Notice!

Our new security system prevents email messages coming through the AOL server from being delivered to our address. This is because of the probability of unwelcome and problematical attachments to messages from this source.  Correspondents wishing to contact TBR News are suggested to use another server. Ed.

Announcing TBR Ebooks!

Starting with a new publication concerning the background behind the 9/11 attacks, TBR News will be presenting a series of interesting, informative and definitive works for our readers. Future titles will include the complete Voice of the White House with much more added material that was considered too controversial to post, the heavily-censored Armenian Holocaust of 1916, the Bush-Lay private correspondence, the Assassination of JFK,Pearl Harbor intrigues and rare documents, Malaparte’s inside study of the making of revolution, sensational selected articles from the German Rudolf historical revision files, unpublished before Rudolf’s arrest and forced deportation to Germany, World War II studies of holocaust history, taken from secret German files and much more. Please see the title page for more information.

The Editors

Descending Into Darkness: The Harring Report

A well-researched study into the background of the 9/11 attack: Who knew what and when did they know it. Russian and German intelligence material, not published before show that the U.S. had ample warning...and did nothing about it.

THE VOICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE

The full collection of the twice-weekly commentary of what is really going on inside the corrupt Bush White House. The spectrum includes the Gannon scandal, the planned invasion of Iran, many stories of stupidity and corruption coupled with biting sarcasm. Interesting to note that many, if not most, of the predictions have come true.

REGICIDE The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy

A landmark book that sold very well in hardback, this work contains actual intelligence documents concerning the inside U.S. plans to kill Kennedy; the reasons, the methods and the results.

The Final Reckoning: An Analysis of Demographics in Holocaust Literature

By Harold Kreig, Lt.Col, AUS ret.

This is the first rational, heavily documented work on the subject of the Holocaust. Colonel Krieg has taken thousands of documents, including the official SS concentration camp records from 1935 through 1945 and official U.S. government postwar analysis of the system and the casualties and causes of death and produced a book that is highly informative and readable.  Heavily footnoted and annotated, ‘The Final Reckoning’ is logical and compelling and is an historical work that should be read through by any student of the period and subject.

Coup D’Etat: The Technique Of Revolution

By Curzio Malaparte

First published in Italy by Curzio Malaparte in 1928, this is a seminal work on historical seizures of power from Napoleon through Hitler.

Gestapo-Chief: The CIA & Heinrich Müller by Gregory Douglas

                In 1948, the former head of Hitelr’s Gestapo was interviewed by senior officials of the CIA in Switzerland where Müller had been in hiding since the end of the Second World War. His interview, for Colonel James Critchfield of the CIA’s Gehlen Organization, runs to nearly a thousand pages and for years was hidden in the CIA’s files.

                This is a translation of a part of the interview, which was initially conducted in German and then translated into English for CIA use.

                It is a fascinating series of historical episodes covering both the Axis and Allied sides with comments on Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Winston Churchill, the 20^th of July bomb plot against Hitler, Bishop von Galen’s heroic, and successful, attacks on the Nazis and their euthanasia program, the concentration camps, the Duke of Windsor, the Roger Casement diaries and many more fascinating and insightful views of a man who ran the most effective counter-intelligence agency in modern times. 

                There is also extensive information on the attempts on the part of the CIA to silence or discredit the fact that the Gestapo Chief worked for the United States and eventually came to live in Washington, D.C. as part of the notorious “Operation Paperclip.”

                Fascinating inside views of many top Nazis and CIA officials. 

The CIA COvenant: Nazis in Washington

by Gregory Douglas

* From the end of World War II, the American CIA imported thousands of Nazis into the United States to work for them, many on the list of wanted war criminals

*One of the most important of these was Heinrich Mueller, once head of Hitler's Gestapo. Mueller was recruited by Colonel James Critchfield who ran the CIA's "Gehnel Organization' in Munich.

* Mueller kept journals and this book is a translation of three years (1948-1951) of notes and observations made of top CIA officials, President Truman, top U.S. government officials, plans for murder, thefts, kidnappings, wholesale thefts of public money and a terrifying pattern of uncontrolled ambition, unchecked by any person or agency.

* Also included are CIA and other agency's activities that have never been revealed.

*Mueller's deals in stolen Nazi art for the CIA are covered in detail.

*Also to be found are the steps the frightened CIA have taken to prevent the publication, sales or distribution of this work.

An Essay on the Principle of Population

by Thomas Malthus

The 1798 classic study of how supplies of food do not keep up with an expanding population

Malthus' theory is that population growth is geometric while the food supply increase is arithmetic.

A very literate and current study that clearly highlights present and current population problems

With the world's population higher than ever before, this is a work of great and current interest

CONSPIRACIES for Fun and Profit

Contents
The Evil Catholics Murdered Abraham Lincoln
TWA Flight 800: The Gathering of the Nuts
The Real Truth About the Kennedy Assassination!
The Great 9-11 Plot
Who is Sorcha Faal?
The Bush Indictments
Faked Conspiracy photos
The Sinking of the MV Estonia
The German Guy and the Destruction of Houston
The Great Contrail Conspiracy
Planet X
Remote Viewing unveiled

Notice!

