...makes you feel humble and alive

December 31, 2005 by element115
Earth as Seen from Mars
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Windows lets Web images take over your computer

by element115
A vulnerability has been discovered in Microsoft Windows that allows hackers to remotely access PCs and install malware through an imaging-handling technology in the operating system.

"It's particularly nasty because the browser automatically loads images when users visit a Web site. There is no built-in protection," he said.
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Never! Never! Never!

by element115
Dear sir(I know you prefer to be called Mr President - but I must remind you - you work for me and the American people )...
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KGB's secret UFO files finally made public

by element115
Files comprising the famous Blue Folder have been declassified a while ago.
The folder contains numerous descriptions of UFO flights and reports on some (mostly failed) attempts taken by the military in order to catch the aliens.
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Mass Mind Control Through Network Television

by element115
Are Your Thoughts Your Own?
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Pupils Being Given 'Patriotism' Tests in Washington State Schools

by element115
Children in Washington State are being given 'Patriotism tests' which are completely unrelated to their studies. The paper gauges whether or not the student shows fealty to the power of the state and whether the student believes in the right to overthrow a corrupt government.
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Leahy wants to know about Pentagon spying on protests

by element115
"I want to know the extent of it. I want to know under what conceivable, conceivable legal justification they are doing it," Leahy told Vermont Public Radio.

"People don't want to have their names on files somewhere as doing something which the government doesn't approve of. People are very concerned about that."
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FBI Hides Pentagon Videos

by element115
...and 9/11 Truth
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Egypt under fire as Sudanese refugee death toll rises

by element115
As many as seven children were reported to be among the dead after the Egyptian police stormed a Cairo square where as many as 2,000 Sudanese refugees had been camped out for three months to bring attention to their cause.
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Bush resolves to stay on the offensive in Iraq in 2006

by element115
"The United States has a vital interest in the success of a free Iraq, so in the year ahead, we will continue to pursue the comprehensive strategy for victory," Bush said Saturday in his last weekly radio address of the year, from his Texas ranch.
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Israel boosts security as militant truce set to expire

by element115
A Palestinian militant group has warned Saturday it would no longer be bound by a truce set to expire at midnight as Israel went on nationwide alert for possible New Year attacks.
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White House will continue to track Net

by element115
The White House said Friday its Web site will keep using Internet tracking technologies, deciding that they aren't prohibited after all under 2003 federal privacy guidelines.
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'United States planning a military strike against Iran'

by element115
Jerusalem Post ---> The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.
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The US and Iran

by element115
SPIEGEL ---> Is Washington Planning a Military Strike?
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The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail

by element115
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
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German Family Freed in Yemen

by element115
Yemeni kidnappers released a former German diplomat and his four family members Saturday, the diplomat's wife told The Associated Press. "We are safe, thank God," Magda Chrobog told the AP reporter as she flew to the southern port of Aden from eastern Yemen with her husband, Juergen, and their three children.
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Bolivian president-elect visits Cuba

December 30, 2005 by element115
Morales, of the Movement to Socialism (MAS), showed with his one-day visit in Cuba that his government will strengthen ties with the Caribbean country, said political analysts.

During a meeting between Castro and Morales, the two talked about Latin America's integration within the so-called Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), proposed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Cuba and Venezuela signed ALBA.
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Historian claims Stalin was poisoned

by element115
A Russian historian says the Kremlin archives holds documents that show Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was poisoned.
The report this week on Pravda cited doctors' journals as saying that on March 5 results of blood and urine tests on Stalin indicated poisoning but the doctors feared telling Beria because he may think they poisoned the leader, Pravda said.
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Three British hostages freed in Gaza

by element115
A 25-year-old British human rights worker and her parents were freed in the Gaza Strip on Friday by the Palestinian gunmen who kidnapped them two days earlier.
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Six killed in Indonesian blast

by element115
A blast that was probably a bomb rocked a crowded market in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi today, with a local television station reporting that six people were killed.
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Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on leave

by element115
The program, coordinated through a Pentagon operation dubbed ?Operation Homefront,? ordered military personnel to give interviews to their hometown newspapers, television stations and other media outlets and praise the American war effort in Iraq.

Initial reports back to the Pentagon deem the operation a success with dozens of front page stories in daily and weekly newspapers around the country along with upbeat reports on local television stations.
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Casualties of a War a World Away

by element115
Elaina Morton is not listed as one of the 2,000 Americans now confirmed killed in Iraq since the start of the war, but she might as well be. In US military parlance the 23-year-old lab technician from Kansas would have been referred to as a "surviving spouse". But three months after her husband, Staff Sergeant Benjamin Morton, was killed by insurgents in Mosul, Elaina picked up a gun and shot herself.
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Let's Stop a US/Israeli War on Iran

by element115
Bill and Kathleen Christison(Former CIA analysts) ---> It's More Important Than Halting Nuclear Proliferation...
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War without end

by element115
Robert Fisk ---> Only justice, not bombs, can make our dangerous world a safer place...
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Impeach Bush now

by element115
...less than forty-eight hours after John Kerry?s concession speech, thoughts of a scandal-ridden Bush being driven out of office began to surface.
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'Devilish' Jeans a Hot Seller in Sweden

by element115
"It is an active statement against Christianity," Bjorn Atldax told The Associated Press. "I'm not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion."

Atldax insists he has a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, which he called a "force of evil" that had sparked wars throughout history.
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Raiding the Icebox

by element115
Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada.
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Another secret program

by element115
The broad-based effort, known within the agency by the initials GST, is compartmentalized into dozens of highly classified individual programs, details of which are known mainly to those directly involved.

