U.S. forces kill senior cleric in Baghdad

U.S. forces shot and killed a Sunni Muslim cleric during a raid on his Baghdad residence, influential group of Iraqi clerics said on Saturday and warned that the incident will fuel anger against the United States.

US may strike at Ba'athists in Syria, official tells 'Post'

A senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post. The official said that fresh sanctions are likely to be implemented, but added that the US needs to be more "aggressive" after Tuesday's deadly attack on a US base in Mosul.    Another US official said that sentiment reflects a "growing level of frustration" in Washington at Syria's reluctance to detain Ba'athists and others who are organizing attacks from Syrian territory.

Jewish holocaust survivors sue Bush
Jewish Holocaust survivors have sued president Bush for 400 million dollars because his family forture was made by working with the Nazis.

Massive quake hits off TasmaniaTHE world's biggest earthquake in almost four years has struck 800km off the coast of Tasmania, Australian seismological officials said.Geoscience Australia said the quake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale, hit the Macquarie Rise in the Pacific Ocean at 1.59am (AEDT) -Australian AU

Battered dollar hits another low

Fighting breaks out again in Fallujah
U.S. Marines battled insurgents in Fallujah today with warplanes dropping bombs and tanks shelling suspected guerrilla positions, causing deaths on both sides.

GOP POISED TO BETRAY VOTERS? BUSH REVIVES AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS

In Ohio, almost 1 in 50 votes for president don't count
An analysis by Scripps Howard News Service found that Ohio recorded the second-highest number of missing votes in the country, behind California. Elections experts say a large number of missing votes in a high-profile race like president should raise a red flag that something may be amiss

Metal Storm Robot Will Demostrate Urban Warfare Capabilites For DARPA

AUTOMATED  DETECTION,  TARGETTING   AND  KILL

Court erupts over expert's testimony on `Arab mentality'
The Haifa District Court :    The Arab mentality is made of "a sense of being a victim," "pathological anti-Semitism," and "a tendency to live in a world of illusions," said Prof. Rafi Israeli, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Hebrew University, on the witness stand yesterday, adding that the Arabs neglect sanitation in their communities. "Most of the Arab villages are dirtier, physically - it's a fact," he said.

The National Institutes of Health: Public Servant or Private Marketer?
While making recommendations in the name of the NIH, Brewer was working for the companies that sell the drugs. Government and company records show that from 2001 to 2003, he accepted about $114,000 in consulting fees from four companies making or developing cholesterol medications, including $31,000 from the maker of Crestor.

U.S. mining firm admits polluting
A U.S. mining company admitted yesterday that it released tons of mercury into the air and water over a period of years at one of its Indonesian gold mines, but denied that it had any health impact on people.

WHY THE WORLD WANTS TO GET RID OF CHRISTIANITY

 The nation that was build on the principles that freedom, liberty and human rights are an inherent gift from God, is now banning the Lord of Hosts from all public places because the overlords of the United Nations who view the God of the Christians as a spiteful, racist deity understand all too well that a one-world religion cannot be formed as long as Biblical Christianity exists in any form. Furthermore, when God is successfully erased from America, the inherent, God-given rights guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution of the United States will become "conditional" rights that may, or may not be, granted by the federal oligarchy that has risen from the ashes of republican liberty.

How will Karzai run Afghanistan?

Six weeks after President Hamid Karzi's election and two weeks after hus inauguration, he is still struggling to choose a government, raising questions over whether he wil be strong enough to tackle Afghanistan's problems -Daily Times PK

Blair calls for summit on Palestinian reforms

Blair met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem Wednesday morning  Israel supports its goals but won't participate.

Tremors that may signal political earthquake in North Korea European policymakers have been advised to prepare for "sudden change" in North Korea amid growing speculation among diplomats and observers that Kim Jong-il is losing his grip on power -Guardian UK

'Catastrophic' drought forecast for China next year

 Pentagon Says Suicide Bomber Hit Army Base

VIEW  WITH  SOME  SCEPTICISM

 Ancient, Complex Peruvian Civilization Explored

The civilisation, which was characterised by stone pyramids, large ceremonial structures and agriculture, spread over three windy valleys in the Norte Chico region of Peru.      There were about 20 separate residential centres, which seemed to compete with each other to produce the most imposing architecture - some creating buildings as high as 26m (85ft).

PHOENICIANS  WERE  A  SEAFARING  PEOPLE

US trying to produce fake nuclear documents implicating Iran

REMEMBER  THE  NIGER – YELLOWCAKE  DOCUMENTS

Russia conquers the diamond market

However, it turns out that Russia ranked first in the world on the diamond production volume in 2003 - 33 billion carats in comparison with Botswana's 29 billion carats

Israel's unbridled trade in arms  HA’ARETZ

1999 Naor was arrested in Romania for arms smuggling to the UNITA rebels- The United Nations asked Israel, through the Foreign Ministry, to assist in the investigation but was confronted by a decisive cold shoulder.              The result has been that in 2003 Israel's military sales abroad reached the $3 billion mark, about 10 percent of the overall arms trade in the world. These figures place Israel in fifth or sixth place on the list of the largest arms exporting countries in the world. The estimates of the Defense Ministry for 2004 are for revenues of $4 billion.

Physics highlights of the year

US troops seal Mosul, order to shoot issued --US forces sealed off entire districts of this Iraqi city yesterday, blocking bridges and raiding homes in a hunt for suspects after an attack that killed 18 Americans and four other people... Mosul's governor issued an order on television banning use of the five bridges over the River Tigris and said anyone breaking the order would be shot. Residents said Iraq’s third city was a virtual ghost town, with no one in the streets. Hours later, a fuel tanker, rigged with explosives, detonated in the trouble spot of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 20.

Gallup: Internet News Growing, Other Media Decline

IMAGINE  THAT!

Google Zaps 9/11 'Terror Drill' Research

People-tracking closer to reality

Applied Digital has created and successfully field-tested a prototype of an implant for humans with GPS, or global positioning satellite, technology.   Once inserted into a human, it can be tracked by GPS technology and the information relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individual's location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference.

STATSCAN: PERCENTAGE OF LOW-INCOME PEOPLE IN CITIES GROWS

WHO: BIRD FLU WILL KILL MILLIONS

White House can't explain lurking trade imbalance

On Nov. 22, it officially dropped. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service estimates released that day, 2005 will be the first year in nearly 50 that America will not turn an agricultural trade surplus.

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES: THE RISE OF THE POLITICS OF FEAR

UK GUARDIAN  ON  THE  BBC  PRODUCTION:    During the three years in which the "war on terror" has been waged, high-profile challenges to its assumptions have been rare. The sheer number of incidents and warnings connected or attributed to the war has left little room, it seems, for heretical thoughts. In this context, the central theme of The Power of Nightmares is riskily counter-intuitive and provocative. Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media." The series' explanation for this is even bolder: "In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power."

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NB: COMPILERS  PERONAL  COMMENTS  IN  UPPER  CASE

 “UNITED  STATES”

Feds: Regulating Drug Imports Too Costly

President George W. Bush dangled his support for legalizing prescription drug imports before voters during this year's campaign, but his administration declared Tuesday it's too costly to do safely.

Bush Social Security Plan Worries GOP

Bush Defends Rumsfeld As 'A Caring Fellow'

THE ACTUAL FBI MEMO REFERRING TO A SIGNED EXECUTIVE ORDER AUTHORIZING THE USE OF TORTURE

Syrian legislator denied U.S. entry

DIALOGUE  IS  CRITICAL  IF  PARTIES  WISH  TO  RESOLVE  A  PROBLEM

U.S. Marines Suffer Most Suicides in Five Years
Suicides of U.S. Marines have reached their highest level in five years, prompting a Defense Department effort to encourage Marines to seek mental health services, a Marine Corps spokesman said on Tuesday. There have been 32 confirmed or probable suicides among 178,000 Marines this year, surpassing the 28 who killed themselves in 2001 as the United States invaded Afghanistan.

 23 Fired IDT Workers Sue - Claim Pro-Jewish Bias

Twenty-three former call center employees of telecommunications provider IDT Corp. are suing the company, claiming discrimination against non-Jewish workers that ranged from ruined Christmases to the transfer of their jobs to Israel.

“ISRAEL”

Sudan accuses Israel of Darfur involvement

Settlers ignite uproar by comparing Gaza Strip pullout plan to Holocaust:

Some Jewish settlers said Tuesday they will be wearing orange Star of David patches similar to those the Nazis forced Jews to pin to their lapels in an escalation of protests against a planned Gaza Strip withdrawal.

Grand jury query of AIPAC officials postponed until new year

Cleric: Bethlehem today is a 'prison'

Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, has been turned into a large prison by the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land said Tuesday.

Israeli President Unveils Plan For 'World Knesset'

Israel's government took its first public step last week toward the formal creation of an international Jewish "parliament," whose purpose would be to represent Diaspora Jews in the formation of Israeli government policies that have potential impact on Jewish life in other countries.         The urgency with which Israel sees the issue:   staff director of the Jewish Agency think tank, Avinoam Bar Yosef’s staff have been given three months by the president to work through the issues and present a working legislative draft.

US presses Israel not to return drones to China: report

Parents urge Israeli soldiers to refuse orders in Palestinian territories
A group of parents of Israeli soldiers appealed Tuesday for their children to disobey orders that abused human rights and offered them full support if they refused to take part in the occupation of Palestinian territories.

THE  ACTIONS  OF  A  STATE  ARE  NOT  NECESSARILY  SUPPORTED  BY  THEIR  POPULATIONS …

“We hate Israel because it is a Zionist state, not a Jewish state”

We will not go there and neither will we allow are children to go there”, Sliman Jaradi, a Jew from Yemen, has said.         According to Jaradi, the Jews in Yemen have good relations with the Moslems. “We live adjacent to them and there is no problem. God bless the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh”, he noted.

FROM  MY  READING,  THE  JEWS  AND  ARABS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  EAST  WERE  FRIENDLY  NEIGHBORS  UNTIL  ZIONISTS  ARRIVED

British Nobel Laureate compares Israeli policy to Nazis

British Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan on Sunday compared Israel’s nuclear policy to that of the Nazis during World War Il

“MIDDLE  EAST”

Destroyed Fallujah “Uninhabitable”

Iraq’s Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) has ruled out the return of Fallujah evacuees to their homes during the coming days, dismissing statements by the interim government, due to wide scale destruction caused by the US military campaign that rendered the city “uninhabitable”.

The Sinister Plan
The chilling reality of what Fallujah has become is only now seeping out, as the American military continues to block almost all access to the city, whether to reporters, its former residents, or aid groups like the Red Crescent Society.

Bush Says Troops Were on Mission of Peace

Bush insists: 'Life in Iraq is better than under Saddam'
George Bush insisted yesterday that progress was being made in Iraq, only a day after 67 people were killed in bomb attacks, and that elections would go ahead as planned.

Bush Foresees a Deeper U.S. Role in Iraq
The president warns that troop levels will not be cut next year and acknowledges that training of local forces has had mixed results.

Ten more years?

One senior member of the committee said: "It will take 10 to 15 years at least [before troops can be fully withdrawn]. It is another Cyprus. The Iraqis just cannot cope with the security situation and won't be able to for years."

Foreign Troops May Stay In Afghanistan Indefinitely
Foreign troops may remain in Afghanistan indefinitely even as Afghan forces take on growing security responsibilities, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday.

Iran Has Detained Over 10 on Spy Charges

Iran has arrested more than 10 people on charges of revealing its nuclear secrets to Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies, Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said.

Good News for Saddam Hussein

The neo-cons who propagated the story that Saddam "gassed his own people,"   But the news from Mohammed al-Obaidi is that the team prosecuting Saddam for crimes against humanity has dropped the genocide charge “due to insufficient evidence.”

