empire Bluecross Blueshield on the 27th floor of the trade center's north tower, refused to leave behind his co-worker of many years, Ed Beyea, who couldn't descend the stairs in his wheelchair. Both died when the tower collapsed.
"For us he's a big enough hope and inspiration for all mankind at a time of such unspeakable evil that someone could teach us how to behave, to feel compassion for one's fellow man," Evelyn Zelmanowitz said.
She said she spoke to her brother-in-law by phone soon after the plane plowed into the tower. Zelmanowitz told Beyea's nurse to leave the building, since she had children to think of, she said.
"He was very calm. He said the air was clear and that they were waiting for a medical team to help evacuate his friend. That was the last we heard of him," she said.
In a moving ceremony in Hebrew and Yiddish held at a yeshiva religious school in Jerusalem, friends paid tribute to Zelmanowitz, a key member of the ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn and a regular visitor to Israel.
"He was the epitome of kindness and good deeds," said family friend Herzel Schechter. "He was a real hero who gave up his life to help his co-worker."
Later a small procession moved onto the cemetery where a small bundle of Zelmanowitz's remains, wrapped up in a white cloth, were buried in a grave in front of his parents. The cemetery is considered an important place for its closeness to the site where the first and second temples of Judaism stood, in what is now the Old City.
"He appreciated the holiness of Israel and this cemetery," Schechter said.
Aug 5, 2002
(1010 WINS)-NEW YORK -- Authorities have arrested 55 people accused of seizing on a Sept. 11-related computer foul-up to defraud a municipal employees' credit union.
Prosecutors and police officials said Monday that 46 others are still being sought for allegedly stealing a total of $15 million from the Municipal Credit Union.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the accused, many of them city employees, took advantage of the MCU's computer problems to withdraw cash repeatedly from ATM machines, and that as many as 4,000 people were being eyed in the scam.
Because of a computer glitch, the suspects discovered a way to withdraw up to $500 a day, even if their accounts didn't have the money to cover it.
"There was a lot of chaos and confusion," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "People tried to profit from the confusion. ... For a while they got away with it."
The New York Post, citing anonymous sources, reported Monday that over 100 people were targeted for arrest in connection with the rip-offs.
The problem started shortly after Sept. 11 and continued until sometime in November.
Jul 31, 2002
(1010 WINS)-(Paterson, N.J. )- A man who authorities said sold fake identification to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers apparently fled to Egypt Wednesday morning, hours before authorities raided his home and businesses, officials said.
Mohamad El Atriss, who has been living in Union Township, operated businesses in Paterson and Elizabeth where he sold the IDs, said Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale. Authorities raided his home and business Wednesday afternoon and were told Atriss had took a flight from Newark to Egpyt earlier that morning, Speziale said.
Atriss sold a fake identification card to Khalid Almihdhar, who was on Flight 77 as it hit the Pentagon, and to hijacker Abdul Aziz Alomari from Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center, Speziale said.
Jul 30, 2002
(1010 WINS)-NEW YORK -- Passengers aboard doomed Flight 93 broke down the cockpit door with a food cart on Sept. 11, sending the hijacked airliner hurtling toward the ground in western Pennsylvania, according to a book published Tuesday.
The book, "Among the Heroes" (HarperCollins), claims an assistant United States attorney told relatives of those aboard the flight about the use of the food cart as a battering ram when he met with them three months ago in Princeton, N.J.
The cockpit voice recording of Flight 93 has not been made public because prosecutors and other law enforcement officials believe it could still be used as evidence. Passengers on Flight 93 had called relatives from cell phones that morning and learned from them that other hijacked airliners had already slammed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
After learning that, the passengers reportedly told their loved ones they planned to storm the cockpit and thwart another attack. Although the account has often been repeated as fact, officials have never publicly confirmed that passengers helped stop a fourth terrorist attack on Sept. 11.
Forty-four people, including four hijackers, were killed in the crash.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that law enforcement sources consider the food cart raid as one of the theories of what happened. But the officials said sounds heard on the cockpit voice recording are not definitive.
The book, written by Times reporter Jere Longman, says the entire struggle took about five minutes. According to the book's account, the passengers began trying to force their way into the cockpit around 9:58 a.m.
Longman writes, "More shouting: 'Roll it' and 'Pull it up' or 'Lift it up' or 'Turn up.' A final rushing sound could be heard, and about three minutes after 10, the tape went silent."
The book reports that a "final rushing sound" could be heard on the tape, which went silent around 10:03 a.m.
(USA TODAY)
08/12/2002
A string of miscommunications Sept. 11 led to a jarring incident over Alaska that convinced controllers the military might shoot down a Korean Air jet.
Pilots on Korean Air Flight 85 mistakenly issued a hijack alert at 1:24 p.m. ET as they neared Alaska on the way to Anchorage. Military officials, who had ordered two F-15 fighters to tail the jet, told Anchorage air traffic controllers that they would shoot it down if it did not turn away from populated areas, several sources told USA TODAY.
During the next 90 minutes, officials on the ground launched evacuations in Anchorage, at the Trans Alaska Pipeline and in Whitehorse, the capitol of Canada's Yukon Territory. The jet, a Boeing 747 with 215 people aboard, eventually landed in Whitehorse.
The events illustrate how tensions and suspicions on Sept. 11 spawned misunderstandings that threatened to spin out of control.
Problems began shortly after the attacks, in a Maryland office park. There, ARINC, a company that airlines pay to transmit text messages to and from their jets, began a search for more hijacked flights.
Scanning every communication it transmitted that day, it found something suspicious sent by the Korean jet. The Seoul-to-New York flight was headed for a refueling stop in Anchorage. In a message sent at 11:08 a.m. ET to Korean Air's base, the pilots included the letters "HJK" — a code for hijacked.
Korean Air's operations chief, David Greenberg, said in an interview that the message was innocent, part of a routine discussion on where to divert the flight after airspace in the United States had been closed. The pilots had used the abbreviation to refer to the hijackings that day, he said.
But ARINC officials feared the message was a coded plea for help. Shortly before noon, they passed that suspicion on to the Federal Aviation Administration, which notified Anchorage controllers and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
At that point, Flight 85 was still hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska over the North Pacific. There had been no distress call or anything unusual about the flight except for the message that included "HJK." But as it had done with at least a handful of flights that morning, NORAD sent fighter jets from Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage to shadow it.
When the Korean jet reached Anchorage's airspace about 1 p.m., controllers radioed coded questions to the pilots to learn whether they had been hijacked. Controllers and pilots are trained how to respond to such messages, but something failed that day.
Instead of reassuring controllers, the Korean pilots declared themselves hijacked at 1:24 p.m. They set their transponder, which transmits information about the flight to radars, to the four-digit universal code for hijacked — 7500.
Suddenly, more than an hour after the skies emptied over the lower 48 states, a routine flight became a potential new attacker.
To this day, no one is certain why the pilots issued the alert. Airline sources say that exchanges between pilots and controllers were tense that morning. Some pilots objected to orders to reroute their planes. The Korean pilots may have misinterpreted the controller's comments as an order to reset the transponder.
Whatever the reason, the Korean pilots' response set off a frenzy of activity. Within minutes, Alaska's governor launched an evacuation of large hotels and federal buildings in Anchorage. The U.S. Coast Guard ordered tankers out to sea at nearby Valdez, Alaska, where they had been loading oil from the Trans Alaska pipeline.
FAA officials refused to discuss what happened next, and the details remain murky. But USA TODAY pieced together these details:
The scene at the Anchorage air traffic control center was edgy and confused, several sources said. The military insisted to controllers that the jet must veer away from Anchorage and oil facilities at Valdez.
But FAA officials near Washington, D.C., advised the center's controllers over the phone not to turn the jet. In spite of the transponder code, it wasn't clear this jet had actually been hijacked.
With two F-15s tracking Flight 85, NORAD officers told officials at the Anchorage center that they would shoot down the airliner if it continued, the sources said. Air traffic officials ordered the jet to turn wide of Alaska's largest city.
NORAD officials have insisted in recent weeks they never threatened to shoot down the jet and that the event was handled smoothly. But Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, commander of the NORAD group that responded to the Korean jet, told reporters last year he was prepared to order the jet shot from the sky before it could attack a target in Alaska.
It's not clear whether NORAD officers ever sought approval to attack the 747. Under the rules of engagement in place on Sept. 11, the president or vice president would have had to approve an attack. Shortly after Sept. 11, President Bush granted such powers to a group of generals that included Schwartz.
After the jet turned away from Anchorage, new concerns arose over whether the jet had enough fuel to reach Whitehorse, more than 500 miles beyond its original destination.
Canadian air traffic officials agreed to let the jet land there, but its approach set off a new wave of evacuations.
Flight 85 landed safely in Whitehorse at 2:54 p.m. ET. Its transponder emitted the hijack code for the entire 90 minutes. Only after the co-pilot stepped off the jet at gunpoint and was interrogated did officials confirm that the jet had not been hijacked.
Jun 25, 2002
NEW YORK (AP) -- Authorities charged 19 out of 20 city plumbing inspectors with extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for approval on plumbing projects.
The charges come just four months after more than a dozen city tax assessors were charged with bribery.
In the new federal case, investigators enlisted a contractor to wear a wire while paying bribes to the accused plumbing and boiler inspectors. The cooperating contractor made 69 payments ranging from $50 to $600 and totaling $9,000, prosecutors said.
"These inspectors sold the integrity of their office," Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gil Hearn said in announcing the arrests.
According to court papers filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the corruption scheme began in the early 1990s and continued through last year.
The papers alleged that in exchange for bribes the inspectors often approved work without making inspections or overlooking violations. One inspector signed off on two projects over coffee at a doughnut shop, the papers said.
The defendants were awaiting arraignment on federal charges of obtaining money under color of official right. If convicted, each would face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In February, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged 16 property tax assessors with taking bribes ranging from expensive meals to thousands of dollars in a scheme that cheated the city of $160 million.
An indictment accused the assessors of accepting $10 million in bribes for at least 35 years to under-assess values of more than 500 properties. Lower assessments mean smaller property-tax bills for the owners.
Jul 19, 2002
NEW YORK (AP) -- A former FBI agent charged in an insider trading case gave stock tips to at least two other agents in 2000 while he was still working for the agency, according to a potential witness.
The agents were named in court papers unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn during a hearing for Jeffrey Royer, a former agent charged in May with conspiring with Internet stock analyst Amr "Tony" Elgindy and another FBI agent to commit fraud.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie jailed Royer after learning he may have violated his bail by contacting a former girlfriend, Christy Sarkey. He had been free on $500,000 bond.
In a recent letter to the judge, prosecutors accused Royer of calling and writing to Sarkey within days of his June release, despite Dearie's orders to stay away from potential witnesses.
The letter argued Sarkey, who is a police officer in Oklahoma, was a potential witness because the defendant -- while investigating stock fraud for the FBI in 2000 -- used inside information to give her a stock tip.
In an interview with the FBI, Sarkey said that she lost $4,000 on the deal and that "she knows that other agents and perhaps some support staff personnel invested with Royer," according to a report unsealed on Thursday. Sarkey named two agents, Charles Ruiz in New York City and Todd Temple in San Diego, as investors.
Neither the report nor any other court document accuses Ruiz or Temple of wrongdoing.
Ruiz said Thursday that he was aware his name had surfaced in the case, but he declined further comment. A call to Temple was not immediately returned.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Breen refused to comment on whether other FBI agents or other employees are under investigation.
An FBI spokesman in San Diego, John Iannarelli, referred a call to the New York City office, where spokesman Jim Margolin declined comment.
Royer, 39, already was jailed once for violating his bail by contacting a police officer and an FBI agent to discuss the case.
At a hearing Thursday in Brooklyn federal court, Royer's attorney, Lawrence Gerzog, argued that Royer's contact with the ex-girlfriend was "very personal" and "had nothing to do with the case whatsoever."
Royer, in his letter to Sarkey, said he "cried like a baby for two days" after his arrest.
"I am more scared than any time in my life," he wrote. "I know what the government can do to me and the picture they can paint. I feel vulnerable and weak."
Gerzog said his client "did not know that that woman was a potential witness."
The judge set a hearing for further arguments for Monday. He ordered Royer held without bail until then.
Royer has pleaded innocent to charges he helped Elgindy in a scheme to manipulate the market by using confidential data gleaned from government files. Elgindy, who also pleaded innocent, has been held without bail.
On Wednesday, an Elgindy associate, Derrick Cleveland, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy as part of a deal with prosecutors to testify for the government.
Court papers accused Cleveland, 36, of wiring Royer $30,000 for inside information. In his plea in Brooklyn, he admitted using the information "to realize financial gain."
Cleveland's attorney, Robert Manchester, refused to discuss the plea deal. But he made a point of telling reporters his client had a graduate degree in business from the University of Oklahoma, "home of the Sooners."
(NewsDay)
Elgindy's attempt to liquidate the trust accounts of his children on Sept. 10 might "perhaps" mean he had "pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, and, rather than report it, he was attempting to profit from that information."
Jul 18, 2002
NEW YORK (AP) An Indian actress described as the Julia Roberts of Malayalam-language movies said she didn't resent being questioned by police after a fellow passenger said she and her companions were acting suspiciously on a flight to New York.
Samyuktha Verma was traveling from Chicago Tuesday night with her family and other Indian performers on a tour of the United States. A passenger told a flight attendant that the group, which included pop singer Biju Narayanan and comedian Jairaj Kattanellur, was engaging in ''suspicious activity,'' by passing notes and changing seats.
''We were enjoying the flight and we were all very excited,'' Verma told The New York Times. ''We were arguing over who would sit next to the window because New York is such a beautiful city, and it was our first time here.''
The flight attendant notified the pilot, who alerted federal aviation authorities. Two F-16 fighter jets escorted the plane a Boeing 757 with 98 passengers plus a crew to the ground.
''When the plane landed, the police came on and a woman pointed to us. Then they took the men away,'' Verma said.
The seven Indian passengers were detained, questioned and released about five hours after the plane landed at 11:05 p.m. Tuesday.
''At first I thought I would never come to America again, I was so scared,'' Verma said. ''But the police were very nice to us. They made sure we were comfortable and they treated us well.''
Indian film star Kamal Hassan was detained for questioning at the Toronto airport in May. Some members of New York Indian community said Wednesday that they were angered by Verma's experience.
''We all look like terrorists,'' freelance journalist Aseem Chhabra told The Times.
(Associated Press)
August 10 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- Whether it's brotherly love or an effort to gain support in a state that nearly cost him the presidency, George W. Bush has been paying an awful lot of attention to Florida.
The president has given Florida money to restore the Everglades, bought back oil drilling leases and visited Florida often since the 2000 election. Florida also has benefited from rule bending in federal policy as its reaped a wealth of grants and federal money for issues ranging from education to domestic security.
Democrats say the president is doing whatever he can to give his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, material to boast about while he seeks re-election this November, knowing that keeping his brother in office will help his chances of remaining in the White House past 2004.
But Republicans say George W. Bush would be doing Florida favors no matter who was in office because he'll want to carry the state in 2004 by more than the disputed 537-vote victory in 2000.
``It's pretty difficult to tell which would be true,'' said Matt Corrigan, a University of North Florida political science professor.
Most likely it's a combination of both.
``This isn't just a case of getting policies because of 'Your my brother.' It's also working together to make sure that Florida remains a Republican state in the presidential level in 2004,'' Corrigan said.
Few doubt that some of President Bush's policy decisions in Florida are influenced by the relationship. The best example is his agreeing to have the federal government buy oil drilling leases in the Everglades and off the Panhandle coast.
The decision appeared to be 180 degrees from the president's stance on oil drilling, but it just so happens Jeb Bush opposes drilling off Florida and has made the Everglades restoration a high priority.
California Gov. Gray Davis may be wishing he was part of the family. Since the Florida deal, Davis has twice asked President Bush to buy back 36 undeveloped oil leases off his state's coast. So far Bush hasn't moved to do so.
Then again, Davis is a Democrat in a state that Al Gore carried by nearly 1.3 million votes in 2000.
``It would be nice if it wasn't so blatantly politically motivated,'' said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Banfill about the favors Washington has sent Florida's way. ``My mother, who's a taxpayer in Kansas, is paying for this stuff.''
``This should alarm voters across the country. People should look at this all very carefully to see who's getting what and what's getting compromised for it.''
It likely won't alarm the vast majority of Florida voters.
``Ninety percent of Floridians believe that it's a good thing that that relationship exists, even those who don't intend to vote for us in the fall,'' said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Al Cardenas.
He downplayed the idea that President Bush is doing Florida favors simply because Jeb Bush is his brother, though he didn't deny that sometimes plays a role.
``We don't have a magic wand to know where this relationship goes the extra mile, but I know that it does and it has to do with the fact of the governor's unlimited access,'' Cardenas said. ``Just the fact that his brother can get ahold of him (President Bush) to discuss these matters is very helpful to Florida.''
Jeb Bush said he speaks to his brother about once every two weeks.
``We don't really talk that much about policy, just how the kids are doing,'' he said.
Bush readily admits that he's worked better with Washington since his brother replaced Democrat Bill Clinton, but said it has been through building relationships beyond kinship.
``We've worked really hard in developing a relationship, not president-to-governor or brother-to-brother,'' he said. ``We've worked hard through our Washington office to work in partnership with a lot of our government agencies and with our congressional delegation.''
``We've benefited, but if the story is George is helping out Jeb because George is the brother of Jeb, I don't think that washes,'' the governor added.
