QUOTE OF THE WEEK

The death of truth, the end of greatness

Today, our dominant international challenge is to restore the greatness of America—based on telling the truth, a commitment to peace, and respect for civil liberties at home and basic human rights around the world. Truth is the foundation of our global leadership, but our credibility has been shattered and we are left increasingly isolated and vulnerable in a hostile world. Without truth—without trust—America cannot flourish. Trust is at the very heart of our democracy, the sacred covenant between the president and the people.

Ex-President Carter speaks at 2004 Democratic National Convention

ANOTHER WHITE VAN

Man Sought for Photographing Texas City Refineries

Law enforcement officials are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two Texas oil refineries about 30 miles south of Houston.
The three refineries seen being photographed include the largest U.S. plant operated by BP, which is the third-largest U.S. refinery, processing 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The man was seen taking pictures outside the refineries, all located on the same highway, said Bruce Clawson, emergency management and homeland security director for Texas City.
While it is not illegal to take pictures of a refinery from a highway or street, officials would like to talk to the man to find out his reason for taking the photographs.
'This is based on the idea that al Qaeda does its homework,' Clawson said. 'That's not to say we don't have enough home-grown idiots already who might want to do something.'
The man was seen driving a white van.

DRAFT DODGER

Talk of military draft persists despite denials: mandatory service on the horizon

Michigan's sons and daughters could soon be plucked without warning from their college dorms or their first full-time jobs to serve in Iraq. Or not.
Rumors about a possible draft have been circulating for months, fueled in part by Web sites such as StopTheDraft.com, which claims the draft is just "five minutes" away.
Lawmakers say it is unlikely Congress would call for compulsory service in an election year, and that the Bush administration has taken steps in the short term to shore up gaps in troop strength.

WAILING WALL

UN vote demands Israel tear down barrier

The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to demand Israel obey a World Court ruling and tear down its West Bank barrier, but Australia has joined Israel and the United States in opposing the resolution.
The vote in the 191-nation assembly was 150-6, with 10 abstentions. The tiny Pacific states of Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau also voted 'no'.

MAD BUTCHER

Surgeon slices patient's penis in three

A Romanian surgeon underwent a fit of madness while operating on a patient's testicles and instead cut off the man's penis and sliced it into three pieces, hospital officials said on Friday.
The surgeon, Naum Ciomu, was described as a senior member of the hospital staff and a professor of anatomy.
He had been operating on a 34-year-old man for a testicular malformation when he committed the act, the officials said.
'We are shocked by what has happened. It is the first time we have had such a case,' said Sorin Oprescu, head of the Bucharest emergency hospital where the patient was rushed for emergency reconstructive surgery.
The operations have been entrusted to a highly respected Romanian plastic surgeon, Ioan Lascar, who said he would try to restore the man's urinary function but that he was unlikely to recover normal sexual activity.

CRYPTO HUMAN

 

Giant human skeleton found in Saudi Arabia

An enormous human-like skeleton has been uncovered by a gas exploration team in Saudi Arabia, according to a Bangladeshi independent news source.
Workers from the Saudi national oil company Aramco made the discovery in the deserts of south east Saudi in a region called Rab al-Qalee or Empty Quarter.
It has been reported that Saudi military have closed off the area allowing only Aramco personnel throught the perimeter.
 
EXPLANATION: The image first surfaced as an entry in an October 2002 Photoshop contest run by Worth1000.com. It was created by manipulating an actual photo of a Cornell University excavation of a mastodon skeleton.
The text, which is obviously bogus (apart from the loosely synopsized Qur'an story of the Prophet Hud and the people of Aad), was created much later and first found circulating with the photo in March 2004.

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

Seven new-borns found dead in bins

Seven newborn babies were dumped dead in two wayside dustbins in the Bangladeshi capital, provoking outrage and concern among the city dwellers.
Ramna Police recovered six bodies from the dustbins near a playground.
The body of another newborn baby was also found in a dustbin at Sankar by Dhanmondi Police.