New Jail Abuse Allegations Hit US
One of the memorandums released on Monday provided the account of an FBI agent who observed "serious physical abuses" in Iraq. It was dated 24 June - two months after the extent of abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison was revealed - and was marked "urgent" and sent to FBI Director Robert Mueller. It described strangulation, beatings and the placing of lit cigarettes into detainees' ears.

Rare Pneumonia Found Among U.S. Soldiers in Iraq
A rare and sometimes deadly pneumonia has hit 18 U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq, and Army medical investigators are at a loss to explain the cause, according to a study published on Tuesday. In a report appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center said two of the soldiers had died from the rare illness, called acute eosinophilic pneumonia, or AEP.

THESE  RARE  DISEASES  KEEP  CROPPING  UP  IN  US  PERSONNEL  IN  IRAQ

Iran makes uranium powder, not violating freeze: diplomats
Iran is making a uranium powder that is part of the enrichment process that can make nuclear weapons, but this apparently does not violate a nuclear freeze it agreed with the EU, diplomats said Tuesday.

Vietnam Again - Iraqis Know How To Beat US, And ARE

U.S. using chemical weapons against civilians: Iraqi leader

"The Americans are losing the war in Iraq and in their frustration have started using chemical weapons and napalm bombs on civilian populations," alleges Khudur al-Azawi of the Iraq National Democratic Party.

 'I know when Yasser Arafat was poisoned'

"Something strange happened to Arafat around a year ago. It was on September 25, 2003...," Ahmed Abdelrahman told the London newspaper.      "The president shook hands with around 30 people before leaving to vomit. It was from that moment that the president's health started slowly deteriorating," he explained.           Two weeks before the visit mentioned by Abdelrahman, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet had taken a decision to "remove" Arafat from his Ramallah compound, although without specifying by what means.

Anyone leaving Mosul will be shot: Governor:

Mosul's governor issued an order banning use of the five bridges that span the River Tigris in the city, and said anyone breaking the order would be shot. Residents said Iraq's third city was a virtual ghost town, with no one in the streets

Soldier who killed unarmed Iraqi discharged to face lesser charges

“FOREIGN  AFFAIRS”

China Backs Iran Against The Great Satan    JOE  VIALLS  ARTICLE

Combine China's recent Iranian energy mega-deal with Vladimir Putin's new strategic coalition, which includes nuclear-capable Brazil, and it rapidly becomes clear that New York's "Fortress Americas" fallback initiative is already dead in the water

Japan, China in new tug of war for dominance of Asia
Japan and China have entered a new phase in their fight to be Asia's dominant power, with a row over Japan's visa for Taiwan's veteran leader indicating Tokyo will no longer back down to its neighbor, analysts said -Turkish Press

THOUGHT:   THE  US  IS  FORTIFYING  AND  INCREASING  THE  BELLIGERENCE  OF  IT’S  ASIAN  “CLIENT  STATES”  IN  PREPARATION  FOR  CHINESE  CLAIM  TO  SUPREMACY

China Warns US To Stop Developing Military Relations With Taiwan
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao Tuesday urged the United States to stop developing its military relations with Taiwan. Liu made the statement during a news conference, referring to the U.S. appointment of a military liaison official to Taiwan, Xinhua, China's main government-run news agency, reported. The move by the United States to develop military ties with Taiwan infringes the principles set forth in three Sino-U.S. joint communiques, Liu said.

US confirms it is posting military officers to Taiwan mission
The United States will assign serving military officers to its de facto embassy in Taiwan for the first time since 1979 in a reversal of a longstanding policy, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Japan, US to work out new framework of security alliance

 Yushchenko To Have Plastic Surgery In Israel

Booze, salo, and mare's milk--did Yushchenko poison himself?

Few seem to remember that, back in September this year, the clinic that treated Yushchenko (Rudolfinerhaus Clinic in Vienna, Austria, which now publicly supports the dioxin story) labeled the poison rumors "fallacious," diagnosing Yushchenko with severe pancreatitis, severe intestinal ulcers, gastritis, proctitis, peripheral paresis and a viral skin condition. The core diagnosis, pancreatitis (decomposition of the pancreatic gland tissue), is caused by alcohol--particularly in "binge drinking"--65-75% of the time, and the items Yushchenko consumed before his September illness included crabs, watermelon, sushi--and cognac. In a country where hospitality involves endless toasts, Yushchenko's hosts may have "poisoned" him with nothing more than a liter of Ukrainian spirits. To make matters worse, Yushchenko's medical records confirmed he had voluntarily refused his doctor-ordered diet even after falling seriously ill. On September 9th he consumed salo (a variety of pork fat popular in Ukraine) with garlic, mare's milk and mineral water, and the next day he was in a Rudolfinerhaus clinic bed, and soon accusing the "regime" of poisoning him.

 US Caught In Kabul      ERIC  MARGOLIS

Afghanistan's first true national elections were in 1986 and 1987, under Soviet military occupation. First, the KGB organized a "loya jirga," or national assembly in 1985 and, through bribes and intimidation, got its new Afghan "asset," Najibullah, positioned to replace the ineffectual Afghan communist puppet then in office.            In 2002, the CIA got its Afghan "asset," Hamid Karzai, nominated president through a loya jirga that seemed to many as rigged as the one that promoted Najibullah.

“INTELLIGENCE / SECURITY”

Questions over Kelly
In his report, Lord Hutton confirmed that he had seen a photograph of Dr Kelly lying with his head against the base of a tree. Two volunteer searchers stated they found Dr Kelly's body slumped against a tree. Yet the paramedics who arrived later, and five other witnesses, including the forensic pathologist, reported that the body was flat on its back a foot from the tree.

“SUICIDED”  NOW  IS  A  NON-PARTICIPATORY  VERB

New CIA flack is former Bush campaigner
Newly appointed CIA director Porter Goss has picked a career Republican communications professional to be the next head of public affairs at the agency

 F/A 22 Raptor Crashes At Nellis - Pilot Ejects Safely

Gwynne Dyer : Selling ballistic missile defense (BMD) and the myth of 'rogue states' :

The BMD system being deployed now probably couldn't stop a single missile, and even the full system envisaged for 10 or 20 years down the road (if they can ever get the technology to work) could never stop an all-out Russian or Chinese attack.

DYER  IS  USUALLY  GOOD

“ECONOMICS”

Homeless Honored Around the Country During National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day
Since he went from home remodeler to homeless person two years ago, Tim Cook has been robbed eight times, been beaten up five times and suffered four staph infections.

WRH COMMENT:  Billions for war, billions for foreign governments, billions for cronies in the defense industry, but nothing for the American people sleeping in allies and eating out of trash bins?   ALSO  INCLUDE  CUT-BACKS  IN  SCHOOLS,  HEALTHCARE  AND  EDUCATION.     THE  US  AND  UK  ARE  DISCUSSING  PENSION  CUTBACKS  AS  WELL.

Shift to Foreign Stocks Sapping the Dollar
Already depressed by the nation's huge budget and trade deficits, the U.S. dollar is being undermined by American mutual fund investors: More of them are funneling money into foreign stock funds, a shift that hurts the greenback.

Sterling falls on weak housing data
Sterling fell in European morning trade on Tuesday as yet more evidence emerged of a slowdown in the UK housing market, reducing the likelihood of further interest rate rises.

Weak Holiday Sales Prompt More Discounts
Retailers are expected to increase discounting in the final days before Christmas after a late-buying binge failed to materialize during the last weekend before the holiday. And that's fueling worries that industry profits could be hurt in the fourth quarter.

CANADA  IS  STILL  DOING  WELL.  

Oligarch Bogdanov emerges as buyer of key Yukos subsidiary
Russia's 13th richest man, a Kremlin-friendly oligarch known as the "Hermit of Siberia", emerged yesterday as the most likely buyer of Yukos' main oil production unit, Yuganskneftegaz -Independent UK

Yukos assets 'could pass to Gazprom and the Chinese'
THE assets of Yukos could end up in the hands of Russia’s Gazprom gas company and the Chinese state oil firm, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, hinted yesterday.The Russian President’s reference to the Baikal investors as “individuals” is thought by some to be a possible reference to Gennady Timchenko, an oil trader with a background in the former KGB -London Times UK

Gold and Supply
This is chapter III of the Gold drivers 2005 report and focus on a declining Gold production coming years. A declining Gold supply only increases the pressure on a already tight physical Gold market. According to Newmont CEO Pierre Lassonde you can add $7.5 dollars to the price of Gold for every 100 ton of Gold taken out of the market.

To afford a 2-bedroom apartment, you must earn $15.37 an hour:

A worker in Florida needs to earn $15.37 an hour -- three times the U.S. minimum wage -- to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment and utilities

Paul Krugman on Social Security, the Decline of the Dollar and Healthcare:

 New York Times columnist and Princeton economics professor, Paul Krugman discusses President Bush's Social Security plan, the devaluation of the dollar and the healthcare debate

“CANADA”

CSIS was worried Arar case could end deportations to Syria

Canada's leading spy agency worried that Maher Arar's treatment at the hands of the Syrians could make it difficult to deport other people to the country, an inquiry into his deportation has heard.      CSIS concern about Mr. Arar was pragmatic rather than humanitarian.

BUT  WEREN’T  WORRIED  ABOUT  HIS  TREATMENT

“ELECTIONS”

Conyers demands networks release exit poll data
The following letter, issued by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich), calls on the five major television networks and the Associated Press to release the raw exit poll data from the 2004 presidential election.

CIA uses scare tactics to sway Iraq election

US  AMBASSADOR  IN  AFGHANISTAN  BOUGHT,  CAJOLED  AND  INITMIDATED  CANDIDATES  IN  THE  ELECTION

“SOCIETY”

Bush Supports Cross-Hating Movement
Both President Bush and his father have expressed their support for a group of church leaders that endorses the practice of throwing the cross into the trash – literally. According to an online column by John Gorenfeld, the American Clergy Leadership Conference sponsored a nationwide "Tear Down The Cross" day for Easter 2003 during which pastors led ceremonies where traditional sanctuary crosses were tossed into dumpsters. Over 100 crosses reportedly were trashed. Bush Sr. also praises the work of Rev. Moon-linked clergy group.

“REV”  MOON  IS  CIA  AFFILIATED

Bush White House's Christ-less Christmas
What's virtually missing from the White House commemoration of Christmas this year? Jesus. The little baby in the manger. The reason for the season. While President Bush was re-elected last month in an election victory many attributed to an outpouring of support by evangelical Christians impressed with his candid outspokenness about his faith, some Americans notice the White House website lacks even a single mention of Jesus, whose birth is celebrated by hundreds of millions worldwide Dec. 25. The official White House site proclaims this as the "Season of Merriment and Melody" – not the birth of the Savior of the world.

NewWorldOrder  TRACKERS  WERE  PREDICTING  THE  DOWNFALL   AND  PERSECUTION  OF  CHRISTIANS

Alex Jones' Rebuttal To Allegations Made By Michael Ruppert Concerning Gary Webb's Death
Ruppert's article is so vicious in its scope that it makes us out to be literal demons for simply questioning the circumstances surrounding Gary Webb's death. If the evidence clearly indicates that Gary Webb committed suicide we will accept it. However, we do not under any circumstances feel that such a judgement can be made so quickly and with so little independent verification.

Inquiries cannot replace the coroner's court
It was Tony Blair who called for an urgent inquiry into the death of David Kelly.     From the outset, this was a prejudicial conclusion of the Hutton inquiry. An inquest's verdict of suicide and murder has to be established beyond reasonable doubt. If the coroner had returned an open verdict, the thrust of the Hutton inquiry would have been wholly different or perhaps not occurred at all.

Secret evidence used in Australian “terrorist” trial
In a development without precedent in Australia, secret evidence is being heard in closed sessions, with access denied to the public, the media and even the accused man and his lawyer, in a hearing of terrorist-related offences currently underway in Sydney. A magistrate has granted wide-ranging secrecy and suppression orders, in the first test of the Howard government’s latest “national security” legislation.