GST includes programs allowing the CIA to capture al Qaeda suspects with help from foreign intelligence services, to maintain secret prisons abroad, to use interrogation techniques that some lawyers say violate international treaties, and to maintain a fleet of aircraft to move detainees around the globe. Other compartments within GST give the CIA enhanced ability to mine international financial records and eavesdrop on suspects anywhere in the world.
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Guess Who?

by element115
Guess who has been put in charge of the Iraqi Oil Ministry, only days after he was soundly trounced in the latest round of Iraqi elections?
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Justice Dept. Probing Domestic Spying Leak

by element115
The Justice Department has opened another investigation into leaks of classified information, this time to determine who divulged the existence of
President Bush's secret domestic spying program.
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Journalists Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them

by element115
When the New York Times front page broke the story of the National Security Agency's domestic spying, the newspaper's editors had good reason to feel proud. Or so it seemed. But there was a troubling backstory: The Times had kept the scoop under wraps for a long time.
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These Documents need publishing

by element115
Calling All Bloggers --->
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More Guantanamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike

by element115
The number of detainees on hunger strike at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay more than doubled in the last week to 84, an official said Thursday.
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German media: U.S. prepares Iran strike

by element115
The Bush administration is preparing its NATO allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran in the New Year, according to German media reports, reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish media.
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Israel Airlines to install anti-missile systems on six passenger jets

by element115
Installation of the $1 million Flight Guard systems - meant to obstruct a ground-to-air missile fired at an airplane - will begin in the coming days, said Yitzhak Raz, the project's director at the Transportation Ministry.
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Scientists recruit wasps for war on terror

December 29, 2005 by element115
Scientists at a Georgia laboratory have developed what could be a low-tech, low-cost weapon in the war on terrorism: trained wasps.
The tiny, non-stinging wasps can check for hidden explosives at airports and monitor for toxins in subway tunnels.

"You can rear them by the thousands, and you can train them within a matter of minutes"
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22% Americans Still Believe Saddam helped plan 9/11

by element115
26% believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. Another 24% believe several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis...
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2005: The year the US government undermined the internet

by element115
...greater state-controlled censorship on the internet, reduce people's ability to use the internet to communicate freely, and leave expansion of the internet in the hands of the people least capable of doing the job.
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80% of private firms in China violate employee rights

by element115
The lack of contracts leaves workers in a legal limbo: they cannot seek termination benefits should they be asked to leave; they have no right to medical treatment even in case of a workplace accident; and employers do not contribute their share to the pension fund.
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China announces third human bird flu death, seventh case

by element115
The victim was a 41-year-old factory worker surnamed Zhou in Sanming city in the eastern province of Fujian, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the ministry of health. She was hospitalized on December 8 after showing symptoms of fever and pneumonia and died on December 21.
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Homeland Security poorly managed: audit

by element115
In a report issued on Wednesday, the inspector general outlined a series of problems with the agency that was created in early 2003 in the largest reorganization of the federal government in 50 years.
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Secret Societies, What's Their Purpose? Are They At Core of New World Order?

by element115
...the mystery deserves closer scrutiny.
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What everyone should know about Jose Padilla

by element115
The constitution is the last flimsy obstacle between Bush and absolute power.
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More Media Decline in 2005

by element115
We are all under attack?some from bombs, others from bullet points. The media system has become a battlefield of competing values and often the absence of any values.
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The Top 10 Bitterest Ironies of 2005

by element115
How bitterly ironic is...
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Huge new oil discovery in Brazil

by element115
Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras estimates it contains at least 700 million barrels of crude - about 10% of Brazil's current reserves.
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The Finest Senate That Money Can Buy

by element115
Israel is not the 51st state of the United States of America, as some would like to think; rather, the US Congress is one of the occupied areas of Israel.
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150+

by element115
9/11 'Smoking Guns' Found in the Mainstream Media
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Are You Being Tracked?

by element115
How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID...
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Shock, awe and Hobbes have backfired on America's neocons

by element115
The US needs to discover, like a child that does not know its limits, that there is a world outside its body and desires, beyond even the reach of its toys, that suffers too.
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Best UFO Photographs of 2005

by element115
Casebook Files
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West Bank suicide blast kills three

by element115
The bomber was travelling in a minibus taxi and blew himself up when he was ordered out at a temporary checkpoint near the northern town of Tulkarm.
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Texas court dismisses child-rape conspiracy lawsuit against Pope

December 28, 2005 by element115
Ratzinger ordered a cover-up. Exactly as this lawsuit complains.

But at the Bush administration's request, Ratzinger has been let off the hook.

The Bush administration operates as if it's above the law, and they asked the court to view the Pope the same way, as above the law, unpunishable even for crimes committed before he was Pope. He gets "head-of-state immunity," even though he wasn't head of the church-state when he ordered the cover-up.

---> Judge Dismisses Pope From Sex-Abuse Suit
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Israel bombards Gaza 'no-go zone'

by element115
Israel has shelled a newly declared buffer zone in northern Gaza, soon after warning Palestinians they could be shot if they entered it.
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NSA Web Site Puts 'Cookies' on Computers

by element115
The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity.

Until Tuesday, the NSA site created two cookie files that do not expire until 2035 - likely beyond the life of any computer in use today.
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Austria furor over sex posters with Bush, Chirac, Queen

by element115
Spoof posters depicting Britain's Queen Elizabeth having sex with the U.S. and French presidents and displayed across Vienna are causing embarrassment just days ahead of Austria's taking over the EU presidency.