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo dismissed the suggestion that the family relationship plays into decision making, saying the president simply shares common concerns with his brother on issues like education, the environment and democracy in Cuba.
``Florida is an important state,'' she said. ``The issues that we've been there to talk about are important to the nation as well.''
President Bush has visited Florida 10 times since taking office, second only to 12 visits to Pennsylvania, Mamo said.
Several of those visits have been to help raise money for his brother's re-election bid, putting millions of dollars in the state Republican Party's savings account.
All that attention from a president with high approval ratings is frustrating for the Democrats hoping to unseat the governor.
``There's no doubt that we are running against Jeb and George and the whole Bush administration,'' said Banfill.
David Niven, a Florida Atlantic University political science professor, said it's funny that Democrats would complain about a situation that's ultimately good for Florida.
``On the other hand it's a legitimate thing to say that the process isn't completely above board and the that the president and governor are not making decisions completely within their belief systems,'' he said.
And Floridians might find that the state could reap just as many, if not more, rewards if Jeb Bush were not governor, Niven said.
``Given the absurd closeness of the 2000 election, President Bush was going to pay attention to Florida regardless of his brother's wishes or needs,'' he said. ``If Governor Bush were to lose in November, it may make President Bush that much more fearful of the voters and it might make him respond even more.''
03 October 01
(NewScientist)
Vast fields of maize could soon be churning out antibodies for preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
Researchers at Epicyte, a biotech company in San Diego, say their technology promises to make the mass production of therapeutic antibodies easier and cheaper. At the moment, therapeutic antibodies are produced using hamster ovary cells - an expensive method that produces limited amounts.
But Epicyte's new "plantibody" technology allows the DNA that codes for antibodies to be introduced into crop plants such as maize. The antibodies are only produced in the maize kernels, making it easy to extract them using current maize-processing methods.
Epicyte is already well on the way to producing an antibody to prevent herpes infection, says Andrew Hiatt, who helped develop the technology. The antibody, HX8, works by sticking to the virus and blocking its entry into cells, and has proved highly effective in animal tests.
Although condoms provide some protection against herpes infection, they are not 100 per cent reliable. But HX8 can provide protection in the vagina for 24 hours. Epicyte is also developing antibodies that block HIV transmission and the virus that causes genital warts.
The HX8 genes have already been transferred into maize, and Epicyte plans to start clinical trials of the antibody next year. Hiatt hopes plantibodies will be cheap enough for consumers to buy them over the counter. "That's the ultimate goal," he says.
11 August 02
(NewScientist.com)
Cloned cows producing human antibodies could soon be drafted into the battle against a wide variety of microbes, including those attractive to terrorists.
James Robl at the Connecticut-based company Hematech and his colleagues used artificial chromosomes and cloning technology to create cattle that contained a full suite of functional human antibody genes.
However before any antibodies the animals produce can be used in patients, the researchers need to knock out the cows' own antibody genes. This would make it possible to harvest pure human antibodies from the animals.
"It's been a challenging effort," says Robl. "But within a two year time frame, I think we'll have animals producing commercial quantities." At the moment, supplies of these so-called human polyclonal antibodies are limited since they can only be collected from human volunteers.
Antibody stockpile
Yet the need for human polyclonal antibodies is growing, says Helen Quill, an immunologist with the US National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC. They are currently used to treat patients with hereditary immune deficiencies and certain viral infections.
But they also hold great potential as tools to fight anthrax, smallpox and other biological warfare agents. "Most experts agree it would be very useful to have appropriate antibodies stockpiled," she says.
Antibodies are an attractive adjunct to drugs or vaccines because they act immediately and last for weeks or months in the blood. They come in two flavours, "monoclonal" and "polyclonal". In a monoclonal solution, all the antibodies are the same and bind a single site on a molecule such as a protein. This specificity has resulted in great clinical interest.
Polyclonals contain the natural array of many thousands of different antibody molecules that are produced during an immune response. For many uses, this broad spectrum is more desirable. For example, a polyclonal against anthrax would be able to protect against many different bacterial strains.
Big problem
However, the human immune system would reject antibodies from other species as foreign, leaving human volunteers as the only source for polyclonal therapeutics. Not only does that limit the supply, but also the applications. "You can't give a human volunteer booster shots of anthrax proteins to develop a really potent antibody response," says Robl.
To get another animal to produce human antibodies, you have to give them human antibody genes - but the genes occupy large DNA regions and are far too big to move around by conventional genetic engineering.
A human-mouse antibody gene swap has been accomplished in mice, the organism in which genetic tools are most advanced. But the little rodents cannot produce large quantities of the antibodies.
So Robl and his colleagues used a human artificial chromosome (HAC) to carry the antibody genes into cows. Their HAC was a fragment of the natural chromosome 22 that had been whittled down to contain few genes beyond those involved with human antibodies.
Correct assembly
To clone embryos, the HACs were introduced into cow cells that were then fused with bovine eggs from which the chromosomes had been removed. The embryos were then implanted in cows and allowed to develop into live calves.
Even though the human genes were floating in their own chromosome, the researchers found the HAC was faithfully replicated by 80 per cent or more of the cow cells. When they examined immune cells from the animals, they found some had correctly assembled human antibody genes.
And the extra chromosome does not seem to have a significant effect on the animal's health. "I was nervous about that," says Robl. "But they have better development than some of the other clones we've been working with."
Tue Aug 13, 2002.
(DailyGrail.com)
I think this is not a door and nothing is behind it...1
So said Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation. Dr Hawass was referring to the so-called 'Gantenbrink Door', a baffling portcullis type block secreted away within the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. In September 2002 Dr Hawass, as well as Fox television, National Geographic, and a robot designed by NASA will attempt to further investigate this amazing non-door. Because, as we all know, non-doors are particularly interesting things. Perhaps there is a slight chance of even discovering a non-chamber behind the non-door? No wonder then, that so much time and money is being expended in investigating the 'Gantenbrink Door', which is perhaps the most well-known non-door in recent history. And looking back at its history reveals even stranger comments and actions. Let's take a look.
In March 1993 Rudolf Gantenbrink - a German robotics engineer - working with the German Archaeological Institute, made an exciting discovery while 'exploring' the so-called 'air shafts' of the Great Pyramid at Giza. These air shafts are only 8 inches square, thus the actual 'exploration' of these shafts was undertaken by Gantenbrink's specially designed robot, Upuaut II. At the end of the southern shaft emanating from the Queens Chamber, some 65 metres from the opening, Upuaut II discovered what looked to be a portcullis type door made of fine Tura limestone, with two copper/metallic protusions2. What this 'door' really is, is still a matter of conjecture - the conundrum lies in the size of the shafts. Why finish the shaft in this manner when no human could possibly reach it? This suggests that the shaft ending either has an important religious/ritual function (for example, a pathway for the soul), or that behind it lies an important chamber that was meant to remain concealed forever (additionally, and often overlooked - the northern shaft is still yet to be properly explored, after Upuaut II encountered difficulties with an angled turn within the shaft)
Right from the beginning this discovery became enveloped in confusion and controversy 3. The 'alternative' author Robert Bauval became involved with Gantenbrink after they met in Egypt - Bauval was synchronistically researching the shaft's purpose at that time for his soon-to-be bestseller The Orion Mystery (co-authored with Adrian Gilbert). The attachment of this discovery with 'alternative' ideas, as well as the method via which the discovery was released to the press, angered the Egyptian officials. A fiasco developed whereby all work on the shaft/door came to an end, and opinions on the discovery were polarised to opposite ends of the scholarly and alternative spectrum. That is, either the door was a non-entity, or the door concealed some great secret which was within humanity's grasp. Unfortunately, the truth probably lies somewhere between these poles - and since then, it is the truth that has suffered.
In the intervening ten years, it has been the 'alternative' community which has championed further work on the 'Gantenbrink Door'. Most of the scholarly comment has been negative, in a fairly obvious attempt to disassociate itself from alternative thought. This is particularly staggering. As Rudolf Gantenbrink replied, when asked whether further investigation would be of minor importance:
We are dealing with one of the most important and highly exposed monuments in history. There is huge public interest in further investigation. Due to this...the investigation has major importance.4
It's important to remind ourselves of this fact. A mysterious shaft ending was discovered in perhaps the the greatest archaeological monument of all time. It has been almost ten years since any further work has done. The reasons for this tend to range from "well, most Egyptologists don't really care about the pyramids" to "real scientists don't rush in, only amateurs do". Don't be fooled. If any well-known archaeologist had discovered the 'Gantenbrink Door', you can be sure that funding would have been diverted from a number of other projects to continue the work, and journal papers on the possible reasons for the 'door' would have abounded. However, it is obvious that 'scientists don't rush in'. Gantenbrink again (in 1998, five years after the discovery):
The digitally prepared visual data collected during the investigation - showing details and evidence of Egyptologycal value - was never evaluated by any Egyptologist. No request was ever put forward to obtain such data, nor was any interest shown to take part in the process of digital evaluation.5
It is a sorry fact that the saga attached to the 'Gantenbrink Door' has its roots in financial and political motives, and those roots have found fertile ground in the personalities of those responsible for the stoppage of further investigation.
Here's the real view of the 'door' in terms of Egyptology (by the man in charge of the Giza Plateau, Dr Zahi Hawass). Take your pick:
In 1993: In my opinion this is -the- discovery in Egypt 6
In 1995: I think this is not a door and nothing is behind it 7
In 1996: the Egyptian Gazette reported him as saying the 'door' was of huge interest, and that it would be opened in September by a multinational team led by Dr Farouk El-Baz.8
In 1998: We found that there is no shaft or small area, underneath this stone to send a small robot or anything, this means that we are not going to be able to investigate and see what's behind it9
In November 1998: An article in Al-Ahram reported Dr. Hawass as saying that the door would be opened during the Millennium celebrations at Giza.10
In 2001: And that stop, it's not a door11
And now, finally we have a Fox television special set down for the 16th of September of 2002, which promises to unveil the secrets behind this door (or non-door, as time and Dr Hawass' mood might have it). In the advance publicity for this television special, and on other fronts, at no point has Rudolf Gantenbrink's name been mentioned. Neither has the fact that at any time in the past ten years Rudolf Gantenbrink was ready to return to the investigation and had the equipment and know-how to complete it already assembled. In fact, he even offered to train Egyptians to do the job so as to remove any 'personal' conflict from the situation.
During these years Rudolf travelled often to Egypt in an attempt to have the investigation restarted. He would often report that Dr Hawass was 'more receptive' or that the past had been forgotten. However, while treating Gantenbrink cordially, and incidentally while also gaining much more information from him on methods of progressing with the shaft exploration, Dr Hawass spoke in this manner of the man who had 'the expertise' to complete the job at any time:
Guardian: The last news that you released on the continuation of the exploration of the shafts in the Queen's Chamber was that these would resume examination in May. Is that still the intended date to send another robot up the shafts?
Dr. Hawass: No. I do not really find the expertise to do it right. I am waiting for some proposals to tell me how they can do it because you know because we do not want this German to work there. 12
This is the sort of personality one is dealing with at the Giza Plateau. Beyond this - and at this point the situation moves beyond the pale - Rudolf Gantenbrink was not even notified by National Geographic or the Egyptian authorities to inform him of this new attempt at investigating the 'door'.
It is fairly obvious then, that Gantenbrink has been pushed to the outer for reasons other than his ability to complete the job. Dr Hawass has pointed out in a 'Guardian Interview' that perhaps the reason is because of his lack of archaeological qualifications or affiliation:
Guardian: Last we spoke nobody had come through with a proposal. Since then is there any new proposals for exploring the Queen's chamber shafts with a small robot again?
Dr. Hawass: We are trying to and we hope soon that some people will come but it should come through institutions and things like this. 13
Institutions such as Fox television it would seem...
And so the show continues, sans Rudolf Gantenbrink. Immediately one has to feel cynical about anything that occurs during the television special. What are the options?
That the team has done no testing at all, and is relying on everything going right 'on the night'. Highly unlikely, but probably the most interesting to watch.
That the reconnaisance has already been done, and they have a good idea that there is something worth a television special. Seemingly the most likely, but anyone who watched the previous Fox debacle might not be so confident.
That the reconnaisance has already been done, and although there is nothing of interest there they are still going to milk it for some ratings and then blame all those 'pyramidiots' for suggesting that it was worth a look. Creeping up in my estimations, unfortunately.
However, when it is all said and done, after 10 years of stalling and political manoeuvring, who's going to believe any outcome, no matter what is found? If they find nothing, there will be those who will suggest that it was a big cover-up (not unjustifiably, one might add). If something is found, people will be wary of the big media setup and the possibility of a plant for publicity reasons. No, the course of action pursued by the Egyptian authorities has turned this whole situation into a joke. And one that is not funny.
So, all that can be recommended is that you remember who discovered the 'door'. For, no matter how much manipulation of the facts is attempted, and whether or not Gantenbrink is excluded from any further work, the fact remains that the Queen's Chamber shafts were first explored properly by Rudolf Gantenbrink and Upuaut II - and the 'door' in the southern shaft was discovered by him. Without him, there would be no September 16 television special - in fact, the 'door' may have lay hidden for centuries longer. Thus it will always be known as the "Gantenbrink Door", whether it turns out to be a structure of significance or not. Not the "Hawass Door", nor the "Fox Door". Simply the "Gantenbrink Door". Remember that, and always refer to it as that.
References
1 - Spielage Reportage, cited in Keeper of Genesis page 101.
2 - Anyone wanting detailed information on these expeditions cannot go past Rudolf Gantenbrink's website The Upuaut Project, which features articles, images and even CAD drawings of the Great Pyramid.
3 - For a more detailed history, from various sides of the story, see Secret Chamber and Giza: The Truth.
4 - See Nigel Skinner-Simpson's excellent website http://towers-online.co.uk/pages/gantenbk.htm
5 - Ibid.
6 - Spielage Reportage, cited in Keeper of Genesis page 101.
7 - Ibid.
8 - See Nigel Skinner-Simpson's excellent website http://towers-online.co.uk/pages/gantenbk.htm
9 - http://www.guardians.net/spotlite/spotlgt2.htm
10 - See Nigel Skinner-Simpson's excellent website http://towers-online.co.uk/pages/gantenbk.htm
11 - http://www.guardians.net/spotlite/spotlite-hawass-2001.htm
12 - http://www.guardians.net/spotlite/spotlite-hawass-2000.htm
13 - http:/ /www.guardians.net/spotlite/spotlite-hawass-2001.htm
DISCOVER Magazine-The Magazine of the Discovery Channel
© Copyright 2002 The Walt Disney Company.
(August 2002)
Going Once, Going Twice
By the time an auctioneer shouts "Sold!" most bidders have already gone too far
By Michael Abrams
A third of the way into A Beautiful Mind, the recent film about mathematician John Nash, a sexy blonde and four brunettes walk into a bar, batting their eyelashes. After a bit of ogling, Nash and his number-minded friends decide to compete for the blonde. Then Nash has second thoughts. If everyone goes for the same woman, he says, we'll just end up blocking each other out and offending the rest of the women. The only way for everyone to succeed is to ignore the blonde and go for the brunettes instead.
The scene is an attempt to illustrate Nash's most important contribution to game theory—the Nash equilibrium. Nash showed that in any competitive situation—war, chess, even picking up a date at a bar—if the participants are rational, and they know that their opponents are rational, there can be only one optimal strategy. That theory won Nash a Nobel Prize in economics. The math behind it is flawless and has transformed the way people think about evolution, arms races, stock markets, and ticktacktoe. There's only one problem: People aren't rational.
"They just aren't that smart," says Thomas Palfrey, an economist at the California Institute of Technology, "and if they are that smart, they don't think everybody else is that smart." Palfrey would fit right in at a greyhound track, with his swept-back hair and confidence-winning eyes. He says "basically" and "actually" a lot and discusses his work as if letting you in on a hot tip for the second race. The best strategy in any game against Palfrey is not to play at all: In the past few years, he has hit upon a variation on Nash's theory that describes true competitive behavior for the first time. More than any economist before him, Palfrey is likely to guess your every move.
The imbalance at the crux of the Nash equilibrium first struck him and his colleague Richard McKelvey in 1988, at a conference in Haifa, Israel. Game theorist Robert Aumann was giving a talk on a hypothetical game called centipede, in which two players take turns being offered the larger portion of a pot of money. If either player accepts, the game is over, and the loser gets the smaller amount. But each time the pot is declined, the amount of money inside grows. If it increases tenfold, a nervy player's winnings can grow from $10 to $10 million in only six turns. But the Nash equilibrium dictates a less daring strategy—take the larger pot the first chance you get. "This is ridiculous," Palfrey remembers thinking. "Game theorists keep talking about the centipede game as if they know what's going to happen, but in fact they don't know. So let's run an experiment."
Back at Caltech, he and McKelvey sat some students in front of a network of cubicled computers and let them play one another anonymously. "This was the first time I'd ever run an experiment that was done just to see what was going to happen," Palfrey says. "It was sort of like when you got your chemistry set for Christmas in fifth grade and you saw all these different chemicals and sort of threw them all in together to see what would happen. But we got really amazing data." Contrary to the predictions of the Nash equilibrium, only 37 of 662 centipede games ended in the first round. "The problem we had then was how to explain the data. How would you actually model players not being fully rational?"