Our new security system prevents email messages coming through the AOL server from being delivered to our address. This is because of the probability of unwelcome and problematical attachments to messages from this source, coupled with the fact that AOL’s voluntary cooperation with various American, and foreign, law enforcement groups makes contact with them in any form a risky business.  Correspondents wishing to contact TBR News are suggested to use another server. Ed.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people, On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
- H.L. Mencken

“That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited. The discrediting is not an automatic result of the blunders and abuses of those in power, but the deliberate work of men of words with a grievance.”
-Eric Hoffer The True Believer

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

America’s Enemies!

There are four entities who represent the most dangerous enemies to American liberties since George III.

They are:

1.                    The Neocons or Likudists who owe their personal allegiance to another country and now completely control our foreign policy. They lied and deceived us into the Iraq war and are demanding that more and more American soldiers die to preserve their own country and ideals.

2.                    The Christian Evangelical right who is trying to force the United States into becoming a theocracy under their rule. They know in their hearts that they alone can restructure a secular humanist America into their idea of Heaven on Earth.

3.                    An element of American society that call themselves Patriots and are obsessively militaristic and great admirers of the corporate or fascistic state. Many of these have been very minor members of the American military and as a counterbalance to their reserve or rear area tours of duty, are rabidly in favor of draconian military action, the bloodier the better. Usually these drumbeaters are too old, or too fat, to fight and have no sons of draft age.

4.                    George W. Bush, who is the worst president in the history of the United States and directly responsible for the huge death tolls in Iraq, is determined to rule the United States until God puts a stop to him and is even more determined to force the American people into becoming obedient, Christian and self-sacrificing lemmings who worship at his shrine and march in step.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., August 16, 2007: “There has been a sudden increase in stories about contaminated Chinese toys and constant mention of contaminated food for pets and humans being imported into the United States. Is this an example of brilliant reporting or is there more to the story?

Initially, a faked story was put out officially that the death of 25,000-30,000 cats and dogs was due to ‘contaminated Chinese products’. I said ‘faked’ because the alleged poisoned additive was harmless.  This was designed to shift blame from furious Latinos putting Ecoli (easy to obtain) into fast foods. Even if your poodle ate ten pounds of the alleged “fatal” Chinese additives , they wouldn’t miss a step.

Then we had the poisoned tooth paste, contaminated seafood, poisoned toys and  so on.

The implication here is that either our safety inspectors are stupider than Bush at his worst or that the Chinese suddenly loosed a reign of terror on the west.

From what we hear around here, the answer is not hard to find.

The crazy Cheney views China as a nest of ‘evil Communist vipers’ and has been pushing to wreck their economy. The Chinese were swindled by Blackstone out of hundreds of millions of dollars but when they began to hint that they would dump their dollar holdings and create economic havoc against the dollar, Cheney ordered an all-out media attack on Chinese imports.

He now wants us, and many of our toady allies in Europe (England, Germany, and  now France), to declare a total import ban on all Chinese food products on the grounds that most of them are ‘contaminated with poisonous chemicals’. Is this true?

Careless to some degree but certainly not deliberate.

I have said it before and I will repeat myself: Dick Cheney is a very sick, evil man who should be elsewhere as soon as possible.”

Corruption and Utter Stupidity Rampant

Missing US arms probe goes global

August 17, 2007

by David Isenberg

Asia Times

WASHINGTON - The issue of missing US weapons in Iraq is getting, as Alice said in Wonderland, curiouser and curiouser. What started out as a mere report documenting improper bookkeeping procedures for assault rifles and pistols given by the Pentagon to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005 is turning into an international scandal.

It started on July 31, when the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report "Stabilizing Iraq: DOD [Department of Defense] Cannot Ensure That US-Funded Equipment Has Reached Iraqi Security Forces". A classified version of the report will be submitted to Congress next month.

The report found that since 2003, the United States has provided about US$19.2 billion to develop Iraqi security forces. As part of that effort, components of the Multinational Force-Iraq (MNF-I), are responsible for implementing the US program to train and equip Iraqi forces. The report found that as of July, the DOD and MNF-I had not specified which DOD accountability procedures, if any, apply to the train-and-equip program for Iraq.

As Congress funded the train-and-equip program for Iraq outside traditional security assistance programs, the Pentagon had a large degree of flexibility in managing the program. Normally, the traditional security assistance programs are operated by the State Department. Since the funding did not go through traditional security assistance programs, the DOD accountability requirements normally applicable to these programs did not apply. Thus the DOD and MNF-I cannot fully account for Iraqi forces' receipt of US-funded equipment.