LAPSED REASON

Mormons, witches, the Playboy centrefold model and some grizzly murders

This week, a jury in Martinez, a small town outside San Francisco, will retire to consider the bizarre, brutally violent cult surrounding one Glenn Taylor Helzer, a lapsed Mormon accused of bludgeoning and dismembering five people in an elaborate extortion racket intended to hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Helzer, a former stockbroker who has already pleaded guilty and faces the death penalty, exerted a charismatic hold over an eclectic group of followers including his younger brother, a former girlfriend turned Playboy centrefold model, and a self-described "good witch" who once offered to raise money for Armageddon by appearing in porn films.
The first two victims were elderly former clients of Helzer's, who were forced to write cheques for $100,000 (?55,000) while being tortured and held under the influence of the date-rape drug rohypnol. The third victim was Selina Bishop, 22-year-old daughter of the blues guitarist Elvin Bishop, who was initially part of the gang but was then slaughtered to ensure that she did not testify against the others. Her mother, Jennifer Villarin, and her mother's boyfriend were the fourth and fifth victims.
The star witness in the trial was a former housemate of Helzer's, Dawn Godman, who calmly described how she held up the severed heads of three of the victims while another member of the gang bashed their teeth out with a hammer and chisel to make them harder to identify.

LAW IS AN ASS

Free Mike Moore!

If Fahrenheit 9/11 shows up on broadcast, cable, or satellite TV after July 30, Michael Moore may well be in big trouble unless he financed the movie himself. If a corporation financed the movie, Moore will have broken the law.

UGLY AUSTRALIAN

Russell Crowe has yobbo episode in Toronto

Movie star Russell Crowe groped a string of women during a drunken night out in Canada, it has been reported. Crowe is alleged to have upset several women in a bar in Toronto by making lewd suggestions and trying to touch and kiss them, according to the Daily Star. He then ripped off his shirt and started yelling abuse at the women, the paper says. One said: 'He was hitting on anything that moved... the guy is a complete loser'.

COUNTER INTELLIGENCE

Chess champ Fischer held in Japan

Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has been detained by immigration authorities in Japan.
Fischer, 61, is wanted in the United States for attending a 1992 chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions imposed during the Balkan wars.

TRUE COLOURS

Iraqi PM Allawi shot inmates, says witnesses

Iraqi PM shot inmates, says witnesses
There are allegations that the Iraqi Interim Prime Minister shot seven and killed six Iraqi insurgents in the week leading up to the handover of sovereignty last month.
Two unnamed people, who are alleged to have witnessed the shootings, told Australian journalist Paul McGeough that Iyad Allawi allegedly shot the insurgents in a courtyard adjacent to a maximum security cell in Baghdad.

IDENTITY CRISIS

Poll suggests ID card backlash

The UK government could face a public backlash to its proposals on ID cards a new survey has found.
Up to 5 million people (28%) would demonstrate against ID cards the survey conducted by online research firm YouGov found.
One million would be prepared to go to prison rather than register for a card.
The survey paints a different picture to the recent MORI poll which found that 80% of UK citizens were in favour of cards.
 
UK considers electronic borders
 
Government agencies collaborate on plans to track every UK arrival and departure.
The government is working on plans to electronically track every person crossing UK borders to help fight crime, terrorism and illegal immigration

POLITICAL MANIPULATION

Brussels lifts EU ban on GM food

The European Union defied public opinion and green campaigners by effectively lifting a five-year-old ban on bio-engineered food.
The EU's executive commission endorsed an application by Swiss biotech company Syngenta to import a genetically modified (GM) sweetcorn, BT-11, into the 25-nation bloc.
Syngenta was given approval to import the GM tinned sweetcorn into the 25-nation bloc for 10 years, provided the cans are clearly labelled as containing GM products.
A number of other companies are hoping to follow the trail blazed by Syngenta. The EU is analysing another 33 applications for the breeding or cultivation of GM crops in Europe.

FALSE FLAG

Alleged Mossad agents imprisoned: Men convicted of trying to obtain fraudulent passports in New Zealand

The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.
The plot, which involved obtaining a passport in the name of a tetraplegic man -- who had not spoken in years -- provoked a furious reaction. The Mossad plot was uncovered in March when a passport officer noticed that a passport applicant was speaking with a Canadian or American accent. The clue led to the uncovering of a complex conspiracy involving up to four Israeli agents, who had attempted to create a false identity for 36-year-old fugitive Zev Barkan using a fraudulent birth certificate, a fake voicemail message and letter box, and concocted medical symptoms.
Urie Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50, both admitted to the passport charges at an earlier hearing. They had faced a maximum sentence of five years.
Both men had gone to elaborate steps to conceal their identities: Kelman appeared at the court wearing a balaclava and covered his face throughout the two-hour hearing, while Cara had changed his hair colour, complexion and build since his first court appearance in March.
Mr Barkan and a fourth man believed to have been connected to the plot are still on the run. Mr Barkan lived in a house just a few hundred metres from his target, a wheelchair user who has not been named for legal reasons. Cara set up a false travel agency in Sydney to aid the deception. A birth certificate was obtained using details of the man's mother, who now lives in England
Lawyers for the two men told the court there was no evidence to suggest their clients were members of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. "That allegation has never formed part of the prosecution case," defending lawyer Stuart Grieve said.
He said Cara -- a former Israeli air force pilot -- ran a bona fide tourism business in Sydney and that he only came to New Zealand on business and holidays.
However, Clark was clear about whom she blamed for the case.
"The Israeli agents attempted to demean the integrity of the New Zealand passport system and could have created considerable difficulties for New Zealanders presenting their passports overseas in future," she said.

