Media Misquote and Excise Bush Comment About 'Scripted' Press Conference

When Bush gave his second prime-time press conference in two years (on 6 March 2003), in a flustered moment, he admitted that the production was "scripted." But in transcripts of the event, all media outlets, except one, have changed or removed that embarassing moment.
It happened when Bush was looking down at his notes to see which reporter he was supposed to call upon. The following excerpt is from the official transcript at the White House's Website:
The risk of doing nothing, the risk of hoping that Saddam Hussein changes his mind and becomes a gentle soul, the risk that somehow -- that inaction will make the world safer, is a risk I'm not willing to take for the American people.
We'll be there in a minute. King, John King. This is a scripted -- (laughter.)
Q Thank you, Mr. President. How would -- sir, how would you answer your critics who say that they think this is somehow personal?
You can confirm this for yourself by going to the transcript. The exchange is not quite halfway down the page. Also, you can listen to an MP3 of the exchange here.

Woman Offers Bush Crucifixion-For-Peace Deal

A New Zealand woman said on Wednesday she was willing to be crucified by President Bush if he pledges not to attack Iraq.
Mary Grierson said she had emailed the challenge to the White House and as an open letter to leading U.S. newspapers.
"Send your troops home and take me instead, on behalf of everyone in the world who does not want war and oppression," she wrote.

Photographic History of the Bush Administration Putting Its Mouth Where Its Money Isn't

The Bush Credibility Gap: Real Life Examples. A chronology of Bush saying one thing then doing another

War against Iraq is immoral: Hawke

The former Australian Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke, says the prospective war against Iraq is immoral and stupid. Mr Hawke is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his election to office today.
He has told Lateline, there should be United Nation forces in Iraq.
"If they were there he would not be able to use weapons of mass destruction more so you'd be able to track them down do the job of isolating them, stopping them being made available to terrorists," he said.
"So if you can achieve those objectives other than by going to war it's immoral to go to war."

I'm losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for bombing Iraq: he's running out of patience. And so am I!
For some time now I've been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't been able to discover what. I've been round to his place a few times to see what he's up to, but he's got everything well hidden. That's how devious he is.

Welcome to the New American Century (read 'New World Order')

The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.
PNAC is a think-tank founded in 1997 by the people who are now closest to President Bush - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush and so on. What PNAC thinks is likely what George W. Bush thinks. PNAC represents the thinking of the men now in power in the US.

Pakistan's intelligence chief has terrorist links

Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre.
The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 was wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.

Saturday's Al Qaeda arrest may have happened several months ago

Some analysts questioned whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had actually been arrested on Saturday and speculated he may have been held for some time.
"I think he was arrested several months ago in the shootout in Karachi," one expert on Pakistan who declined to be identified said, referring to a gunbattle in September in the southern port city that netted another Al Qaeda figure, Ahmed Omar Abdel Rahman, known as Binalshibh.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was reported to have narrowly evaded capture in that battle, when Karachi police identified him as a man hit by a police sniper.
But a suspected militant later denied this.
Another terror expert said several weeks ago he believed Mohammed had been arrested and that he expected the news would be only be made public when it was in the interests of the United States and Pakistan.

US concentration camps in the making


Photos taken close to Nellis Air Force Base (next to Union Pacific Railroad Tracks & I-15).

Gulf War vet admits setting Kuwait oil well fires under UN command

During the past six years, the American Gulf War Veterans Association has received numerous reports from veterans stating that US forces were responsible for the setting of the oil well fires at the end of the Gulf War.
One veteran has now stepped forward and given a detailed account of how he and others in special teams, moved forward of the front, behind enemy lines ahead of US forces, set explosive and incendiary charges on the well heads, and remained hidden until after the charges were remotely detonated and US forces advanced beyond their position.
Transcript

Hitting the g-spot

A Gucci advertisement featuring a woman with her pubic hair cropped in the shape of a letter "G" got the go-ahead from Britain's tough advertising watchdog on Wednesday.
Sixteen outraged members of the public had complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the Italian fashion house's advert was indecent.
But the ASA, which has a reputation for taking a harder line than its counterparts in other European countries, judged the advertisement was targeted at sophisticated, adult fashion magazine readers who would not be offended.
"The image was intimate rather than aggressive and... although it was likely to be considered tasteless by some readers, it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence," the ASA said in a statement.
The advert, which is running in British fashion magazines, shows a woman wearing an open silk kimono and underwear which she has pulled part-way down to reveal the letter "G." A man kneels in front, staring at her pubic hair.
The advertisers aimed to provoke and viewed the image as "the ultimate ironic pun for a sexy brand in a logo-led age," the ASA said. Gucci believed "the image addressed today's reality that men and women's sexual roles were changing," the statement added. (Reuters)

Coalition of the willing (read 'war crims')

The United States has proposed a doctrine of "pre-emptive self-defence" (doesn'tall the NewSpeak make you shudder?) to use force against another country it suspects may attack it at some stage.
However, a pre-emptive strike on Iraq would constitute a crime against humanity, write 43 experts on international law and human rights.
The initiation of a war against Iraq by the self-styled "coalition of the willing" would be a fundamental violation of international law.

Ari laughed out of White House briefing room

Ari Fleischer drew himself up with imperious indignation and said to a reporter, "you're implying that the President is buying the votes of other nations, and that's just not a consideration".
The whole press corps, normally docile, broke out into derisive laughter, and kept on laughing as Ari turned on his heels and strode out of White House briefing room.
Follow the above link and go down to White House Press Briefing (Feb 25, 2003) and click on the video. After it buffers, play from about 28 minutes forward for context, 30 minutes forward to watch the press laugh at Ari's bullshit.
Visit C-Spanor The video

Concentration Camps in Okanagon County?

Okanogan County Commissioner Dave Schulz says he's convinced his county is a designated home for a ``concentration camp'' in case of civil unrest. Schulz says he has copies of documents, although he hasn't been able to confirm the rumor.
Federal officials say they have no idea where the commissioner got the notion of civilian detention camps.
A Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman says it sounds like an urban legend and a Pentagon spokesman says he's not aware of any planned camps in Okanogan County or elsewhere.
Rumors of planned U.S. detention facilities appear on dozens of Web sites. Schulz says he thinks the plan has been written in the event of a national emergency where martial law is necessary, and hopes it never becomes necessary.