As a result, the GAO found a discrepancy of at least 190,000 weapons between data reported by the former commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I) and the property books. The GAO report indicates that US military officials do not know what happened to 30% of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year.

The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. According to that report, 13,180 Glock automatic pistols, worth as much as $46 million on the black market, were unaccounted for. The more recent GAO study puts the total figure for missing pistols closer to 80,000. In addition, the report found that US officials in Iraq could not account for 751 M1F assault rifles and 99 MP5 machine-guns.

It seems a virtual certainty that many of the Glocks have been diverted to the black market. An article in the current issue of Newsweek magazine quotes a senior Turkish security official, who said his government estimates that some 20,000 US-bought Glock pistols have been brought from Iraq into his country over the past three years.

The GAO reached the estimate of 190,000 missing arms - 110,000 AK-47s and 80,000 pistols - by comparing the property records of the MNSTC-I against records US General David Petraeus maintained of the arms and equipment he had ordered, after he was brought in in June 2004 to build up Iraqi security forces.

The gaps between the two records are enormous. Petraeus reported that about 185,000 AK-47 rifles, 170,000 pistols, 215,000 pieces of body armor and 140,000 helmets were issued to Iraqi security forces from June 2004 through September 2005. But the property books contained records for 75,000 AK-47 rifles, 90,000 pistols, 80,000 pieces of body armor and 25,000 helmets.

The fact that the weapons are not fully accounted for does not necessarily mean they are all missing. It is possible that the US military simply does not have the supporting records confirming the dates the equipment was received, the quantities of equipment delivered, or the Iraqi units receiving the items.

On the other hand it seems fairly likely that some of the missing weapons are being used against US forces in Iraq. Given that the most readily accessible black market for those stolen weapons is in Iraq, some of those are going to be bought by the insurgents.

In fact, the problem could be considerably worse than the GAO report indicates.

According to Amnesty International research, additional hundreds of thousands of US-approved arms transfers from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Iraq could also be missing. In a May 2006 report, Amnesty revealed that Taos Inc, a US company with multiple DOD contracts, subcontracted to a Moldovan/Ukrainian company called Aerocom to transport hundreds of thousands of arms, more than 90 tonnes of AK-47s, and other weapons from Bosnia to Iraq between July 31, 2004, and June 31, 2005, for Iraqi security forces.

US military air-traffic controllers in Iraq, however, said Aerocom never requested landing slots to touch down in the country. Aerocom smuggled weapons to Liberia in 2002 and was operating without a valid license in 2004, according to the United Nations Security Council.

As of August, Amnesty was still awaiting a reply from the Pentagon regarding its investigation into the Bosnia-to-Iraq weapons shipments.

And, in a move that can only be likened to the fox guarding the hen-house, it turns out, as the Los Angeles Times reported on August 13, that there may have been another factor at work, namely the US government's use of Viktor Bout - a Russian air transporter who also happens to be the world's most notorious arms dealer.

When the US government needed to fly four planeloads of seized weapons from Bosnia to Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in August 2004, it used Aerocom. But Aerocom is tied to Bout's aviation empire. The problem is that the planes apparently never arrived. US officials admitted they had no record of the flights landing in Baghdad.

Why the US government would have used Bout-controlled Aerocom - which had already been linked to supplying arms to Liberia when it was ruled by Charles Taylor and to drug traffickers in Belize - is a mystery in and of itself, considering that by 2004 Bout was very well known to the US government as a global gun-runner whom they wanted to put out of business.

The latest development occurred this week when it was reported that that Italian anti-Mafia investigators had uncovered an alleged shipment of 105,000 rifles of which the US military command in Iraq was unaware. The Italian team, in an investigation code-named Operation Parabellum, stopped the $40 million sale and made four arrests. The consignment appears to have been ordered by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The US high command in Baghdad admitted it had no knowledge of any such order, even though the ministry is supposed to inform the US before purchasing arms.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official insisted the weapons were mostly for Iraqi police in al-Anbar province. But given the close relationship between the Shi'ite-led government and Shi'ite militias and the irregular nature of the arms order, the disclosure prompted suspicion that the eventual destination could have been the militias, or police units close to them.

Furthermore, why the police in Anbar would need more weapons raises more questions. The Pentagon has issued 169,280 AK-47s, 167,789 pistols and 16,398 machine-guns to the 161,000 police in Iraq and 28,000 border police.

David Isenberg is a senior analyst with the British American Security Information Council. He is also a member of the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, contributor to the Straus Military Reform Project, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, and a US Navy veteran.

Hardware firm charges Pentagon $1m to deliver two washers

August 17, 2007

by James Orr and agencies

Guardian Unlimited

The owner of a hardware company has admitted to defrauding the Pentagon out of more than $20m (£10m), in one case charging almost $1m for shipping two washers costing a mere 19 cents.

Charlene Corley, who owned hardware equipment supply company C&D Distributors LLC with her sister, the late Darlene Wooten, now faces up to 20 years in prison.