THE ACTUAL FBI MEMO REFERRING TO A SIGNED EXECUTIVE ORDER AUTHORIZING THE USE OF TORTURE

Internet surge spurs Iran crackdown
Iran's judiciary has threatened Internet journalists with torture and prison if they do not renounce accusations that authorities abused members of the electronic media and dissidents who were rounded up months ago -Jim Lobe/Asia Times

The Johannite legend of the Templars (.pdf)

The National Institutes of Health:

Public Servant or Private Marketer?: A continuing examination by The Times shows an unabashed mingling of science and commerce.

Axing the International Criminal Court :

Outrageous details of Congress's bloated spending bill for next year keep surfacing. The latest: An amendment on page 219 that prevents $2.5 billion in US foreign aid from reaching countries who have joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), but refused to specifically exempt US soldiers from the court's jurisdiction.

U.S. cuts aid to food charities for holidays
As a sign of budget belt- tightening, Bush to slash global poverty programs.

“SCIENCE / HEALTH”

Remote Behavioral Infleunce Technology Evidence - by John J McMurtrey M C

A must-read update on present mind-contol technology that compliments my own 1996 paper for the International Committee of the Red Cross entitled "Some Aspects of Anti Personnel Electromagnetic Weapons". In addition to detailing technology that can infleunce thoughts and behaviour in a given target, the author provides information about the development of technology able to remotely "read" a person's thoughts.

BEFORE  I  READ  THIS  I  THOUGHT  I  WAS  AWARE  OF  THE  STATE  OF  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THIS  AREA     -    INCLUDES 180 REFERENCES    -  FROM  ONE  OF  THE  REFERENCES…     One EXPERIMENT was to test how well we could recognize which sentence, from a set of 24 or 48 sentences, was being processed in the cortex.      When brain waves were averaged … we were able to recognize correctly 90% of the brain waves generated by 48 different sentences about European geography.

USEFUL  IN  DETECTION  OF  “THOUGHT-CRIMES” 

Small Asteroid Passes Between Satellites and Earth
Astronomers spotted an 16 feet (5 meters) wide  asteroid this week after it had flown past Earth on a course that took it so close to the planet it was below the orbits of some satellites.

Aromatherapy oils 'kill superbug'

University of Manchester researchers found three of the oils, usually used in aromatherapy, destroyed MRSA and E.coli bacteria in two minutes.

Industry Gears Up for Two-Headed Chips
Dual CPU on a single chip.

Union: Meat plants violate mad cow rules  USA

The National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, which represents meat and poultry inspectors in federally regulated plants nationwide, told the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a letter earlier this month that parts include the brains, skulls, spinal cords and lower intestines of cattle older than 30 months. These body parts, thought to be most likely to transmit the malformed proteins that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, were banned from the human food supply by USDA officials last January.

Rocketing rise of behaviour-controlling drug   SCOTLAND
THE number of Lothians children prescribed with the behaviour-controlling drug Ritalin has risen more than sevenfold in the last seven years, it emerged today. But the dramatic rise was smaller than the ten-fold increase recorded across Scotland as a whole.

Delta comes a cropper
THE maiden flight of Boeing's new Delta 4 heavy-lift rocket stranded a dummy satellite in the wrong orbit yesterday when the booster's first stage failed to perform as expected.The giant 23-storey rocket rumbled off Cape Canaveral's seaside launch pad 37B and began a spectacular climb through clear blue skies.About six hours later, however, US Air Force officials confirmed the mission fell short of delivering its 6.7 tonne payload into the proper orbit 35,400km above Earth -Herald Sun AU

 More Evidence ET Contact With India Govt/Military

 Mars Weirdness - Something Cleaned Rover Solar Panels

 Home Exposure To Radon Linked To Lung Cancer Deaths

The researchers conclude radon in the home causes approximately 20,000 lung cancer deaths in the European Union each year - about 1,000 in the UK.

 SARS Continues To Live In The Dead

"People that died of SARS continued to have virus in their lungs as long as 51 days after the onset of illness," co-author Dr. Kevin Kain, director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health in Toronto, said in an interview Monday.

Study Links Pain Reliever Naproxen to Cardiac Risks

Aleve, or Celebrex

 Water? Clearly Visible On Mars

“ENVIRONMENT”

300 million Chinese drinking harmful water because of pollution: official

One of north China's largest lakes dries up

Britain attacks 'devastating' EU proposals to ban cod fishing
Britain strongly attacked Monday "devastating" proposals by the European Union executive to ban cod fishing in parts of the North Sea as EU fisheries ministers prepared for annual talks on quotas.

Saudi signs up for Kyoto agreement

 Britain's Seabird Colonies Face Disaster

 New Cell Phone Study - DNA Damage Via Radio Waves

 Smelling Out Your Perfect Mate

Professor Tim Jacob, head of the smell research laboratory at Cardiff University, claims that in finding our perfect partner, we are reacting to the subtle odour we are all born with.

Exploding the self-esteem myth

Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behaviour

Undercooked Turkeys can harbor superbugs

An in-depth analysis of bacteria in US turkeys has revealed that high proportions of bacteria found in the birds are "superbugs", resistant to many of the antibiotics used on farms and to treat people.

THE  MOST  DEADLY  BUG  I  HAVE  READ  OF  CAME  FROM  A  FRESH  POULTRY  COUNTER  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO

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NB: COMPILERS  PERONAL  COMMENTS  IN  UPPER  CASE

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” -  Thomas Jefferson in 1787

 “UNITED  STATES”

BUSH:   

"Now, the temptation is going to be, by well-meaning people such as yourself and others here, as we run up to the issue, to get me to negotiate with myself in public.     To say, you know, ‘What's this mean, Mr. President? What's that mean?’

    I'm not going to do that.    I don't get to write the law.    I'll propose a solution at the appropriate time”

LYING KILLS
On Monday of this week, both The New York Times and USA Today published anonymously sourced stories reporting that the Department of Defense was considering plunging deeply into the disinformation business.

THIS  IS  ILLEGAL  UNDER  LAW  (WHICH  IS  WHY  A  SIMILAR  PROGRAM  WAS  SUSPENDED  ABOUT  TWO  YEARS  AGO.    LAW  ONLY  APPLIES  TO THE  POWERLESS

Campaign of deception used to push patriotic song up charts

Country singer Chely Wright said yesterday she was dismissing the head of her fan club and shutting down a team of volunteers after The Tennessean learned that some of them posed as members of the military or their families to promote her latest song.

Seventeen members of a handpicked team of fans contacted radio stations around the country asking for more airplay for Wright's pro-military ballad, The Bumper of My SUV.

U.S. Troops Constantly Shipped Back to Iraq War
But with the military stretched thin in Iraq and in Afghanistan, some soldiers and marines are being sent to war zones repeatedly, for longer stretches in some cases, and with far less time at home between deployments than they say they have ever experienced before.

2001 Memo Reveals Push for Broader Presidential Powers
Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ office concluded that President Bush had the power to deploy military force “preemptively” against any terrorist groups or countries that supported them—regardless of whether they had any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon.

It Can't Happen Here  RON  PAUL  -  HOUSE  OF REPRESENTATIVES

The question is no longer rhetorical.  We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching.  The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined.  The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer- always at the expense of our liberty.  But security and liberty go hand-in-hand.  Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure.  History proves that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions.

This Is Your Future President

Hitler wannabe Gropenfuher Schwarzenegger explains his elaborate philosophy on life.

HALF  MINUTE  VIDEO  CLIP  COULD  BE  HUMOROUS

FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques

The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists.

U.S. takes border war on the road
U.S. counterterrorism officials have set up a high-seas gantlet deploying Coast Guard cutters off Latin America and arresting foreign nationals trying to leave their own countries.      Then, over the past two years, they've sunk a dozen emptied migrant boats they deemed "unseaworthy" - setting them ablaze and firing on them with their .50-caliber guns.

WRH  COMMENT:  Shooting up and setting fire to other people's boats in international waters is called "war".          THE  AUSTRALIANS  ARE  DOING  THE  SAME  THING  WITH  THEIR  1000 MILE  “SECURITY  ZONE”

“ISRAEL”

Diplomatic phenomenon of Israeli attitudes to USA
Washington's support for Israel is a diplomatic phenomenon. Successive U.S. administrations have armed, financed and trained their Middle Eastern ally’s armed forces, regularly fed them key electronic intelligence while throwing an all-embracing protective diplomatic arm around the country. In return, Israel has meddled in the U.S. political process, killed 34 U.S. citizens when it attacked the spy ship the USS Liberty in international waters in 1967, routinely ignored even the mildest US requests and perhaps worst of all, regularly spied upon its faithful sponsor.

Powell 'Pushed Out' By Bush For Seeking To Rein In Israel

"Powell thought he could use the credit he had banked as the president's 'good cop' in foreign policy to rein in Ariel Sharon [Israel's prime minister] and get the peace process going. He was wrong."

FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  CANADA  HAS  SUFFERED  SIMILAR  ACTIONS

Iran says it has uncovered spy ring for Israel
Iran said Sunday its intelligence services have uncovered a spy ring that collected intelligence information for Israel, according to a report by Israel Radio's Persian language program.

NEW  ZEALAND  JAILED  A  FEW  AS  WELL

Elections without Democracy
During the 1970's, the apartheid government of South Africa sought to bolster its claims to legitimacy by allowing elections in the Bantustans - the equivalent to today's walled in Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The thought was that if people elected local officials, even to hold largely ceremonial offices, then the rest of the world would stop whining about how undemocratic and illegal apartheid was.

The crime of filming repression in Palestine
Kelly Minio-Paluello (23), a journalist and community activist from the USA, was brutally arrested by Israeli Border Policemen while filming a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday outside Ramallah, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

 Mossad False Flags In Argentina?

Israel's wall: what happens when the world isn't watching

A recent headline in the English-language Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, described the security barrier, currently under construction in the west bank, as being "off the world's agenda for the time being".         JANE HUTCHEON: Reverend Chris Wallace, a Church of Scotland minister on study leave, said he was surprised by the actions of the army.            CHRIS WALLACE: I thought they had to do something violent to get a stun grenade thrown at you, or to have tear gas… I mean, it's not a huge crowd, and they weren't chanting, they weren't doing anything threatening, they were standing in a line. I didn't realise that they would respond like that.

“MIDDLE  EAST”

RUSSIA MAY BUILD SEVEN MORE REACTORS FOR IRAN-RUSSIAN ATOMIC ENERGY MINISTER

Agencies warn Bush that U.S. isn't defeating Iraq insurgents

West has bloodied hands
The Halabja atrocity remains murky. The CIA's former Iraq desk chief claims Kurds who died at Halabja were killed by cyanide gas, not nerve gas, as is generally believed. At the time, Iraq and Iran were locked in the ferocious last battles of their eight-year war. Halabja was caught between the two armies that were exchanging salvos of regular and chemical munitions. Only Iran had cyanide gas. If the CIA official is correct, the Kurds were accidentally killed by Iran, not Iraq.

THIS  CONFIRMS  MANY  OTHER  STORIES  I  HAVE  READ – IT  WAS  NOT  IRAQ  WHO  DID  THE  GASSING

US accused of stifling UN Arab report

Nadir Fergani, the Egyptian social scientist who co-wrote the last three Arab Human Development Reports, said defying the United States could cost the UN Development Programme (UNDP) about $100 million a year.       Washington is unhappy, Fergani said, with sections in the report on the US presence in Iraq and the activities of its ally Israel in the Palestinian territories.

Iran: Israel, U.S. rigging Iraq elections

Israeli and U.S. agents were behind bombings in Iraq's Shi'ite holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf, Iran's Supreme Leader said Monday, accusing Tehran's arch-foes of trying to rig Iraq's elections for their own ends.