Rockefeller: Bush decided 'long time ago' to go to war

America will declare war against Iraq regardless of how the United Nations Security Council votes, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Tuesday.
Rockefeller, who returned to the country Saturday following a week-long visit to Pakistan, Kuwait and Afghanistan, said based on private conversations he's had with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others in the administration, he believes war with Iraq is inevitable.
"I think the president has made up his mind, and whether we get the votes or don't get the votes, I think we're going to go to war," the senator said, adding Bush "made up his mind a long time ago ..."

Pulitzer-winning reporter Seymour Hersh: Rumsfeld authorized evac of al Qaeda

Seymour Hersh relays the story of how an evacuation of Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan into Pakistan was authorized by Rumsfeld as a favor to Pakistan. "Gee, really?" said Rumsfeld. "News to me."
Q: How high up was that evacuation authorized?
HERSH: I am here to tell you it was authorised ... at the White House. ... certainly at the Secretary of Defense level.

If you think the world is a violent place now, just wait

"A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated."
Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.

Adding insult to 9-11 injuries

A notorious liar, Kissinger has lied repeatedly to Congress, the press and the public; he is a toady to power and a lackey of the Establishment and for many years now the hireling of despotic regimes around the world. Old Cover-Up Kissinger, the man who double-crossed the Iraqi Kurds -- just the man to lead an independent inquiry into 9-11.
The cynicism of this insult to the families of those who died on 9-11 is just flabbergasting. We knew that the Bush administration opposed the whole idea of an independent inquiry, but this adds supreme insult to injury.

A few words from Bush

As The New Yorker recently noted, if Bill Gates walked into a soup kitchen serving 60 bums, the average worth of the people in that room would be $1 billion each. But it would still be Bill Gates and 60 bums.
In his State of the Union address Bush claimed tax relief was for everyone who pays income taxes. … "Ninety-two million Americans will keep this year an average of almost $1,100 of their own money".
Molly Ivins points out however that a third of all Americans will never see a dime of that tax cut. Half of all taxpayers will get less than $100 from the Bush tax cut. Those who make more than $1 million a year will get an average cut of $92,000, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That may average out to $1,100, but it ain't going to the average family.

Let's ease up on the machismo

The president did an unfortunate disservice to the cause of reasonable debate when he said of the worldwide demonstration against the impending war: "Some in the world don't view Saddam Hussein as a risk to peace. I respectfully disagree."
Painting the anti-war movement as pro-Saddam gets us nowhere. What the Europeans are trying to say is not that they think Saddam is harmless. We've got near-universal agreement -- including, as near as one can tell, from most Iraqis -- that the man is a miserable SOB. The difference is over how to handle him, and the United States has put itself in the unfortunate position of looking as though we'd rather go to war, unprovoked, than work at a way to defang him peacefully.

A wee bit crazy? Science now has a name for you

I have good news. If you dress funny, talk funny, have no friends, believe in ghosts and communicate with UFOs, science finally has a name for you. You're a schizotypal.
The difference between a schizophrenic and a schizotypal is that the former has delusions while the latter has beliefs. A schizotypal realises his ideas might border on the bizarre, but feels that makes him smarter and better than everyone else because he bops along a mental road less travelled.

Professor in terror indictments was a Bush supporter

Sami Amin al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor charged with being the US leader of a Mideast terrorist group, was an influential figure in Tampa's small Muslim community whose political activism landed him in a photograph with President Bush during the 2000 campaign.
''He was a Bush supporter,'' said Robert McKee, an attorney who is representing Arian in a legal dispute with the university. ''As close as the election in Florida was, Sami may have put him over the top. He got out the vote in the Muslim community in Florida, and now Bush's attorney general is going after him.''

We Are Not The Enemy! - The Battle of Portland




Mr. Bush is protested wherever he goes these days, and the crowds which attend them are growing. These are not black-clad anarchists kicking in windows, however. The woman who was attacked by the police looked as ordinary as any small-town librarian, and anarchists are smart enough to leave their children at home if there is a riot in the offing. The streets of Portland were filled on August 22nd by average American citizens seeking to inform the President of their disfavor regarding the manner in which he is governing their country. They were rewarded with the business end of a billy club, a face-full of pepper spray, and the jarring impact of a rubber bullet.

CNN leaves 750 telling words out of Blix transcript.

US intelligence's de facto news organ CNN, offered what purported to be a full transcript of Hans Blix' address to the UN Security Council. But it left out nearly 750 words - the ones where Blix refutes Colin Powell's 'smoking gun' presentation.
CNN transcript
and BBC transcript.

Armageddon asteroids 'best kept secret'

A scientific adviser to the US government has suggested that secrecy might be the best option if scientists were ever to discover that a giant asteroid was on course to collide with Earth.
"If an extinction-type impact is inevitable, then ignorance for the populace is bliss. As a matter of common sense, if you can't intercept it and you can't move people out of the way in time, there's nothing you can do in terms of reducing the costs of the potential impact," said Geoffrey Sommer, of the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California.

Arms and legs sticking out of Gulf's past

'What I saw was a bunch of filled-in trenches with people's arms and legs sticking out of them. For all I know, we could have killed thousands'
Patrick J Sloyan on how, for 20 years, the mass slaughter of a group of Iraqis has gone unreported, Friday February 14, 2003,

President Salutes Sailors at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville

[When Bush got laughter and applause, a sinister little smile appeared on his face.]
The terrorists brought this war to us -- and now we're taking it back to them. (Applause.) We're on their trail, we're smoking them out, we've got them on the run. We're hunting them down one by one, all across the world. With our allies, we've arrested or otherwise dealt with -- (laughter) -- many of the key commanders of al Qaeda. And that includes the terrorist who planned the bombing of the USS Cole. (Applause.)
So far, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Just about that number met a different kind of fate. They're not a problem anymore. (Applause.)

CIA chief warns of possible al Qaeda attack in U.S.