A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Maka, said a detailed investigation had revealed how the company had sometimes double-billed for supplies or charged the department even when the government had decided to refuse its services.

The billing of the washers was one of the most egregious charges, Lt Col Maka said.

An assistant US attorney, Kevin McDonald, said C&D Distributors LLC still owed as much as $750,000 in fines. But he added that the firm had repaid $4m to the government and that an additional $7m of the company's assets, including beach houses, had been seized.

Over a period of nearly 10 years, the firm exploited an automated shipping payment system designed to speed up shipments of goods bound for US forces overseas.

The payment system had since been changed to prevent suppliers taking advantage of the process, Mr McDonald said.

"Its intent was a good one, and it was to get items directly to the troops wherever they might be as quickly as possible without running into the red tape of manually approving costs," he said.

Corley's lawyer, Greg Harris, said Wooten handled bidding and shipping for the company and was directly responsible for the fraud. Wooten committed suicide in October last year after being contacted by the authorities about the case, according to prosecutors.

Before doing so, she wrote a $4m cheque to the defence department, Mr McDonald said.

The defence department is now investigating further cases of fraudulent charges by other contractors, Lt Col Maka said, although he could not specify how many.

"We're going to do whatever it takes to retake the money that's stolen from us," he said. The date for Corley's sentencing has not yet been set.

Prosecutors said other fraudulent charges made by the sisters included $492,097 to ship an $11 threaded plug and $499,569 to ship 10 cotter pins - industrial steel pins - worth $1.99 each.

How Rove became victim of administration's hubris

August 14, 2007

by Julian Borger,diplomatic editor

The Guardian

Karl Rove's departure from the White House to spend more time with his family and to write his memoirs marks the end of the dominant political partnership of the past decade in US politics.

Mr Rove took George Bush under his wing when he was no more than the figurehead of a Texan baseball team, the wayward son of a political dynasty who was not expected to amount to anything.

Through constant drilling and intense discipline the Austin-based political consultant turned his protege into a fearsomely effective campaigner, Texas governor and, ultimately, a two-term president. After his 2004 reelection, President Bush hailed Mr Rove as "The Architect". The critics called him "Bush's Brain".

Along the way, Mr Rove constantly compared himself to the patron saint of US political consultants, Mark Hanna, who guided William McKinley to the Oval Office at the end of the 19th century. Like his idol, Mr Rove saw himself as engineering not just an electoral victory, but also a realignment of American politics that would leave Republicans in power for a generation.

By those standards, Mr Rove's career has been a failure. Far from securing an enduring "natural" majority, the Republicans were defeated in last year's congressional elections, dragged down by a presidency that has become one of the most unpopular of modern times. The current crop of Republican presidential contenders are competing with each other to distance themselves from Mr Bush and the Iraq war.

Nevertheless, Mr Rove has left a mark on American political history. His departure marks the true end of an era and his name will live on in the adjective Rovian, albeit with negative connotations. It carries with it the whiff of dirty tricks, which were blamed on Mr Rove, although mostly without conclusive proof.

Bad things tended to happen to rival campaigns when Mr Rove was in charge, but the dirty work tended to be done by surrogates and supporters with no demonstrable link to his office. (John McCain's challenge in the 2000 primaries was derailed by a rumour campaign in South Carolina, accusing the Vietnam veteran of a lack of patriotism. In 2004, John Kerry was undone by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who questioned his Vietnam record.)

In his valedictory interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Rove made light of his reputation. But by the end, the mud was beginning to stick. He escaped indictment last year for the outing of Valerie Plame, a CIA undercover official married to an administration critic, but it was clear he touted her name around the Washington press corps. He was also forced to invoke executive privilege to avoid telling Congress what his role had been in a cull of federal prosecutors.

Mr Rove ultimately became a victim of the administration's hubris. President Bush took him from the campaign bus to the White House, making him head of policy as well as head of politics, but the policy became a disaster. His ambitious plans to reform federal pensions and the immigration regime alienated both the elderly and conservative wings of the party. Mr Rove's grand plan of engineering a permanent Republican majority with corporate money, white evangelical fervour and a "moral values" alliance with Hispanics, seemed over-ambitious long before he stepped down.

Mr Rove's actual legacy is likely to be more mundane. The targeted canvassing methods that he helped pioneer have become part of modern American electioneering. The maestro's acolytes are active in just about every primary campaign in this year's primaries, even if the old master himself is no longer welcome.

Domestic use of spy satellites to widen

Law enforcement getting new access to secret imagery

August 16, 2007

by Joby Warrick

Washington Post

The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers.

A program approved by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security will allow broader domestic use of secret overhead imagery beginning as early as this fall, with the expectation that state and local law enforcement officials will eventually be able to tap into technology once largely restricted to foreign surveillance.