The breakthrough came when the economists factored in altruism and skepticism. The players knew that their decisions didn't always make sense—and that their opponents weren't always rational, either—and that made their optimal strategy distinctly different from what Nash predicted. "You can never know what somebody else is thinking," Palfrey says. "All you can do is try to guess what they're thinking. And they're trying to guess what you're thinking, too." To model this behavior, Palfrey mixed a little statistics in with the theory behind the Nash equilibrium. Strategic mistakes and errors are part of the new formula, but the reasoning is the same as Nash's. There's still a single best strategy: Palfrey calls it the quantal response equilibrium.
In 1998, not long after Palfrey and McKelvey's ideas coalesced, Palfrey started running model auctions to test the theory. For years in economic circles, a controversy had raged over the subject of overbidding. Why is it that people in auctions routinely pay more than they should? Some economists, like Glenn Harrison of the University of South Carolina, thought that bidders simply value the joy of winning more than the satisfaction of getting an object for less than it's worth—especially when it's not worth much to begin with. Others, like Daniel Friedman at the University of California at Santa Cruz, thought overbidding might be the result of an aversion to risk: Most bidders would rather bid too high than run the risk of losing the item altogether.
To see who was right, Palfrey had a group of students join a series of computer auctions using real money. Each item up for auction was assigned a value. Then pairs of students bid against each other, with each student allowed a single bid. When a student won an item for less than its assigned value, he kept the difference. For example, if Palfrey told a student an object was worth $7, and the student won it with a $3 bid, he would win $4. Each student participated in 15 separate auctions. It was, Palfrey says, "a very simplified version of the New York Stock Exchange."
Every auction has a Nash equilibrium—a bid that perfectly balances the risk of losing to a higher bidder (and making no profit) against the possibility of greater profits (the lower you bid, the more money you'll make). In Palfrey's experiment, that optimal bid was half the object's given value, yet the students regularly bid much higher. According to the Nash equilibrium, they should have walked out of the experiment with an average of $14.20. Instead, they averaged only $10.70—exactly as Palfrey's quantal response equilibrium had predicted.
The experiment banged the gavel on the overbidding debate. Risk aversion and random mistakes pushed the bids higher—even in auctions for inexpensive objects. When overbidding was riskier than underbidding, the students were less likely to overbid. To Palfrey, bidders are like people in a parking lot faced with feeding the meter or potentially paying a parking ticket: They'll feed the meter even if the attendant only comes by once a year. "The more risk averse you are in an auction, the higher you bid," Palfrey says. And the more bidders overbid, the more their high bids begin to snowball.
These days Palfrey is testing quantal response on "all-pay auctions," where everyone who bids has to pay up—whether they win the bidding or not. "It has applications to things you wouldn't normally dream of," he says, like political campaigns, where even losing candidates have to spend a fortune, and mating contests in nature, where two males may fight to the death for a single female. "The real power of this is that it's replicable," Palfrey says. "It's not just your group of eight people in a lab. Somebody could run the auction at Harvard, and they'll see the same thing."
Even the most rational people can be predictably irrational, Palfrey concludes. In some business schools, professors make an exercise of auctioning off a dollar to their students, stipulating that both top bidders will have to pay. The best strategy is simply not to bid, Palfrey says. "But then it's tricky, because if everyone else realizes this, then why don't I bid 10 cents? It would be irrational for anybody else to bid 11 cents. Well, the problem is that some clown out there is going to bid 11 cents." Once the bidding gets going, he says, often only the professor can stop it.
University of Washington Scientist Probes Indian Myth for Tsunami Clues
(The Associated Press)
S E A T T L E, Aug. 12 2002— When scientists figured out that sea water drowned groves of tall trees up and down the coast of Washington state the same year a tsunami hit Japan, they theorized that a massive earthquake in the Pacific most likely triggered both events.
Based on Japanese records, scientists were able to pinpoint a date Jan. 26, 1700 and estimate that the rupture of a long stretch of sea floor had caused a magnitude 9 quake, which would be the largest known temblor ever to strike what is now the contiguous United States.
But Ruth Ludwin, a University of Washington geophysics professor, wanted more. There appeared to be no accounts of cataclysmic earth-shaking in the stories and legends of the only North Americans who would have been here to witness the quake Indians.
"When you talk about a very large earthquake in 1700, for that to be really convincing to me, I really need to have evidence from people who were there," Ludwin said. "I was looking for a more comprehensive story."
Ludwin began to search obscure volumes of tribal folklore, where she found that, for centuries, Indians from British Columbia's Vancouver Island to the coast of Northern California had been telling strikingly similar tales of mudslides, of plains that suddenly became oceans and other stories that strongly suggest tribes bore witness to tsunamis like the one in 1700.
Many of the legends involve a mythic battle between a thunderbird and a whale.
One tale told by generations of Hoh Indians from the Forks area of Washington's Olympic Peninsula contains what Ludwin considers the clearest description of a concurrent earthquake and tsunami yet discovered in tribal legend.
As the story goes, Ludwin wrote in a research paper, "There was a great storm and hail and flashes of lightning in the darkened, blackened sky and a great and crashing 'thunder-noise' everywhere. ... There were also a great shaking, jumping and trembling of the earth beneath and a rolling up of the great waters."
The Makah Indians, whose reservation at Neah Bay sits at the northwest tip of Washington state, also have a version one that ends with a thunderbird delivering a whale inland to the mouth of a river, giving the giant beast to a tribe that had been starving one winter thousands of years ago.
Although it's unclear exactly how long the story has been told, it formed the basis of the tribe's centuries-old whale hunt and could be linked to one of the seven "megathrust" quakes scientists believe have occurred over the past 3,500 years.
"I think it's really interesting that our cultural knowledge can help unravel some of these scientific mysteries," said Janine Bowechop, director of the Makah Museum. "I feel good that we can share information and then really have a better understanding for both worlds."
Many legends contain no time elements. Others that were never written down have been lost entirely, so Ludwin's work can seem like trying to solve a puzzle with most of the pieces missing. But she insists it's worth it.
"The work that I've done is not extremely important from a scientific point of view, but it's important from the point of view of understanding and believing," Ludwin said. "It's another piece of the puzzle."
The megathrust quake believed to have occurred in 1700 ruptured the Cascadia subduction zone, where two of the tectonic plates that form the Earth's crust the Juan de Fuca and the North America plates overlap. From its northern end, off the western coast of Vancouver Island, the subduction zone stretches about 600 miles south to Cape Mendocino in Northern California, then runs into the San Andreas fault.
It was the Japanese who first theorized that an enormous earthquake in the Pacific caused what they called their "orphan tsunami," so named because there was no local temblor that accompanied the torrent of 6-foot-high waves that crashed along 500 miles of coastline.
When they learned that groves of red cedars and Sitka spruces along Washington's coast had dropped several feet, drowning in saltwater sometime in the late 1600s or early 1700s, they theorized that one huge quake must have been responsible for both the Japanese tsunami and this state's "ghost forests."
Radiocarbon dating of spruce stumps narrowed the timeline of the tree drownings to somewhere between 1680 and 1720, said Brian Atwater, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Seattle.
That was too large a window, so scientists went back to one of the estuaries where roots of red cedars had survived and could be dated by the rings in the roots.
At that grove, near the Copalis River in Grays Harbor County, tree-ring dating showed the red cedars died sometime between August 1699 and May 1700.
"If we had found that those red cedars died in 1697 or 1703, we would say, 'Well, we're not sure your tsunami came from our earthquake,' " Atwater said. "We knew there was an earthquake or a series of earthquakes. The question was how big and exactly when."
Although the geological evidence of the 1700 megathrust seemed solid, there were still some skeptics before Ludwin started finding Indian tales that supported the science.
Tribal folklore, Atwater said, "is important, because people understandably want human evidence as well as physical evidence."
(NYT)
August 14, 2002
Tobacco companies in the 1980's and 1990's put pressure on drug companies to limit their marketing of nicotine gum and skin patches that help people quit smoking, according to a new study of tobacco industry documents.
The study, published in today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, describes how Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims and other cigarettes, exerted financial leverage over the pharmaceutical divisions of giant chemical companies by threatening to cut off purchases from the companies' agricultural divisions.
The drug companies then toned down their marketing strategies, the study says, focusing on smokers who had already decided to quit rather than making broader appeals based on the health benefits of quitting.
What might otherwise be considered merely hardball business tactics was unethical in this case because the tobacco companies knew the health risks of smoking, said Dr. Lisa Bero, a professor of clinical pharmacy and health policy at the University of California at San Francisco and the senior author of the study.
"There was another product on the market designed to keep people from using their deadly product," Dr. Bero said. "They were attempting to keep people from using it."
Because of mergers and reorganizations in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, the makers of the quit-smoking products say their marketing is now free of tobacco industry influence.
For its part, Philip Morris says the incidents described in the paper are ancient history. "Basically, the actions that are described in the study do not reflect the actions we are taking on issues like this today," said Brendan McCormick, a spokesman. "Certainly we acknowledge smoking causes serious disease in smokers and is addictive."
The nicotine gum and skin patches curb cravings, increasing the chances of kicking the habit.
Dr. Bero and her colleague Bhavna Shamasunder sifted through the trove of internal tobacco industry documents released in 1998 as part of the settlement of the states' lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
According to memorandums, when Merrell Dow, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, introduced Nicorette nicotine gum in 1980, executives at Philip Morris wanted Dow to limit marketing to only people who needed to quit for health reasons. Dow canceled an antismoking newsletter to doctors after one issue.
Philip Morris executives were not satisfied and on May 7, 1984, canceled purchases of Dow chemicals that help moisten tobacco, an $8-million-a-year account.
"Dow was informed that the recent spate of activity can only be interpreted as a conscious corporate decision that Nicorette is more important than the Philip Morris (and other tobacco) business," an internal Philip Morris memorandum said.
Philip Morris soon resumed purchases. According to notes of a meeting in October 1984, David Sharrock, president of Merrell Dow, assured Philip Morris executives that he was screening advertising and education materials to eliminate antitobacco statements.
Philip Morris also pressured Dow to discontinue support for an antismoking alliance of public health organizations.
The episode was first reported in 1998 and 1999 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, whose articles were based on many of the same documents studied by the medical researchers.
The new study expands on those earlier reports, showing that Philip Morris's tactics continued into the early 1990's, when the first nicotine skin patches were approved. After Ciba-Geigy introduced its patch, Habitrol, Philip Morris started pressuring Ciba-Geigy's agricultural division about what it saw as an antitobacco bias in the Habitrol advertising.
"Boom, this financial sanction comes, and boom, the advertising changes," Dr. Bero said. "They're very sequential."
The Ciba-Geigy divisions negotiated "ground rules" for the marketing of Habitrol that specify "no antismoking theme" and "we do not endorse positions which would take away the freedom of choice for smokers."
While the study focused on Philip Morris, other tobacco companies were also involved in pressuring the drug companies, Dr. Bero said. The Ciba-Geigy guidelines were widely distributed to other tobacco companies and even tobacco growers.
Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at the New York University School of Law, called Philip Morris's behavior understandable, given that it was trying to protect its market.
"A company that sees a supplier trying to take away its customers might quite reasonably choose not to deal with that supplier," Mr. Gillers said. "That's rational economic behavior. Why should we enrich you when you're trying to hurt us?"
But he said he was surprised how quickly Dow and Ciba-Geigy acceded to Philip Morris's demands. As they were not in the tobacco business, Dow and Ciba-Geigy "have an obligation to question the ethics of withdrawing a profitable product that can help smokers stop in order to appease tobacco," Mr. Gillers said, adding: "The word that occurs to me is `cowardly.' Why didn't they stand up to Philip Morris?"
John Musser, a spokesman for Dow Chemical, said the actions were part of the usual give-and-take between large companies.
"That business was never affected by any changes in our accommodations to Philip Morris," Mr. Musser said. "That product thrived a lot of years before, during and after all that."
Dow sold its pharmaceutical business in 1995, and Nicorette is now marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, which does not have ties to the tobacco industry.
"We have absolutely no conflicts of interest," said Steve Burton, the company's vice president for smoking control. "Our commitment is unconditional."
Marketing still focuses on smokers who have already decided to quit, but that is because the products work best in those who are motivated, Mr. Burton said.
Worldwide sales of Nicorette and NicoDerm, GlaxoSmithKline's nicotine skin patch, totaled $513 million last year, he said.
Ciba-Geigy merged with Sandoz in 1996 to form Novartis. It has since spun off its agricultural divisions, and Novartis officials says they, too, are free out of outside pressures. Habitrol is no longer marketed directly, but sold under the private label of drugstore chains.
Dr. Bero said she did not know if tobacco companies continued to pressure drug companies.
"We can't go beyond the limits of our data," she said.
(Washington Post)
August 12, 2002
In a sullen ritual played out each day, more than 1,000 drug addicts descend on a Northeast Washington neighborhood off New York Avenue to receive treatment at the three public methadone programs in the area.
They are a primed clientele for the drug dealers who operate out of a nearby McDonald's parking lot. Brazenly hustling in broad daylight, the dealers sell a jumble of pharmaceuticals to an unrelenting stream of buyers -- an operation that D.C. police describe as the largest open-air pill market in the region.
Many addicts in the midst of treatment say that the availability of so many drugs, also including heroin and crack, presents daily temptations when they are grappling with the physical and psychological complexities of trying to overcome substance abuse.
The McDonald's parking lot abuts the District government's largest methadone clinic and is within three blocks of the two other treatment centers.
On a recent morning, a dealer who goes by the name King Bad collected a swift $2,500 in sales, mostly from hard-core drug users eager for painkillers and sedatives such as OxyContin, Xanax and Percoset, as well as antibiotics for infected needle lesions and blood pressure medication to ease withdrawal symptoms.
"This is the place for pills, any pills you want, man," boasted King Bad, 52, a longtime heroin addict who unsuccessfully tried methadone rehabilitation at one of the nearby facilities.
"More than half my customers are in and out of those clinics. This is a way for me to survive," said the dealer, who declined to give his real name out of fear the police would track him down.
Dubbed "McPharmacy" by police narcotics investigators, the prescription-drug bazaar on New York Avenue and First Street NE is a formidable obstacle for those seeking help at the methadone clinics, D.C. health officials say.
"I get a complaint at least once a day from patients who say they have to walk through that maze of drug dealers," said Tyrone V. Patterson, manager of the Model Treatment Program, which has almost 500 patients a day and is adjacent to the McDonald's. Patterson has a clear view of the illicit activity: The large windows in his office overlook the parking lot.
Also affected are a second D.C. Department of Health clinic, part of the agency's $6.2 million methadone program, and a $725,000 methadone treatment service run by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
The clinics, with the assistance of police and private security guards, have managed to keep drug activity away from the entrances of their buildings, but the market continues to thrive and has spilled over onto surrounding streets.
"It's like walking through a minefield. At one time, I couldn't get in or out without being accosted or succumbing to the drug trade," lamented Philip, 46, a recovering heroin addict who did not want to give his last name. "If you can make it through this test, you can probably make it through most tests."
The dealers said they are merely exploiting a market that guarantees robust returns and enables many of them to support their own drug habits.
Drug dealers have been a presence for years at the two-story McDonald's at 75 New York Ave. NE, but police have recently noticed greater activity at the site, coinciding with a surge in heroin use in the city. And Cmdr. Alan J. Dreher of the 1st Police District said his office has been receiving more community complaints about the open-air market, which also caters to well-heeled customers from the District, Maryland and Virginia.
John Brennan, a sergeant with the D.C. police major narcotics branch, said that a citywide strike force has made more than 200 arrests at the drug market in the past two years but that the impact has been minimal. Brennan said that new dealers emerge almost as quickly as the police can make arrests and that many of those apprehended and charged receive sentences that do not involve jail time.
Ron Keiper, a detective in the narcotics branch, said many of the addicts showing up at the methadone clinics are not there out of choice but because of court orders, another factor that contributes to the area around the McDonald's being "a haven of bad guys."
William Edwards, who owns the McDonald's, declined to be interviewed. In two written statements, he said he has been working vigilantly with police and the community to control the drug dealing.
"At my own expense, there is a constant presence of uniformed off-duty Metropolitan Police officers in my store. In fact, 21 off-duty police officers work on the premises on a weekly basis," one of the statements said.
On a weekday morning late last month, no police officer was visible at the restaurant while dealers in the parking lot openly handled large wads of cash and dispensed copious amounts of pharmaceuticals. "They [McDonald's] don't mess with us because we spend money with them," King Bad said.
That morning, a man who identified himself only as Rodney, 39, illustrated another dimension to the drug dealing at the McDonald's: Not only do some addicts in treatment continue to buy drugs there, they also sell. Soon after receiving his regular dose of liquid methadone at the Model Treatment Program on First Street NE, Rodney made his way to the parking lot to hawk OxyContin.
"You looking for Oxy? I got it here, right here," he said to a passerby who declined his offer of an 80-milligram pill for $40 or a 20-milligram tablet for $20.
Standing by a trash bin a few steps away, a gaunt woman waved a $20 bill at another dealer who obliged by furtively giving her Catapres, a prescription drug used for high blood pressure.
Capitalizing on their New York Avenue locale near Union Station, the dealers also cater to more upscale customers from across the metropolitan area. At one point last week, five cars, including a Mercedes, a BMW and a Pathfinder sport-utility vehicle, idled in the McDonald's lot as the drivers gave their orders to several attending dealers.