The images showed two naked female models wearing masks of President George W. Bush and the queen, and a male model with a President Jacques Chirac mask, positioned as if they were having sex.
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Iran ready to study Russia nuclear proposal

by element115
Iran is ready to study a Russian proposal for the Islamic republic to enrich uranium on Russian soil, a top national security official said.
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Terror suspect challenges US president's 'unchecked' power

by element115
Lawyers for an American 'war on terror' detainee said they had petitioned the Supreme Court to examine the US president's powers, citing "the danger of an unchecked Executive Branch".
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A shocking contempt for the law

by element115
Although he likes to talk about the God-given blessings of liberty, President Bush should be judged by his actions, not his words - and his actions show a man who has violated the civil liberties of Americans and must be checked. The shocking revelation that Bush has personally ordered secret wiretaps for years without court approval are part of a White House policy of placing the President above the law.
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Beginning of the end

by element115
2005 will likely go down in history as the beginning of the end of the Bush presidency.
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Police-State Powers Are Our Biggest Threat

by element115
The Pentagon has a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Services Act (FISA). The courtroom is in a windowless room on the top floor of the Department of Justice. There are seven rotating judges. The court meets in secret, with no published opinions or public records. No one, except the FISA judge involved and the Department of Justice, knows what is done. No one, except the government and the FISA judge, knows at whom the warrants are aimed. There is no review by anyone. Over 12,000 search warrants permitting eavesdropping, surveillance and break-ins have been sought by the government.
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Unbelievable

by element115
Natinal Security Agency - public opinion polling:

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans believe the NSA should be allowed to listen...
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German politician kidnapped in Yemen

by element115
The former German deputy foreign minister and his family have been kidnapped while on a touring holiday in Yemen.
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Executive Uber Alles

by element115
At stake in the so-called war on terror is no longer just treatment of detainees, but the freedom of Americans.
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Big Brother is watching

by element115
It took 21 years longer than expected, but the future has finally arrived.
And we don't like it. Not one bit.

We are fighting a war with no end to create a peace with no defined victory.
We occupy a foreign land that doesn't want us, while at home our civil liberties are discounted.
We are told that it's better not to know what our government is doing in our name, for security purposes. Meanwhile, our government is becoming omnipresent, spying on us whenever it deems it necessary.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

George Orwell was right after all.
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Pentagon Stalls on Banning Contractors from Using Forced Labor

by element115
A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away.
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Neo-Fascism and Paleo-Tyranny

by element115
Bush et al. may now try to use far more secret police powers to intimidate people or to openly seize far more power, presumably under the pretense that it is necessary and legitimized by the state of national emergency that never ends.
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Saddam Half Brother Says No Deal With U.S.

by element115
...the former Iraqi president's half brother claims U.S. officials offered him a ranking government position in Iraq if he testified against Saddam but he rejected a deal.
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UK: Cross-party support for war probe

by element115
More than 100 MPs from across the Commons have backed a call for an inquiry by senior MPs into the handling of the Iraq war and its aftermath.
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Telling it like it isn't

by element115
Robert Fisk ---> "I used to call the Israeli Likud Party 'right wing,' " he said. "But recently, my editors have been telling me not to use the phrase. A lot of our readers objected." And so now, I asked? "We just don't call it 'right wing' anymore."

Colin Powell, in 2001, instructed U.S. embassies in the Middle East to refer to the West Bank as "disputed" rather than "occupied" territory.
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There s a system for turning Palestinian property into Israel's state land

by element115
Haaretz ---> Ehud Barak likes to compare the State of Israel to a villa in a jungle. It would be interesting to know whether he means that the areas of the settlements in the territories are a legal veranda of the villa or part of the jungle.
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Israeli Aircrafts Drop Flyers on Gaza Strip

by element115
The leaflets called on citizens to leave the area where the former colonies of Nissanit, Elei Sinai and Dugit today lie in ruins, warning that anyone spotted in the area after 6 P.M. Wednesday will be fired upon.
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Beslan massacre 'could have been prevented'

by element115
The Beslan school massacre which left hundreds dead, including 186 children, could have been averted if government warnings had been heeded, Russian politicians were told today.
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The I-Word is Gaining Ground

by element115
As Editor & Publisher recently reported, the idea of impeaching Bush has entered the mainstream media's circulatory system--with each day producing more op-eds and articles on the subject.
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Canada blames U.S. for gun violence

by element115
"...the lack of gun laws in the U.S. is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto," Miller said.
"The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto," he said.
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Israeli warplanes hit militant base in Lebanon

by element115
Israel carried out an airstrike in Lebanon early Wednesday in retaliation after militants fired rockets into a northern Israeli town, an army spokesperson said.
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Soldiers Selected to be Action Figures

by element115
Army Hopes Characters From Online Computer Game Will Inspire Young People to Enlist...
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The pill that prevents cancer

by element115
A daily dose of vitamin D could cut the risk of cancers of the breast, colon and ovary by up to a half, a 40-year review of research has found. The evidence for the protective effect of the "sunshine vitamin" is so overwhelming that urgent action must be taken by public health authorities to boost blood levels, say cancer specialists.
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Scientists Discover a Gene That Regulates Lifespan

December 27, 2005 by element115
Genes that control the timing of organ formation during development also control timing of aging and death, and provide evidence of a biological timing mechanism for aging, Yale researchers report in the journal Science.