Administration officials say the program will give domestic security and emergency preparedness agencies new capabilities in dealing with a range of threats, from illegal immigration and terrorism to hurricanes and forest fires. But the program, described yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, quickly provoked opposition from civil liberties advocates, who said the government is crossing a well-established line against the use of military assets in domestic law enforcement.

Although the federal government has long permitted the use of spy-satellite imagery for certain scientific functions -- such as creating topographic maps or monitoring volcanic activity -- the administration's decision would provide domestic authorities with unprecedented access to high-resolution, real-time satellite photos.

‘More robust access’

They could also have access to much more. A statement issued yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security said that officials envision "more robust access" not only to imagery but also to "the collection, analysis and production skills and capabilities of the intelligence community."

The beneficiaries may include "federal, state, local and tribal elements" involved in emergency preparedness and response or "enforcement of criminal and civil laws." The "tribal" reference was to Native Americans who conduct semiautonomous law enforcement operations on reservations.

"These systems are already used to help us respond to crises," Charles Allen, the chief intelligence officer for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a telephone interview. "We anticipate that we can also use it to protect Americans by preventing the entry of dangerous people and goods into the country, and by helping us examine critical infrastructure for vulnerabilities."

Domestic security officials already have access to commercial satellite imagery, including the high-definition photographs available from Google and other private vendors. But spy satellites offer much greater resolution and provide images in real time, said Jeffrey T. Richelson, an expert on space-based surveillance and a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington.

"You also can get more coverage more often," Richelson said. "These satellites will cover during the course of their orbits the entire United States. They will be operating 24 hours a day and using infrared cameras at night."

Other nonvisual capabilities can be provided by aircraft-based sensors, which include ground-penetrating radar and highly sensitive detectors that can sense electromagnetic activity, radioactivity or traces of chemicals, military experts said. Such radar can be used to find objects hidden in buildings or bunkers.

One possible use of the technology would be to spot staging areas along smuggling routes used to transport narcotics or illegal immigrants, officials said. In a handful of cases, security officials have requested -- and obtained -- similar help, but only on a case-by-case basis.

Allen said the agreement with the DNI grew out of the general impetus for wider intelligence-sharing in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when administration and intelligence officials began examining the possibility of increasing officials' access to secret data as a means of strengthening the nation's defenses.

The program was formally authorized in May in a memo by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The two officials have been coordinating for months, as recommended in a 2005 study headed by Keith Hall, then the director of the National Reconnaissance Office.

Hall's group cited an "urgent need" for expanding sharing of remote sensing data to domestic groups other than scientific researchers. "Opportunities to better protect the nation are being missed," the report said.

Under the new program, the DHS will create a subordinate agency to be known as the National Applications Office. The new office, which has gained the backing of congressional intelligence and appropriations committees, is responsible for coordinating requests for access to intelligence by civilian agencies. Previously, an agency known as the Civilian Applications Committee facilitated access to satellite imagery for geologic study.

‘Big Brother in the sky’

Oversight of the department's use of the overhead imagery data would come from officials in the Department of Homeland Security and from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and would consist of reviews by agency inspectors general, lawyers and privacy officers. "We can give total assurance" that Americans' civil liberties will be protected, Allen said. "Americans shouldn't have any concerns about it."

But civil liberties groups quickly condemned the move, which Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a nonprofit activist group, likened to "Big Brother in the sky." "They want to turn these enormous spy capabilities, built to be used against overseas enemies, onto Americans," Martin said. "They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state."

Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said that the data could be useful but that oversight for the program was woefully inadequate. Enhanced access "shouldn't be adopted at all costs because it comes with risk to privacy and to the integrity of our political institutions," he said.

NYTimes: The US Needs More Oil Reserves & Should Never Tap Them

August 14, 2007

by Brian Faughnan

Weekly Standard

The New York Times expresses its disappointment that the United States has not ratified the Law of the Sea Treaty, which would allow the U.S. to contend with Denmark, Russia, and others for the rights to minerals under the North Pole:

The United States does not find itself in a strong position. Misplaced fears among right-wing senators about losing “sovereignty” has kept the Senate from ratifying the Law of the Sea even though the United Nations approved it 25 years ago. This, in turn, means that the United States, with 1,000 miles of coastline in the Arctic, has no seat at the negotiating table.

President Bush and moderate Republicans like Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, will try to remedy this blunder when Congress reconvenes. This would at least enable Washington to stake its claims to the continental shelf extending northward from Alaska. We may never need a share of that oil, but it seems foolish not to keep it in reserve.

It's nice to know that the Times believes that the U.S. should keep some oil in reserve. It's just that the Times does not believe that oil in reserve should actually be used. In its most recent editorial on the subject I could find, the New York Times editorialized against drilling in ANWR in 2005:

In addition to the familiar economic arguments - that the refuge is America's last great untapped source of domestic oil and is crucial to its competitiveness - Norton has emphasized that drilling technology has advanced to the point where billions of barrels of oil can be extracted without harming the refuge's fragile ecology or abundant wildlife.