"I need some more Percoset," the driver of the BMW, which bore Maryland tags, told a dealer before slipping $60 through the window and motoring away with a dozen pills. Within seconds of that transaction, the driver of the SUV stepped out of his vehicle, which displayed Virginia tags, and handed the dealer $40 for 20 Xanax.
Soon after, a man behind the wheel of a rickety Honda pulled up alongside King Bad and announced he was selling methadone pills for the "wholesale price" of $5 apiece. King Bad quickly accepted the deal, snapping up a dozen or so pills, which he planned to sell for the market price of $10 per tablet.
Patterson said his clinic "is supposed to be a symbol of help and hope and not a symbol of open drug-dealing." But he also noted that he has used his second-floor office view of the McDonald's parking lot to stress a lesson to recovering addicts: What they see happening in the lot is something they must reject outright if they are to succeed in their treatment.
The clinic has moved up its schedule by an hour, giving out methadone from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., to reduce the concentration of patients who come to the facility before going to work. The three methadone programs also offer bus service to and from their facilities.
James T. Speight Jr., director of the second D.C. Health Department clinic, the UPO Comprehensive Treatment Center, said his facility strongly urges the 380 methadone patients it sees each day not to linger in the neighborhood after treatment.
"We view the pushers as predators because the individuals we work with are sick and vulnerable people who are being preyed on," Speight said.
Debbie Jackson, who runs the Veteran Affairs Community Clinic -- which treats about 180 patients daily in its methadone program -- said the drug dealers are ruthlessly trying to cash in on the fact that recovering addicts are susceptible to relapses. "You are not going to sell umbrellas in the desert," Jackson said.
Narcotics investigators said the dealers are getting their pharmaceuticals largely through people who have illegally obtained prescription pads, often through connections at hospitals, clinics or doctor's offices. They sometimes make huge numbers of photocopies to last them long periods. Others sell drugs that have been prescribed to them legitimately by doctors, or they find a doctor who will knowingly write a fraudulent prescription.
Some of the individuals involved in illicit pill distribution have also been found to have prescription cards from several stores so they can get many prescriptions filled without drawing suspicion at any one pharmacy.
Some dealers also buy people's Medicaid prescription cards for up to $100 apiece, allowing the dealers to fill prescriptions at little or no cost.
Law enforcement authorities said that compared with the dozens of other open-air drug markets across the District, the one at the McDonald's generally draws an older crowd of buyers and sellers and has not experienced the violence associated with turf wars in the crack cocaine and marijuana trades.
Brennan said that although there have been isolated situations in which doctors have been busted for writing illegal prescriptions for drugs that are then sold on the street, winning a case is a formidable undertaking. "One of the hardest things to do is to get the doctors," he said. "They are generally intelligent people who know how to cover their tracks and hire the best lawyers."
Without providing details, Dreher said police officers will be more visible around the McDonald's as part of a two-pronged approach aimed at reining in the dealing. "Arresting your way out of the problem is one thing, but you need some decent outreach from social services, and we are looking at getting that going," he said.
John Hooper in Berlin
(UKGuardian)
August 13, 2002
Germany's most notorious postwar neo-Nazi party was led by an intelligence agent working for the British, according to both published and unpublished German sources.
The alleged agent - the late Adolf von Thadden - came closer than anyone to giving the far-right real influence over postwar German politics.
Under his leadership, the National Democratic party (NPD) made a string of impressive showings in regional elections in the late 60s, and there were widespread fears that it would gain representation in the federal parliament.
Yet, according to a report earlier this year in the Cologne daily, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the man dubbed "the New Führer" was working for British intelligence throughout the four years he led the NPD, from 1967 to 1971.
However, a former senior officer in German intelligence told the Guardian this week that he had been informed of a much longer-standing link between Von Thadden and British intelligence. His recollection raises the question of whether the German far-right-winger was under the sway of M16 when he and others founded the NPD in 1964.
Dr Hans Josef Horchem, who was the head of the Hamburg office of the Verfassungsschutz - the West German security service - from 1969 to 1981, said he received regular visits from British intelligence liaison officers.
"We held general discussions on security. At one of these - I think it was towards the end of the 70s- they said, 'Adolf von Thadden was in contact with us', and that that was in the 1950s". Mr Horchem did not know whether the links between the German and British intelligence had continued into the 60s and 70s.
According to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, whose report passed virtually unnoticed when it was published, the neo-Nazi leader met his British contact at a hotel in Hamburg.
Germany's government is currently trying to ban the NPD on the basis that its policies violate the constitution.
But the government's case is in danger of collapse after the disclosure that some senior NPD members were agents of the Verfassungsschutz. This has sparked debate about the extent to which counter-intelligence officers were sustaining the far right in their efforts to monitor it. Similar issues arise in Von Thadden's case.
The question also arises of whether MI6 was seeking help from the neo-Nazi movement when far-left militancy was sweeping Europe after the uprising of May 1968 in Paris.
Von Thadden left the NPD in 1975, and died at the age of 75 in 1996.
His younger sister, Barbara Fox von Thadden, said she had had no reason to suspect her brother worked for British intelligence. But she added that they had very different political views and steered away from political discussion.
They had an English grandmother, and Ms Fox von Thadden said her brother "did like coming to Britain, and did like Britain very much".
aircraft landing in their fields. (UKGuardian)
sent into space are flourishing in northern China's Hebei province.
with giant balloons.
human evolution hypothesis known as the Aquatic Ape Theory or AAT for short. (DailyGrail)
August 18, 2002
CNN
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A large archive of al Qaeda videotapes obtained by CNN in Afghanistan sheds new light on Osama bin Laden's terror network, revealing images of chemical gas experiments on dogs, lessons on making explosives, terrorist training tactics and previously unseen images of bin Laden and his top aides.
The archive includes 64 videotapes that span more than a decade and provide new insight into al Qaeda's planning, tactics and mindset. Nearly all the tapes pre-date last year's September 11 terror attacks. But one tape includes recorded segments from televised news reports of the attacks on New York and Washington, including CNN coverage.
CNN has shown the tapes to many experts, including Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on al Qaeda who was called on to address Congress, the United Nations and the Australian Parliament following the September 11 attacks. Gunaratna, the author of "Inside Al Qaeda," has interviewed members of the terrorist network and previously viewed more than 200 al Qaeda tapes. But he had not seen the tapes obtained by CNN and believes they were intended only for the eyes of the terror group's leaders.
"The collection has al Qaeda videos taken by al Qaeda of events," Gunaratna said. "Whenever Osama bin Laden met with foreign journalists, he always had his own cameraman. And it is those tapes that are there, because that itself shows that this is the al Qaeda library. This is not the library of someone else ... This is their history, the record room of Osama bin Laden."
CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson obtained the tapes from a source in Afghanistan, following a 17-hour drive from Kabul through treacherous terrain to a remote part of the war-torn country. According to the source, the tapes had been found in an Afghan house where bin Laden had stayed.
Some of the tapes are video training manuals for terrorists, much different from the al Qaeda promotional videos that have been released in the past. One three-hour tape, for example, shows how to make purified TNT from easy-to-get materials. They demonstrate sophistication in planning and explosives skills.
Experts interviewed by CNN say no terrorist organization is ever known to have put this much knowledge on videotape before. And although it is not known with certainty that all of the material contained in the tapes came from bin Laden's personal library, it includes revealing looks at the al Qaeda leader and his personal security arrangements.
One scene shows bin Laden with his security detail firing shots into the air as they get set to announce their new jihad against Americans. That scene was shot in 1998, three years before the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
Among the most frightening scenes in the collection of tapes are those of testing of a poison gas on three dogs. The disturbing images show the dying moments of the defenseless, enclosed animals.
A senior Bush administration official who is intimately involved in weapons issues said he was "very troubled" by the issues the video raises, particularly about chemical weapons.
The official said the video of the chemical tests on the dogs suggest a very strong desire to acquire the capability to use such weapons against humans. Until now, he said, he had seen nothing that indicated bin Laden or al Qaeda had the capability.
"This tape is unquestionable documentation that he has some capability," he said. The tape, he said, shows "some level of sophistication, and indicates they were trying to get results."
In one scene, a group of unidentified men wearing Afghan-style sandals rush out of an enclosure where one of the dogs is penned. A white liquid that gives off a gas is then seen seeping in from the left. Soon, the dog begins showing physical reactions.
Experts who were shown the tape by CNN had different theories as to what kind of chemical agent may have been used in the experiment. But there was agreement that whatever it was, it was a powerful agent, adding to the significance of the tapes and what they say about al Qaeda.
One of the tapes shows poison gas experiments being performed on dogs.
"It's probably extremely significant, if not profound," said John Gilbert, a chemical weapons specialist and arms control expert who advises the U.S. government. "I know there's been a lot of speculation about the state of technology, and how far they may have advanced toward having a usable chemical weapon. The fact that they were able to repeat tests or demonstrations on this tape indicates that they clearly have a way to produce a predictably lethal chemical."
In the months since September 11, U.S. officials have repeatedly said publicly that al Qaeda was believed to be seeking weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons. But, so far, no evidence on tape has been shown that al Qaeda has succeeded in obtaining or developing such weapons.
Al Qaeda documents examined by CNN last fall showed formulas for sarin, a deadly chemical agent. And Ahmed Ressam, a man trained by al Qaeda and convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, testified in court about tests using cyanide to kill dogs.
Coalition intelligence sources who have examined the tape obtained by CNN of the dying dogs said this appears to be an al Qaeda lethal weapons experiment at the remote Darunta camp in Afghanistan. The sources said dead dogs have been seen in past satellite images of the Darunta camp.
The sources said no intelligence agency is known to have previously seen most of these tapes.
18 August, 2002
(BBCNEWS)
Prof Don Foster analyses the anthrax letters
An FBI forensic linguistics expert believes the US anthrax attacks were carried out by a senior scientist from within America's biological-defence community.
Professor Don Foster - who helped convict Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and unveiled Joe Klein as the author of the novel Primary Colors - says the evidence points to someone with high-ranking military and intelligence connections.
My anxiety is that FBI agents assigned to this case are not getting full and complete co-operation
Speaking about the investigation for the first time, Prof Foster told the BBC he had identified two suspects who had both worked for the CIA, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and other classified military operations.
Controversially, Prof Foster says the killer is likely to be highly patriotic individual who wanted to demonstrate that the US was badly prepared for an act of biological terrorism.
The weapons-grade anthrax was posted in letters just days after the 11 September terror attacks, leaving five people dead, 18 injured and 35,000 forced to take precautionary antibiotics.
The professor says he does not believe the killer will strike again as he has achieved his goal.
He explained: "To that end his misplaced patriotism has worked. Today millions of government dollars have gone into research and anthrax antibiotics are now available to the public."
Agency rivalry?
However, he fears the investigation is now being hampered in its gathering of vital documents that could lead to the killer.
Prof Foster says investigators need examples of the suspects writing to analyse their style and use of language - which the professor believes is as unique as DNA and could unveil the perpetrator.
He said: "It's very frustrating. Ordinarily with the FBI if there's some documents needed - known writings - boom, they're on my desk the next day.
"My two suspects both appear to have CIA connections. These two agencies, the CIA and the FBI, are sometimes seen as rivals.
"My anxiety is that the FBI agents assigned to this case are not getting full and complete co-operation from the US military, CIA and witnesses who might have information about this case."
Killer 'diverting suspicion'
Prof Foster was given four letters recovered by investigators to analyse for clues to the killer's identity.
There's something very fishy... that this particular word should be misspelled and it should be misspelled in such an unconvincing way
"As I worked through these documents it became apparent that USAMRIID was ultimately the best place for the FBI to begin looking for a suspect," he said.
All of the letters contain the following messages "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". All were dated 11 September, a clear reference to the terror attacks.
But while investigators searched for links between the anthrax attacks and al-Qaeda, Prof Foster immediately suspected that dating the letters 11 September was merely a ruse to throw the authorities off the scent.
He says: "When an offender gives you some piece of information that's just completely unnecessary and that, in this case, is inaccurate, it becomes immediately suspect.
"It becomes a statement of 'Here's what I want you to believe about this document'."
Prof Foster also says the killer seems to have tried implicating two former USAMRIID scientists who had left the laboratory in unhappy circumstances by posting the letters from near their homes in New Jersey.
Kathy Nguyen died after inhaling anthrax spores
He says only someone in contact with a senior insider at USAMRIID would have known how the two scientists left the lab and that they would then be likely targets for the FBI investigation.
He says: "They are looking at someone who's a little bit higher up the food chain, who would have to have access to personnel information."
Deliberate mistakes
The professor also identified a number of mistakes and misspellings in the letters which he suspects are a deliberate ploy to confuse investigators.
The author of the anthrax letters tells his victims to take penicillin. Not only is penicillin the wrong antibiotic to take, the killer also misspells the word.
Prof Foster says: "You mean to tell me this guy is dealing with anthrax, a trillion spores a gram, and he thinks penicillin is going to be the antibiotic of choice?
"There's something very fishy about that misspelling there, that this particular word should be misspelled and it should be misspelled in such an unconvincing way.
"It looks like an attempt on the offender to say 'Hey, don't think I'm a scientist, don't think I know anything about antibiotics'."
The FBI have placed a number of scientists under intense scrutiny and recently questioned US scientist Dr Steven Hatfill in connection with the attacks.
Dr Hatfill strenuously denies any involvement in the attacks saying: "I have never worked with anthrax; I know nothing about this matter."
The FBI's investigation continues.
Interviews with Biowarriors Bill Patrick and Ken Alibek (Nova Online)
Nov 2001
When Dr. Kanatjan Alibekov fled to the U.S. in 1992, he carried with him intimate knowledge of the Soviet Union's biological weapons program. Alibekov, who later changed his name to Ken Alibek, had served as deputy chief of Biopreparat, the agency at the heart of the Soviet program.
To learn Soviet secrets, the U.S. government turned to longtime bioweaponeer Bill Patrick to debrief the defector in a series of clandestine meetings.
Here, prompted by NOVA producer Kirk Wolfinger, the two reminisce about their first meetings together. They also offer two insiders' views of the threat of bioterrorism today.
NOVA: Does the pervasiveness of biological weapons concern you? Are you worried about a threat either from a rogue state or from a terrorist organization?
Alibek: My answer is yes. People don't realize biological weapons could be the most sophisticated weapons. Biological weapons could be used covertly. There are a lot of different deployment scenarios. There are a lot of different techniques to manufacture biological weapons. And a lot of different agents could be used in biological weapons.
One of the problems is biotechnology is moving fast. We see a lot of changes in biotechnology in general -- in microbiology, genetic engineering. And all the developments will give more and more information about how to develop and manufacture sophisticated types of biological weapons. That worries me very, very much.
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"My biggest concern now is a rogue country that supports state terrorism," notes Patrick.
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Patrick: My take is very similar to Ken's. I don't think that Tom, Dick, and Harry terrorists, without significant training and experience in this arena, could develop an agent that would cause serious harm to this country. My biggest concern now is a rogue country that supports state terrorism and has the facilities to prepare, for example, a good dry powder of anthrax.
They could use that powder not in a large overt sense -- large targets in outside environments -- but they could certainly place that powder strategically in buildings, in subway systems. And they could cause serious harm. That's my biggest concern today.
My second biggest concern is what is happening to the scientists of the former Soviet Union who have the techniques and the knowledge base to manufacture a weapons agent. Where are they? Are they going to Iran? Are they going to Iraq, North Korea, perhaps? They could significantly improve the ability of the Iraqi program overnight with just a few changes in strains, just a few changes in production procedures, and transform Iraq into a very capable BW [biological weapons] country. These are where my concerns lie.
NOVA: What do you think, Ken? These are your colleagues.
Alibek: You know, yesterday night I had a talk with [Sergei Popov], my friend and my coworker now. He was a department chief back in Russia working in the area of biological weapons. We discussed changes we can see now in Russia. And he was telling me about how it was easy to steal something from the BW facilities.
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"You can get this information just for the cost of a translator from Russian into English," says Alibek.
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He was talking about groups of scientists with a desire to sell some products. And they were able to do this -- not actual agents but some plasmids that could be used for genetic engineering research work.
I know about a person who established a company to sell some techniques to develop genetically engineered strains. I know about many publications in Russian scientific journals explaining how to manufacture very sophisticated, highly pathogenic agents.
Patrick: Ken, that is scary. That is real scary.
Alibek: That is what I'm saying all the time. Ten years ago it would require several million dollars to get one or another technique. Now you can get this information just for the cost of a translator from Russian into English.
Patrick: Uh-huh.
Alibek: Or from Russian into Iranian -- any other language.
NOVA: What does the U.S. need to do about this dangerous situation?
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Alibek adds, "It is very difficult to control the situation."
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Alibek: We need to continue our efforts to pressure Russia to open a discussion about what exists in Russian BW facilities. They are still top secret. The United States must be very, let me say, strong with this issue with Russia.
And at the same time the United States, in my opinion, must do much to control the situation with Russian scientists -- maybe to help these scientists start doing some other work with no involvement in any BW-related business.
There are thousands of scientists with this knowledge scattered all over the world and a huge number of them in Russia. And it is very difficult to control the situation.
Alibek's debriefing
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Patrick: I never will forget the first day you and I met. You were at a safe house -- a well-known agency had gotten it for you. [Driving there], we circled the [Washington, D.C.] beltway several times in case somebody was following us. I saw you standing at the top of the stairs, and I gave you my business card, and although you weren't speaking English particularly well in those days, you saw my business card and started laughing.
NOVA: Tell us about your first meeting together.