Jordanian arrested for criticizing U.S.

Ali Hattar was accused of "provocation" and detained overnight after delivering a lecture critical of the US military and political involvement in the region, his lawyer said on Monday.

“FOREIGN  AFFAIRS”

UK secretly backs removal of nuclear chief
The British government, while publicly supporting the efforts of Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, is secretly backing US plans to remove him.

JUST  LIKE  THE   US

The talk is Social Security, but the topic should be China.
The giant grinding sound you hear is Chinese factories, now consuming more than a quarter of the world's steel, producing more steel than the United States and Japan combined, manufacturing more of everything than any other nation. Indeed, China has doubled its share of world manufacturing exports in the last decade. And the giant gushing sound you hear is Chinese financial capital, buying up whatever it needs all over Southeast Asia, and even propping up the dollar.

North Korea threatens to strengthen deterrent against US

Haiti demonstrates for Aristide's return

More than 10,000 people poured into the streets in Cap Haitian, Haiti's second-largest city, to demand Aristide's return and an end to repression reported the Haiti Information Project (HIP).  

CANADIAN  SOLDIERS  WERE  INVOLVED  IN  THE  “LIBERATION”  OF  HAITI

Eric Margolis: West has bloodied hands:

Who was the first high government official to authorize use of mustard gas against rebellious Kurdish tribesmen in Iraq?     The correct answer: Winston Churchill. As colonial secretary and secretary for war and air, he authorized the RAF in the 1920s to routinely use mustard gas against rebellious Kurdish tribesmen in Iraq and against Pashtun tribes on British India's northwest frontier.

The Coup Connection:

How an organization financed by the US government has been promoting the overthrow of elected leaders abroad

“INTELLIGENCE / SECURITY”

NATO to expand role in Afghanistan AND IRAQ :

The Alliance is preparing to expand the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.      Foreign Ministers also gave the go-ahead for expansion of NATO's training assistance to Iraq.             NATO agreed to a US request to increase the number of its training personnel in Iraq from 60 to 300.

MORE  CANADIANS  AND  AUSTRALIANS 

How the USAF was Stood Down on 9/11  WRH

The Bush Family and 9/11 WRH

Bush's GPS Statement A Warning to Iran?

Note the Russian Iskandar-E missile, which A) uses GPS, B) was sold to Iran, and C) is undergoing upgrading... Basing: Road mobile ; Payload: Single warhead, 480 to 700 kg

COMMENTARY

French Spy Satellite Put into Orbit
A European rocket roared into space from a pad in French Guyana yesterday, placing into orbit a surveillance satellite expected to give France's military new abilities to spy worldwide.

“ECONOMICS”

U.S. Rogue Nation Image Hurts Dollar in Asia

``The message from the foreign exchange markets'' of late ``seems to be simply this: The free ride for the rogue nation is over,'' Quinlan argues. ``No more guns and butter, or wads of foreign cash for a nation deeply enmeshed in the Middle East, heavily indebted at home and seemingly disengaged -- some might say -- from the rest of the world.''           The sinking dollar, Quinlan says, ``could be a sign that the world is no longer willing to underwrite the designs of U.S. foreign policy. To a large extent, we believe a rebound in the U.S. dollar could hinge on a revamped foreign policy.''

Weak dollar may threaten balance
Is the delicate balance that has kept the global economy going despite jaw-dropping U.S. debts about to give way? A growing number of economists think so.

OPEC Dumps the Dollar
The FT suggested the shift by OPEC was due to "private Middle East investors" who are "worried about the prospect of U.S.-held assets being frozen as part of the war on terror, leading to accelerated dollar-selling after the re-election of President George W. Bush."

The Observer | Business | Japan threatens huge dollar sell-off

'The Japanese government is going to ask for a strong dollar policy; if it continues to fall, there would be enormous capital flight from the dollar               Yosano's remarks echoed a warning from a senior Japanese Ministry of Finance official that if the US does not push up interest rates to make the dollar more attractive, 'the one-way sentiment on the dollar will have a negative impact on the flow of capital into the US.' He added that Japan is urging its European counterparts to join a campaign of coordinated currency-market intervention, saying: 'If the dollar is depreciating, we should have coordinated action: that has already been communicated to my European counterparts.'

Analysts sharply divided over retailers' prospects
In a week that will decide the future of some of Britain's biggest high street chains, shoppers have left present-buying so late that retail analysts are split over Christmas, the year's most crucial trading period.

THE  PREDICTIONS  IN  REVELATIONS  SAY  THAT  THE   MERCHANTS   OF  THE  ‘NEW  BABYLON’  WILL WHINE  WHEN  THE  GRAVY  TRAIN  ENDS

Retailers See Little Late Holiday Buying
The nation's retailers remained on edge, as the much-hoped for sales bonanza appeared not to materialize on the last weekend before Christmas, despite an abundance of deals on toys and apparel

Tale Of Two Christmases
Why are lower income consumers suffering? Gas prices and home heating costs are up 30 percent from last year, Regan points out, taking $1 billion from Americans' pocketbooks every week. And with interest rates at their highest level in three years, consumers are feeling the pinch.

American Express to cut jobs
American Express said it will cut 2,000 jobs, or 2.5 per cent of its work force, in a restructuring designed to save more than $75 million a year before taxes.

Who's Economy is this anway?
In my local region, plants are shutting down, warehouses and factorys are closing altogether and/or streamlining and hundreds of people are losing jobs. I moved from one region that had a depressed economy and now reside in what’s considered an economically sound area and has been for many years, only to see the same things happening. While what I have seen is typical business, what I also see is affecting communities around the country and not in just one geographical area or type of business. In short, although Bush proclaims growth and a strengthening economy and the numbers from his administration reflect it, its not being felt where it helps or hurts most.

THIS  HAPPENED  IN  THE  UK  IN  THE  SEVENTIES

Food stamp use is on rise across U.S.
After a seven-year decline, the number of Americans on food stamps has shot up 39 percent since 2000, according to federal statistics. Every state, except Hawaii, has felt the impact. In Arizona, food stamp rolls have increased 104 percent, in Nevada, 97 percent; Oregon, 79 percent; South Carolina, 68 percent; Missouri, 65 percent.

Elderly Woman Tries to Rob Pocatello Bank in an Act of Desperation

Calynn Hanpsten, senior service representative, says, “She said, ‘I’m telling you I’m going to rob the bank. You have to call the police,’ and she turned around and sat on her little walker. She started crying. She just burst into tears after she said, ‘You have to call the police.’”

The deceptions add up on Social Security
FOUR YEARS ago, the commission on Social Security that Richard Parsons was co-chairing for President Bush warned with a bit too much hype that "the promise of Social Security to future retirees cannot be met without eventual resort to benefit cuts, tax increases, or massive borrowing."

WRH  COMMENT:  I said the same thing 8 years ago.

Bush is Selling a Trojan Horse, Says Author of 'The Looting of Social Security'
"President Bush is trying to sell his privatization proposal as a plan to save Social Security, when it is actually a clever scam designed to destroy the program that conservatives have hated since its enactment in 1935," says economist Allen W. Smith, Ph.D., author of the book, "The Looting of Social Security: How the Government is Draining America's Retirement Account."

Obscure Russian Company Buys Yukos Unit
A little known Russian organization, Baikalfinansgroup, bought the core production unit of the troubled Yukos oil company at auction for $9.3 billion Sunday, gaining control of one of Russia's most prized oil assets. Virtually nothing is known about the winner except the fact that it is registered in the central Russian city of Tver.

WATCH  FOR  MORE  ON  THIS  STORY

“SOCIETY”

Civil servants are ordered to delete millions of emails
Tony Blair was savaged over his commitment to new freedom of information laws yesterday as it emerged that civil servants are being ordered to destroy millions of emails less than a fortnight before they will become publicly accessible.

Belmarsh: a new affront to justice
The Government's refusal to withdraw its anti-terror laws has left Britain on the brink of a constitutional crisis that threatens centuries of hard-won civil liberties, it was claimed last night.

THE  CANADIAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  A  RECENT  CASE  ARGUED  THAT  IT  WAS  ABOVE  THE  LAW …  THE  JUDGE  AGREED

Other Lawyers 'May Quit over Anti-Terror Laws'
More lawyers may follow the lead of a top QC who has resigned following the Law Lords' damning verdict on the Government’s anti-terror laws, a civil rights group claimed today.Ian Macdonald QC, a Special Advocate given security clearance to represent detainees held on suspicion of links with terrorism, has quit "for reasons of conscience" -Scotsman

The Enemies Among Us
The Intelligence Reform legislation is 615 pages long. Not one was written by either a Senator or a Congressman. This entire campaign to strip Americans of their civil liberties is being orchestrated by private interests; the "silent partners" who wrote this legislation in its entirety. Think about that.

THIS  APPLIES  TO  ALL  NATIONS

Time names Bush 2004 ‘Person of the Year’
Time names Hitler 1938 ‘Person of the Year’.
Time names Stalin 1939 ‘Person of the Year’.
Time names Stalin 1942 ‘Person of the Year’.

Time names Adolf Hitler 1938 Person of the Year

Why They Hated Gary Webb
"There are certain things you aren't meant to say in public in America," warns Alexander Cockburn. "The systematic state-sponsorship of torture by the US used to be a major no-no, but that went by the board this year (even though Seymour Hersh treated the CIA with undue kindness in Chain of Command: the Road to Abu Ghraib). A prime no-no is to say that the US government has used assassination down the years as an instrument of national policy; also that the CIA's complicity with drug dealing criminal gangs stretches from the Afghanistan of today back to the year the Agency was founded in 1947. That last one is the line Webb stepped over. He paid for his presumption by undergoing one of the unfairest batterings in the history of the US press."

The Revolution? It’s Over--The Rest Is Just Enforcement
Free speech emanates from free thinking, and to control freedom of speech is eventually to change the direction and tenor of free thought…The globalists are evil, but they are not stupid. Their planning has been better than anyone gave them credit for being able to accomplish, says Dorothy Anne Seese.

Britain has become a Kafkaesque nightmare

We were taught at school that Franz Kafka’s The Trial was a dark satire on bureaucracy.     Kafka’s tale of Joseph K, a bank clerk charged with an unspecified crime, arrested and eventually executed without ever knowing the reason why, is one of the most chilling horror stories of the 20th century.   BUT  IN  THE  UK’S  HIGHEST  COURT… Lord Scott described the current regime, which permits the Home Secretary to lock up untried suspects for as long as it pleases him, as being “the stuff of nightmares, associated with France before and after the revolution, with soviet Russia in the Stalinist era, and now associated, as a result of section 23 of the 2001 Act, with the United Kingdom”.

Former CIA head Tenet calls for more Internet controls

“SCIENCE / HEALTH”

China reports UFO sighting again
The unusual sighting of two bright trails of light,  

WRH COMMENT:There seems to be a LOT of de-orbiting space junk these days.

Flaming object seen over Indonesian capital, loud explosion heard

'Artificial life' comes step closer
Researchers at Rockefeller University in the US have made the first tentative steps towards creating a form of artificial life.

PROFESSOR CANNED FOR RELEASING PAPER ON GE CONTAMINATION
A well-respected and popular professor at the University of California in Berkeley has been fired after publishing a scientific paper regarding the uncontrolled contamination of irreplaceable native Mexican corn varieties by genetically engineered corn. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, whose corn contamination article was published in the science journal "Nature," was denied his tenure due to pressure from the biotech company Monsanto on the University.

'Silver Bullet,' Black Dust
There's now physical evidence that depleted uranium, once in the body, migrates to the brain, lungs, bones and testicles of rats and mice. Researchers have found that even a single particle placed in contact with human bone cells can set off a chain reaction of cell and chromosomal abnormalities of the type thought to cause cancer.