[Warning: Leni Reifenstahl meets Fellini, with a dash of Monty Python]
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he reviewed a transcript of the message, which he said was to air on the Al-Jazeera Arab news satellite television channel, which operates out of Qatar. "(Bin Laden) speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq," Powell said.
Asked for reaction to Powell's claim, Al-Jazeera denied it had such a message from bin Laden, saying news of it was a rumor that has been circulating for several weeks.

Stifling the voice of reason and dissent (don't bother clicking this, the site has closed)

The campaign to stifle dissent and censor any questioning of current U.S. policies vis a vis the Middle East in general, and Iraq in particular, has reached new levels.
Websites which host alternative views, and/or views that contradict U.S. foreign policy are no longer tolerated on the Internet and are systematically coming under hacker attack and political pressures to "relocate."
The well known alternative news site YellowTimes.org was shut down by its hosting company. Such is the nature of "Free Speech" in America.

The New York Sun says war protest is act of treason

Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have documented many instances in which pundits and politicians have tried to demonize dissent, suggesting that it is unpatriotic and even that it aids the enemy. But none has gone so far as to suggest an actual prosecution for treason simply for voicing one's political views - until now.
The New York Sun editorial leader for February 6, 2003 objected to the organisation of an anti-war march saying, "the New York City police could do worse than to allow the protest and send two witnesses along for each participant, with an eye toward preserving at least the possibility of an eventual treason prosecution."
This was a reference to Article III of the constitution: ".No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”

Women bare all in Australian anti-war protest

More than 700 women posed nude on Saturday to protest against Australia's likely involvement in a potential war against Iraq.
Lying naked end to end on a grassy knoll in the Australian beach town of Byron Bay, they formed a heart around the words "No War" for an aerial photograph.
Ananova has a story with picture at http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_748598.html?menu=

The UK Iraq dossier and its use of open sources, namely Jane's

The dossier on Iraq's concealment infrastructure published on 3 February 2002 used open sources to make much of its case. These sources included articles from Jane's Intelligence Review dating from 1997 and November 2002, as well as an article by Ibrahim al-Marashi published in the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA).
That open sources should be used to compile such a report is not in itself surprising - indeed, the use of open sources was acknowledged in the introduction to the document. However, the direct copying of entire paragraphs casts some doubt on the processes used to create dossiers of this type.

Strategic Defense Initiative scopes Columbia before disintegration

A telescope at the Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque photographed the space shuttle Columbia in its last minutes using missile defense technology to capture stunningly acute images.
"For security reasons, we don't want people to know exactly how good we can do this," said Rich Garcia, a spokesman for Starfire, which is operated by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Mr. Garcia said he could not say whether Starfire had been asked to monitor the Columbia or whether its equipment just happened to catch a glimpse of the shuttle before its breakup. The installation, based on technology developed as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, is used for astronomical observation and tracking satellites.

Astronauts had '90 seconds of hell' as shuttle broke up

Investigators were focusing more closely on the desperate effort of Columbia's automatic control system to hold the speed of the spacecraft stable despite an increasing amount of wind resistance from the left wing.
Teams were intensifying efforts to recover the final data from the spacecraft. Pieces of debris have been found in Arizona and California, indicating that disintegration began before the shuttle reached east Texas, where most of the wreckage fell.

NASA Reportedly Hacked Hours After Columbia Was Lost


A hacker group attacked and struck down servers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory just hours after the Columbia space shuttle was lost, according to a London-based security company. The attack, allegedly pulled off by a group calling itself the Trippin Smurfs, temporarily staggered nine servers running on the Sun Solaris operating system, according to a report issued by mi2g, a security firm based in England. The attack was fired off as a protest against the U.S.'s position on Iraq. The attack lasted for about an hour and a half, approximately seven hours after the Columbia exploded just 16 minutes before its scheduled landing. All seven crew members were killed. The hacker group defaced the organization's Web servers with political messages, according to mi2g. The report also points out that this is the third time the Trippin Smurfs have successfully compromised servers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They attacked two servers on Jan. 18 of this year and another three on Jan. 25. This last incident, mi2g reports, is the first time the group has uploaded politically charged content.

NASA explores whether space debris at fault as launch debris fades as culprit


The possibility That Columbia Was Fatally Wounded by space debris is growing.
"There have been many, many impacts," said Donald H. Emero, a former NASA shuttle manager who served on a National Academy of Sciences panel that examined the danger of "orbital debris" for NASA in 1997.
Although the impacts force NASA to regularly replace pitted window panes and repair or replace damaged ceramic tiles that provide insulation from the heat of reentry, a shuttle had never suffered serious damage from debris.
The Pentagon's Space Control Center in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado tracks more than 8,500 manmade objects and has warned NASA 12 times to move the shuttle out of the way of a potential collision. The space station has moved six times after a military warning.

Shuttle hit caught on video?

An amateur astronomer who watched the space shuttle cross the sky outside his Sparks home early Saturday picked up on videotape what might be signs of trouble for the doomed flight.
Jay Lawson, a volunteer at the Fleischmann Planetarium at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he didn?t see any apparent problems while watching the shuttle in the predawn sky a little before 6 a.m. But Lawson said he saw something unexpected while watching his tape a few minutes later.

Researchers translate DNA code as music

Imagine the human genome as music. Unravel DNA's double helix, picture its components lined up like piano keys and assign a note to each. Run your finger along the keys.
Spanish scientists did that just for fun and recorded what they call an audio version of the blueprint for life.

Pentagon adviser: France 'no longer ally'

France is no longer an ally of the United States and the NATO alliance "must develop a strategy to contain our erstwhile ally or we will not be talking about a NATO alliance" the head of the Pentagon's top advisory board said in Washington Tuesday.
Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and now chairman of the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board, condemned French and German policy on Iraq in the strongest terms at a public seminar organized by a New York-based PR firm and attended by Iraqi exiles and American Middle East and security officials.
But while dismissing Germany's refusal to support military action against Iraq as an aberration by "a discredited chancellor," Perle warned that France's attitude was both more dangerous and more serious.