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"You saw my business card and started laughing," Patrick reminds Alibek.
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Alibek: Yeah, because to me it was a very, very strange looking card.
Patrick: Well, it was a very dramatic card. It had the skull and crossbones on it.
Alibek: It was very strange to see somebody saying "I'm a BW expert...A bio-weapons expert." In our place if you said something like this, you were in trouble. In Russia, all the BW issues were top secret issues.
Patrick: Well, our issues were top secret too, but you knew precisely what agents we were working on [in the 1940s-1960s] and when we were going to test them in large-scale field tests in the Pacific. So this information might have been secret to the American people, but certainly you knew of our program in some of the most intimate details.
Alibek: But when I was in Russia, I never knew whether or not I had, let me say, complete information about the United States programs.
Patrick: Yeah.
Alibek: We knew the program started sometime in the '40s or '50s. We knew that the United States declared this program terminated [in 1969]. What was amazing to me, when I came to the United States, I realized I knew practically everything about the United States program.
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"I just put my head down on the table ... and said, "Oh, my God. Oh, my, God," recalls Patrick.
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Patrick: Right. And we knew absolutely nothing about yours. I never will forget when you started giving me the potential production figures for your various weaponized agents. If you recall, I just put my head down on the table where we were talking and said, "Oh, my God. Oh, my, God." It was a revelation that was just unbelievable to me.
Alibek: Well, the Soviet Union had four major anthrax production facilities.
Patrick: Yeah.
Alibek: One was located in the City of Kurgan. Another one was located in the City of Penza. One more in Sverdlovsk, which belonged to the Ministry of Defense, and one more relatively recently established in Stepnogorsk. And I became commander of this facility, the Stepnogorsk facility, in 1983 with the specific task to develop new anthrax biological weapons.
Patrick: How old were you, Ken, in 1983?
Alibek: Thirty-two years old.
Patrick: That is a lot of responsibility for someone that young. You were doing the things that were necessary to weaponize agents, and you were very effective in doing that job.
Alibek: But, you know, when I finished this work in 1986, I was a little disappointed because the production facility I ran at that time was not able to manufacture more than 300 tons of the anthrax during a 250-day period.
Patrick: [Laughter.] Oh, my goodness. Only 300 tons.
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"You were out-producing us by a factor of 300-to-1," Patrick notes.
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Alibek: I was disappointed because I thought I would be able to reach something like 1,000 tons. But when I came to the United States, I realized that it was a little more than you were able to manufacture.
Patrick: Oh, my goodness. You were out-producing us by a factor of 300-to-1 in one plant.
NOVA: Ken, how did you feel about Bill Patrick when you met him? What made you think, this is a guy that I can talk to?
Alibek: First, because I liked you. Of course, I didn't understand even a word you were saying because I didn't speak English.
Patrick: Yeah.
Alibek: I didn't understand English, but it was clear to me you were quite a funny person in a good sense.
Patrick: Dallas humor, I think, is the expression.
Alibek: And even at that time I was not absolutely sure that the United States had terminated the BW program.
Patrick: Yeah. Right.
Alibek: I was trying to figure out whether or not you were a real guy who worked in this field. And when we started a discussion -- it was not a very long discussion -- but it started getting clear that you knew this issue firsthand.
Patrick: Well, you paid me a very high compliment in your book Biohazard where [you write] that you couldn't convince anyone about the procedures and capabilities [of the Soviet program], and you said that I was the first person who truly realized what that program was all about.
Regrets of bioweapons work
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NOVA: When you look back on your career, do you have regrets about what you did? Do you have second thoughts about what you did in the moral sense?
Alibek: Was it right for me to be involved in this business? I say no. Probably, I didn't have the right because of one important reason: Because I'm a physician.
Somebody with no medical background -- a chemist or biologist who didn't pledge not to cause harm -- I cannot accuse this person of wrongdoing. But with my specific case, I was a physician. I tried to escape -- I tried not to be involved in this business -- but I was not able to do this.
NOVA: Bill, what about your take on the question?
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Patrick still stresses, "We all felt that we were patriotic."
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Patrick: Well, I've been posed this question many times, and I feel very ambivalent about providing a very cut-and-dried answer. I vacillate on this point. All I can say is, in retrospect, it probably was a good thing that President Nixon disestablished the offensive program in 1969.
But at the time, those of us who worked at Detrick [the U.S. Army's base for biological weapons research], we all felt that we were patriotic. We realized that we were in the midst of a very severe Cold War -- with the United States on one side and the Soviet Union and, at that time, Red China on the other side. And we felt that it was absolutely the patriotic thing to do to develop biological warfare in case it was used against us. The policy of this country was always to have biological warfare available in a response, not first usage, but in response.
NOVA: So, in short, no regrets?
Patrick: The tempo of the times allowed me to work on offensive biological warfare agents without qualms. Without any qualms, yeah.
Back in March of this year, Advanced Biosystems was awarded a $2.6 million Anthrax research contract by the U.S. Army to study and develop new medical defenses for Anthrax. On Oct. 2, Advanced Biosystems received an $800,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to focus on very specific aspects of medical defenses against Anthrax.
In this interview, Dr. Alibek was asked by Fox News anchor Tony Snow what people could best do to defend themselves against the threat of Anthrax. Dr. Alibek replied that the best defense at our disposal is to build a strong immune system. Dr. Alibek says "For years, we have been talking about the importance of building a strong immune system and reducing stress." Now, to hear on national television, a doctor, who is the president of a major company that is being funded by the U.S. government to research medical defenses against Anthrax, say that building the immune system is the best defense the public has to defend itself against Biological threats! While the masses are frantically running to the doctors and pharmacies to fill prescriptions for the drug Cipro, thinking that will somehow "protect" them, continuing to cling to their fast-food diets and stressful, sedentary lifestyles, we hold in our hands the key to better health -wellness and prevention.
Dr. Kenneth Alibek, formerly Kanatjan Alibekov, was a Russian scientist who developed biological weapons for the Soviet Union for nearly 20 years. He was First Deputy Director of Biopreparat from 1988 to 1992. Biopreparat was the civilian arm of the biological weapons program and comprised over half of the entire program's personnel and facilities. He was responsible for 32,000 employees and 40 facilities. He defected to the United States in 1992 with a personal and professional goal to make the greatest contribution he could to eliminate the danger of biological weapons.
In a May 20, 1998 statement before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, Dr, Alibek, then Program Manager for the Battelle Memorial Institute, described the history, dangers and concerns of Biological Weapons, including the importance of military and medical preparedness from military and terrorist attacks, and in this statement he included his recommendations.
Concerning the pulmonary form of Anthrax caused by biological weapons, which has a 90% fatality rate, Dr. Alibek concluded that the usual form of antibiotic treatment is largely ineffective. He went on to say, "There are several elements in this process that can be targeted for study. The first is to find ways to modulate the immune system, to counter the immunosuppressive effects of bacterial propagation in the lymph system."
In his conclusion and recommendations concerning all forms of biological threats, Dr. Alibek stated, "Since the primary goal of developing bio-defense is to save human lives, we must greatly increase our efforts to develop new treatment and urgent prophylaxis techniques. As part of this medical research, we must consider a new approach in this area: fundamental research development of methods for non-specific defense, based on amplifying the immune response of the human body to invasion by any foreign agent. These efforts, as well as the funds spent on research and development, will pay for themselves many times over. In addition to contributing to our nation's preparedness for a biological attack, they will provide a much-needed push in the treatment of infectious diseases that occur under natural conditions.. Infectious diseases remain one of the leading causes of death in the world and cause tremendous losses, in terms of both money and human lives, every year. Furthermore, this research, especially that into methods for non-specific defense, will also contribute to the treatment of many other types of diseases, such as autoimmune disorders and cancer."
For Dr. Alibek's complete statement, go to http://www.house.gov/jec/hearings/intell/alibek.htm
Upon further research, a PBS program entitled Frontline -Plague War originally aired Oct. 13, 1998, included an interview with Dr. Alibek. Below is a portion of this interview. We need to stop a discussion whether or not biological weapons are efficient or inefficient. They're efficient. It's clear. And if we start analyzing what can be done and what we need to do to fight these weapons, we would see very serious consequences in the future. We need to develop a national program on how to develop protection against biological weapons, against biological terrorist acts. We have a lot of scientists who have a good knowledge of how to develop protection against biological weapons. Even now we can say that it would be possible to develop a comprehensive bio-defense. We are capable now. At least this country is capable to make these weapons useless. We need to choose the right directions, and we need to make right decisions.
Here is a portion of the interview:
Q: So what's the first thing that needs to be done?
A: In my opinion, we need to stop thinking that biological weapons are very terrifying and that we can't find any protection. We can't forget the ultimate objective ... when we talk about bio-defense ... to save peoples' lives ... we need to start developing medical defense, because medical defense is able to protect people against biological weapons. If we understand that not just vaccines are capable to protect people, because in many cases it's impossible to vaccinate the entire population of the country against all possible agents. It's absolutely impossible. But there are some approaches, and these approaches could be used for developing medical defense against biological weapons.
Q: Can you explain what is that defense? What do we need to do? Is it storehouse vaccines?
A: For now, vaccines [are] a temporary solution. But for the military, maybe it's a good solution. But even for the military, I don't believe it's a comprehensive solution. We need to start thinking [about] using some different ways, because there is our own so-called protection system, immune system. If we are able to boost our immune system, non-specific immune system, that's the most appropriate and the only way to develop protection. If we are able to develop special protective preparations, so-called pre-exposure, post-exposure preparations, treatment regimens based on boosting non-specific immune system, probably that's the only way to develop comprehensive protection against biological weapons.
Q: But that doesn't exist now.
A: It now doesn't exist, but we are very close to developing these approaches. And we have started working in this area, and I believe, if the United States government decides to study this approach very seriously and starts discussing this approach with scientists, we will be capable in three to five years of making biological weapons absolutely useless.
Q: Have we, at this point, put enough scientists, money and effort into trying to find a solution to this?
A: If we analyze the level of development of biological weapons, and the level of development of bio-defense, probably the gap is about 20-25 years. Now we are developing protection against the weapons developed 20-25 years ago. We have absolutely nothing against modern versions of biological weapons. If we continue this approach, we would never be able to catch up. What we need to do is stop for a second and think what is the best way. In my opinion, there is a way and I say this all the time: Vaccines are not a magic bullet. We wouldn't be able to protect a population using vaccines, because they are capable to do this work in some cases, but this is not a comprehensive protection. If we do not understand that there are other ways, and we don't start analyzing and researching these ways, we will never be able to develop a good protection. We need to start developing so-called immune boosting protective preparations. That's the only way to make these weapons useless.
Q: Can you compare the number of scientists that are now working in the field here in the U.S., compared to the number of scientists or facilities that were involved in the Soviet program?
A: Let me give this example, anthrax. In the Soviet Union, thousands of people were involved in developing an anthrax biological weapon. Here in the United States, maybe two or three people were involved in developing protection against anthrax.
For this complete interview, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plague/interviews/alibekov.html
Do you think Dr. Alibek may be on to something? He has been trying to tell our government for the past several years about the importance of building the immune system in the general population for prevention of biological attacks, not to mention all illness. Unfortunately, it often takes a crisis to initiate action. According to Dr. Alibek, there really is no other solution!
August 17, 2002
(THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have told Northwest Airlines security specialists that the agency is developing brain-monitoring devices in cooperation with a commercial firm, which it did not identify.
Space technology would be adapted to receive and analyze brain-wave and heartbeat patterns, then feed that data into computerized programs "to detect passengers who potentially might pose a threat," according to briefing documents obtained by The Washington Times.
NASA wants to use "noninvasive neuro-electric sensors," imbedded in gates, to collect tiny electric signals that all brains and hearts transmit. Computers would apply statistical algorithms to correlate physiologic patterns with computerized data on travel routines, criminal background and credit information from "hundreds to thousands of data sources," NASA documents say.
The notion has raised privacy concerns. Mihir Kshirsagar of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says such technology would only add to airport-security chaos. "A lot of people's fear of flying would send those meters off the chart. Are they going to pull all those people aside?"
The organization obtained documents July 31, the product of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration, and offered the documents to this newspaper.
Mr. Kshirsagar's organization is concerned about enhancements already being added to the Computer-Aided Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS) system. Data from sensing machines are intended to be added to that mix.
NASA aerospace research manager Herb Schlickenmaier told The Times the test proposal to Northwest Airlines is one of four airline-security projects the agency is developing. It's too soon to know whether any of it is working, he says.
"There are baby steps for us to walk through before we can make any pronouncements," says Mr. Schlickenmaier, the Washington official overseeing scientists who briefed Northwest Airlines on the plan. He likened the proposal to a super lie detector that would also measure pulse rate, body temperature, eye-flicker rate and other biometric aspects sensed remotely.
Though adding mind reading to screening remains theoretical, Mr. Schlickenmaier says, he confirms that NASA has a goal of measuring brain waves and heartbeat rates of airline passengers as they pass screening machines.
This has raised concerns that using noninvasive procedures is merely a first step. Private researchers say reliable EEG brain waves are usually measurable only by machines whose sensors touch the head, sometimes in a "thinking cap" device. "To say I can take that cap off and put sensors in a doorjamb, and as the passenger starts walking through [to allow me to say] that they are a threat or not, is at this point a future application," Mr. Schlickenmaier said in an interview.
"Can I build a sensor that can move off of the head and still detect the EEG?" asks Mr. Schlickenmaier, who led NASA's development of airborne wind-shear detectors 20 years ago. "If I can do that, and I don't know that right now, can I package it and [then] say we can do this, or no we can't? We are going to look at this question. Can this be done? Is the physics possible?"
Two physics professors familiar with brain-wave research, but not associated with NASA, questioned how such testing could be feasible or reliable for mass screening. "What they're saying they would do has not been done, even wired in," says a national authority on neuro-electric sensing, who asked not to be identified. He called NASA's goal "pretty far out."
Both professors also raised privacy concerns.
"Screening systems must address privacy and 'Big Brother' issues to the extent possible," a NASA briefing paper, presented at a two-day meeting at Northwest Airlines headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., acknowledges. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional police efforts to use noninvasive "sense-enhancing technology" that is not in general public use in order to collect data otherwise unobtainable without a warrant. However, the high court consistently exempts airports and border posts from most Fourth Amendment restrictions on searches.
"We're getting closer to reading minds than you might suppose," says Robert Park, a physics professor at the University of Maryland and spokesman for the American Physical Society. "It does make me uncomfortable. That's the limit of privacy invasion. You can't go further than that."
"We're close to the point where they can tell to an extent what you're thinking about by which part of the brain is activated, which is close to reading your mind. It would be terribly complicated to try to build a device that would read your mind as you walk by." The idea is plausible, he says, but frightening.
At the Northwest Airlines session conducted Dec. 10-11, nine scientists and managers from NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., proposed a "pilot test" of the Aviation Security Reporting System.
NASA also requested that the airline turn over all of its computerized passenger data for July, August and September 2001 to incorporate in NASA's "passenger-screening testbed" that uses "threat-assessment software" to analyze such data, biometric facial recognition and "neuro-electric sensing."
Northwest officials would not comment.
Published scientific reports show NASA researcher Alan Pope, at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., produced a system to alert pilots or astronauts who daydream or "zone out" for as few as five seconds.
The September 11 hijackers helped highlight one weakness of the CAPPS system. They did dry runs that show whether a specific terrorist is likely to be identified as a threat. Those pulled out for special checking could be replaced by others who do not raise suspicions. The September 11 hijackers cleared security under their own names, even though nine of them were pulled aside for extra attention.
The Associated Press
8/19/02
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The career of journalism wunderkind Stephen Glass imploded in 1998 amid allegations that his splashy stories in The New Republic, Rolling Stone and George were filled with fabrications.
Since then the scorned writer has laid low. But Hollywood has decided Glass has one story left.
His own.
Production is under way on a film called "Shattered Glass," based on a 1998 Vanity Fair article by former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Buzz Bissinger. Hayden Christensen, recently seen on screen as the young Darth Vader in "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," will play Glass, a very different type of bad guy.
"It's just a really compelling character," said Hayden's brother Tove, a producer on the film. "Especially for Hayden as an actor it must be interesting for him to play someone who's a genius and also pathological in his ability to lie."
Other actors include Hank Azaria, as one of Glass's editors at The New Republic, and Steve Zahn as the Forbes writer who first detected the fabrications. Chloe Sevigney is also in the cast.
The film, being shot in Montreal this month, is the directorial debut of screenwriter Billy Ray.
Glass, then about 25, became national and international news after reports surfaced that he had enhanced a story about computer hackers for The New Republic.
Editors at the magazine then researched Glass's work and reported finding fabrications in 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for the publication over three years.
Although he has never spoken about his actions, numerous writers analyzed him, including Bissinger, who described Glass's carefully cooked stories.
"His reports described events which occurred at nebulous locations, and included quotes from idiosyncratic characters (with no last names included) whose language suggested the street poetry of Kerouac and the psychological acuity of Freud," Bissinger wrote. "And nobody called his bluff."
After serving as editor of the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania, Glass's short tenure as a reporter began in Washington, D.C., where the movie picks up.
He started at The New Republic, where he worked as an assistant to Andrew Sullivan, the editor until 1996, and then as a fact checker. Known for being a scrappy reporter, rather than a polished writer, he began writing vivid stories filled with over-the-top details and too-good-to-be-true quotes. A notable one was about drinking, drugging young Republicans at a conference.