Environmentalists beg to disagree. Where Norton sees undisturbed tundra, they see pipelines, roads and drilling platforms that would fragment wildlife habitats. But what troubles us most about President George W. Bush's fixation on drilling is what it says about the shallowness of his energy policy.

Why pass a treaty to enable a dubious claim for a reserve of unknown value, if you are dead-set against tapping the existing, known reserve you already hold? Perhaps conservatives ought to make a deal with the Times: as soon as you editorialize in favor of expanded drilling in ANWR, we'll take another look at the Law of the Sea.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Weblogs/TWSFP/TWSFPView.asp#2141

DOD Stops Plan to Send Christian Video Game to Troops in Iraq

August 16, 2007

by Anna Schecter

ABC News

Plans by a Christian group to send an evangelical video game to U.S. troops in Iraq were abruptly halted yesterday by the Department of Defense after ABC News inquired about the program.

Operation Start Up (OSU) Tour, an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among soldiers, will not be sending the “apocryphal” video game in care packages as planned, according to the department

“Left Behind: Eternal Forces” was inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ best-selling book series about the battle of Armageddon, in which believers of Jesus Christ fight the Antichrist.

The game has inspired controversy among freedom of religion advocates since it was released last year.

“It’s a horrible game,” said the Rev. Timothy Simpson of the Christians Alliance for Progress. “You either kill or covert the other side. This is exactly what the Osama bin Ladens of the world have portrayed us.”

Troy Lyndon, the producer of the game, said the game’s “warfare” is not violent, and that it emphasizes “spiritual battles” over fighting with guns. The game gives incentives to recruit believers instead of killing the forces of the Antichrist, according to Lyndon.

Lyndon added, “There is no forcible conversion to Christianity, and killing is never an objective in any of the 40 missions in the game.”

A team of researchers at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation discovered OSU Tour’s plan to send the game to Iraq, and their discovery was first reported by Max Blumenthal in The Nation last week.

MRFF President Mikey Weinstein said he is gratified the Pentagon “claims it is going to cease this provocative act” that emboldens organizations like the Taliban and al Qaeda.

“I doubt this will prevent unconstitutional activity in the Pentagon with regards to freedom of religion for more than just a few days,” said Weinstein.

OSU Tour is one of the newest members of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, which connects citizens and corporations with members of the military and their families at home and abroad.

OSU Tour’s entertainment aims to help military children and families become stronger through faith-based entertainment, according to its Web site. Sports personalities, comedians and actors, including Stephen Baldwin, make up the show.

OSU president Jonathan Sprinks in a recent press release said of Baldwin, “Since God made a difference in his life, he’s been very outspoken.”

Sprinks came under fire from bloggers for writing on his Web site, “We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war-torn region,” about OSU Tour’s planned trip to Iraq. “We’ll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq.”

The above text has been removed from Sprinks’ site but can be viewed on the cached page.

Sprinks did not return requests for comment on this article.

The Defense Department’s only comment on the record was that the OSU Tour is “currently not planning on sending any care packages to the troops in Iraq.”

In addition to the game, OSU Tour’s “Freedom Packets” were supposed to include pocket-sized editions of the New Testament, evangelical DVDs and books, baby wipes and phone cards, according to its Web site.

Comment: These nuts should be compelled to herd by themselves and chant ‘Unclean, unclean’ so the rest of us can avoid contamination.  ‘Armageddon,’ ‘Rapture’ and the rest of their loony stories are not in the Bible and never were. If we had mobs of cretins running around demanding more attention be paid to the Easter Bunny, they would be locked up. These strange creatures are doing exactly the same thing but the difference is, Our Blessed President has just admitted to the press that God Has Spoken to Him and that his continued slaughter of young American soldiers is “part of God’s plan.” Right, George, and why not go to Iraq and act as a mine detector? God could press you to His bosom very quickly and we would all be rid of you. And take your crazy friends with you, why not?  BH

CIA, FBI computers used for Wikipedia edits

August 16, 2007

by Randall Mikkelsen

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.

The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was quickly overwhelmed with searches.

The program allows users to track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries.

WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.

Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.

Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.

CIA spokesman George Little said he could not confirm whether CIA computers were used in the changes, adding that "the agency always expects its computer systems to be used responsibly."

The FBI did not have an immediate response.

Computers at numerous other organizations and companies were found to have been involved in editing articles related to them.

Griffith said he developed WikiScanner "to create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike (and) to see what 'interesting organizations' (which I am neutral towards) are up to."

It was not known whether changes were made by an official representative of an agency or company, Griffith said, but it was certain the change was made by someone with access to the organization's network.

It violates Wikipedia's neutrality guidelines for a person with close ties to an issue to contribute to an entry about it, said spokeswoman Sandy Ordonez of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's parent organization.

However, she said, "Wikipedia is self-correcting," meaning misleading entries can be quickly revised by another editor. She said Wikimedia welcomed the WikiScanner.