A microRNA and the developmental-timing gene it controls, lin-4 and lin-14, affect patterns of cellular development at very specific stages. Slack's group found that mutations in these genes alter both the timing of the development stages - and the lifespan.
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Israel warns of Iran's nuclear ambitions

by element115
Israeli overseas intelligence service Mossad chief Meir Dagan said on Tuesday that Iran is seeking more than one nuclear bomb and it will attain technological independence within a number of months.
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Letter to Cheney

by element115
UPI ---> The 9/11 Commission has clearly shown there was an abundance of warnings, of information, of human intelligence and briefings channeled up and down the chain of command. Newly released CIA documents show the same, never mind Richard Clarke's research, widely accepted in the field. What was absent was the prudence from above, from the president on down, through to yourself, Mr. Vice President. Briefings were presented to you and the President, you simply did not respond to them.
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Teachers told to move on from Hitler years

by element115
History classes focus too much on Nazi Germany...
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Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them

by element115
U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.
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Italy Conducts Monitoring Ahead of Games

by element115
Fearing possible terrorism at the Turin Olympics, Italian authorities are conducting surveillance on "numerous" people through telephone wiretaps and other intelligence operations, an Italian security official said Tuesday. Luigi Rinella, the Italian police's liaison with the U.S. government, said those under surveillance included suspected Islamic militants, but he stressed that anti-globalization protesters and anarchists could also make trouble during the Feb. 10-26 Games.
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Rice authorized National Security Agency to spy on UN Security Council in run-up to war

by element115
President Bush and other top officials in his administration used the National Security Agency to secretly wiretap the home and office telephones and monitor private email accounts of members of the United Nations Security Council in early 2003 to determine how foreign delegates would vote on a U.N. resolution that paved the way for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, NSA documents show.
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Unwarranted Complaints

by element115
The NewYorkTimes --->The president has the constitutional authority to acquire foreign intelligence without a warrant or any other type of judicial blessing.

...this surveillance program is fully within the president's legal authority

...to identify and prevent armed attacks on American interests at home and abroad.

...the only thing outrageous about this policy is the outrage itself.


David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey are lawyers who served in the Justice Department in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Technology and the Pursuit of Happiness

by element115
Some bioethicists feel that ESB technology should be made available to everyone, protected by the "pursuit of happiness" clause in the Declaration of Independence. Are there dangers in having euphoria just a click away, all the time? Would it be bad thing to have intense orgasmic pleasure at the push of a button?
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Disinformation Operations

by element115
Flaws in The Washington Post's article on Information Operations...

There are three problems with this article which require a response: the use iof incorrect facts which could have been easily checked; the portrayal of my embed as an information operation; and equating U.S. military information operations with al-Qaeda propaganda efforts.
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Kuwait sentences al Qaeda-linked militants to death

by element115
A Kuwaiti court on Tuesday sentenced to death six suspected militants linked to al Qaeda for bloody attacks in the country.
Other suspects received jail terms of between four months to 15 years, and one received a life term.

A Reuters reporter who was at the court said none of the defendants were present when the verdict was announced.

"...it was never proven that they took up arms to fight against anyone."
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Blasts rock Israeli town

by element115
Three projectiles landed in the town of Kiryat Shemona, near the Lebanese border, causing some damage, the army said. It was not clear whether the explosions were caused by rockets or mortar fire.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Both Hezbollah guerrillas and Palestinian militants operate in nearby southern Lebanon.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Putin Adviser Illarionov Quits, Says Russia Not Free

by element115
Andrei Illarionov, an economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin who railed against the state's dismantling of OAO Yukos Oil Co., resigned, saying Russia is "no longer free."

"...there is no longer room to follow a policy of economic freedom."
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Abbas urges Palestinian militants to follow truce

by element115
President Mahmoud Abbas urged Palestinian factions to halt rocket fire and renew a truce that expires at year's end and Israel struck the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to try to stop the rockets.

But militant leaders who met Abbas in Gaza blamed Israel for the violence and said there was little chance that they would continue their commitment to the informal cease-fire into the new year.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israel launches Gaza air strikes

by element115
The Israeli Air Force launched missiles at sites and buildings in northern Gaza, which they said were used to plan and execute the Qassam rocket attacks that have continued to hit Israel this week.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Bush's envoy sparks another diplomatic incident over war claims

by element115
The US ambassador in London has been forced into an embarrassing retreat after his embassy clarified comments he made denying that the United States was involved in removing terrorist suspects to Syria.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Pope warns against tech advances

by element115
"Today we can marshal vast material resources," he said, addressing thousands of people in a rainy St. Peter's Square. "But the men and women in our technological age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart.

"The modern age is often seen as an awakening of reason from its slumbers, humanity's enlightenment after an age of darkness," he said. "Yet without the light of Christ, the light of reason is not sufficient to enlighten humanity and the world."
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Poland to keep troops in Iraq

by element115
Poland's government will keep its troops in Iraq until the end of next year, longer than earlier planned, reaffirming its backing for the United States despite growing opposition at home.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

CIA Probes Renditions of Terror Suspects

by element115
The
CIA's independent watchdog is investigating fewer than 10 cases where terror suspects may have been mistakenly swept away to foreign countries by the spy agency, a figure lower than published reports but enough to raise some concerns.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Assad reasserts Syria's innocence in Hariri murder case

by element115
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reasserted on Tuesday that his country was innocent in the killing of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik Hariri and urged a UN probe to be objective and away from political pressures, reported the official SANA news agency.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

'Democracy,' Iraqi-Style

December 26, 2005 by element115
Justin Raimondo ---> It isn't pretty
Posted in | 1 Comment »

Israeli Mossad behind Hariri Assassination, Jordanian Expert stresses

by element115
Dean of the Law Faculty at the Jordanian University Mohammad Hammouri said that Israel and its intelligence apparatus Mossad are behind the assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafik Hariri.