"I did from time to time think the stories were inappropriate for The New Republic," said Charles Lane, an editor at the magazine who later fired Glass and will be played by Peter Sarsgaard. "I remember having on some occasions a negative reaction to the stories, but I never seriously believed they were fabricated."
Glass also was managing a prolific freelance career.
But editors later learned that many of the articles contained quotes and color they couldn't confirm, people that couldn't be found. When a Forbes reporter tried to follow up on the hackers story he couldn't find a Web site for a software corporation Glass cited.
"When the guys from Forbes called, I do remember believing instantly: `Damn it, he might have made up the story,"' said Lane, now a reporter for The Washington Post.
Glass tried to cover his tracks, quickly creating a fake Web site and using his brother's cell phone as the company number, Lane said. But it was too late -- he was fired.
Few could believe it. Colleagues described him as an ingratiating personality, constantly looking for reassurance.
"The only way you could pull off this kind of thing is if you could convince people you're the last person who would fabricate material for a story," said Jonathan Chait, a senior editor at The New Republic, who worked with Glass at the magazine. "He really was the nicest person you ever met, in a comically over-the-top way."
Since then, Glass has graduated from Georgetown Law School and was working as a law clerk in Washington about a year ago. There have been reports that he is now living in New York City, but no contact information for him could be found. Calls to a lawyer who represented him around the time of his firing were not immediately returned.
Shortly after the story broke, HBO bought the rights to Bissinger's article and asked Ray to write a screenplay. But the movie was never made. Ray liked the story so much that he got the studio to release the script so he could finish the project.
There are no plans yet for the film's release date.
And as for the real life story, many of Glass's former friends haven't heard from him since the scandal.
"It was a very weird experience," Chait said. "It happened all at once. All of a sudden he was an international notorious figure."
August 15, 2002
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (Wireless Flash) -- A deceased cattle rancher in Bozeman, Montana, took care of his heirs by installing an automatic teller machine in his tombstone.
Cattle rancher Grover Chestnut died earlier this year at the age of 79. However, before he cashed in, he installed an ATM at his tombstone and gave ten heirs debit cards, and told them were allowed to withdraw $300 per week from the grave.
Chestnut apparently figured the tombstone ATM was the best way to make sure his grave had regular visitors.
It seems to be working. Joel Jenkins, who helped create the "cashing-out" machines, says one of Chestnut's granddaughters recently gave up a promising acting career in New York in order to cash in on Grandpa's money-making tombstone.
Although Chestnut's grave is currently the only one with an ATM, Jenkins thinks others will be trying it soon.
14 August 02
(New Scientist)
Handmade cloning, a new way to create genetically identical copies of animals, is not only cheaper and simpler than existing methods, but appears to work better too.
"It's so much simpler than anything we are doing today, it's dramatic," says Michael Bishop, ex-president of Infigen, a cattle-cloning company in Wisconsin. "It's a huge step towards roboticising the whole process."
Fusing half-eggs with a cell creates an embryo
The technique could speed up the introduction of cloning in farming, where the aim is to clone the best milk or meat-producing animals. And conservationists in South Africa could soon use it to clone endangered species.
The technique was developed by Gábor Vajta at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Tjele together with Ian Lewis, programme leader for the Cooperative Research Centre for Innovative Dairy Products in Australia. Details of the method will soon be published.
At the moment, the key instrument in cloning is the "micromanipulator", an expensive machine that allows a skilled technician to grab an egg cell under the microscope, insert a very fine needle to suck out its nucleus, and then use another needle to transfer a nucleus from the animal to be cloned. An alternative is to fuse the empty egg with a cell from the animal. Either way, it is a tricky and time-consuming process.
In the new technique, egg cells are split in half under a microscope using a very thin blade (see graphic). The halves quickly seal up. A dye is used to identify the halves containing the nucleus, which are then discarded, leaving only empty "cytoplasts". To create a cloned embryo, a cell from an adult animal is fused first with one cytoplast, then another, by briefly zapping them with an electric current.
Half of the cow embryos created this way survive long enough to form balls of cells called blastocysts, ready to be implanted in the womb. That success rate is at least as good as current standards.
But the big advantage this method has over normal cloning is that it you can use relatively cheap equipment, and personnel can be trained very quickly. It should be a boon to researchers on tight budgets, Vajta says. It should also be far easier to automate. Some companies are already trying to develop chips that mass-produce cloned embryos (New Scientist print edition, 2 February 2002).
A healthy-looking calf created by handmade cloning has already been born in Australia, and another is expected this week. In preliminary tests, the Danish researchers implanted seven cow blastocysts, resulting in six pregnancies. After 150 days - the threshold after which cattle pregnancies usually carry to term - three are still pregnant.
By comparison, a recent paper suggests an average of only 25 per cent of cows implanted with embryos cloned the standard way are pregnant after 30 days.
It is too early to tell whether the animals created using this new technique will be healthier than those from normal cloning, which often fail to carry to term or have birth defects. But Vajta thinks the reduced manipulation times and the use of two cytoplasts should yield better results.
In the normal method, up to a third of the egg's cytoplasm can be lost when the nucleus is removed, whereas fusion with two cytoplasts produces embryos with the same volume as the original egg.
In July, Paul Bartels and his team from the Endangered Wildlife Trust in Johannesburg tried out the method under field conditions. A Bunsen burner on a lab bench served as the sterile working area, and the most expensive piece of equipment was the electrofusion machine, still relatively cheap at $3500. "One can set up a lab very cheaply. You can imagine doing this in a trailer," he says.
The team fused cow cytoplasts with adult cells from endangered species such as the darted buffalo, the bontebok (a kind of antelope), the giant eland and the black impala. "We were very surprised at the health of the embryos. They looked so good," Bartels says.
The team also put five cloned cow embryos into three cows. If this results in healthy calves, they will consider cloning endangered species using closely related common species both as a source of eggs and as surrogate mothers.
Another advantage of the method is that it may bypass existing cloning patents. One worry, however, is that the method's simplicity will make it easier for maverick doctors to attempt human reproductive cloning. But there is one deterrent. They will need twice as many eggs as normal - and human eggs are in very short supply.
AUGUST 2002
(Fortean Times)
Stories of children rescued from the wilderness have for centuries inspired awe, fascination and disbelief. PAUL SIEVEKING reviews a phenomenon that helps to define the frontier between human and animal.
Tales of children being adopted and nurtured by wolves, bears, monkeys, and other animals crop up with remarkable regularity. As the mediæval world gave way to the modern, the wodewose or wild man of the woods shifted from an archetype of chaos, insanity and heresy to one of natural harmony and enlightenment, culminating in Rousseau’s idea of the Noble Savage. But the wild man was both savage and sublime, an image of desire as well as punishment. Wild or feral children elicit both heart-rending pity for their abandonment and wonder for their survival against such terrible odds.
Ancient mythology has many stories of children nurtured by animals, but the first ‘true’ account of a feral child was recorded by the usually dependable Roman historian Procopius. A baby boy, abandoned by his mother during the chaos of the Gothic wars in about AD 250, was found and suckled by a she-goat. When the survivors returned to their homes, they found the boy living with his adopted mother and named him Aegisthus. Procopius states he saw the child himself1.
Goats don’t figure much in subsequent feral accounts, although a child said to have been raised by goats for eight years was found in the Peruvian Andes in 19902.
Carl Linnæus, the great biological classifier, introduced a new species of man, Homo ferens, in 1758, characterising the creature as mutus, tetrapus and hirsutus (a mute quadruped covered with hair). The attribution of hairiness was probably influenced by the legend of the hirsute wodewose, but a number of feral children are thus described, as we shall see. Linnæus provided anecdotal case histories of varying reliability: Jean de Liège, a Lithuanian bear-boy, the Hesse wolf-boy, the Irish sheep-boy, the Bamberg calf-boy, the Kranenburg girl, the two Pyrenees boys, Wild Peter of Hanover, and the savage girl from Champagne. These primary cases are briefly described below.
Many academics regarded the whole phenomenon of feral children with scepticism; they pointed out that most of the children never learnt to speak, while those that did could recall very little of their wild existence. Similarly, the circumstances of their discovery were by their nature anecdotal, taking place far from habitation and often depending on the testimony of a solitary witness. Dismissing testimony as superstition and folklore became commonplace in 19th century science, to the detriment of folk wisdom and forteana.
Robert Kerr, whose translation of Linnæus appeared in 1792, dismissed Homo ferens as imposture and exaggeration, while the 1811 survey of feral cases by JF Blumenbach, the father of physical anthropology, was characterised by Robert Zingg in 1940 as inadequate and unfair. In 1830 the Swedish naturalist KA Rudolphi proclaimed that all the feral children were either fictional or congenital idiots, and this became the orthodox view, reinforced by Sir Edward Tylor, the father of social anthropology. According to Claude Levi Strauss in 1949, “most of these children suffered from some congenital defect, and their abandonment should therefore be treated as the consequence of the abnormality which almost all display and not, as often happens, as its cause.”
It’s true that some feral children, such as Dina Sanichar of Sekandra (1867), the Lucknow child (1954) and the first Ugandan monkey-child (1982) were mentally or physically handicapped. Many others, however, were not; and neither were they intentionally abandoned, but had escaped from abusive parents or were lost by accident or in the chaos of war – and surviving without human help required considerable native intelligence.
Note Levi Strauss’s qualifying phrases “most of” and “almost all”; some of the case histories refuse to be explained away in this fashion, particularly those of Victor of Aveyron, Kaspar Hauser and the Midnapore wolf-girls Kamala and Amala, described in detail by persons of standing – respectively a doctor, a lawyer and a priest. As with all strange phenomena, it only requires one case to be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt to allow the possibility that many of the others are also true.
The first modern published account of ‘historical’ as opposed to mythological feral children was a work by the medical writer Phillipus Camerius, published in Frankfurt in 1609. This described the Hesse wolf child of 1344 (of whom more below) and the Bamberg calf-child. The latter “had an extraordinary suppleness in his limbs and went on all fours with great agility. In this posture he would fight the largest dogs with his teeth, and attack them so intrepidly that he put them to flight. He was not, however, of a fierce nature.”
Sir Kenelm Digby, later one of the Royal Society’s founders, is the first to mention Jean de Liège in 1644, having interviewed those who had seen him a few years earlier. As a five-year-old during the religious wars, Jean took to the woods with fellow villagers. When the fighting moved elsewhere, the villagers returned home, but the timorous Jean remained in hiding for 16 years. In the wild, his senses sharpened; he could scent “wholesome fruits or roots” at a great distance. When he was finally captured at the age of about 21, he was naked, “all overgrown with hair”, and incapable of speech. In human society, he learned to talk, but lost his acute sense of smell.
Nicholaus Tulp, the Dutch doctor portrayed by Rembrandt in The Anatomy Lesson, described the Irish sheep-boy in 1672. “There was brought to Amsterdam... a youth of 16 years, who being lost perhaps by his parents and brought up from his cradle amongst the wild sheep of Ireland, had acquired a sort of ovine nature. He was rapid in body, nimble of foot, of fierce countenance, firm flesh, scorched skin, rigid limbs, with retreating and depressed forehead, but convex and knotty occiput, rude, rash, ignorant of fear, and destitute of all softness. In other respects sound, and in good health. Being without human voice he bleated like a sheep, and being averse to the food and drink we are accustomed to, he chewed grass only and hay, and that with the same choice as the most particular sheep...
“He had lived on rough mountains and in desert places... delighting in caves and pathless and inaccessible dens.” Huntsmen had finally netted him. “His appearance was more that of a wild beast than a man; and though kept in restraint, and compelled to live among men, most unwillingly, and only after a long time did he put off his wild character. His throat was large and broad, his tongue as it were fastened to his palate.”
Another sheep-boy was captured near Trikkala in Greece in 1891. He had been living with his woolly family for four years.
The Kranenburg girl was discovered in the woods outside Zwolle in the Dutch province of Overyssel in 1717. She had been kidnapped at 16 months from her home in Kranenburg, and was found dressed in sacking and living on a diet of leaves and grass. There was no evidence that animals had befriended her. After her capture, she learnt spinning and sign language, but never mastered speech.
The primary (and uncorroborated) source on the Pyrenees feral boys is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Human Inequality in 1754. All he says is that they were discovered in 1719, “running up and down the mountainside like quadrupeds.”
The first really famous feral child was Wild Peter, “a naked, brownish, black-haired creature” was captured near Helpensen in Hanover on 27 July 1724, when he was about 12. He climbed trees with ease, lived off plants and seemed incapable of speech. He refused bread, preferring to strip the bark from green twigs and suck on the sap; but he eventually learnt to eat fruit and vegetables. He was presented at court in Hanover to George I, and taken to England, where he was studied by leading men of letters. He spent 68 years in society, but never learnt to say anything except “Peter” and “King George”, although his hearing and sense of smell were said to be “particularly acute”.
The wild girl of Champagne had probably learned to speak before her abandonment, for she is a rare example of a wild child learning to talk coherently – although she could remember little of her feral existence, which she thought had lasted two years. When coaxed from a tree in Songi near Chalons in the French district of Champagne in 1731, she was aged about 10, barefoot, and dressed in rags and skins with a gourd leaf on her head. In a pouch she carried a cudgel and a knife inscribed with indecipherable characters. She shrieked and squeaked, and was so dirty (or possibly painted) that she was mistaken for a black child. Her diet consisted of birds, frogs and fish, leaves, branches and roots. Given a rabbit, she immediately skinned and devoured it.
“Her fingers and in particular her thumbs, were extraordinarily large,” according to a contemporary witness, the famous scientist Charles Marie de la Condamine. She is said to have used her thumbs to dig out roots and swing from tree to tree like a monkey. She was a very fast runner and had phenomenally sharp eyesight. When the Queen of Poland, the mother of the French queen, passed through Champagne in 1737 to take possession of the Duchy of Lorraine, she heard about the girl and took her hunting, where she outran and killed rabbits. She was given the name Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, and later eked out an existence in Paris by making artificial flowers and hawking her memoirs (written by Madame Hecquet). She died, like most of the feral children, in obscurity.
The two most famous feral cases of the 19th century are Victor of Aveyron, made famous by Francois Truffaut’s wonderful L’Enfant Sauvage, and Kaspar Hauser, the subject of Werner Herzog’s haunting film of the same name. A great deal has been written about both of these, most recently by Michael Newton in Savage Girls and Wild Boys, so I will concentrate on lesser-known cases. There are about 80 examples of feral children, and many will only be referred to in passing. A fairly accurate chronological table of 53 cases appears in Lucien Malson’s book.
Victor, Kaspar and Kamala represent the three main types of feral child: in isolation, in confinement, and among animals. Children locked up for years often develop autistic symptoms, leading the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in 1959 to lump all three types under the heading of infantile autism. “While there are no feral children,” he wrote, “there are some very rare examples of feral mothers, of human beings who become feral to one of their children.” This denial of genuine feral cases is closely related to the orthodox anthropological position and requires an unwarranted dismissal of remarkably consistent evidence and testimony.
MOTHER WOLVES
“In all my travels, the only time I ever slept deeply was when I was with wolves… The days with my wolf family multiplied. I have no idea how many months I spent with them but I wanted it to last forever – it was far better than returning to the world of my own kind. Today, though most memories of my long journey are etched in tones of grey, the time spent with the wolves… is drenched in colour. Those were the most beautiful days I had ever experienced.” So wrote Misha Defonseca, a Jewish orphan who, from the ages of seven to 11, wandered through occupied Europe during World War II, living on wild berries, raw meat and food stolen from farmhouses, and occasionally teaming up with wolves.
Another child who had learned language before his life with wolves was Marcos Pantoja, “the wild child of the Sierra Morena”, who was about seven when he was abandoned in the desolate mountainous forests of southwest Spain in 1953. He spent the next 12 years without speaking to another human being.
Since the suckling of Romulus and Remus, the wolf has been associated with the rearing and protection of children in the wild. A seven-year-old boy was supposedly captured from a wolf lair in the German state of Hesse in 1344, but the first published account didn’t appear until 1609.6 He described his capture by wolves at the age of three. They offered him the pick of the hunting spoils, carpeted a pit with leaves to protect him from the cold and made him run on all fours until he had attained their speed and could make the most prodigious leaps. After his capture, he frequently stated that he would rather associate with wolves than human beings.
Fourteen wolf-children were found in India between 1841 and 1895, seven of which were described by General WH Sleeman, the nemesis of the Thugs. The first was captured in Hasunpur (near Sultanpur in what is now Uttar Pradesh), and showed most of the typical wolf child characteristics. His favourite food was raw meat, and he was unable to speak. “There were evident signs, on his knees and elbows, of his having gone on all-fours,” wrote Sleeman; “and when asked to run on all-fours, he used to do so, and went so fast that no-one could overtake him.” Some wolf children responded to education. One found in Sultanpur in 1895 allegedly grew up to be a policeman.
The most famous wolf-children are the two girls captured in October 1920 from a huge abandoned ant-hill squatted by wolves near Godamuri in the vicinity of Midnapore, west of Calcutta, by villagers under the direction of the Rev JAL Singh, an Anglican missionary. The mother wolf was shot. The girls were named Kamala and Amala (above), and were thought to be aged about eight and two. According to Singh, the girls had misshapen jaws, elongated canines, and eyes that shone in the dark with the peculiar blue glare of cats and dogs. Amala died the following year, but Kamala survived until 1929, by which time she had given up eating carrion, had learned to walk upright and spoke about 50 words.