DU  IS  THE  STANDARD  US  TANK  ROUND

FDA's Reliance On Unconfirmed Chiefs Is Faulted
The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates almost one-quarter of the U.S. economy, has been without a permanent chief for almost two-thirds of the time that President Bush has been in office.The agency also has had a high number of temporary appointees administering its centers, offices and divisions, including the key positions running the offices that evaluate new drugs and monitor the safety record of approved medications -Washington Post

 More Evidence On Danger Of Mercury Fillings

REMEMBER  WHEN  WE  WERE  TOLD  EATING  LEAD  WAS  BAD,  BUT  BREATHING  LEAD  WAS  SAFE?

“ENVIRONMENT”

Britain attacks 'devastating' EU proposals to ban cod fishing

Australia draws line with United States on global warming: report

"The difference between the US and Australia is that we are prepared to engage in a new agreement as long as it is comprehensive," Campbell said from London.

Five killed, traffic chaos as storms hit Germany

Five people were killed and several were injured, most of them in traffic accidents, in a weekend of storms and snow across Germany, authorities said Sunday.

60 MPH  WINDS  IN  EDMONTON  KILLED  A  SAIL BOARDER  AND  BLEW  OVER  GREENHOUSES

France prepares for cold snap, after freak storm

FOUR  DIED  IN  PARIS  A  FEW  DAYS  AGO

 US Fails In Bid To Kill Off Global Warming Talks

Mysterious Arctic Light Blamed On Climate Change 

Eskimos and scientists report a strange "lightness at noon" that is turning the usual all-day darkness of the high Canadian Arctic into twilight, apparently in defiance of natural laws.         Warmer air, from global warming, is overlaying the cold air of the Arctic and the interface between the two creates a kind of "mirror in the sky" which reflects the sun's rays from further south.

Earth-Hostile Chemical Gets White House OK :

The Bush administration announced new rules Thursday to allow U.S. farmers who grow tomatoes, strawberries and other crops to continue using methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting pesticide that had been scheduled to be phased out worldwide next year.

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NB: COMPILERS  PERONAL  COMMENTS  IN  UPPER  CASE

 “UNITED  STATES”

Why Are the Democrats Trying to Deny Cynthia McKinney Her Seniority?

I'd love to see Condoleeza Rice go head to head on US foreign policy with Congressowman-elect Cynthia McKinney.        I can't think of any reason why the Democratic leadership wouldn't want this.        In a recent “Capitol Times” article Many Rice Defenders Hypocritical, John Nichols points out that "right-wing political operatives and their allies in major media--as well as conservative Democrats" battered McKinney to election defeat in 2002 because she dared to ask tough questions about what was known by the Bush Administration prior to the attacks of September 11th.

LIKELY  BECAUSE  SHE  WOULD  BE  EFFECTIVE

Key Anthrax Plotters Have Been Captured Or Killed
WRH COMMENT: "Yessiree, Ms. Cleo told me that all the Anthrax plotters were already dead, so there is no reason to investigate the one man actually caught entering the storage area where the Anthrax used in the letters was kept, even though he was caught entering without authorization after being fired from his job over a racially motivated attack on an Egyptian co-worker.

Osama bin Laden - a dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
WRH:  Relinked by numerous reader requests in response to the latest Osama tape being waved at us.

U.S. Makes Plans for GPS Shutdown
Apparently, President Bush is drawing up plans to disable sections of the GPS network in the event of a terrorist attack. The rationale seems to be that it would prevent said terrorists from using the GPS system to direct some sort of attack.

THIS  IS  THE  REASON  WHY  THE  EU  IS  SENDING  UP  THEIR  OWN  GPS  SATELLITES

New SAT Questions Replace Evolution with Creation

Students who take the revised test, which will be introduced in school districts in Kansas and Georgia in the fall of 2005, will no longer be tested on their ability to comprehend passages from scientific texts that are based on the controversial theory of evolution. Instead, they will read excerpts from writings on such creation-related topics as the six days in which God created the earth or the great flood, then answer a series of questions to indicate how well they've understood the passages.

Voters may be asked to remove Florida's church-state ban

THEOCRACY + ISLAM = BAD

THEOCRACY + JUDEO/CHRISTIAN = GOOD

CIA's prison within a prison at Gitmo
Most international terrorism suspects in U.S. custody are held not by the CIA but by the Defense Department at the Guantanamo Bay prison. IA detainees, by contrast, are held under separate rules and far greater secrecy. Under a presidential directive and authorities approved by administration lawyers, the CIA is allowed to capture and hold certain classes of suspects without accounting for them in any public way and without revealing the rules for their treatment

Iraq troop strength to remain high at least through election

The U.S. military said two weeks ago that Iraq’s security forces it wouldn’t be able to adequately protect the vote and announced it was raising the number of troops from 138,000 to about 150,000 by mid-January

A Flood of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict

An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans.

PTSD in America - The Monster Under the Bed

But I believe that it is not only soldiers and survivors of 9/11 who are traumatized. I believe that Americans have been traumatized by more mundane forces and factors, such as more evidence of Republican election fraud (it was unbelievable the first time), the recent passage of more civil-liberties-destroying legislation (despite the resolutions of hundreds of communities nationwide protesting the PATRIOT Act), or the official endorsement of torture (is that US?) ­ while speaking out of the other side of the mouth, saying we do not endorse it (who is the enemy?).        These things, together with other little nonsensical things, such as general corporate and communal depersonalization, frighten people, shut down logical thinking, silence dissent, and force submission. The result is traumatization.

Ex-military lawyers will oppose Gonzales

Several former high-ranking military lawyers say they are discussing ways to oppose President Bush's nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general, asserting that Gonzales' supervision of legal memorandums that appeared to sanction harsh treatment of detainees, even torture, showed unsound legal judgment.

“ISRAEL”

Israel's Fifth Column in Washington
In the 1950s, when the cold war was at its height, a series of spectacular espionage scandals – involving top-level spies for the Soviet Union, our former WWII ally – roiled American politics and defined the political culture for decades to come, giving us such additions to the American political lexicon as "McCarthyism" and "fellow traveler." In the new millennium, a similar drama is being reenacted, with another U.S. ally, Israel, in the role of friend-turned-adversary. The story of how and why Lawrence A. Franklin, who works as an Iran specialist under Pentagon policy director Douglas Feith, betrayed his country, and funneled American secrets to Israel, parallels the tragic saga of pro-Soviet American moles, who played a similar role in the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and into the Truman era. Larry Franklin is an Alger Hiss for our times.

U.S. accuses officials of spying
Israeli defense officials in the United States have been accused by the FBI of industrial espionage, the second spying complaint leveled against Israel in four months, Israel's Army Radio has reported.

2 in 3 FSU Jews choose Germany over Israel

Twice as many Jews and eligible relatives from the former Soviet Union are now choosing to immigrate to Germany rather than Israel.     Overall immigration to Israel has fallen to its lowest levels since the late 1980s.      

Report: Israeli poverty still worsening   

Israel is becoming poorer and poorer, said Yigal Ben Shalom, the NII director general.     More than 20 percent of Israelis fell into poverty last year.      Last year's poverty rate among Arabs in Israel reached 48.4 percent, and about 652,000 children -- 30.8 percent of the nation's children -- were living in poverty.

MONEY  FOR  KILLING,  BUT  NONE  FOR  THE  HUNGRY

U.S., Israel in dustup over weapons upgrade for China

The United States has accused Israel of concealing a recent upgrade of a major Israeli weapons system sold to China in the mid-1990s.      This was the first Israeli-U.S. confrontation over China since Washington forced Israel to cancel the sale of a Phalcon airborne early-warning alert system in 2001.         The crisis stemmed from the arrival of an unidentified "advanced and sensitive" Israeli weapons platform from China in early 2004, officials said.

 Webb Coroner Confirms TWO Shots To The Head

THIS  IS  THE  GARY  WEBB   “SUICIDE”

“MIDDLE  EAST”

AP: Colombia Troops Being Sought for Iraq

Recruiters working for U.S. contractors are hiring former Colombian soldiers - and luring away active-duty ones - for security jobs in Iraq, according to a former army officer who met with the recruiters.

Fresh Mass Grave Found In Al-Hadithah   JIHAD   UNSPUN

Resistance attacks on a US camp located west of the city of al-Hadithah escalated to the point that American forces were compelled to evacuate the base, according to Mafkarat al-Islam.      After the first body was uncovered, the other bodies were dug up, making a total of 82 corpses in all. Each had been buried in a black bag.

Neo-cons on the road to Damascus

Just when it appeared that Syria was complying in earnest with US demands to secure its border with Iraq, and even making unprecedented peace overtures to Israel, key neo-conservative opinion shapers are calling on President George W Bush to take stronger measures against Damascus, possibly including military action.

“FOREIGN  AFFAIRS”

Coming geopolitical quakes

Behind all the geopolitical jargon about the "functioning core of globalization," "system perturbations," and "dialectics of transformation," there is the underlying fear of a Vietnamlike debacle in Iraq that would drive the U.S. into isolationism — a sort of globalization in reverse.

historian claims Dutch diary a British invention
During World War II, propaganda was used both against the enemy and to swell one's own ranks; a surprising ruse in the latter category has been uncovered by a leading British historian, who claims that a book posing as the diary of a Dutch boy was a fake, expertly crafted by the British secret service to lure America into the war.

STANDARD  OPERATING  PROCEDURE

Australia's new maritime security zone 'unacceptable'

Under the plan announced by Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday, all ships travelling to Australia will be required to provide details on their journey and cargo if they enter the 1000-nautical-mile zone.        "We can't accept this this concept because it breaches our maritime jurisdiction," Foreign Minister Wirayuda told reporters in Jakarta

Russian police stage new raid on Yukos  Business Day, South Africa, South Africa 
Russian police staged a new raid at the office of Yukos and questioned a company executive, Interfax news agency quoted the general prosecutor's office as saying, a day after the ailing oil giant filed for voluntary bankruptcy in a US court -Business Day

Yukos Cancels Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting Sue to Russsian Court Order

Houston court imposes temporary injunction on Yukos asset sale

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Rampant Insider Selling Raises Red Flags

AP Reports Major Corporate Execs, Including Some From the Homebuilding Industry Are Dumping Stocks - Serious Predictor of a Coming Crash - Special Commentary by Michael C. Ruppert

“UNITED  STATES”

Recruiting At Any Cost
A 1996 Navy Recruiting Command study admits “In our analysis, family incomes proved to be the most important economic variable … Enlistment rates are much higher when income is lowest and college enrollment rates are low.”     Recruiters often amplify the bad economic conditions and present themselves as the only strategy," explained counter recruiter and former publisher of AWOL magazine Mario Hardy.

THROUGHOUT  HISTORY,  THE  POOR  DIE  FOR  THE  RICH

Hungry, Homeless Figures Increase in U.S.
``The good news here is that the increase in demand overall has slowed somewhat,'' said Nashville, Tenn., Mayor Bill Purcell, who chairs the conference's task force on hunger and homelessness. ``The bad news is that the increased demand is all over the country.''

GOOD  NEWS  FOR  MILITARY  RECRUITERS

Army Guard count wrong
The Army National Guard could not provide a precise count of troops in Iraq.

Police Need Not Say Why Arrest Made: U.S. High Court Overview

Military Will March Front and Center at Inaugural Festivities
WRH: Just like the May Day parades through Red Square, or Hitler's parade down the Champs Elyssey!

FEMA Rule Blocking Aid to Seniors

But, citing federal privacy protection rules, the agency has refused to say who has been relocated, or where they've been sent.        Frustrated officials from Charlotte County and the Southwest Florida Area Agency on Aging say that has stymied their efforts to ensure that the older people they helped before the storm continue to receive essential assistance.