He strongly criticized the work of the international investigation committee into the assassination of Hariri, citing the false witnesses and facts the report was based on.
Posted in | 1 Comment »

A review of Professor Finklestein's book "Beyond Chutzpah"

by element115
A review of Professor Norman Finklestein's important new book exposing Israeli crimes against the Palestinians and prominent Israeli supporters who approve of them.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israel expands West Bank settlements

by element115
The latest settlement construction was revealed in newspaper advertisements published on Monday seeking bids from building contractors, and would violate Israel's commitments under the US-backed road map peace plan.
The road map calls for a freeze on all settlement construction in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as part of a future independent state. Since accepting the plan in June 2003, Israel has continued to expand settlements.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Russia to donate military equipment to Palestine

by element115
Russia is expected to donate 50 armored personnel carriers (APCs) and two Mi-17 transport helicopters to Palestine, a source close to the negotiations said Monday.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Bush Hoping to Win More Battles in 2006

by element115
"It's been the least successful year of his presidency," said Georgetown University political scientist Stephen Wayne.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

The Face and Voice of Civilian Sacrifice in Iraq

by element115
"We once lived in a good place, but that was before the war."
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Agriculture for the 21st century

by element115
The Vertical Farm Project
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Palestinian Poll: attacks on Israel legitimate

by element115
Increased feeling of security in Gaza but actions against Israel still seen as legitimate as long as occupation prevails.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

In French suburbs, rage 'is only asleep'

by element115
Social workers and nongovernmental organizations working in the suburbs say they are managing the calm from one day to the next. The police are on high alert ahead of what promises to be a tense New Year's Eve in France, where even in normal years hundreds of cars are torched.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Cardinals issue marriage warning

by element115
A number of Catholic cardinals have warned Italian women against mixed marriages with the rising number of Muslims in the country.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Saudi Arabia: Court Orders Eye to Be Gouged Out

by element115
"This literal eye-for-an-eye sentence is torture masquerading as justice," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division. "King Abdullah must prevent the imposition of corporal punishment in violation of the country's obligations under international law."
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israel, Arab World Engage in Hidden Trade

by element115
The hidden trade is worth about $400 million a year.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Christmas Gift

by element115
$600 million in aid to Israel from US.
$133 million will be used to develop the Arrow missile program.
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Emblem of Apartheid Resurfaces in Iraq

by element115
Black South Africans gave them a slang term, recalls Les Switzer, naming them the "Saracens". And when they were called in to break up a protest, he also remembers the terror they brought.

"The mere presence of a Saracen struck fear in the people," said Switzer, a long-time journalism professor at the University of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. "(They) were like an evil presence wandering through the township."
During uprisings, he says, the vehicles would be driven directly into rioting crowds. Armed soldiers would then pop out of a top hatch and fire into their countrymen.
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'No mistakes', Beslan report says

by element115
Russian prosecutors investigating last year's Beslan school siege say the authorities made no mistakes during the crisis in North Ossetia.

Relatives of more than 330 people who died in the siege accuse the security services of incompetence.
They say the police who stormed the school should shoulder the blame for as many deaths as the hostage-takers.
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Iraqis want US out as soon as possible

by element115
The top US military commander admitted Sunday that Iraqis wanted US and other foreign troops to leave the country "as soon as possible," and said US troop levels in Iraq were now being re-assessed on a monthly basis.
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Google Agrees to Limit Resolution of Israel Satellite Photos

by element115
Google, which offers satellite photos of locations across the globe, has agreed to limit the resolution of footage of sensitive military installations and vulnerable sites in Israel.
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Bush Drunk

by element115
video
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And You Think America Is Repressive?

by element115
Spying on e-mail and cell phone traffic without a warrant. Searching offices and residences without a court order. Locking citizens away for weeks or months without filing charges.
Sound like your worst nightmare about the supposedly lawless Bush administration? Perhaps. But I refer to restrictions on civil liberties that are taking place not in the United States but, in the order in which I cited them, Canada, France and Great Britain.
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Powell Supports Government Eavesdropping

by element115
Appearing on ABC's "This Week" Powell said he sees "absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorizing these kinds of actions" to protect the nation.
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Sharon to undergo minor heart surgery

by element115
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will undergo routine surgery to repair a tiny hole in his heart, a birth defect that was discovered after he suffered a mild stroke last week, doctors said Monday.
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Gas Attack at Russia Store Sickens Dozens

by element115
Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the scene of the attack and three other stores in the same chain in Russia's second-largest city.
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...2000 years?

December 25, 2005 by element115

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Be peacemakers, Pope says on his first Christmas

by element115
... urged the world's Catholics to be beacons of peace in a troubled world.
"Where there is love, light shines forth in the world; where there is hatred, the world remains in darkness," he said in his homily before the congregation in a packed basilica.

well, Catholics...Mr.President...anyone...do we listen?
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Bush Presses Editors on Security

by element115
President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.
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The Agency That Could Be Big Brother

by element115
Today, with people expressing their innermost thoughts in e-mail messages, exposing their medical and financial records to the Internet, and chatting constantly on cellphones, the agency virtually has the ability to get inside a person's mind.
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Freedom of speech redefined by blogs

by element115
There are almost 24 million blogs, nearly double the number from five months ago, with 70,000 new blogs created daily.
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Poland supresses CIA prisons report

by element115
The Polish Government has decided not to make public the results of an inquiry into the possible existence of United States CIA prisons on Polish soil.
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Domestic Spying & Incident of Intimidation of Military Families

by element115
Moms writing back and forth to "sons and daughters" in Iraq, who might "slip" and tell "mom" what life is really like in Iraq; Can't have that now, can we? What if the "moms" start telling others what their sons and daughters are telling them (at least the ones that are still able to access a computer). Can't have that people might turn against the war on Iraq. I guess we better threaten and intimidate the moms so they'll keep their mouths shut, stay off the internet and just go home and be a mom.
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Is the US State Department still keeping April Glaspie under wraps?

by element115
It is now more than fifteen years since that fateful meeting on July 25, 1990 between then-US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie and President Saddam Hussein that the Iraqi leader interpreted as a green light from Washington for his invasion of Kuwait eight days later.
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Israel's War Deadline

by element115
...if international diplomatic negotiations fail to comply with Israel's timetable, Israel will unilaterally, militarily attack Iran.
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New battery puts power plant in your pocket

by element115
Fuel cells are being called the energy sources of the 21st century.