There were further reports of Indian wolf-children in 1927 and 1933. “Ramu the Wolf Boy” found naked in a third class waiting room in Lucknow railway station in 1954, aged about 10, was probably mentally retarded. He had deformed limbs, uttered animal cries and ate raw meat by snatching at it with his teeth (of which he had two upper sets); but there appears to be no evidence that he actually lived with wolves. He died in Lucknow hospital in 1968.
In May 1972, a boy aged about four was discovered in the forest of Musafirkhana, about 20 miles (32km) from Sultanpur, the region where five of the wolf-children mentioned by Sleeman came from. The boy was playing with wolf cubs. He had very dark skin, long hooked fingernails, matted hair and calluses on his palms, elbows and knees. He shared several characteristics with Kamala and Amala: sharpened teeth, craving for blood, earth-eating, chicken-hunting, love of darkness and friendship with dogs and jackals. He was named Shamdeo and taken to the village of Narayanpur. Although weaned off raw meat, he never talked, but learnt some sign language. In 1978 he was admitted to Mother Theresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying in Lucknow, where he was re-named Pascal and was visited by Bruce Chatwin in 1978. He died in February 1985.
In 1962, according to an unsubstantiated report, geologists found a boy aged about seven running with a wolf pack in a bleak desert region of Turkmenistan, central Asia. The men threw a net over the boy, but the wolves rushed to protect him, tearing at the net. In the end, all the wolves were killed. It was four years before the boy, named Djuma, was taught to utter a few words. He told anthropologists how he rode on the back of his wolf mother when the pack went hunting, and later learned to run on all fours. He was cared for in the Republican Hospital in Ashkhabad and it was years before he got used to sleeping in a bed. By the time of a news report in 1991, he was still crawling on all fours, eating only raw meat, and biting when he was angry. Dr Rufat Kazirbaev, chief of psychiatric research in the hospital, doubted if he would ever lose his wolf ways.
In 1970, Elmira Godayatova, six, tried to follow her mother through a wood in Azerbaijan to her grandmother’s house in the village of Milgam. Mrs Godayatova told Elmira to go home – but she never got there. Relatives, friends and police searched in vain. Twenty-three days later, a forest ranger found the little girl sitting under a tree. A local newspaper reported: “She ate berries and grass, drank water from springs, and played with ‘doggies and puppies’. Apparently the girl found a family of wolves, and wolves are known never to attack near their home.” Elmira was taken to hospital to recover.
Wolves saved another Azerbaijani girl in 1978. Mekhriban Ibragimov, three, lost in a snow-filled ravine, was found after 16 hours, sheltering in a cave with a wolf and three cubs. She said the mother wolf licked her face.
Shepherds found a naked boy aged about five in 1971, cowering in a cave in the Abruzzi Mountains of central Italy. Doctors believed he had been abandoned as a baby and brought up by mountain goats or wolves. He was named Rocco. Various families tried without success to ‘domesticate’ him, after which he was placed in a psychiatric hospital near Milan. He had not learned to talk and was still eating with his hands. He walked on all fours and liked to be stroked – but retreated snarling into corners when frightened.
TEXAS WOLF CHILD
According to legend, in the early part of the 19th century, a wolf girl roamed the banks of the Devil’s River near Del Rio in what is even now the sparsely-populated wilderness of south-west Texas. The girl’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, John Dent, was killed in a thunderstorm while riding for help. “The child was never found, and the presumption was that she had been eaten by wolves near the Dents’ isolated cabin”, wrote the aptly named Barry Lopez in his book Of Wolves and Men.
Lopez said a boy living at San Felipe Springs in 1845 reported seeing several wolves and “a creature, with long hair covering its features, that looked like a naked girl” attacking a herd of goats. Others made similar reports the following year. Apache Indians told several times of finding a child’s footprints among those of wolves in that country.
A hunt commenced and on the third day the girl was cornered in a canyon. A wolf with her was driven off and finally shot when it attacked the party. The girl was bound and taken to the nearest ranch, where she was untied and locked in a room. That evening, a large number of wolves, apparently attracted by the girl’s loud, mournful and incessant howling, came around the ranch. The domestic stock panicked, and in the confusion the girl escaped.
According to Lopez, the girl was not seen again for seven years. In 1852, a surveying crew exploring a new route to El Paso saw her on a sand bar on the Rio Grande, far above its confluence with Devil’s River. “She was with two pups. After that, she was never seen again.”
CARE BEARS
According to the Athenian historian Apollodorus (168-88 BC), the Greek heroine Atalanta was abandoned by her father Iasus at birth because he desired a son; but she was suckled by a she-bear (the symbol of Artemis), till hunters found her and brought her up among themselves.
News reports do suggest that, given the right conditions, bears will take care of human infants. In 1971, five-year-old Goranka Cuculic got lost in the forest near her home village of Vranje in Yugoslavia. Three days later she was found by a farmer and related how she had met a bear and two cubs. The bear licked her face, and she played with the cubs and snuggled up to them at night in a cave. In October 2001, a 16-month-old toddler went missing in Iran and was found in a bears’ den three days later, safe and well. It was thought that the baby had been breast-fed by a mother bear.
There are accounts of children raised by bears in Denmark and the mountains of Savoy in the early 17th century. In 1669 hunters in a Lithuanian forest saw two little boys among a group of bears. They captured one and took him to Warsaw where he was named Joseph and presented to the king of Poland, who later passed him to the Vice Chamberlain of Posnan. Several times, Joseph escaped to the woods where he would suck the sap of trees and gather wild honey and crab apples. Once a wild bear, notorious for having killed two men, was seen to approach him and lick his face. Other Lithuanian bear-children were captured in 1661 and 1694. It was suggested that they had become separated from their families following raids by marauding Tartars.
In 1767 hunters from Fraumark in lower Hungary came upon a bear’s den high in the mountains, where they found a girl of about 18, tall and brown-skinned. Her behaviour was “very crude” and when taken to an asylum she refused to eat anything but raw meat, roots and tree bark.
Sir James Frazer mentions a girl who was said to have been nursed by a bear. Coolies from the tea gardens found her in a forest in Jalpaigori in 1892, sitting beside a huge bear den. Aged two or three, she walked on all fours and bit and scratched, but was gradually taught to walk upright and wear clothes, although she never learned to speak.
A 14-year-old wild girl was caught in the jungle near Naini Lal, Uttar Pradesh, in July 1914. Named Goongi (‘dumb’), she ran with great agility on her hands and feet and was covered all over with a thick growth of hair. She refused a bed and cooked food, and slept under a bundle of straw. The hunter Jim Corbett speculated that she had been brought up by bears, pointing out that her climbing ability, eating habits and diet were similar to bears, and that the deep scratches on the upper part of her body could well have been caused by being carried by bears.
In 1937 George Maranz described a visit to a Turkish lunatic asylum in Bursa, Turkey, where he met a girl who had allegedly lived with bears for many years. Hunters in a mountainous forest near Adana had shot a she-bear and then been attacked by a powerful little “wood spirit”. Finally overcome, this turned out to be a human child, though utterly bear-like in her voice, habits and physique. She refused all cooked food and slept on a mattress in a dark corner of her room. Investigations showed that a two-year-old child had disappeared from a nearby village 14 years earlier, and it was presumed that a bear had adopted her.
MONKEY BOYS
TISSA FROM SRI LANKA
(left) Pemawathie, 42, a female woodcutter, captured a naked, longhaired boy ambling about on all fours with a troupe of monkeys in the jungle near her home village of Tissamaharama, southern Sri Lanka, in early 1973. She named him Tissa after the village. As his habits were more animal than human, she handed him over to the police, who placed him in a private welfare centre 10 miles (16km) outside Colombo, run by Miss LP Morawake. Apparently, two other “animal boys” had been tamed there, one of whom drank milk straight from a cow’s udder. Three months after his admission, Tissa was still learning to walk upright and was not yet talking, although he could eat food from a plate with his hand. Most telling perhaps was that he had learned to smile.
BURUNDI MONKEY BOY
This child was said to have been found in Burundi in 1973 by either missionaries or hunters, playing in a group of monkeys. He was aged about six, and had the manners and behaviour of a monkey. American anthropologist Diane Skelly said he was covered in a fine layer of hair, which disappeared once he took to wearing clothes. After studying the boy intensively, Dr Harlan Lane (author of The Wild Boy of Aveyron) and Dr Richard Pillard, said he had suffered a “disastrous illness” at the age of two, resulting in organic retardation. They could account for every year of his life and he was never in the wild.
ROBERT OF UGANDA
In 1982, during the chaos of civil war, a boy aged three was left for dead in the Luwero triangle of Uganda. Three years later, soldiers came upon a group of Vervet monkeys. All scattered apart from one female protecting a small bundle which turned out to be a human child. At the Naguru orphanage in Kampala he was named Robert. He was deaf and dumb. By the age of eight, he had been toilet-trained and learned to walk and sleep in a bed.
JOHN OF UGANDA
One day in 1991, a Ugandan villager called Milly Sebba went further than usual in search of firewood and came upon a little boy with a pack of monkeys. She summoned help and the boy was cornered up a tree. He was brought back to Milly’s village and fed hot food, which made him very ill for three days. He had many wounds and scales, and a lot of hair. His knees were almost white from walking on them. His nails were very long and curled round and he wasn’t house-trained. The villagers removed tapeworms from his behind, some of them reportedly 4ft (122cm) long.
A villager identified the boy as John Sesebunya, last seen in 1988 at the age of two or three when his father murdered his mother and disappeared. After John was discovered, his father was traced, but was not interested in caring for the wild boy. A few weeks later the father was found hanged, a victim of civil unrest. After his mother was murdered John had fled to the jungle, apparently terrified he would be next.
For the next three years or so, he lived wild. He vaguely remembers monkeys coming up to him, after a few days, and offering him roots and nuts, sweet potatoes and kasava. The five monkeys, two of them young, were wary at first, but befriended him within about two weeks and taught him, he says, to travel with them, to search for food and to climb trees. “I didn’t sleep very well,” he remembers, “head down and bottom in the air... or I would climb a tree.” Some sources say John’s guardians were Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus æthiops); others say they were black-and-white Colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza).
The boy was adopted by Paul and Molly Wasswa, who run the Kamuzinda Christian Orphanage in Masaka, 100 miles (160km) from Kampala. He has been studied by a host of experts, who are convinced that he is a genuine feral child. When left with a group of monkeys he avoided eye contact and approached them from the side with open palms, in classic simian fashion. He has a strange lopsided gait and pulls his lips right back when he smiles. He tends to greet people with a powerful hug, in the way that monkeys greet each other. He has, however, learned to wink – something a monkey would never do.
He is now about 16 years old with a fine singing voice, and on 6 October 1999 came to Britain as part of the 20-strong Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir, run by Mr Wasswa’s organisation A.F.R.I.C.A. (Association for Relief and Instruction of Children in Africa).
BELLO OF NIGERIA
In 1996, a boy aged about two was found by hunters, living with a family of chimpanzees in the Falgore forest, 90 miles (145km) south of Kano in Nigeria. He was taken to the Tudun Maliki Torrey children’s home in Kano, where the staff named him Bello. He is thought to be the son of nomadic Fulani people who travel through the region. Mentally and physically disabled, with a misshapen forehead, sloping right shoulder and protruding chest, he was probably abandoned by his parents because of his disabilities. Such abandonments of disabled children are common among the Fulani, a pastoralist people who travel great distances across the West African Sahel region. In most instances the children die, but this child appears to have been adopted by the chimps.
“We do not know exactly how long he would have been with the chimps,” said Abba Isa Muhammad, the home’s child welfare officer. “Based on the traits he exhibits, we estimate that he was adopted when he was no more than six months old and nursed by a nursing chimp.”
Bello is now (April 2002) aged about eight, but has the size and weight of a four-year-old. When he was first brought in, he walked in a chimpanzee-like fashion, moving on his hind legs but dragging his arms on the ground. At first he was very restless, smashing and throwing things and leaping about at night from bed to bed in the dormitory, but today he is much calmer. He still leaps, chimpanzee-like, and claps his hands over his head repeatedly, cupping his hands, and does not speak but makes chimpanzee-like noises.
GAZELLE BOYS
SPANISH SAHARA
Jean-Claude Auger, an anthropologist from the Basque country, was travelling alone across the Spanish Sahara (Rio de Oro) in 1960 when he met some Nemadi nomads, who told him about a wild child a day’s journey away. The next day, he followed the nomads’ directions. On the horizon he saw a naked child “galloping in gigantic bounds among a long cavalcade of white gazelles”.
Auger found a small oasis of thorn bushes and date palms and waited for the herd. Three days later, his patience was rewarded, but it took several more days of sitting and playing his galoubet (Berber flute) to win the animals’ confidence. Eventually, the child approached him, showing “his lively, dark, almond-shaped eyes and a pleasant, open expression... he appears to be about 10 years old; his ankles are disproportionately thick and obviously powerful, his muscles firm and shivering; a scar, where a piece of flesh must have been torn from the arm, and some deep gashes mingled with light scratches (thorn bushes or marks of old struggles?) form a strange tattoo.”
The boy walked on all fours, but occasionally assumed an upright gait, suggesting to Auger that he was abandoned or lost at about seven or eight months, having already learnt to stand. He habitually twitched his muscles, scalp, nose and ears, much like the rest of the herd, in response to the slightest noise. Even in deepest sleep he seemed constantly alert, raising his head at unusual noises, however faint, and sniffing around him like the gazelles.
Auger describes how he gradually learnt to decipher the significance of every gazelle gesture and movement, which the boy shared with the herd. There was a complex code of stamping to indicate distance of food sources; and social interaction through exchanges of licking and sniffing, with the boy emitting a kind of mute cry from the back of his throat with his mouth closed. He had one word: kal (khah), meaning stone or rock. One senior female seemed to act as his adoptive mother. He would eat desert roots with his teeth, pucking his nostrils like the gazelles. He appeared to be herbivorous apart from the occasional agama lizard or worm when plant life was lacking. His teeth edges were level like those of a herbivorous animal.
Two years after his stay with the herd, Auger returned with a Spanish army captain and his aid-de-camp, who kept their distance to avoid frightening the herd off. Curiosity eventually overcame them and they chased the boy in a jeep to see how fast he could run. This frightened him off altogether, though he reached a speed of 32-34mph (52-54km/h), with continuous leaps of about 13ft (4m). Olympic sprinters can reach only 25mph (40km/h) in short bursts.
His pursuers failed to keep up across the rough terrain, and eventually the herd disappeared as the jeep sustained a puncture. In 1966 an unsuccessful attempt was made to catch the boy in a net suspended from a helicopter; unlike most of the feral children of whom we have records, the gazelle boy was never removed from his wild companions. Auger took no photographs of the boy, being more concerned with protecting him from human interference than providing evidence to convince the sceptics of his existence. Perhaps the whole thing is a fairy story…
MIDDLE EAST
According to the fortean zoologist Ivan Sanderson, the story of an earlier gazelle-boy “turned out to be a plant by a bored newsman in Cairo during World War II”; but he gives no further details. The version I have traced is a report from Baghdad in August 1946 by a certain M Abdul Karim, and the story bears re-telling. A wild boy had been caught in the desert straddling Transjordan, Syria and Iraq. Amir Lawrence al Sha’alan, chief of the Ruweili tribe, was out hunting in this inhospitable region, whose only inhabitants were the staff at the British-run stations of the Iraq Petroleum Company.
“I was astonished to see what looked like a boy running amid a herd of gazelles we were chasing,” said the Amir. “I called to the occupants of the other cars to stop shooting. We were still far away, but could see that the boy was running as fast as the gazelles. We chased the herd in our cars for 50 miles (80km), during which time he kept up with them, bounding along with a half-human, half-animal gait. Suddenly we saw the boy stumble and fall. When we came up to him we found that his leg had been injured by a large stone. He looked up at us with fear starting from his luminous eyes and shrank from our touch, emitting cries like a wounded gazelle.”
The Amir tried to feed and clothe him, but he kept escaping, so he took him to Dr Musa Jalbout at one of the Petroleum Company stations, who later passed him into the care of four Baghdad doctors. Dr Jalbout said he acted, ate and cried like any gazelle, and had no doubt that he had lived all his life among the gazelles, being suckled by them and cropping the sparse desert herbage along with the herd. He was thought to be aged about 15.
Apparently speechless, he was covered in fine hair and ate only grass – although a week before Karim’s report he had had his first meal of bread and meat. He could allegedly run at 50 mph (80km/h), twice the Olympic record. He was 5ft 6in (1.7m) tall, “so thin that the bones could be counted easily beneath the flesh, yet stronger physically than a normal full-grown man.” An unnamed “Syrian expert of desert lore in Damascus” is quoted as saying that Bedouin women giving birth in the desert often abandon their babies to the mercy of nature. Most died, but in very rare cases the child was adopted by animals.
BIG CAT GUARDIANS
A leopard-child was reported by EC Stuart Baker in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (July 1920). Since he was in administrative charge of the North Cachar Hills at the time when he investigated the case, he was in an excellent position to obtain a true account of the facts. The boy was stolen from his parents by a leopardess in the North Cachar Hills near Assam in about 1912, and three years later recovered and identified. “At the time the child ran on all fours almost as fast as an adult man could run, whilst in dodging in and out of bushes and other obstacles he was much cleverer and quicker. His knees… had hard callosities on them and his toes were retained upright almost at right angles to his instep. The palms of his hands and pads of his toes and thumbs were also covered with very tough horny skin. When first caught, he bit and fought with everyone… and any wretched village fowl which came within his reach was seized, torn to pieces and eaten with extraordinary rapidity.”