2/1/03 -- Hide your books, the principal is coming

"To Ms. Ehrenfeld: This morning I observed that during the morning news program, you and your students were engaged in activities other than watching television."
So began the official letter of reprimand placed in my personnel folder by the principal at the elementary school in Maryland where I was teaching 3rd grade at the time. Odd as the accusation was, it was made even odder by the fact that my students were reading when the principal caught them not watching television. She had walked in, and there they were, sitting as silently as a group of 3rd graders can, every one of them absorbed in a book. What they were supposed to be doing was watching our school's morning news show, an exercise in terminal boredom.

Nasa chiefs 'repeatedly ignored' safety warnings

Fears of a catastrophic shuttle accident were raised last summer with the White House by a former Nasa engineer who pleaded for a presidential order to halt all further shuttle flights until safety issues had been addressed.
In a letter to the White House, Don Nelson, who served with Nasa for 36 years until he retired in 1999, wrote to President George W. Bush warning that his 'intervention' was necessary to 'prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident'.
During his last 11 years at Nasa, Nelson served as a mission operations evaluator for proposed advanced space transportation projects. He was on the initial design team for the space shuttle. He participated in every shuttle upgrade until his retirement.

Shuttle: costly, outmoded, impractical and deadly

The core problem that lay at the heart of the Challenger tragedy applies to the Columbia tragedy as well. That core problem is the space shuttle itself. For 20 years, the American space program has been wedded to a space-shuttle system that is too expensive, too risky, too big for most of the ways it is used, with budgets that suck up funds that could be invested in a modern system that would make space flight cheaper and safer. The space shuttle is impressive in technical terms, but in financial terms and safety terms no project has done more harm to space exploration. With hundreds of launches to date, the American and Russian manned space programs have suffered just three fatal losses in flight?and two were space-shuttle calamities. This simply must be the end of the program.

Engineering Detectives Start Piecing Together Evidence From Doomed Space Shuttle Columbia

The focus for now is whether insulation that broke loose from a fuel tank during the shuttle Columbia's ascent on Jan. 16 damaged heat-protecting tiles, ultimately dooming the shuttle's return to earth 16 days later.
The manufacturer of the fuel tank disclosed Sunday that NASA used an older version of the tank, which the space agency began phasing out in 2000.
NASA's preflight press information stated the shuttle was using one of the newer super-lightweight fuel tanks.
Harry Wadsworth, a spokesman for Lockheed, the tank maker, said most shuttle launches use the "super-lightweight" tank and the older version is no longer made. Wadsworth said he did not know if there was a difference in how insulation was installed on the two types of tanks.

Operation Sphinx

At a time when virtually the entire international community has come to a consensus against Pakistan 'crossing the line' and becoming a nuclear state, an attack on Pakistan's nuclear facility cannot be entirely ruled out. After all the world has witnessed the June 7, 1981 Israeli attack and destruction of the Iraqi nuclear complex Temuze 70 (Osirak), just outside Baghdad when US made Israeli fighter bomber carried out Operation Sphinx. For non-proliferation 'crusaders' this Operation must have qualified as Israel's contribution to global non-proliferation. (from May 27, 2000)

Photos show odd images near shuttle

An amateur astronomer has captured five strange and provocative images of the shuttle Columbia just before it disintegrated while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere before dawn Saturday.
The pictures, taken with a Nikon 8 camera on a tripod, reveal what appear to be bright electrical phenomena flashing around the track of the shuttle's passage, but the photographer, who asked not to be identified, will not make them public immediately.
"They clearly record an electrical discharge like a lightning bolt flashing past, and I was snapping the pictures almost exactly . . . when the Columbia may have begun breaking up during re-entry," he said.
They show a bright scraggly flash of orange light, tinged with pale purple, and shaped somewhat like a deformed L. The flash appears to cross the Columbia's dim contrail, and at that precise point, the contrail abruptly brightens and appears thicker and somewhat twisted as if it were wobbling.

Analog clocks are living fossils of the Sumerian base 60 counting

Musicians, following Plato, still project their tones into a circle that eliminates cyclic octave repetitions (Plato, in the Timaeus, insists that God makes only one model of anything). Thus today, using our modern, equal-tempered scale, we can identify any musical interval as some multiple of a standard semitone, to the envy of calendarmakers, who, having to deal with the irregularities of days, months, and years, are jealous of our perfect twelve-tone symmetry. But the nearest approximation of our twelve-tone, equal-tempered scale in small integers remains that provided by ancient base-60 arithmetic.
In ancient Mesopotamia, music, mathematics, art, science, religion, and poetic fantasy were fused. Around 3000 B.C., the Sumerians developed a base-60 number system. Their gods were assigned numbers that encoded the primary ratios of music, with the gods' functions corresponding to their numbers in acoustical theory. Thus the Sumerians created an extensive tonal/arithmetical model for the cosmos. In this far-reaching allegory, the physical world is known by analogy, and the gods give divinity not only to natural forces but also to a "supernatural," intuitive understanding of mathematical patterns and psychological forces.

Will Bush Deliver Atomic Rocket for a Mars Program?

The aerospace industry, NASA-scientists, and a host of space science advocates will be listening to determine if the President will actually seek Congressional backing for the construction of a major new space propulsion system that may launch the nation's science and engineering community on a course to put humans on Mars and other solar system bodies over the next quarter-of-a-century.
During the past week reports have surfaced starting with a Los Angeles Times interview by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keef indicating that the President will formally announce Project Prometheus --- to build a new rocket launch system designed for space travel at three times the speed humans have gone before --- during the January 28, 9 PM State of the Union address.

Keep February 22 free: war to begin

Middle East intelligence sources have revealed that a massive aerial assault on Iraq will begin in the early hours of February 22nd, give or take a day. Since September 2002, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has privately implored the U.S. not to launch an attack on Iraq before the Eid-al-Adha, one of Islam's greatest Feast holidays. The Greater Eid marks the end of Hajj, Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, on February 16th.