States and Cities Must Hunt 'Terror' Plots, Mass. Governor Says

To 'protect' America against terrorists, state and local agencies, as well as private businesses, need to gather intelligence themselves.      "The eyes and ears which gather intelligence need to be as developed in our country as they were in foreign countries during the cold war.     Meter readers, E.M.S. drivers, law enforcement, private sector personnel need to be on the lookout for information which may be as useful."

Sept. 11 Conspiracy Theorist Offers $100,000 Prize

Jimmy Walter has spent more than $3 million promoting a conspiracy theory the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were "an inside job" and he is offering more cash to anyone who proves him wrong.

Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years of environmental laws

In little over a month since his re-election, they have announced that they will comprehensively rewrite three of the country's most important environmental laws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling, and reshape the official Environmental Protection Agency

“ISRAEL”

SF Chronicle tries to smear SFSU anti-zionists with another hit piece
"Could it be that the very reason people despise Israel so much is because it's a Jewish state? No other explanation holds up under examination."

Zionism and anti-semitism

NEW  ARTICLE  FROM  “JEWS AGAINST ZIONISM”

 IDF Kills Another Palestinian Child - 7yr Old Girl

The last Supper 7-year-old Rana Syiam had with her family in Khan Younis, ended with blood and tears after a bullet fired by Israeli soldiers entered her head and exited to wound her father in the leg.      Rana’s mother cannot sit in the living room where her daughter was killed

“MIDDLE  EAST”

U.S. Takes to Air to Move Cargo in Iraq
U.S. commanders in Iraq have begun transporting more supplies to the country by aircraft in an effort to evade the roadside bomb attacks that have been killing or wounding about 100 American troops each month, the Air Force's top officer said Tuesday.

Israel's Attack on Osiraq: A Model for Future Preventive Strikes?"

The thesis draws two conclusions. First, preventive strikes are valuable primarily

for two purposes: buying time and gaining international attention. Second, the strike

provided a one-time benefit for Israel. Subsequent strikes will be less effective due to

dispersed/hardened nuclear targets and limited intelligence.          --Naval Postgraduate School Masters Thesis

Iraqi Official: Iran Is 'Number One Enemy'

UN watchdog finds irregularities in US-administered Iraqi oil sales

A UN oversight board found irregularities in Iraq 's oil export sales under US-led authorities between May 2003 and June 2004, including inadequate controls of extraction, use of non-competitive bidding and of barter transactions.

“FOREIGN  AFFAIRS”

YUKOS Seeks U.S. Bankruptcy

Russian oil major YUKOS has filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court and will seek an injunction to stop Russia from auctioning off its main production unit on Dec. 19, it said on Wednesday.          Yuganskneftegaz, which pumps 60 percent of YUKOS' total output of 1.7 million barrels per day, for nearly $9 billion to help recover the firm's $27 billion back tax bill.

BACKGROUND:  YELTSIN  SOLD  A  $30B  YUKOS  TO  JEWISH  INTERESTS  FOR  $300M.            YUKOS  WAS  THEN  BEING  DISMANTLED  AT  BARGAIN  PRICES  TO  EXXON,  SHELL,  ETC.           WHEN  PUTIN  ARRESTED  CEO,  Khodorkovsky,  THE  SHARES  WERE  IMMEDIATELY  TRANSFERRED  TO  THE  ROTHSCHILDS  IN  THE  UK.    

RECALL:   “FOREIGN  INTERESTS”  WERE  ACTIVE  IN  THE  BESLAN  SCHOOL 

Top UN court dimisses Belgrade's genocide claim against NATO states

I  GUESS  TARGETTING  CHEMICAL  PLANTS  WAS  A  “NECESSARY  ACTION”  TO WIN  THE  “WAR”

Venezuela To Buy 50 New Russian Mig-29 Fulcrums 

The MiG-29 is internationally recognised as a high-performance combat aircraft, and has often been compared to the USAF F-16.

BOLSTERING  VENEZUELAS  “THREAT  RESISTANCE”.     US  DOCUMENTS  SHOW  IT  WAS  FOMENTING  COUPS  IN  VENEZUELA.   

Chemical 'warfare' angers Afghans

A tenth of the Afghan population is involved in the production and trade of opium.         According to reports in the media, unidentified aircraft flew back and forth over poppy fields in Nangarhar spraying "a snow-like substance" - chemicals - on the crops. The chemicals have not only destroyed the poppy crop, but also ruined fruit and vegetables that were being cultivated there, besides affecting the health of villagers and their livestock. Hundreds of villagers have reportedly shown up at hospitals with skin ailments and breathing problems.

Foreign crimes come home to the US

Lawsuits based on a 200-year-old US law appear to have persuaded oil company Unocal to compensate alleged victims of human-rights abuses committed by Myanmar soldiers during the building of an oil pipeline.     The case, which was originally filed in federal court in 1996 under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), has traveled a tortuous route through the US and California court systems over the past nine years.

Turkey will not apologise for Armenian genocide

Historians believe that Turkish authorities orchestrated the killing of 1.5 million Armenian Christians, who were indigenous inhabitants of Turkey, in a brutal attempt to make an ethnically pure nation.

 “INTELLIGENCE / SECURITY”

America Easy Target for Bioterrorism—Report

A recent study ranked states on their preparedness to face the risks of bioterrorism. (Click "story" for map, criteria for ranking, more). Compiled by the nonprofit Trust for America's Health, the report issued Tuesday found only six states are adequately prepared to distribute vaccines and antidotes in an emergency, but it named only three of them: Florida, Illinois and Louisiana.

Australian Minister Downer Warns of Terror Threat in Indonesia

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Canberra said it had received "credible new information suggesting terrorists are ready to carry out an attack shortly in Indonesia, possibly targeting a Hilton hotel."         "This is credible information from intelligence. We wouldn't be passing it on if we weren't particularly concerned about the information. The Hilton Hotel chain is an American chain and Westerners tend to congregate in these sorts of places," Mr Downer said.

“ECONOMICS”

Rampant Insider Selling Raises Red Flags

AP Reports Major Corporate Execs, Including Some From the Homebuilding Industry Are Dumping Stocks - Serious Predictor of a Coming Crash - Special Commentary by Michael C. Ruppert

U.S. Trade Deficit Swells to Record $55.5B
America's trade deficit swelled to an all-time high of $55.5 billion in October as imports - including those from China - surged to the loftiest levels on record. Skyrocketing crude-oil prices also contributed to the yawning trade gap.

US Net Capital Inflows $48.1 Billion, Below Forecasts

Foreign investment in U.S. assets fell sharply in October to the lowest level in a year, according to a Treasury Department report on Wednesday. Net inflows of capital totaled $48.1 billion in October, after an upwardly revised $67.5 billion in September, the Treasury's International Capital report said. That was the lowest level since October 2003, when inflows were $27.5 billion.

COMEX Gold at 1-Week High Early, Liquidation Fizzles

Gold futures rose Wednesday morning after previous fund selling petered out, as the dollar fell on data showing net inflows into U.S. assets were not enough to offset October's wide current account deficit, traders said.

Dollar Extends Drop; Foreigners Slow Purchases of U.S. Assets

The dollar extended its declines versus the euro and the yen after a government report showed foreigners increased their purchases of U.S. securities in October at the slowest pace in a year.

“CANADA”

Report: Canada Security Net Full of Holes

A new Senate security report calls for reform, a boost in defense spending and improved cooperation with the United States.

“ELECTIONS”

The Yushchenko poison plot fraud

To begin with, not a single case of death-by-dioxin poisoning has ever been recorded.   The chief medical doctor at the clinic, who supervised and had first-hand knowledge of Yushchenko's case, was Dr. Lothar Wicke.     Wicke had accused unnamed individuals not on the medical staff of spreading "medically falsified diagnoses concerning the condition of Mr. Yushchenko." He also pointed to the complete lack of any evidence that the candidate had been poisoned.        

“SOCIETY”

Parents sue schools over 'intelligent design' Teaching about 'gaps' in evolution theory violates church-stateseparation, they claim

Highlighting the growing national debate over the role of religion in public life, 11 Pennsylvania parents Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a local school district's order to teach "intelligent design" to public high school students.The requirement, they said, violates the religious liberty of parents, students and faculty and the constitutional separation of church and state -San Francisco Chronicle

Aussie starts random drug tests on drivers

French Ban Christmas Chocolate

Companies Rapidly Cutting Health Benefits

Many companies are dropping their promise of health benefits for future retirees, who now might have to stay on the job longer and rely on government health care in their old age.

Bush Wants New Congress to Curb Lawsuits

President Bush said on Wednesday he expects the new Congress to limit economy-damaging lawsuits by passing curbs on class action, asbestos injury and medical malpractice cases.

WORKERS  COMPENSATION  WAS  INSTITUTED  TO  PREVENT  NEGLIGENT  MILL  OWNERS  FROM  LOSING  THEIR  MILLS  IN  THE  1800’S

“SCIENCE / HEALTH”

Rutgers researchers may have stopped HIV

The drugs, called DAPYs, mimic the virus by changing shape, which enables them to interfere with the way HIV attacks the immune system.        Tests conducted in conjunction with Johnson and Johnson have shown the drug to be easily absorbed with minimal side effects. The research has targeted reverse transcriptase

Classical music and infant cognitive development

This study found that a relationship exists between classical music, specifically Mozart, and spatial reasoning.In this study, thirty-six undergraduate psychology students scored nine to ten points higher on the spatial portion of an IQ test after listening to ten minutes of Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major.”Although the effect lasted only ten to fifteen minutes, the relationship was so strong that the effect of Mozart’s music on cognitive development has become the focus of continued research (Campbell, 1997).

Green tea polyphenols thwart prostate cancer

The polyphenols present in green tea help prevent the spread of prostate cancer by targeting molecular pathways that shut down the proliferation and spread of tumor cells, as well as inhibiting the growth of tumor nurturing blood vessels

Physical therapy technique increases orgasms

In a study published today in Medscape General Medicine, researchers reported that a manual physical therapy technique is highly effective in increasing orgasm intensity and frequency and reducing painful intercourse in women.       According to the study, the therapy significantly increased orgasm in 56% and reduced intercourse pain in 96% of the women.

“ENVIRONMENT”

UN calls for greater action over climate change

US President George W. Bush, in one of his first acts after taking office, declared in March 2001 that it would be too costly for the United States to meet its reduced emissions targets.       The United States is the world's single largest polluter producing 25 percent of greenhouse gases.     

Kyoto format should be ditched if US, China, India remain outside: Italy

2004 fourth hottest since records began

Global Warming Melts Dreams Of A White Christmas

According to an analysis by British Environment Minister Elliot Morley, England is 65 percent less likely to have a white Christmas in the year 2050 due to the effects of global warming.         Coastal areas of England will be 90 percent less likely to see any snow by the year 2080.

Gore Warns of Global 'Crisis'

President Al Gore ’69 [Harvard] called the threat of global warming an impending "crisis" and derided the Bush regime’s polices on climate change as part of a star-studded panel that packed 1,200 into Sanders Theatre last night.

Bugs ravage North American forests

Insects whose populations are booming because of local warming - possibly due to global warming - appear to be devouring huge swathes of forest in western Canada and Alaska. Forests in Europe and Siberia may also be under threat. This could lead to a vicious cycle where reduced forest cover leads to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, producing further climate change.

“UNITED  STATES”

RUMSFELD MAY SOON REGRET HIS ARROGANCE TOWARD U.S. TROOPS
Senators Joseph Biden Jr. and Chuck Hagel just returned from Iraq, saying that not one American general said we were winning.

Supreme Court Makes It Tougher to Sue Police
Nearly 20 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that police may not use "deadly force" to stop a fleeing felon, except when the officer has good reason to believe "the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others." Applying that rule has proven to be difficult for police and courts -LA Times

 Lawsuit Vs Rumsfeld Threatens US-German Relations

 "Generally speaking, as is true anywhere, if these kinds of lawsuits take place with American servicemen in the cross-hairs, you bet it's something we take seriously," said Lawrence DiRita, the Pentagon's spokesman. "If you get an adventurous prosecutor who might want to seize onto one of these frivolous lawsuits, it could affect the broader relationship. I think that's probably safe to say," he told AFP.