WikiScanner can be found at wikiscanner.virgil.gr/

Blessed Prozac Moments: The Veil is Parted at Last!

Lakes of Liquid Steel

August 14, 2007

by Christopher Bollyn www.bollyn.com

Five years ago, I first learned that molten iron had been discovered in large quantities under the rubble of the three demolished towers of the World Trade Center, including Larry Silverstein's 47-story tower Salomon Brothers building (WTC 7) which collapsed mysteriously in the late afternoon of 9/11.

Two years ago, Professor Steven E. Jones of BYU presented his evidence and scientific analysis and concluded that the molten iron was probably the product of an aluminothermic reaction - most likely Thermate. The scientific evidence that the three collapsed towers were destroyed with explosives and Thermite analogues is quite compelling.

Three months ago, an independent journalist named Greg Palast publicly called Professor Stephen Jones a "complete fruitcake and a complete and utter fraud."

Who is Palast and why is he attacking Professor Jones? (Comment: Palast is a reputable journalist and Jones was fired from his university post for repeated public episodes supporting the dim of wit. BH)

In August 2002, I discovered that molten metal had been found - in the molten state - in the basements of the three collapsed towers. I obtained this information from two of the men who supervised the removal of the rubble from the destroyed World Trade Center.

In the basements of the collapsed twin towers, where each of their 47 support core columns were connected to the bedrock, hot spots of "literally molten steel" were discovered more than a month after the collapse. "Such persistent and intense residual heat, 70 feet below the surface, could explain how these crucial structural supports failed," I wrote at the time. (Comment: The author also informed us that it was ‘Plasmoid Clouds’ that actually brought down the WTC buildings, BH)

Comment: My God, kids, the truth is finally revealed! Imagine,  huge lakes of liquid steel beneath the rubble of the WTC, still bubbling after weeks had passed! Truly a scientific marvel, to rank with ‘Sorcha Faal’s’ imminent arrival of ‘Planet X,’ the fierce gun battle in the Capitol parking garage as reported by the Blessed Tom Flocco and other marvels, some too awesome to repeat.  And we must not ignore the urgent reports by Famous Scientists about the notorious Robot Geese Surveillance devices of the NSA, controlled by the even more notorious Dr. Melbourne Fong of the dread Hidden Hand. While trained baboons were planting ‘Thermate’ bombs in the WTC buildings, Dr. Fong’s minions were aiming Tesla Death Rays at the buildings from a loft in New Jersey.  If it were not for the brilliant investigative powers of those among us that God Has Blessed with True Vision, we would all be enslaved by the forces of evil, run by the Bilderburgers and the CFR.  Brian Harring

Green Zone Follies

Baghdad, 16 Aug 07: “Growing discontent among the grunts here about certain very ugly stories, mostly true, of murders of soldiers and increasing suicides. Also, ‘fragging’ of dictatorial officers and NCOs are increasing.

Whenever you see ‘The death is currently under investigation’ .you know it was probably either a murder by the military or a suicide. They have a small gang attached here whom no one knows anything about but very strong and enduring rumor has it that they are an official ‘hit gang’ who go around offing GIs who are viewed as trouble makers or those who might talk too much if rotated.

And one of the reasons for increasing suicides is that fact that once here, you almost always stay here or, if sent home, it’s for a very short period of time and then back into the maw of the great death machine.  Any grunt who dares to bitch or, most especially, to trash mouth Bush is looking for a “sniper’s bullet’ through the head.

. Last week we lost three helicopters and eleven men but I see by looking at the DoD sites that only one was reported.

I would safely say the death toll is at least double what is reported and I know why the injury lists are never, ever, published.

If the public ever saw these kids with legs, arms or faces blown off by the terrible new bombs, there would be rioting stateside. The new propaganda line is that these deadly bombs are made in Iran but they are made right here with a little help from the Saudis.

Many of the brass here believe Bush lives in a weird world that no one wants to talk about and Cheney is a flat nut. But we can not talk about any of this.

So when you read about a death being ‘under investigation,’ take that with a huge block of salt. If there was a nice, neutral country connected with Iraq, half the troops (or probably more)  would desert in one weekend and then the brass would have to leave their steel and concrete bunkers and get their legs and arms blown off. And we don’t see many Congressmen’s sons over here. Webb’s son is here but he’s the only one I know of. “

Why Isn't the Press on a Suicide Watch?

You'd never know that at least 3% of all American deaths in Iraq are due to self-inflicted wounds. And that doesn't include the many vets who have killed themselves after returning home.

August 13, 2007

by Greg Mitchell

Editor and Publisher

NEW YORK (August 13, 2007) -- Would it surprise you to learn that according to official Pentagon figures, at least 118 U.S. military personnel in Iraq have committed suicide since April 2003? That number does not include many unconfirmed reports, or those who served in the war and then killed themselves at home (a sizable, if uncharted, number).