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba launched two MP3 players in October that run on DMFC fuel cells, using methanol as fuel. The larger of the two devices has a hard drive and an edge length of more than 12 centimetres. The fuel cell has a ten-millilitre tank offering an active life of up to 60 hours, Toshiba reports.

The smaller device is no larger than a pack of gum, offers Flash storage, and holds 3.5 millilitres of fuel - good for 35 hours of musical enjoyment.
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E-tracking, coming to a DMV near you

by element115
The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go.
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...and Peace on Earth

December 24, 2005 by element115

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U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians

by element115
Just how many civilians have been killed is strongly disputed by the Marines and, some critics say, too little investigated. But townspeople, tribal leaders, medical workers and accounts from witnesses at the sites of clashes, at hospitals and at graveyards indicated that scores of noncombatants were killed last month in fighting, including airstrikes, in the opening stages of a 17-day U.S.-Iraqi offensive in Anbar province.
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CIA Tells Turks to Prepare for Iran Attack

by element115
You'd think the fact Porter Goss, head broom sweeper at the CIA, recently told the Turkish government the United States plans to attack Iran and Syria would be headline splashing news in the New York Times and the Washington Post. But although the news was carried in the Turkish press, it elicited hardly a murmur here in America, with the exception of United Press International and Reuters.
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Bethlehem a 'prison', says patriarch

by element115
Israel's most senior Roman Catholic leader has said Bethlehem has become an "immense prison" since the erection of the West Bank barrier.
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BUSH: I AM THE LAW!

by element115
Nixon said the same thing about secret bombings and burglaries.

He has, in fact, become a Nixonian figure, alone in the White House talking to the same people day after day, and fewer and fewer of them. He does not like to talk to members of Congress because he might let slip what he is actually doing in Iraq or listening in on phone calls. He likes to appoint judges, but he does not want to listen to them because they might make him stop doing things he wants to do.

What, then, is the purpose of having judges forbidden to judge?
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Buckley Air Force Base may be ears for Bush spying

by element115
Unofficially, it has been widely reported to be a vital arm of the National Security Agency, the department carrying out the president's controversial order.

...with its white "golf ball" domes, gathers communications intercepted by satellites, including calls on cell phones, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.Org, a Virginia-based intelligence research firm.
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What Are We Waiting For? Christmas?

by element115
Bush Should Be Impeached NOW
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Korean stem cell pioneer walks plank

by element115
Korean stem cell pioneer Hwang Woo-suk quit today amid concerns that he may have "intentionally fabricated" results in a 2005 paper on producing tailored embryonic stem cells.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Arab League blasts Israel for banning Palestinian vote

by element115
The statement also said that the pan-Arab organization is following with concern the non-stop Israeli measures toward "erasing Jerusalem's Arab identity and surrounding it with illegal settlements."
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The Medium is the Massage

by element115
The Top Physics Stories for 2005
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Democratic Congressman Releases Potentially 'Lethal Document' That Could Lead To Bush Impeachment Next Year

by element115
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi) is tired of the Bush arrogance and flaunting of federal law concerning the Iraq War and other matters. Friday he released a document called "The Constitution in Crisis," seeking a Congrssional Resolution to again investigate Bush's possible impeachment.
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For Christmas, let's give ourselves a present: A new government

by element115
...our phony cowboy President is in Texas pretending, once again, to be something that he is not.
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Russia to honor Iran arms deal despite US objection

by element115
The official said delivery of the 30 Tor-M1 systems will begin in January and be completed by the end of next year.

The Tor-M1 system is capable of identifying up to 48 targets and tracing and firing at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 6,100 meters.
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Barron's Calls for Impeachment Hearings on Wiretapping

by element115
...the normally conservative-leaning financial weekly Barron's calls for an investigation....
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Student's tall tale revealed

by element115
Confesses fabricating US surveillance story.
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Alito Urged Wiretap Immunity

by element115
Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. once argued that the nation's top law enforcement official deserves blanket protection from lawsuits when acting in the name of national security, even when those actions involve the illegal wiretapping of American citizens, documents released yesterday show.
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Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report

by element115
The current and former government officials who discussed the program were granted anonymity because it remains classified.
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Stars turn backs on America's troops in Iraq

by element115
Just as the seemingly intractable nature of the war has led to a growing recruitment crisis, so the United Services Organisation, which has been putting on shows for the troops since the second world war, is struggling to get celebrities to sign up for even a short tour of duty.
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Bush: I'm a backdoor man!

by element115
...the scope of the Bush surveillance program is larger than Bush told us.
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Nuclear Monitoring of Muslims Done Without Search Warrants

December 23, 2005 by element115
In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities.
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Who is snooping on my email?

by element115
With all of the controversy about the news that the NSA has been monitoring, since 9/11, telephone calls and email messages of Americans, some folks might now be wondering if they are being snooped on. Here's a quick and easy method to see if one's email messages are being read by someone else.
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Mr. Cheney's Imperial Presidency

by element115
George W. Bush has quipped several times during his political career that it would be so much easier to govern in a dictatorship. Apparently he never told his vice president that this was a joke.