US halts Bin Laden snipe hunt

Three years after Osama bin Laden fled American bombs in his Tora Bora hideout, the search for the world's most wanted man has all but come to a halt because of Pakistan's refusal to permit cross-border raids from Afghanistan, according to CIA officials.

“ISRAEL”

Israeli MP: Arabs are worms

An Israeli Knesset member from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling Likud party has described all Arabs as worms in a parliamentary debate.

Israelis hasten land grab in shadow of wall
Bulldozers go in as expansion of settlements continues

Abbas Calls on Palestinians to Drop Armed Struggle
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said his people should drop their weapons in the struggle for a state, marking out a clear change of strategy for peace with Israel after Yasser Arafat's death last month.Abbas, near certain to win a Jan. 9 election to succeed Arafat, made the comments in an interview published on Tuesday, two days after militants showed their muscle with the deadliest attack on Israeli troops since May

“MIDDLE  EAST”

Mossad blamed for Syria blast
Syria blamed Israel's Mossad intelligence service for a bombing in Damascus which a Palestinian source in Beirut said was a failed attempt to kill a member of the militant Hamas group.

 'Elsewhere' In Iraq - 47 US Troops Killed In Ambushes

“FOREIGN  AFFAIRS”

Premier Says Ex-Government Erased Data on Madrid Attack
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero contended Monday that the government of his predecessor erased all of the presidential records related to the March 11 train bombings before leaving office in April. "There was not a single paper, not a single piece of data in computer form or on paper, absolutely nothing in the executive offices of the presidency because there was a massive erasing," he said during more than 14 hours of testimony before the parliamentary commission investigating the attacks.

CITY, FED PROBES EYE PARDONGATE BILLIONAIRE AS A 'MAJOR PLAYER' IN SADDAM'S SCAM
Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.

Australia backs ElBaradei as UN atom watchdog

US unilateral military move concerning Iran will break NATO in pieces:

For the Europeans, one thing is certain: any US unilateral military action against Iran will trigger a major world crisis compare to which the Iraq crisis would be looking like a drill.

“INTELLIGENCE / SECURITY”

It's not the Death Star, but ...
Apparently there was a working prototype for a space weapons platform in the 80s. While this one obviously is not operational, this precedent raises interesting possabilities about the sudden rash of deorbiting space junk seen around the world, and the missing $2.3 trillion in the Pentagon budget.

Oz Cops Given Computer Spy Powers
Federal and state police now have the power to use computer spyware to gather evidence in a broad range of investigations after legal changes last week. The Surveillance Devices Act allows police to obtain a warrant to use software surveillance technologies, including systems that track and log keystrokes on a computer keyboard. The law applies to the Australian Federal Police and to state police investigating Commonwealth offences.

G8 summit police to go on trial over mass beatings

A judge in Genoa yesterday ordered a full trial for 28 officers allegedly involved in a brutal mass beating of demonstrators during the G8 summit three years ago.

“ELECTIONS”

OHIO GROUNDWAR HEATS UP!
The office of Congressman John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, has just rushed an alert out to the media in regards to recount efforts on the ground in Ohio. The release quotes Conyers as asking publicly if Ohio election officials are now attempting to hide information and accuses them of "stonewall[ing]" Judiciary Committee member’s "search for truth"!

“SOCIETY”

Bill Moyers: Battlefield Earth:

The environment is in trouble and the religious right doesn't care. It's time to act as if the future depends on us – because it does.

“SCIENCE / HEALTH”

New 'moon' found around Earth

AIDS Research Chief Rewrote Safety Report

The government's chief of AIDS (news - web sites) research rewrote a safety report on a U.S.-funded drug study to change its conclusions and delete negative information. Later, he ordered the research resumed over the objections of his staff, documents show.

 Antipsychotic Drugs Link To Type 2 Child Diabetes

For the study, the Johns Hopkins team evaluated 11 children, some overweight and others obese, who gained significant amounts of weight (a 10 percent weight increase) while taking the new-generation, or atypical, antipsychotic drugs olanzpine, quetiapine, and risperidone.

2,500-year-old Egyptian tomb yields a dozen mummies

Does the lack of sleep make you fat?

People who habitually slept for 5 hours were found to have 15% more ghrelin than those who slept for 8 hours. They were also found to have 15% less leptin. These hormonal changes may cause increased feelings of hunger, leading to a foraging in the fridge for food.

“ENVIRONMENT”

Meltdown Blamed For Big Freeze 

The "most dramatic climate change in the last 10,000 years" followed a flood of fresh water from a glacial reservoir into the salty water of the Gulf Stream, which controls our continent's weather. That led to a 43-degree temperature drop, said UIC's Torbjorn Tornqvist.

Bird extinctions 'speeding up'

Ten per cent of all bird species are set to disappear by the end of this century, US researchers said today. A careful study of extinction rates so far, conservation measures underway and climate and environmental change shows that at least 1,200 species of birds will be gone by 2100. And that is a conservative estimate, the team at Stanford University in California said.

“UNITED  STATES”

DU Is Main Ammunition for US Tanks

Depleted uranium is the staple in the ammunition used by the M1A2 Abrams main battle tank [which fires 120 mm DU rounds to cut through enemy armor], and in the 30 mm rapid fire Gatling gun in the A-10 attack aircraft and Apache AH64 helicopter.

OTHER DU INFORMATION:

30mm cannon anti tank shell contains some 275g (10.1 Bq). A single 120mm Abrams tank DU shell contains 3kg of U-238 (111 MBq) of activity.   Some 80,000 US Gulf War veterans now suffer from the so-called Gulf War syndrome, whose symptoms are identical to radiation sickness. The US military are well aware of this and are on record as confirming 2.5mGy/hr at the surface of a DU shell, a dose equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour.

Louisiana teens getting driver's license also register for selective service
There may be no "plans" for a national military draft, but that hasn't kept Louisiana from registering teenagers too young to serve in case conditions change.

Watch list checks to grow Screening will cover cruise ship, airport workers

4th-grader arrested for having scissors at school
A 10-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station because she took a pair of scissors to her elementary school.

Attorney General defends burglars' rights
The government's top lawyer further stoked the debate over home-owners' rights to defend their property this weekend by saying that criminals must also have the right to protection from violence.

Citizen Snoops Forever: The intelligence reform bill will turn car dealers into spooks, permanently
Like the banks, these new businesses are being forced to report transactions that meet an arbitrary and secretive definition of "suspicious activity," which regulators have sometimes defined to mean anything that deviates from a customer's normal transactions.

Air-travel rules are official secrets
Want to see the federal government's regulation authorizing airport security personnel to pat you down before boarding a plane? You can't. It's a secret rule.

THE  SAME  IS  TRUE  IN  CANADA … THERE  ARE  SECRET  RULES  WHICH  YOU  MUST  COMPLY  WITH

A theologian asks the hard questions about 9/11

David Ray Griffin is one of the most respected philosophers of religion in North America.     Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbour: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Interlink Publishing, $22.50) has already sold an astonishing 80,000 copies.

WTC Rescue Workers Silenced After Discovery Of Black Boxes
A 9-11 rescue worker recently came forward to say he was told by FBI agents to “keep my mouth shut” about one of the “black boxes” a fellow firefighter helped locate at ground zero, contradicting the official story that none of the flight and cockpit data recorders were ever recovered in the wreckage of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers.

  Eyewitnesses To Underground WTC North Tower Blasts

This article from Chief Engineer magazine presents eyewitness accountMike’s assignment that day would be to continue constructing a gantry that would be used to pull the heads from the 2,500 ton chillers, located in the 6th sub- basement level of the tower.    When the two arrived at the C level, they found the machine shop gone.    “There was nothing there but rubble, “Mike said. “We’re talking about a 50 ton hydraulic press – gone!”

Seismic Data: Two Huge Energy Bursts Under WTC Towers

New Seismic Data Refutes Official Explanation Of Collapses: Two unexplained "spikes" in the seismic record from Sept. 11 indicate huge bursts of energy shook the ground beneath the World Trade Center's twin towers immediately prior to the collapse. American Free Press has learned of pools of "molten steel" found at the base of the collapsed twin towers weeks after the collapse. Although the energy source for these incredibly hot areas has yet to be explained, New York seismometers recorded huge bursts of energy, which caused unexplained seismic "spikes" at the beginning of each collapse. These spikes suggest that massive underground explosions may have literally knocked the towers off their foundations, causing them to collapse.

Pentagon concerned about legal complaint in Germany against Rumsfeld, others

“ISRAEL”

FBI investigating Israelis for military-industrial espionage

 Israelis Uproot, Steal, Sell Palestinian Olive Trees

Diary: Uprooting of 117 olive trees at the quarry on the Seam between Zufim and Jayyous on Thursday, December 9th , 2004, as witnessed by Ecumenical Accompanier Christoph Gocke

“MIDDLE  EAST”

Rebels target Iraqi police, US patrols          IE:  US  DROPS  250kg  BOMB

A US aircraft dropped a 250-kilogram bomb on the northern city of Mosul after guerillas attacked a patrol trying to capture an insurgent arms dump, a military spokesman said yesterday.        The powerful blast shook the west of the city, causing an "unknown number of enemy casualties", Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Hastings said.

Feith to 'Post': US action against Iran can't be ruled out

Nephew Suggests Arafat's Death Unnatural
Yasser Arafat's nephew said Saturday his uncle may have died an "unnatural" death, a statement certain to renew speculation among Palestinians and in the rest of the Arab world where many already believe the late leader was poisoned despite Israel's repeated and vehement denials.

CURIOUS  THAT  A  CAUSE  FOR  HIS  DEMISE  WAS  NEVER  DETERMINED

Fierce fighting in al-Fallujah; Resisitance seizes back neighborhoods.
B-52s are bombing Fallujah, dropping 2000 pound bombs and cluster bombs.

The insurgents' troubling gains in Mosul
Today, Mosul illustrates how things have gone wrong in Sunni Muslim areas of Iraq. There are fewer U.S. troops here than a year ago. Meanwhile, a well-organized insurgency has taken root in this city on the banks of the Tigris, intimidating the local population and terrorizing the police. Local security forces are mostly in disarray, and American troops last weekend were fighting running street battles.

U.S. caught in Kabul
Afghanistan's new "democratic" president is the world's most expensive mayor. Karzai rules only downtown Kabul, protected by 200 U.S. bodyguards, 17,000 U.S. troops and a token NATO force that includes Canadians. It costs Washington $1.6 billion US monthly to keep Karzai in power. Without the foreign troops' bayonets, Karzai's little puppet regime would quickly be swept away.

Controversial U.S. Groups Operate Behind Scenes on Iraq Vote
Washington-funded organizations are hard at work providing assistance to political campaigns in the lead up to next month’s nationwide elections, but critics suggest their participation is anything but benevolent.

US Military Obstructing Iraqi Medical Care

Iraqi doctors at many hospitals have reported raids by coalition forces.    The main hospital in Amiriyat al-Fallujah was raided twice recently by U.S. soldiers and members of the Iraqi National Guard, doctors say. "The first time was November 29 at 5:40am, and the second time was the following day,"    He was then interrogated about resistance fighters, he said. "The Americans threatened to do here what they did in Fallujah if I didn't cooperate with them," he said.

“FOREIGN  AFFAIRS”

Homelessness 'soaring' in South
Since Blair became pm, homelessness has risen by 135% in the UK.

Turks Shocked At US Storing Nuclear Bombs At Airbase

The Turkish people living near the Injerlik military base in southern Turkey have been seriously frightened by a report that the U.S. has been storing 90 atomic bombs in the base, the Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Saturday.