While troops who have died in "hostile action" – and those gravely injured and rehabbing at Walter Reed and other hospitals -- have gained much wider media attention in recent years, the suicides (about 3% of our overall Iraq death toll) remain in the shadows.

For whatever reason, I have always found soldiers who take their own lives especially tragic, though some might argue the opposite. Since the beginning of the war, I have written numerous columns on self-inflicted deaths, from average grunts to Col. Ted Westhusing (angry about contractor abuses), Alyssa Peterson (appalled by interrogation techniques) and Linda Michel (denied medication after returning home). But generally, the suicides get very little local or national attention.

In a sense, the press doesn't know what to do about them. Did they serve their country well, but ultimately let it down? Or is their country fully responsible for putting them in a suicide-producing situation in the first place and has blood on its hands?

One recent case illustrates some of the issues. The Pentagon revealed the death, joining more than 3,650 others, on July 5 in one of its pithy releases: "Pfc. Andrew T. Engstrom, 22, of Slaton, Texas, died July 4 in Taji, Iraq, from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. His death is under investigation."

Investigations can last months, but this time Engstrom's parents were told the truth very quickly (this is not always the case). Families, for multiple reasons no doubt, often try to hide suicides from the press and public. We are usually informed that the death was "non-hostile," which also covers the many killed in vehicle or gun accidents. But in this case, a reporter for The Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal, Marlena Hartz, learned from Engstrom's fiance -- and a family friend that his parents had been told he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound "in the head."

A local radio station published a couple of heartbreaking photos of the young man on its Web site,

captured from MySpace, along with a message his mother had posted online before his death: "My dearest son, you should know how much daddy and I are so proud of you, taking the stand like you did, when you did, living out what you dreamed of doing since you were a young child. Keep your chin up, your head down, and remember dad and I love you with our whole being. Mom."

I found his page at MySpace (he called himself Sir Knight). The "last log-in" came on the day he died. His lead quote reads: "These are the times that try men's souls." Biographical details included the statement "I don't have heroes." The top entry in the comments section by his MySpace friends came from a young woman who wrote on July 13: "R.I.P. Andy." His younger brother, 18, and his mother each have theirown MySpace pages which now include tributes. His mother described her "mood" in July as "depressed."

Like I said: I can barely stand the tragedy in all of this.

On August 5, in response to an earlier piece on this subject, I received the following email: "My 26 yr old son hung himself June 21st. He was an 'outstanding' SSG with 'great leadership skills' per his Army records. Something is very wrong with the services that they receive. He had been stationed at Fort Carson. Disch on May 2 with PTSD 50% disability and dead less than 6 weeks later, I am trying so hard to make sense of this tragedy."

This past January, Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman noted in The Hartford Courant that veterans advocates found the increase of suicides in 2006 "troubling." Steve Robinson, director of government relations for Veterans for America, told them he was particularly disturbed by suicides in the war zone because combat troops are supposed to be screened for mental health issues before they join the military, and throughout their careers. "These people aren't the kind of people that you would think would take this step," he said.

Chekedel told me in an email recently," we haven't looked at 2007 suicides -- and it's a tough subject toget timely statistics on. The Defense Manpower Data Center reports, which come out periodically and arebroken down by 'casualty category,' do keep a running count of self-inflicted deaths -- but because some cases are listed as 'pending,' and can be moved into the 'confirmed' category months later, it's tricky to get an accurate tally by calendar year."

Not even included in these tallies are cases like the following: "Two weeks ago Iraq vet Noah Pierce shot and killed himself in a remote section of northern Minnesota. The sheriff's office revealed that he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and that Pierce had said, before he fled home with a few firearms, that he may be a danger to others as well as himself."

In the Deseret (Utah) Morning News last Monday, Stephen Speckman noted that the suicide rate among all veterans is now about twice the national average among nonveterans. On top of that, he added, "Among Army members, suicide rates between 2003 and 2006 for soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom were higher than the average Army rate, 16.1 versus 11.6 soldier suicides per year per 100,000, according to U.S. Army Medical Command spokesman Jerry Harben."

As for Andy Engstrom: There is no way of knowing right now why he put a bullet in his head in Iraq in early July. Some victims might have killed themselves without having served multiple tours of Iraq. Engstrom had been there since last October. But there was nothing to learn from press coverage of his funeral in Slaton on July 13: There was none that I could find.

Nothing at all.

These sad events are often covered extensively by local papers saluting their hometown heroes. Do the families in these cases usually request a blackout? Hartz, the Lubbock reporter, tells me, "We are just

waiting for the official report on his death to be released by the military. ... The family has not embraced coverage of Andrew's death, and therefore, our coverage has been limited." Locally, I can understand it, but there's no excuse for the lack of national attention to the number of suicides among U.S. troops

Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's editor. His collection of columns on Iraq andthe media, "So Wrong for So Long," will be published in March. He has written seven previous books on politics, history and the media.