Virtually from the time he chose himself to be Mr. Bush's running mate in 2000, Dick Cheney has spearheaded an extraordinary expansion of the powers of the presidency - from writing energy policy behind closed doors with oil executives to abrogating longstanding treaties and using the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to invade Iraq, scrap the Geneva Conventions and spy on American citizens.
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Iraqis March, Say Elections Were Rigged

by element115
Large demonstrations broke out across the country Friday to denounce parliamentary elections that protesters say were rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite coalition.
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Congress Didn't OK Spying Authority

by element115
Daschle Says Congress Didn't Give Domestic Spying Authority to Bush After Sept. 11 Attacks.
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Congress Agrees To A One-Month Extension Of The Patriot Act

by element115
Eager to wrap up their work for the year and get home for the holidays, Congress finally agreed on a renewal of the USA Patriot Act late Thursday, but instead of the permanent extension sought by President Bush, legislators agreed only to extend the
wide-ranging anti-terrorism bill for another five weeks.
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Israel plans north Gaza security zone

by element115
The idea is not to create a security zone similar to the one it had in southern Lebanon for almost two decades, with troops and fortifications, but to enforce one with fire from the air, by artillery and possibly from the sea, defense ministry and military sources said Friday.
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Judge says he can't free Uighurs at Guantanamo

by element115
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that he does not have authority to order the release of two ethnic Uighur prisoners from China detained at Guantanamo Bay, even though the U.S. military declared they are no longer "enemy combatants."
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'Impeachment' Talk, Pro and Con, Appears in Media at Last

by element115
Suddenly this week, scattered outposts in the media have started mentioning the "I" word, or at least the "IO" phrase: impeach or impeachable offense.
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How We Got to This Awful Place

by element115
It's clear that Bush violated the law by ordering the National Security Agency to engage in warrantless domestic spying on U.S. citizens. So, once again, I have a question for those who, perhaps somewhat reluctantly, voted for George Bush: NOW do you get it?
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Where's the Outrage?

by element115
Bush's defense of his phone-spying program has disturbing echoes of arguments once used by South Africa?s apartheid regime. Why Americans should examine the parallels.
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Israeli secrecy a hurdle in US terror case: lawyer

by element115
A Palestinian immigrant facing charges he supported the Islamic militant group Hamas argues his defense is compromised by Israeli government secrecy about whether its interrogators employ torture, his lawyer said on Thursday.
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Wiretaps said to sift all overseas contacts

by element115
...2 million pieces of communications an hour.
"They have a capacity to listen to every overseas phone call," said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israel jails Jewish woman for meeting Palestinian militant

by element115
An Israeli woman was jailed for three years yesterday after pleading guilty to meeting one of the most wanted Palestinian militants and spending time in the West Bank town of Jenin.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S.

by element115
The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected.
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Observations Suggesting the Use of Small Hydrogen Bombs

by element115
Superheated steel objects, disintegrating into steel vapour. Molten ponds of steel were found in the elevator shafts. There were lots of burned cars in the parking areas of the towers. The fire department did not announce until 12/19/2001 that the fires under the WTC rubble have been distinguished (more than 3 months after the incident).
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Bush's impeachable offense

by element115
Yes, the president committed a federal crime by wiretapping Americans, say constitutional scholars, former intelligence officers and politicians. What's missing is the political will to impeach him.
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Italy warrants for 22 purported CIA operatives

by element115
A judge has issued European arrest warrants for 22 purported CIA operatives in connection with the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from a Milan street in 2003.
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Inside the Air Force's Laser Lab

December 22, 2005 by element115
The ScorpWorks is the Air Force Research Laboratory?s in-house development team for laser system prototypes. Although it has existed since 1992, they have shunned publicity until this year.
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Spying, the Constitution - and the 'I-word'

by element115
2006 will offer up Nixon-era nastiness and a chorus of calls to impeach Bush.
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Bush: "2005 - a good year for the American people"

by element115
It wasn't that good...you didn't end up in prison, dear Emperor!
We are confused, unhealthy, broke and scared.
...And maaaaaaaaaaaaany people left the earth.ver.2005 prematurely....Not good.
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Pain Ray Headed to Iraq?

by element115
It's been talked about for years. But the Pentagon's microwave-like pain ray may finally be headed to Iraq, Inside the Army reports.
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Police Infiltrate Protests

by element115
Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show.
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Surveillance UK: why this revolution is only the start

by element115
The new national surveillance network for tracking car journeys, which has taken more than 25 years to develop, is only the beginning of plans to monitor the movements of all British citizens. The Home Office Scientific Development Branch in Hertfordshire is already working on ways of automatically recognising human faces by computer, which many people would see as truly introducing the prospect of Orwellian street surveillance, where our every move is recorded and stored by machines.
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Blair Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

by element115
Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Polish counterpart paid their troops in Iraq surprise visits on Thursday to bring them holiday greetings.
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Saddam brands US liars as Rumsfeld arrives

by element115
A defiant Saddam Hussein branded American leaders liars at his trial on Thursday as one of the architects of his downfall, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, flew in to Baghdad for a surprise pre-Christmas visit.
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The Making of the Enemy [Part Two]

by element115
The Myth of the Superhuman Enemy
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Bill Would Allow Arrests For No Reason In Public Place

by element115
The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.
...it would also pave the way for everyone entering critical transportation sites such as, train stations, airports and bus stations to show ID.
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Intelligence abuse déjà vu

by element115
If the U.S. is to prevail, it must grow up. It must learn from its mistakes, and not repeat them. It must finally understand that our security cannot be ensured by sacrifice of our own liberties.
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Early Warning

by element115
What has happened since the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks is as pernicious and as damaging as any abuse or panic or misstep of the past: We must pledge allegiance to a certain post 9/11 Order, abandon the rule of law, compromise our values, turn against our neighbors, enlist in a clash of civilizations, all in the name of defeating the terrorists.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israelis kill 4 Palestinians

by element115
Israeli troops killed three militants in a West Bank gunbattle and another Palestinian in shelling to stop Gaza rocket fire on Thursday in escalating violence that could complicate upcoming elections on both sides.
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Reuters Year in Photos

by element115
...what a crazy planet
Posted in | 0 Comments »

France votes for legal P2P

by element115
France's lower house has voted to legalise peer-to-peer file-sharing.