This is not the first time Israel had sought fraudulently to obtain passports from another country. "Israeli agents caught in an unsuccessful assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997 were found to be carrying fraudulent Canadian passports," Clark said.

PROPAGANDA CENTRAL

FBI admits to Bali warning delay

A US intelligence agency has admitted it received warning of a possible terrorist threat in Indonesia prior to the Bali bombings, but did not immediately inform Australia.
The FBI told ABC Television's Lateline program it had gleaned the information from interrogated al-Qaeda suspect Mohommad Mansour Jabara in the lead-up to the attacks on October 12, 2002.

NEW WORLD ORDER

Vote held open so Republicans can keep Patriot Act alive

An effort to bar the government from demanding records from libraries and booksellers in some terrorism investigations fell one vote short of passage in the House on Thursday after a late burst of lobbying prompted nine Republicans to switch their votes.
The vote, a 210 to 210 deadlock, amounted to a referendum on the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act and reflected deep divisions in Congress over whether the law undercuts civil liberties. Under House rules, the tie vote meant the measure was defeated.
The outcome led to angry recriminations from House Democrats, who accused Republicans of 'vote-rigging' by holding the vote open for an extra 23 minutes to get enough colleagues to switch votes. Frustrated Democrats shouted 'Shame, shame!' and 'Democracy!' as the voting continued, but Republicans defended their right as the majority party to keep the vote open to 'educate members' about the dangers of scaling back government counterterrorism powers.

Librarian's stand against US Patriot Act

MYSTERY CONTINUES

Man says he shot dingo that killed Azaria -- body may be buried in Melbourne

An elderly Melbourne man has said he shot the dingo that killed Azaria Chamberlain 24 years ago and then retrieved her body from its jaws.
Frank Cole, 78, has said that that Azaria's body may have been buried in a Melbourne backyard by one of his mates.
Azaria disappeared from a campsite at Uluru in central Australia on August 17, 1980, but her body was never found.
After two inquests and a trial, her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was jailed in 1982 for murder, only to be pardoned in 1986.
Mr Cole said he had felt "pretty lousy and guilty" when Ms Chamberlain was jailed but he couldn't do anything by then, and had promised his mates he would stay silent.

Bert Fraser, a neighbour of Frank Cole, said Mr Cole had seen a Gladstone bag in his home, prompting him to reveal the 24-year-old secret to his neighbour.
"I had one (a Gladstone bag) in here and he said, 'That's the same bag that they put the child in when they found the baby,'" Mr Fraser told ABC radio.
"Well, I asked him questions and he told the story: "He said, 'I had to tell someone because I'm getting older' and he said the rest of the chaps have died, the three people, and he'd hate to take it to his grave."
He said he and his three friends, who had since died, decided not to take the body to police immediately, fearing they would be punished for illegally using a firearm in a national park.
He said the group later agreed to take the body to authorities, but never did. Mr Cole said one of his friends might have buried the body in a Melbourne backyard.

PROPAGANDA CENTRAL

Is al-Zarqawi a false flag operative?

If Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader credited with the beheading deaths of Nick Berg and Kim Sun-Il, did not exist it would be necessary for the United States to invent him. That may well be what the CIA has done. What? Really? Is that credible?
Would an intelligence and espionage service really murder its own people, or neutrals, or citizens of an allied country? Would it cynically kill harmless civilians with terrorist-style bombings? Would it snuff out the lives of innocents to make a political point or create a climate of fear?

REVERSE SPEECH

Berg video: clues to its origin or mere paranoid delusion?