According to an unsubstantiated report, a wild girl aged about two was found in a forest south of Jansi in north central India in May 1986. She was slumped over a fatally injured female panther.
THE KUANO RIVER BOY
The village of Baragdava stands on the small river Kuano in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, near the border with Nepal. One afternoon in February 1973, the local priest was walking across the nearby dam across the Kuano when he caught sight of a naked boy loping towards the water. He appeared to walk out on the water to mid-stream. Suddenly he dived in and emerged a minute later with a large fish which he ate, before floating downstream. The priest told the villagers of his sighting, and when he described the lad and estimated that he was about 15, an old woman called Somni said he was her son Ramchandra who had been carried away by the river when he was a year old.
Another villager saw him a few days later, and for a while there was considerable local interest, and people flocked to the river to see him; but he was not to be found. Then in May 1979, Somni spotted him lying in a field. She crept up on him and recognised a birthmark on his back. He awoke and fled. A strict watch was mounted, he was caught and taken to the village.
He was virtually hairless and his ebony-black skin had a greenish tinge. He managed to escape back to the river, but his experience of human society made him less reclusive, and he would come and eat bowls of spinach in water put out for him. Hundreds of villagers, policemen, officials of the irrigation department, and hard-boiled journalists saw him walk, run, or recline on the surface of the water, and stay submerged for longer than ordinary humans could manage. Among the witnesses was Nazir Malik, who wrote up the story for the Allahabad magazine, Probe India.
The boy’s insteps and toes were very hard and walked with a clumsy, loping gait, often holding one hand to his forehead. He was unable to speak (or hear, according to some witnesses). He ate fish, frogs and other marine creatures, raw meat, leafy vegetables, gourds and red chillies. He reached for food directly with his mouth. In summer months when Kuano dried to a trickle, he was ill at ease; but when the river rose in floods, he was gleeful and enjoyed diving in the swift current. It was a mystery how he avoided the jaws of the many crocodiles.
Somni had a strange tale of how Ramchandra was conceived. On a stormy evening during the monsoon season, she was returning from mending a fence around the family field, as her husband was laid low with fever. She was 40 years old, a mother of three. Her way was blocked by an enormous being who seemed more like a spirit than a man. He threw her to the ground and raped her in the pouring rain. As suddenly as he appeared, he vanished.
It was believed locally that a long time ago a holy man dug a well in the area. He climbed down to invoke the goddess of water, but was drowned as the well quickly filled. Some of the villagers believed it was the spirit of this man that possessed Somni and then took the child into his watery care.
In 1985, Hubert Adamson, an estate agent in Hampstead with a keen interest in feral children, visited Baragdava to find out more about the river boy. From the head man he learned that the boy was dead. One evening in 1982, at the age of about 24, he had approached a chai shop in the village of Sanrigar, some 300 yards from the river. A woman, possibly taking fright at his appearance or rejecting a clumsy sexual advance, threw boiling water over him. Dazed and in pain, he ran back to the river, never to emerge again. His body, badly blistered and mutilated by fish bites, was later found in the river. The police considered bringing charges against the woman, but these were later dropped.
THE DELPHOS CHILD
In July 1974, four people reported seeing a young child, 10 or 12 years old, with blond, matted hair, dressed in tattered red clothing, running through vines and brush in a wooded area north-west of Delphos in Kansas. Children had seen the girl eating from cat and dog dishes.
One of the witnesses, Mrs Joe Stout, saw the child early in the morning of 22 July in a shed on a vacant lot covered with a thicket of trees and saplings. She came face-to-face with the child sitting on a picnic table no more than six feet away. “She – we’re not sure if it is a boy or a girl, except that she had on a red dress – made a gurgling sound and when I started to step closer, she jumped down off the picnic table and went through a small hole in the wall. She’s definitely human. She’s not deformed, but she runs on all fours”, said Mrs Stout.
During a late night search of the area on the same day, Mr Stout was scratched on the shoulder and a teenage neighbour, Kevin Marsh, was scratched on the throat from behind. Neither got more than a glimpse of their small attacker. Leonard Simpson, sheriff of Ottawa County, organised a posse to search the neighbourhood, but nothing was found.
DOG BOYS
Kunu Masela, six, was seen for three years scavenging for food round the Kenyan town of Machakos with a dog. Mrs Grace Kubuu asked him where he lived. “With Poppy” was all he would say. One evening she followed them out into the bush and saw the dog dragging together some banana leaves to make a bed for them.
The local press ran the story, after which his mother came forward. Mrs Rukia Ali Murefu, 29, a coffee plantation worker who had moved to Nairobi, said that her husband had left her when Kunu was born in 1977, and she had struggled for three years to care for him. She was very poor, and eventually abandoned him in the bush. “I knew Kunu would be cared for by God – and I was right,” she said. “Poppy my mother. Poppy give me milk,” Kunu told a reporter. In 1983, he was in a government juvenile home and the dog was being cared for by a market trader.
On 16 June 2001, an 11-year-old boy called Alex Rivas was rescued from the sea as he tried to escape from the police. For many months, he had been living with a pack of about 15 stray dogs in a cave near the southern Chilean port of Talcahuano, scavenging out of dustbins and drinking milk from the teat of a bitch that had recently given birth. Filthy and with his teeth rotting from dog milk and drugs, he was known to local people as “Dog Boy” and would snarl at any human who tried to approach him. He was described as extremely violent, malnourished, hyperactive and inarticulate. He had broken front teeth, a scarred cheek, and was suffering from hypothermia.
After being abandoned by his 16-year-old mother when he was only five months old, he had a disrupted childhood before being put into a children’s home in Chillancito, near Concepcion, in 1998. He constantly ran away, only to be caught. He finally joined the dog pack and managed to evade capture. In November 2001, he again escaped from the Chillancito children’s home and FT has seen no further reports.
Children nurtured by dogs have also turned up in the Philippines (1982), Germany (1988), Oklahoma (1989), England (1992), Hungary (1994), Romania (1994), and Italy (1994). Ivan Mishukov, six, was rescued from a pack of dogs with whom he had had been living for two years in Retova, west of Moscow.46
A feral child was caught in the Brasov region of Transylvania, Romania, in early February 2002. When shepherd Manolescu Ioan’s car broke down, he was forced to walk home across country from his pastures in the shadow of the Fagaras Mountains. At 6am he came upon a naked, wild-eyed child living in a cardboard box and covered with a plastic sheet. He was eating from the carcass of a dead dog. Manolescu reported his find to the police, who later captured the boy.
It was believed he had lived alone in the forest for years, but doctors thought that he must have had some protection; perhaps he had been looked after by some of the many wild dogs in the region. He was the size of a normal four-year-old, but his missing front milk teeth pointed to an age of seven. He had rickets, anæmia, the distended belly of the half-starved, and frostbite on his feet and legs. His face and head were scarred and scabbed. He ate whatever he was given, but didn’t recognise fruit. He was not toilet-trained. Hospital personnel in Fargas called him Mowgli, after the character in Kipling’s Jungle Book.
The chief nurse of the children’s ward said: “He only knows two words – ‘Mama’ and ‘food’ – and is very happy in his bedroom at the hospital as long as there is food there. He has dark hair and dark eyes and once his hair was washed and cut and he was given a bath he looked really presentable, but he tends to walk like a chimp rather than upright and tries to sleep under his bed rather than on it. But if he has some food in his hand he is the nicest little chap.”
About a week after his capture, he was identified as Traian Caldarar, lost three years ago at the age of four. After being re-educated at an orphanage in Brasov, he was reunited in April with his mother Lina Caldarar, 23, in the remote village of Vistea de Jos, less than seven miles (11km) from where he was found in February. “I loved my son, but I had a violent husband who beat me,” she said. Traian Ciurar, 24, the boy’s father, is married to Ms Caldarar under gypsy law. When she fled back to her family to escape her husband’s cruelty, he prevented her from taking her son. She believes he ran away for the same reason. “I was distraught but there was nothing I could do,” she said. “I hoped he had perhaps been adopted by another family.”
Traian appears to be on the mend, but he is still not house-trained. “Someone needs to keep an eye on him at all times because it’s easy for him to get hurt,” said his mother. “He still can’t identify the dangers in the street. Like an untrained puppy, he’ll just run across the road, regardless of whether there are cars coming.”47
RAISED BY BIRDS
Sidi Mohamed, the ostrich-boy, told the following amazing story in 1945. At the age of five or six he wandered off from his North African family, found an ostrich nest with chicks hatching, befriended the parent birds and lived with them for 10 years, learning to live off grass and to match their speed in running. At night, he was sheltered by the two ostriches which each extended a wing over him. Finally he was caught by mounted ostrich hunters and restored to his parents.
A Sydney woman was fined £1 in November 1903 for leaving her child to be reared in a chicken run, with the consequence that the little one could do nothing but imitate the fowls in every way, even to roosting at night.
Since birth, Isabel Quaresma, 10, lived in a chicken coop in Tabua, Portugal. She was thrown pieces of bread and shared the chicken feed. Her mother was a mentally deficient rural worker. In 1980, she was taken by a district hospital worker and put in a Lisbon clinic. She was unable to walk and was not house-trained. She gestured and made sounds like a chicken and ate with her hands. Her body was severely stunted with a tiny head, probably due to malnutrition. One eye was clouded with a cataract, possibly the result of a hen scratch.
In the 1990s, a two-year-old Filipino known as Jesse Boy was discovered locked in a henhouse where his stepfather confined him for seven months after badly beating him. He crowed like a rooster, clucked like a hen and picked up food as if his mouth were a beak. He also flapped his arms like wings as if trying to fly.
He was rescued by a childcare agency in the town of Manito after a tip-off. After some unspecified time of therapy, he gave up his early morning crowing and ate at table, but in 1999 he could still only speak in monosyllables. He also continued to flap his arms when playing with other disadvantaged children.
PIG CHILDREN
In the 1830s, there were two accounts of children suckled by pigs – in Salzburg, Germany, and in Overdyke, Holland. Sergei Mironovich Kirov, a member of the Soviet politburo and Stalin’s best friend, was allegedly suckled by a sow.
In 1984, the Chinese Xinhua News Agency reported the tale of a peasant girl in Liaoning province who had been suckled by sows and slept in their sty at nights. Wang Xianfeng was left as an infant with the family’s pigs because her deaf-mute father and mentally retarded mother were unable to care for her and no one else lived near them. The girl lived exclusively on sows’ milk until she was almost five. Then she graduated to pig swill. She was always first at the trough when it was filled in the mornings. In 1983, psychologists discovered Wang, then nine, had the intelligence of a three-year-old. The report did not say when or how the girl was found.
Experts from the China Medical Science University and the Anshan Institute of Psychometry took the child in hand, and by 1987 the 13-year-old could read 600 Chinese characters, count from one to 100, sing children’s songs and do some housework. Experiments were still under way to “see whether the girl can finally achieve normal intelligence” announced Xinhua.50
LOST IN THE DESERT
Three-year-old Michael Raadt and his cousin Thabiso Paint, aged two, wandered off on 10 December 2001 while playing at the Luckhoff farm in South Africa’s rural Free State, where their parents worked. Thabiso was found naked and scratched near the fast-flowing Orange River three days later. Apart from another track of tiny footprints, there was no sign of Michael. Police used dogs and helicopters in a fruitless weeklong search, after which everyone thought he had drowned.
Three weeks later, at 4pm on New Year’s Eve, Johan Lombaard was out on his motorbike checking irrigation equipment on his farm when he found Michael 19 miles (30km) from home. He was covered in mud, wearing only a T-short and lying on his side near a lake. “I walked closer to see whether he was still alive,” said Mr Lombaard. “I could see he was breathing and told him he had to wait there, I was going to fetch the bakkie [van]. He just blinked his eyes. If the tough little tyke had walked around in the searing hot sun for another day or two, he wouldn’t have made it.”
The province had been experiencing sweltering summer days with temperatures up to 100F (38C) and there had been torrential thundershowers at night. Although it is mostly farmland, the Luckhoff terrain is vast and isolated, thorny and rocky, with snakes and predators including leopards. At the Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, Michael was found to be covered in scabs, dehydrated and suffering from mild pneumonia. He had lost a lot of weight. When his mother, Tina Raadt, asked him how he survived, he said he had eaten “flowers” and hidden under bushes at night. The “flowers” were probably berries and pods. The police were mystified how he had survived such tough conditions alone for so long.
LATEST INDIAN CASE
Sudam Pradhana from the village of Bargania in Orissa, India, never went to the local school and enjoyed tending cows and working in the fields. In April 1990, when he was 13, he travelled to the dense Labingi forests in the Angul district, 19 miles (30km) from his village, with his elder cousin Abhay who was looking for a large log to make into a plough. Abhay told Sudam to rest near a makeshift loghouse while he went in search of water. When he returned, Sudam had gone. For several days, Sudam’s parents and their neighbours searched for him without success. His father Gautam Pradhan never reported his disappearance as he kept hoping he would turn up sooner or later – and he did.
On 4 May 2001, Gayachand Muduli and Deb Muduli from the neighbouring village of Gadtaras, collecting firewood in the forest, encountered a wild creature with long hair and unkempt winding fingernails sheepishly gawking at them while sucking mangoes under a tree. “He was wearing torn trousers and carrying an empty plastic bag. Mango pulp was smeared all over his chin,” said Gayachand. “He made no attempt to run away on seeing us.”
They took him back to Garatarasa where he was identified as Sudam because of scars on his skull and feet. “He now behaves like an animal and covers his body with leaves,” said a villager. He greeted questions with blank stares and struggled to utter a word or two in Oriya. He has big, white marks on his skin as if he has been in combat with wildlife. “My son has returned home after 11 years due to the blessing of God,” said his father Gautam Pradhan.
Ganesh Pradhan, the police chief at Bantala, suggested Sudam might have spent the last 11 years in the company of the honey-collecting nomadic Mallar tribe which lives deep in the jungle. “It is also possible that he went across the forest to the villagers of Cuttack or Phulbani district on the other side,” he said. “After having wandered for long he might have found his way back into the forest.”
FERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Besides the (probably) apocryphal Syrian gazelle-boy, many wild children were extraordinarily fast quadrupedal runners – almost ‘superhuman’. We might recall that Atalanta, the bear-suckled heroine of Greek myth, was the most swift-footed of mortals. When first captured, Memmie Le Blanc moved with “a sort of flying gallop” and could out-run game; and the Saharan gazelle-boy was clocked at 7mph (11km/h) faster than the best Olympic sprinter.
A facility for tree-climbing was another common trait. Peter, Memmie, Victor and the Ugandan John Sesebunya were all agile arborialists; the last three were cornered up trees before their capture. The wolf-child of Overdyke in Holland, abandoned during the Napoleonic wars, climbed trees with wonderful agility to get eggs and birds, which he devoured raw. ‘Tarzancito’, the wild boy of El Salvador (1935) slept in trees to avoid predators.
A number of ferals were hirsute, including Jean de Liège (17th cent), the second Lithuanian bear-child (1669), the Kranenburg girl (1717), the wild boy of Kronstadt (fl.1784), the second Hasunpur wolf-child (1843), the Shajampur child (1898), and the Naini Lal bear-child (1914). A young man caught in woods near Riga, Latvia, in November 1936 was allegedly “covered in long thick hair”.
“Over time all my senses were heightened – my vision, my hearing, even my sense of smell,” wrote Misha Defonseca, the Jewish orphan who wandered through Nazi-occupied Europe. “That hypersensitivity stayed with me for a very long time after I left the forest”.
Feral senses were often more acute than those of socialised humans. Kaspar Hauser and many of the Indian wolf-children, including the Midnapore girls, could see well in the dark. Jean de Liège could recognise his warden by smell from a distance; Kamala could smell meat from one end of the orphanage garden – a compound of three and a half acres – to the other; and many wild children sniffed at objects in the way that cats and dogs do. Victor of Aveyron, the first Sultanpur child (1847), Kamala and Amala had an unusually sharp sense of hearing.
Many wild children had a keen ear for music. Peter was delighted by music, and would clap and sing. Memmie was a perfect mimic of songbirds such as the nightingale. The Overdyke boy named each bird by imitating its cry. A naked youth aged about 15, caught in woods near Uzitza, Yugoslavia, in 1934, could mimic animals and birds as well as run amazingly fast. The Turkish bear-girl responded to music, sometimes bursting into wild, unintelligible songs. John Sesebunya sings in a choir.
Another curious phenomenon is the wild children’s insensitivity to extremes of temperature, a characteristic shared with desert nomad and gypsy children. This was seen in the Irish sheep-boy, Victor, the Kronstadt boy, the first Sultanpur child, the Midnapore girls, and the Saharan gazelle-boy. The latter was seen to grab a handful of hot embers and hold them for some time without apparent pain, while Victor took potatoes out of a pot of boiling water. At least eight ferals angrily tore off any clothing they were dressed in.
Hardly any of them learnt to laugh or smile and their libidos seemed stunted. Kaspar confused dreams with reality and spoke of himself in the third person. Neither Victor nor Kaspar could recognise their reflections in a mirror; the Turkish bear-girl would sit for hours in her room gazing at herself in a mirror. Auger observed the gazelle-boy looking at his reflection in a pool of water as if it were a stranger.