Everest Melting? High Signs of Climate Change

A team sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme has found signs that the landscape of Mount Everest has changed significantly since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's visit in 1953. A primary cause is the warming global climate.
The team found that the glacier that once came close to Hillary and Norgay's first camp has retreated three miles (five kilometers). A series of ponds that used to be near Island Peak -- so-called because it was then an island in a sea of ice -- had merged into a long lake.
Tashi Janghu Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountain Association, "told us that he had seen quite rapid and significant changes over the past 20 years in the ice fields and that these changes appeared to be accelerating.

An interview with George Orwell

When you take words out of the vocabulary, when you change the meanings of words, and make some words synonymous with others when those words are supposed to have two different meanings, it gets very difficult for people to think about things like Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Example: In the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, Capitalism is defined as an economic, political and social system based on private ownership of property, business and industry, and directed towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organizations and people. Whereas in the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, the Newspeak version, Capitalism is defined as an economic system based on private ownership of property and business, with the goal of making the greatest possible profits for the owners.
In the rest of the world, capitalism means private ownership where success is financially rewarded. Using America's Newspeak Dictionary, capitalism means private ownership where the OWNERS, and not the company or the employees are the ones entitled to capital, regardless of how badly the business does.
Success doesn't even come into play. In America, the owners are entitled to the greatest possible profits, period.

Alleged Pedophiles at Helm of Britain's War Machine, Massive Cover-Up

A child-sex scandal that threatened to destroy Tony Blair's government last week has been mysteriously squashed and wiped off the front pages of British newspapers. Operation Ore, the United Kingdom's most thorough and comprehensive police investigation of crimes against children, seems to have uncovered more than is politically acceptable at the highest reaches of the British elite.
See also: Sunday Herald Child porn arrests 'too slow'
Sunday Herald How Cherie gained two houses ... but lost the plot
and
The Guardian New Age crankiness of Blair and Cherie

Cell phone patents raise safety questions

Last year a study reported no ill effects from the radiation emitted by mobile cell phones, however even as major cell phone manufacturers argued that phones pose no health risks, the companies were filing patents for devices such as antenna shrouds designed to protect users from radiation emitted by the phones. Click here for CNN story.

US ally Pakistan in arms deals with 'Axis of Evil' Korea Since 1997, the C.I.A. said, Pakistan had been sharing sophisticated technology, warhead-design information, and weapons-testing data with the Pyongyang regime. Pakistan, one of the Bush Administration's important allies in the war against terrorism, was helping North Korea build the bomb.
Pakistan began paying for missile systems from North Korea in part by sharing its nuclear-weapons secrets. According to the report, Pakistan sent prototypes of high-speed centrifuge machines to North Korea. And sometime in 2001 North Korean scientists began to enrich uranium in significant quantities. Pakistan also provided data on how to build and test a uranium-triggered nuclear weapon, the C.I.A. report said.

Microchip Implants, Mindcontrol, Cybernetics

Thirty years ago brain implants showed up in xrays the size of one centimeter. Subsequent implants shrunk to the size of a grain of rice. They were made of silicon, later still of gallium arsenide. Today they are small enough to be inserted into the neck or back, and also intravenously in different parts of the body during surgical operations, with or without the consent of the subject. It is now almost impossible to detect or remove them.
It is technically possible for every newborn to be injected with a
microchip, which could then function to identify the person for the rest of his or her life. Such plans are secretly being discussed in the U.S. without any public airing of the privacy issues involved. In Sweden, Prime Minister Olof Palme gave permission in 1973 to implant prisoners, and Data Inspection's ex-Director General Jan Freese revealed that nursing-home patients were implanted in the mid- 1980's. The technology
is revealed in the 1972:47 Swedish state report, STATENS OFFICIELLA UTRADNINGER (SOU).

Australian fire ruins Big Isle telescope plans

A forest and brush fire in Australia has destroyed an astronomical instrument under construction which would have put the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea in the forefront of certain infrared astronomical studies.
The $3 million Near-infrared Integral-Field Spectrograph, under construction since 1999 at Australia's Mount Stromlo Observatory, was six months short of completion and installation on the Gemini North telescope, said Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud.
The instrument would have been used to study the area around black holes at the centers of galaxies and to study star formation elsewhere.

US may use nukes on Iraq

THE United States is considering using nuclear weapons in a possible future war against Iraq to destroy underground command posts and stop Iraqi forces from using weapons of mass destruction, a top US private military expert has warned.
Citing multiple sources, William Arkin said plans for using nuclear weapons against Iraq are being fleshed out at the US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska; inside planning offices of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and at an "undisclosed location" in Pennsylvania where US Vice-President Dick Cheney used to spend time during terrorism alerts.

Western "human shields" head for Iraq

LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Proclaiming they were prepared to die if necessary to stop war in Iraq, the first convoy of Western "human shield" volunteers drove out of London on Saturday on double-decker buses bound for Baghdad.
The roughly 50 volunteers, ranging from a 19-year-old factory worker to a 60-year-old former diplomat, formed the vanguard of a series of caravans organisers say will take hundreds, possibly thousands, of anti-war activists to Iraq.

Research team uncovers new UFO evidence

The museum of the unexplained, located in Reeds Spring Missouri, has obtained new information concerning an object recovered by Bob White in the 80s. To present this new information to the press and to the public, a press conference has been scheduled for 10am on Wednesday, February 5, 2003 in Nevada. The press conference is by invitation only. On February 6, 2003, the object will on display to the general public and the experts will be available to take questions. It bears a striking similarity to an object recovered in Denmark 40 years earlier. To see the objects click here.

We make up the rules as we go along, says Rumsfeld

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's briefings to the press are feisty affairs, in which the secretary sometimes debates the premise of reporter's questions. When reporters get frustrated or try to press him, Rumsfeld often breaks into laughter.
This gives his appearances a free-wheeling affair. As he said to reporters earlier this week, between chuckles, "Oh, we make up the rules as we go along. What the heck."

Bush the Cowboy Leaves Europe Cold

"Terrorists are a hundred times more likely to obtain a weapon of mass destruction from Pakistan than from Iraq," one senior European official said, not permitting a reporter to identify even his nationality because tensions with Washington are so high. "North Korea is far more likely to sell whatever it's got. But can we say this in public? Can we have a real debate about priorities? Not with George Bush."
And while Vice President Dick Cheney has argued that a show of military might will begin to change the map of the Middle East, German and French officials say it will more likely lead to a radicalization of the Arab world, a fractured Iraq and a prolonged struggle with Washington over who will pick up the pieces.