Reversed speech recordings -- in which unconscious statements are believed to be found in recordings that are played backwards -- are being shared privately, via e-mail and CDs sent by post. Apparently there is a growing sense of outrage among 'RS' practitioners who monitor national events, and the murder of Nick Berg as an American propaganda stunt may have been the proverbial last straw.
Because the amazingly amateurish intelligence team in Baghdad decided to 'go Hollywood' they inadvertently provided target-rich material for RS analysis.
The Berg video contains five minutes of recorded speech that provides a treasure-trove of information about what actually happened. Of course, the perpetrators will never be required to pay for their crime. That is the nature of the world we now live in. There is no reason, though, that you shouldn't at least know the truth.
The initial discovery that Berg's killers are Americans was made by an RS researcher who reversed the final moments of audio looking for evidence that what was shown on screen was in fact happening. The stunning discovery that the hooded man reading the prepared statement was unconsciously broadcasting his thoughts and feelings in a continuous stream of "American" English, prompted others to download the video as well, and go to work.

OUR COSMOS

Black hole as heavy as all the matter in our Milky Way galaxy

A team of astronomers have found a colossal black hole 12.7 billion light-years away which is so ancient, they're not sure how it had enough time to grow to its current size, about 10 billion times the mass of the Sun.
Sitting at the heart of a distant galaxy, the black hole -- known as a blazar -- appears to be about 12.7 billion years old, which means it formed just one billion years after the universe began and is one of the oldest supermassive black holes ever known.
The black hole, researchers said, is big enough to hold 1000 of our own Solar Systems and weighs about as much as all the stars in the Milky Way.
The supermassive black hole, dubbed Q0906+6930, is a blazar. This refers to a type of quasar, a bright galaxy with an active supermassive black hole at its core. Like quasars, blazars have particle jets, only the jets -- by chance alignment -- are pointed directly in Earth's direction. Blazars are strong gamma ray emitters.

EARTH CHANGES

Aral catastrophe recorded in DNA

Fresh fears have been raised about the health of populations living near the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia.
A new study has now found high levels of DNA damage that could explain the region's abnormally high cancer rates.
This comes as the latest estimates say the Aral Sea is receding so rapidly it could vanish within the next 15 years.
Once the world's fourth largest inland body of water, the sea has been drained by a poorly managed irrigation system that supplies water to cotton crops.

Rice yields dip as planet warms

There is a strong link between increasing night temperatures and decreasing rice yields
Global warming could have a severe effect on rice production, say scientists working in the Philippines.
The researchers studied 12 years of rice yields and 25 years of temperature data, to work out how they are linked.
Yields dropped by 10% for each degree of warming, an alarming trend since rice is the staple diet for most of the world's expanding population, they say.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

Mark 77: New, improved and more lethal son of napalm

The Pentagon no longer officially uses the brand-name 'Napalm', but a similar sticky, inflammable substance known as 'fuel-gel mixture', contained in weapons called Mark-77 fire bombs, was dropped on Iraqi troops near the Iraq-Kuwait border at the start of the war.
'I can confirm that Mark-77 fire bombs were used in that general area,' Colonel Mike Daily of the US Marine Corps said.
Colonel Daily said that US stocks of Vietnam-era napalm had been phased out, but that the fuel-gel mixture in the Mark-77s had 'similar destructive characteristics.'
On March 22nd, correspondent Lindsay Murdoch, who was travelling with the US Marines, had reported that napalm was used in an attack on Iraqi troops at Safwan Hill, near the Kuwait border. Murdoch's account was based on statements by two US Marine Corps officers on the ground.
Lieutenant-Commander Jeff A. Davis, USN, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Defense (Public Affairs) had called Murdoch's story "patently false".
"The US took napalm out of service in the 1970s. We completed the destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm," Commander Davis said. He was apparently referring to Vietnam-era Napalm-B, which consisted of inflammable fuel thickened with polystyrene and benzene.
The inflammable fuel in Mark-77 fire bombs is thickened with slightly different chemicals, and is believed to contain oxidizers, which make it harder to extinguish than Napalm-B.

Neither weapon technically contains napalm. The chemical mixture that became known as 'napalm' - a combination of naphthalene and palmitate - was used only in the earliest versions of the weapon. Napalm was banned by United Nations convention in 1980, but the US never signed the agreement. Use of Mark-77 fire bombs is considered legal by the US military.

VOICE OF REASON

Attack Iran, US chief ordered British

America's military commander in Iraq ordered British troops to prepare a full-scale ground offensive against Iranian forces that had crossed the border and grabbed disputed territory, a senior officer has disclosed.
An attack would almost certainly have provoked open conflict with Iran. But the British chose instead to resolve the matter through diplomatic channels.