At Least 13 Killed in Philippines Blast

A powerful explosion rocked a market packed with Christmas shoppers in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 52 others, the military said. A homemade bomb or a grenade concealed in a box went off in the market's meat section in General Santos city, where officials immediately stepped up security, fearing more attacks.

Japan's New Military Focus: China and North Korea Threats

Japan adopted plans Friday to shift its military focus away from the cold-war threat of invasion from the Soviet Union to guarding against missiles from North Korea and Chinese incursions around its southernmost islands. The new policy cuts tanks and artillery pieces by one-third, to about 600 of each, but greatly increases investment in missiles and forms a squadron of midair refueling planes to allow existing aircraft to attack North Korean missile sites and return home safely to Japan.

IN  CONCERT  WITH  “AUSTRALIAN”  PLANS?

Pinochet Indicted on Human Rights Charges

China, Russia Will Hold First War Games

The exercises are to take place on Chinese territory, the official China News Service said. But that report and other government statements didn't say when they would take place or what forces would be involved.

Russia Policy Under Review

The Bush administration is beginning a broad review of its Russia policy that could lead to a more confrontational approach toward Moscow over its treatment of neighboring countries and its own citizens, U.S. officials said. For the past four years, the administration muted its criticism of Russia's approach to democratic values as Washington tried to build a "strategic partnership" with Moscow to fight terrorism and weapons proliferation. But the Bush team's approach has faced growing doubts, including from some within the administration.

UFO 'explodes' in China

Beijing - An unidentified flying object, or UFO, passed across the large north-western Chinese city of Lanzhou and apparently exploded in the suburbs, state media said on Monday.    A taxi driver told the paper he was in his car when everything suddenly became "as bright as day."

“INTELLIGENCE / SECURITY”

Bush Calls For New World Order; Strikes Against Enemies of Democracy

WASHINGTON TIMES - Dec 2, 2004 -- President Bush yesterday challenged international leaders to create a new world order, declaring pre-September 11 multilateralism outmoded and asserting that freedom from terrorism will come only through pre-emptive action against enemies of democracy.        "Defense alone is not a sufficient strategy,"         The Canadian prime minister echoed Mr. Bush's view of the post-September 11 world,

t r u t h o u t - U.S. Caught Spying on U.N. Nuclear Chief

White House mum on ElBaradei eavesdropping report

The head investigator of the USS Cole bombing is assassinated

MORE  DEVELOPMENTS  INTO  A  COVERUP  SIMILAR  TO  THE  ATTACK  OF  THE  USS  LIBERTY

Paramedics query Kelly suicide
The paramedics who attended the death of Dr David Kelly, the government scientist at the centre of the controversy over the Iraq weapons dossier, last night disputed the Hutton inquiry's verdict that he had killed himself by slashing his wrist.

Watch list checks to grow Screening will cover cruise ship, airport workers

4th-grader arrested for having scissors at school
A 10-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station because she took a pair of scissors to her elementary school.

Attorney General defends burglars' rights
The government's top lawyer further stoked the debate over home-owners' rights to defend their property this weekend by saying that criminals must also have the right to protection from violence.

Kelly 'could not have died' from knife wound, paramedics claim
POLICE have rejected calls to re-open the inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, the government weapons expert, after two paramedics who found him at the scene of his death said he could not have died from self-inflicted knife wounds.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND THE NATIONAL ID

Anyone who has been following the building blocks of a one world government knows this latest abomination has nothing to do with intelligence gathering or the phony "war on terrorism" that was built on a pack of lies. This is about controlling our lives and our movements.There comes a time when an individual either takes a stand against what they know is wrong or they may as well get down on their knees and clank their chains -Devvy Kidd

“ECONOMICS”

Delphi to cut 8,500 jobs, expects gloomy 2005

“CANADA”

Bush Calls For New World Order; Strikes Against Enemies of Democracy

WASHINGTON TIMES - Dec 2, 2004 -- President Bush yesterday challenged international leaders to create a new world order, declaring pre-September 11 multilateralism outmoded and asserting that freedom from terrorism will come only through pre-emptive action against enemies of democracy.        "Defense alone is not a sufficient strategy,"         The Canadian prime minister echoed Mr. Bush's view of the post-September 11 world,

“ELECTIONS”

Voting Rights Groups 'Block' Talk of Machine-Free Elections

It appears that our well-entrenched so-called 'voting rights' organizations, including the NAACP and ACLU, haven't absorbed the lesson from America's election debacles.  They would rather invite the industry-funded National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to speak at their conferences, than invite researchers and activists who will argue that the machines must go.

Smoking Gun of Election Fraud is in Ken Blackwell’s Hand
On Friday, Ken "GOP Whore" Blackwell decided to stop the legal recount being conducted in Greene County Ohio, in mid-count. When the volunteers asked under what authority they were being stopped they were told that Ken Blackwell had determined that “all voter records for the state of Ohio were “locked-down,” and now they are not considered public records.” Blackwell not only did not have the authority to take this action, he is actually in violation of the law. Ohio Revised Code Title XXXV Elections, Sec. 3503.26 that requires all election records to be made available for public inspection and copying.

AND  BLACKWELL  IS A  HIGH  PROFILE  MEMBER  OF      Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)   One has to view his connection with JINSA with concern, given that JINSA, like the ADL and AIPAC, may have ties to Israeli intelligence operations, and has been very active in trying to cover up Israeli spy scandals.

A  CURIOUS  CONNECTION …

New Study: More Absentee Votes than Voters in Ohio
A careful review of the absentee vote in one Ohio county revealed that many more absentee votes were cast than there were absentee voters identified.

Clint Curtis 'Stuns' Judiciary Committee Hearings in Ohio With 'Jaw Dropping' Sworn Testimony     

The Brad Blog has just received an exclusive first-hand account of Clint Curtis' sworn testimony to the Judiciary Committee. Democrats held hearings on December 13, 2004, in Columbus, Ohio on 'Election 2004 Voting Irregularities.' The software programmer named Tom Feeney (R- FLA, member of the Judiciary Committee) as having asked him to create 'vote-rigging' software when he was a Florida Congressman prior to 2000 elections.

“SOCIETY”

Anti-Darwinians Step Up Challenge In School Crusade

GOOD:   CANVASSING  FUNDAMENTALIST  SUPPORT  IN US

BAD:     CANVASSING  FUNDAMENTALIST  SUPPORT  IN  IRAQ

U.S. Expatriate Hipsters Plug Into the Buzz of Berlin
"Berlin is like the antidote to New York. It's all the things you want, the culture, the music scene, but none of the stress," Forrest said. "We live in a completely renovated apartment for 500 euros [about $650] a month, heat included…. The hip areas of Berlin will be flooded soon with New Yorkers. Three of my friends are moving here in January. They see it as a place of lower rents and better politics."

Discovery Network to launch The Military Channel

BEATING  DRUMS  TO  RALLY  WARMONGERS

Heterosexuals are the New Jews   HENRY  MAKOW

Recently a young man informed me that "masculinity" is responsible for war and violence. He is parroting the feminist ideology taught in schools and mass media.

Court OKs Arrest on 'Reasonable' Grounds --The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police have authority to arrest suspects on charges that later fall apart, so long as officers had a second, valid reason for the detention. The 8-0 ruling sets aside a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.

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Obituary: Gary Webb, prize-winning investigative reporter
Gary Webb, a prize-winning investigative journalist whose star-crossed career was capped with a controversial newspaper series linking the CIA to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles, died Friday of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials said.

Mr. Webb, 49, was found dead in his Carmichael home Friday morning of gunshot wounds to the head, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office said Saturday.

Note the plural "wounds". Suicides don't pull the trigger a second time.

Assassination of US Investigative Journalist Gary Webb?   Xymphora

"What a weekend for conspiracy theory! I don't know where to begin. Why not with Gary Webb? Yesterday I wrote about Potential Witness Syndrome, one symptom of which is 'suicide by multiple gun shot wounds to the head'. This is apparently exactly what Gary Webb died of (watch as the stories are refined to change 'wounds' to 'a gunshot wound'). Webb was one of the premier investigative journalists in the United States, and author of the classic book 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion', a book that everyone should read, both for its content and as an model of how to do investigative reporting."

Odds of 4 Bush biographers all committing suicide

Four Bush biographers, Mark Lombardi, J.H. Hatfield, Danny Casalaro, and now Gary Webb--all "suicide" victims. What are the odds all of these people actually committing suicide?

FLASHBACK: CRACK AND THE CONTRAS
This is the story that made Gary Webb famous, and paniced the mainstream media.

Red light, green cash
Recent story by "suicided" journalist Gary Webb, looking into red-light cameras.

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“SCIENCE / HEALTH”

UK browser claims Phishing victory
UK browser business Deepnet Explorer today trumped global competitors Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Netscape and Firefox, with the claims that its new Phishing Alarm and enhanced pop-up killer made Deepnet Explorer the first known browser to pass Secunia’s new online phishing vulnerability test.

Congress fails to act on anti-'spyware' bill

THIS  PERSONAL  SECURITY  ISSUE  ISN’T  AN  ISSUE

Tremors rock earth deep beneath San Andreas Fault - Puzzling vibrations baffle researchers
Mysterious tremors deep beneath the San Andreas Fault near the quake- prone town of Parkfield are shaking the earth's brittle crust, far below the region where earthquakes normally strike -- and scientists say they can't understand what's happening or what the motions mean.

Lawmakers Press FDA on Whistleblower   - VIOXX  ISSUE

Twenty-two members of Congress signed a letter Friday demanding information on reports that FDA whistleblower David Graham was being punished by Food and Drug Administration officials for his outspoken testimony before a Senate committee

GOT HORMONES - THE CONTROVERSIAL MILK DRUG THAT REFUSES TO DIE

Posilac is a genetically engineered drug that increases milk production in cows by 10-15%. It is also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone, rbGH, Bovine Somatotropin, BST.    Its controversial history has left fifteen years of frustrated whistleblowers strewn in its wake.           Early casualties were scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the drug’s evaluation. Chemist Joseph Settepani, in charge of quality control for the approval process of veterinary drugs at the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), testified at a public hearing about threats to human safety. Soon after, he was reprimanded, threatened, stripped of responsibilities, and relocated a trailer at an experimental farm. In later testimony before a congressional subcommittee, Settepani said, “Dissent [at CVM] is not tolerated if it could seriously threaten industry profits.”

A  TECHNICAL  INSTITUTE  INSTRUCTOR  SAID  THAT  GOVERNMENTAL   “WORKERS  COMPENSATION”   BOARDS  WERE  SET  UP  AFTER  MILL  OWNERS  STARTED  LOSING  THEIR  MILLS  TO  WORKERS.    WORKERS  SUED  FOR  INJURIES  RESULTING  FROM  UNSAFE  ENVIRONMENT.

THE   FDA  AND  SIMILAR  BOARDS  PROVIDE  A  SIMILAR  SERVICE.    IN  BOTH  CASES,  GOVERNMENT (ie: taxpayer)  ACCEPTS  RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  INDUSTRIAL  ACTIONS.   

AN  EXAMPLE:   (NORTHERN  ALBERTA,  CANADA – HERBICIDE  RESITANT  WEED  PROBLEMS)     THE  PROVINCE  (ie: taxpayer)  IS  LIABLE  FOR  DAMAGES  SINCE  IT  LICENSED  THE  CROP.   

DIRTY SECRETS OF THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY

NB:      THIS  IS  THE  ONE  STORY  TO  READ  FOR  YOUR  OWN  HEALTH.   

I  CANNOT  SPEAK  FOR  ITS  TOTAL  ACCURACY,  BUT  IT  IS  CONSISTENT  WITH  MY  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THESE  MATTERS.

Space travel inside magnetic bubbles

“ENVIRONMENT”

Climate change threatens China food production

Climate change could cut China's food production 10 percent by 2050, said an official report at a major UN conference here Monday.