France, Germany stand firm on Iraq

PARIS, France (CNN) -- French President Jacques Chirac said France and Germany have "the same point of view" on the Iraqi crisis.
Chirac said any decision on war in the end resides with the U.N. Security Council and that war should be avoided.
Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder held a news conference at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday after a joint Cabinet meeting to mark 40 years of reconciliation. During the briefing, they were asked about Iraq.
The French president said their mutual stance is based on two ideas: that any decision belongs to the Security Council alone.
A report on the status of inspections will be delivered to the Security Council on Monday.
"As far as we're concerned, war always means failure," Chirac said. "Everything must be done to avoid war.

Rumsfeld: France, Germany are 'problems' in Iraqi conflict

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday dismissed French and German insistence that "everything must be done to avoid war" with Iraq, saying most European countries stand with the United States in its campaign to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm.
"Germany has been a problem, and France has been a problem," said Rumsfeld, a former NATO ambassador. "But you look at vast numbers of other countries in Europe. They're not with France and Germany on this, they're with the United States."
Germany and France represent "old Europe," and NATO's expansion in recent years means "the center of gravity is shifting to the east," Rumsfeld said.
U.N. officials have stressed the report would be an update, not a conclusive determination about any Iraqi weapons programs.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Colin Powell has told Security Council members that "difficult choices" would follow the report.

Fun things to do with a US$20

Origami with cash for the bored. In Spanish. Regards Sept 11, 2001

All eyes head towards Baghdad


Members of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment were allowed to wear their own hologram protective eyewear during exercises in Bergen-Hohne in Germany. The 40-pounds-slg reflective 3D goggles, which are designed for motorcyclists, have become a fashionable accessory, but they will not be seen on the battlefield. click here for the image

'Oldest star chart' found

The oldest image of a star pattern, that of the famous constellation of Orion, has been recognised on an ivory tablet some 32,500 years old.
The tiny sliver of mammoth tusk contains a carving of a man-like figure with arms and legs outstretched in the same pose as the stars of Orion.
The claim is made by Dr Michael Rappenglueck, formerly of the University of Munich, who is already renowned for his pioneering work locating star charts painted on the walls of prehistoric caves.

Human Peace Sign from Antarctica

On Sunday, January 19, 2003 people from McMurdo Station in Antarctica joined with the millions of others around the world in calling for peace not war.
With the Antarctic Mt Range in the background we laid on the ice in a symbolic call for peace.
Seven continents united. click here for pictures.

War concoted 5 years ago as oily cover story

Back in 1997, in the years of the Clinton administration, Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and a bunch of other right-wing men – most involved in the oil business – created the Project for the New American Century, a lobby group demanding "regime change" in Iraq.
In a 1998 letter to President Clinton, they called for the removal of Saddam from power. In a letter to Newt Gingrich, who was then Speaker of the House, they wrote that "we should establish and maintain a strong US military presence in the region, and be prepared to use that force to protect our vital interests [sic] in the Gulf – and, if necessary, to help remove Saddam from power".

TIME Magazine: America's Ultra-Secret Weapon

High-power microwaves are man-made lightning bolts crammed into cruise missiles. They could be key weapons for targeting Saddam Hussein's alleged stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons -- frying the sophisticated computers and electronic gear necessary to produce, protect, store and deliver such agents.
The powerful electromagnetic pulses can travel into deeply buried bunkers through ventilation shafts, plumbing and antennas.

Pentagon database plan hits snag

A plan to link databases of credit card companies, health insurers and others--creating what critics call a "domestic surveillance apparatus"--raises concern on Capitol Hill.
If fully implemented, the Pentagon's proposed Total Information Awareness program would link databases from sources such as credit card companies, medical insurers and motor vehicle departments for police convenience in hopes of snaring terrorists. It's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb

Some fifty years after the United States began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth, declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still-controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age.
Today, two thirds of U.S. public drinking water is fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the government's assurances of safety.
Since the days of World War II, when this nation prevailed by building the world's first atomic bomb, U.S. public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for children's teeth.
Fluoride is a powerful central nervous system (CNS) toxin, and might adversely affect human brain functioning, even at low doses. New epidemiological evidence from China adds support, showing a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and diminished I.Q. in children.

Not All White House Reporters are Pushovers

"At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the president deplored the taking of innocent lives," Helen Thomas began. "Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world?"
It was a simple question -- and, unfortunately, an extraordinary one. Few journalists at the White House move beyond the subtle but powerful ties that bind reporters and top officials in Washington. Routinely, shared assumptions are the unspoken name of the game.
In this case, Thomas wasn't playing -- and Fleischer's new year wasn't exactly off to a great start. His tongue moved, but he declined to answer the question. Instead, he parried: "I refer specifically to a horrible terrorist attack on Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds."

New theories take flight on speed of gravity, light

Ninety-eight years after Albert Einstein began to transform physics, scientists continue to question his ideas.
So far, he's survived every crucial challenge, including the latest: a challenge to his premise that light and gravity travel at the same speed. Last week in Seattle, scientists announced that in fact, gravity and light travel at the same speed, at least within a 20 per cent margin of error.
But 20 per cent, they admit, is a huge margin of error. To put it in perspective: Twenty per cent of the speed of light is more than more than four times the diameter of Earth per second.
Conceivably, so huge a margin of error might conceal a significant difference in gravity and light speeds. So Einstein's challengers still hope to find flaws in his general theory of relativity.

Bar Patrons Arrested for Being Drunk

Heidig, who was at the bar Champps with a group of his work colleagues, complied. After failing a breath test designed to test his sobriety, Heidig was loaded into a van and taken to jail on charges of public intoxication.
Civil libertarians are saying the police have gone too far, and restaurant and bar owners fear that the raids are scaring away their customers who are drinking responsibly.
When police came to the bar in mid-Decembe "it looked like a full-scale invasion, with seven squad cars pulling up and 12 officers walking in single-file".

US.mil launches Operation Desert Spam


Emailed propaganda messages, written in Arabic and targeted at senior officials and military, include a helpful guide on how to defect, along with an appeal to turn over any information on Iraq's supposed chemical and biological weapons programme to UN inspectors.
The messages, titled 'Important Information', also urge military personnel to disable weapons of mass destruction or refuse to use them in the event of war, which is starting to look increasingly likely.

Monsters, Inc., The Pentagon's Plan to Create Super-Warriors

Pentagon dark lord Donald Rumsfeld is shoveling billions of tax dollars into the research furnaces of federal laboratories and private universities across the land in the wide-ranging effort to spawn "super soldiers," fired by drugs and electromagnetic "brain zaps" to fight without ceasing for days on end. The work is being directed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)--yes, the same outfit now laboring under convicted terrorist-conspirator John Poindexter to build the "Total Information Awareness" network that will allow the government to monitor the electronic records and communications of every citizen.

Jesus 'healed using cannabis'

Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings.
The anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine, High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who quotes scholars to back his claims.

Fuzzy Strands Fill Skies Over Texas City

Galveston residents are still trying to figure out what caused the skies over their coastal city to literally be filled on Friday with floating strands of wads that looked like spider webs.
The webs were visible in the air for five hours, and poles were left wrapped with the sticky strands and fuzzy wads.

Georgian skull's link to our past

In his hands he held the almost perfectly preserved skull of the most ancient human being ever found in Europe - 1.8 million years old.
More extraordinary still, it was about to throw into question all accepted theories about the migration of our ancestors out of Africa.
The remains of seven individuals have been found at Dmanisi - the most recent this summer - but what made this discovery so special was that it did not look like the skull of any human ever found outside Africa before.
Its brain cavity was far smaller - half the size of a modern human - and it had the huge canine teeth and thin brow of an ape.

Large Star Undergoing Eruptions

"The star did an amazing thing," said Andrea Dupree, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "We were exceptionally lucky to witness a stunning explosion."
Over a 200-day period, Rho Cassiopeia, a hypergiant with 20 to 40 times the mass of the sun, became brighter by 20 per cent, released a flare that made it one of the brightest stars in the universe, and then it dimmed, dropping in brightness by two magnitudes.

Pentagon plans lightning war

US military planners are preparing airstrikes on Iraq of such unparalleled intensity that some senior Pentagon officials believe that a ground war could be won in two days.
A surprise combination of ferocious bombardment and a near-simultaneous advance on Baghdad is intended to cause Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime to "implode".
The Pentagon's plans for a lightning overland thrust from Kuwait are based on the belief that Mr Hussein expects a prolonged air campaign, followed by a cautious advance.

US puts forces at Iraq's border

US forces deployed in the Gulf for a looming strike aimed at toppling Saddam Hussein have launched their biggest manoeuvres since the 1991 Gulf War, only kilometres from the Iraqi border, as British military sources said plans were well advanced for a massive seaborne invasion. Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported that the Royal Marines' elite 3 Commando Brigade would join US marines in a 40,000-strong force to seize the strategically vital southern Iraqi port of Basra.
Washington acted at the weekend on its promise to share with the UN sensitive intelligence on the locations of factories and stores of weapons of mass destruction that Baghdad denies exist. US intelligence, drawn primarily from spy satellites, includes locations of possible biological and chemical weapons sites and identifies Iraqi scientists for UN weapons inspectors to target, according to The Washington Post.

Instead of a debate over war, there's been a national shrug

Hands up all those who really think that George Bush is not determined to attack Iraq some time soon. Hands up all those who think that if he does so without UN authority Tony Blair will turn round and say: "Sorry Buddy, you're on your own." Not many takers, I bet. And yet the political conversation in this country has become surreal. Tony Blair and the rest of the government speak and act as if we are going through a patient, careful, international review of Iraq's weaponry. War, they say, may still not happen, so it's pointless to discuss "what ifs".
Everyone knows this is nonsense. We are preparing for conflict very soon: tens of thousands of American troops are already in the region, British and US warships are sailing, special forces and marines are being inoculated against anthrax, Bush has cancelled his trip to Africa. We are going to war, but Tony hasn't quite got round to telling us.

Iraq hits back with CIA offer: US agents invited to search for weapons


Baghdad fought back in the highly charged propaganda battle with the US and Britain yesterday by inviting its arch-enemy, the CIA, to enter Iraq and track down the country's elusive weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraqi offer of unhindered access to US intelligence agents came after intensive pressure from Washington that made war early in the new year appear almost inevitable.

After four days of diplomatic pounding, Iraq hit back yesterday, accusing the Bush administration of rehashing old lies.

Pentagon Wants to Recruit Iraqi Exiles

The Pentagon wants to recruit Iraqi exiles and train them to be part of a future Iraqi national army, the U.S. military's top general said Sunday.
Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that planning is under way for training Iraqi volunteer soldiers in Europe.
Following this week's Iraqi opposition conference in London on forming a post-Saddam Hussein government, reports emerged that several thousand Iraqis exiles would be recruited to guide coalition troops for a possible war against Baghdad. The exiles would form the core of the Arab country's new armed forces if Saddam Hussein is ousted.

Weapons inspectors turn fire on Britain and US

George Bush was under intense pressure yesterday to give UN weapons inspectors intelligence data that the US says proves Iraq is lying when it claims to have given up its weapons of mass destruction.
Hours before Mr Bush was to meet the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and senior Russian and European representatives, Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, delivered a stinging attack on the US and Britain, accusing them of failing to co-operate with his team.

Grieving Canadians stunned U.S. pilots took drugs

The family of a Canadian soldier killed in a U.S. bomb attack is dumbfounded by reports that American commanders let their pilots fly warplanes while on drugs.

Iraq Plans Scorched-Earth Strategy

Iraq is preparing to destroy its own oil fields, food supplies and power plants and blame America for the devastation in the event of war, U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday.

Philip K. Dick's Black Iron Subdermal Prison

While the current administration continues to play "The Grand Chessboard" under the Orwellian facade of peace through war and freedom through slavery, we must ask ourselves: to what end? While some have compared Bush's tactics to those of Adolf Hitler, others feverishly argue that this is necessary to protect America's self interests. The prison-builders have always strived to coerce the citizenry into sacrificing liberty for pseudo-security. As H.L. Mencken observed:
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Military Seeking Ways to Skip Sleep

The U.S. military is funding efforts to help soldiers stay awake and alert for up to seven days.
For reasons that scientists don't yet understand, sleep is critical for normal functioning of the human brain. If we skimp on it, we start making mistakes — from putting cereal in the refrigerator to falling asleep at the wheel.
Lack of sleep has been blamed for a number of infamous mishaps from the Chernobyl meltdown to the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
It's a problem that the military takes a keen interest in, since whether or not troops get their zzz's can determine the outcome of a battle. By devising superhuman ways of staying awake for up to seven straight days and nights, military officials hope to lend U.S. soldiers a strategic edge in future conflicts.

Technically Legal Signs for Use in US Libraries

The Patriot Act makes it illegal for librarians to tell users if computers are being monitored by Federal agents. These signs provide some kind of loophole :)

Homeland Security Roots in Council of Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations was the original source of the [Homeland] concept/plan back in 1998, via its United States Commission on National Security headed by members Warren Rudman and Gary Hart. (In fact 9 of the 12 commissioners were CFR members, including its president Leslie Gelb and senior vice-president Charles Boyd.
Part of the Homeland plan is the eventual merging of the CIA and the FBI into one mega agency. Throw in NSA and DIA and you'll have a scene out of any number of sci-fi movies. In real life.
I know, there would be much, much opposition to this grand merger, but time (and staged provocations) does strange things.

BIN DUPED

Debunking the bin Laden tape: voice detective wonders why U.S. called it genuine

MARTIGNY, Switzerland?In this sleepy hamlet at the foot of the snow-capped Alps, the mysterious fate of the world's most wanted man takes the form of coloured patterns and frequency signals generated by an ominous drone.
"You will be killed just as you kill," threatens the voice, purportedly that of Osama bin Laden, specifically naming Canada and other Western countries as targets.
The sound lights up a computer screen with clusters of vertical lines and patches of blues and greens, making a "voice print" that is matched against others confirmed to be the Al Qaeda leader's.

"The more I work on this, the more I'm confident that it's not him," says Herv? Bourlard, director of the Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence, one of the world's leading voice-recognition institutes.

Sweden Offers Free-speech Refuge To U.S. Officials Blaine Williams hasn't stopped grinning since he arrived in Sweden two weeks ago. Several times a day he'll approach a complete stranger, offer a handshake and a smile, introduce himself as a former CIA analyst from America, and proceed to tell the bewildered Swede all the things he knows that directly contradict President George W. Bush's declarations about Saddam Hussein's intentions and capabilities.
"Free at last!" Williams exclaimed to a reporter as he sat on his front porch and waved to new neighbors. "I was stuck in a totalitarian bureaucracy for 14 months. What a relief it is to say in public who I am and what I think."

Israel Threatens to Bomb Lebanon Back to Stone Age

Israel's Defense Minister has threatened from Washington to wipe out Hizbullah's missile arsenal "once and for all," charging that Syria has supplied the Party of God with long-range missiles capable of hitting all cities in the Jewish state.
The threat by Shaul Mofaz came with a chilling report from London that Israel was planning a major offensive in which Beirut's power plants would be devastated and Lebanon bombed back to the Stone Age.

NASA plans to read terrorist's minds at airports

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have told Northwest Airlines security specialists that the agency is developing brain-monitoring devices in cooperation with a commercial firm, which it did not identify.
Space technology would be adapted to receive and analyze brain-wave and heartbeat patterns, then feed that data into computerized programs "to detect passengers who potentially might pose a threat," according to briefing documents obtained by The Washington Times.

Troops prepare for March Iraq attack

Australian report says Bush expected to OK 60-day countdown in January.
Senior Australian defense commanders have been briefed to prepare for a war against Iraq in March, according to a report in tomorrow's Sydney Daily Telegraph.
Officers told the paper they expected President Bush to give the green light early next month to begin the final 60-day preparations for the March campaign.

Former governor to head September 11 inquiry

President George W. Bush on Monday named a respected Republican moderate to head a commission of inquiry into the September 11 attacks, moving quickly to try to erase any embarrassment following the resignation of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
The White House announced on Monday that Thomas Kean, the former governor of New Jersey, would replace Mr Kissinger, who resigned on Friday amid controversy over whether he would be forced to disclose his consulting clients to avoid conflicts of interest.

Concept of race a social invention, research shows

There is fresh evidence that, ethnically speaking, you really can't judge a book by its cover: A new study has found that skin colour is a poor indication of ancestry.
Men and women who look like black Africans can carry genetic traits similar to those of white Europeans, according to a multipronged study carried out on Brazilian populations. Some of the lighter-skinned Brazilians showed more genetic evidence of African heritage than their darker-skinned counterparts.
The research, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds to the growing body of science that says race is merely a social invention and, biologically, does not exist.

Earth Simulator spawns high-tech race

"The U.S. has lost the lead in climate science research," it said in a June report. "Since computational science contributes to DOE's energy and national security missions, the implications will be widespread and potentially grave."
For now, the Earth Simulator is being used to track global sea temperatures, rainfall and crustal movement to predict natural disasters over the next few centuries.

Bush and the Saudi princess


How did Omar al Bayoumi, the penultimate recipient of the royal largesse, get to hook up with the two terrorists anyway? Well, there's another amazing coincidence. Omar happened to be at the airport in Los Angeles, heard a couple of fellows speaking Arabic, struck up a conversation with them and waddayaknow, one thing led to another, they seemed like decent coves and so, even though he'd never met 'em before, before you know it he's throwing 'em a big welcome party in San Diego and paying up the first couple of months' rent for them on the apartment next door to his. How was he to know Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhamzi had just jetted in from an al-Qa'eda training camp and would go on to hijack Flight 77 and plough it into the Pentagon' Just one of those things, coulda happened to any guy who wanders round airport concourses looking for perfect strangers to cover the accommodation expenses of.