The measure, introduced as two amendments to a government bill designed to toughen digital copyright protection, would deem that downloading copyrighted files is legal as long as it is only for private use, and the downloader pays a general fee for royalty payments.

Such a fee could be added on to the monthly subscription charge for broadband internet access at the cost of a few euros, supporters of the amendments said.
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Moments of truth

by element115
A new study finds that half of all Americans have had a spiritual experience that altered their lives.
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EU and Iran restart nuclear talks

by element115
The European Union and Iran restarted talks over Western concerns that Tehran seeks nuclear weapons and agreed to meet again in January but acknowledged that wide differences remained.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Ice Age Footprints Found in Australia

by element115
Hundreds of human footprints dating back to the last Ice Age have been found in the remote Australian Outback.
The prints were made in moist clay near the Willandra Lakes 19,000 to 23,000 years ago.
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From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored

by element115
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.
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Senate gives Patriot Act six more months

by element115
...the Emperor got his wish
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Coming Soon: Center for Citizen Media

by element115
...a thriving media and journalism ecosystem.
The goals are to study, encourage and help enable the emergent grassroots media sphere, with a major focus on citizen journalism.
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The American nightmare

by element115
Guardian ---> The Bush administration's defence of unauthorised phone taps shows a chilling disregard for the rule of law.
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Union heads could face jail over NY strike

by element115
The leaders of the union behind New York's crippling mass transit strike could face jail, a judge warned on Wednesday as commuters were forced to improvise for a second day to get to work.

The day after a court slapped $1 million a day in fines on the striking union, a judge ordered TWU Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint and other top officials to appear in court on Thursday, warning that jail was a "distinct possibility."
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The War on Christmas, the Prequel

December 21, 2005 by element115
When the holiday was banned.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

The Echelon Myth

by element115
Prominent right-wing bloggers - including Michelle Malkin, the Corner, Wizbang and Free Republic - are pushing the argument that President Bush's warrantless domestic spying program isn't news because the Clinton administration did the same thing.

That's flatly false.
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Military chaplains told to shy from Jesus

by element115
"I am a Navy chaplain being fired because I pray in Jesus' name," said Navy Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt.

The American Center for Law and Justice has gathered 173,000 signatures on a petition seeking an executive order.
Seventy-three members of Congress have joined the request, saying in an Oct. 25 letter to the president, "In all branches of the military, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christian chaplains to use the name of Jesus when praying."

Muslim, Jewish and Roman Catholic chaplains are likewise told not to pray in the name of Allah, in Hebrew or in the name of the Trinity.

...the "end" IS near
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Tests confirm Einstein's formula correct

by element115
Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will report in tomorrow's (Dec. 22) issue of the journal Nature that Albert Einstein's formula, E=mc2, is correct.
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Think Away the Pain

by element115
It's the first evidence that humans can take control of a specific region of the brain, and thereby decrease pain, said Stanford professor Sean Mackey, who co-wrote the paper, which was published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

..."neuroimaging therapy," could one day help some of the millions of Americans who suffer from untreatable chronic pain.
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The Dynamic of a Bush Scandal: How the Spying Story Will Unfold (and Fade)

by element115
...many Americans believe The U.S. Constitution is on life support - if not already dead.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

World's first human-made species

by element115
Robert Holt, head of sequencing for the Genome Science Centre at the University of British Columbia, is leading efforts at his Vancouver lab to play a key role in the production of the first synthetic life form -- a microbe made from scratch.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Israel to bar Palestinians from voting in East Jerusalem

by element115
Israel would not let Palestinians vote in Jerusalem because it objected to Hamas' participation in the race.

The Palestinian Authority will cancel Jan. 25 parliamentary elections if Israel goes ahead with its plan to bar Palestinians from voting in disputed Jerusalem.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

President Announces Abolition of Death Penalty in Mexico

by element115
President Vicente Fox Quesada announced the abolition of the death penalty in the Mexican legal system following the publication of the respective decree.
...it will be remembered in national history as the day when Mexico joined the countries in which respect for life is a fundamental right.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Public Data Show Chemicals in Tap Water

by element115
A survey by the Environmental Working Group released on Tuesday found 141 unregulated chemicals and an additional 119 for which the
Environmental Protection Agency has set health-based limits. Most common among the chemicals found were disinfection byproducts, nitrates, chloroform, barium, arsenic and copper.
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The Fog of False Choices

by element115
After five years, we're used to President Bush throwing up false choices to defend his policies. Americans were told, after all, that there was a choice between invading Iraq and risking a terrorist nuclear attack. So it was not a surprise that Mr. Bush's Oval Office speech Sunday night and his news conference yesterday were thick with Orwellian constructions...
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Legal Shield for Vaccine Makers Is Inserted Into Military Bill

by element115
Companies making vaccines to protect against biological agents or pandemic viruses would be shielded from lawsuits, even if they are negligent or reckless, under a provision inserted into a military spending bill.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Ground Frozen Since Ice Age Thaws and Collapses

by element115
Up to 90 percent of the permafrost at the surface of the Northern Hemisphere could melt by the end of this century, leaving gaping holes in the ground and collapsed structures, roads and railways in northern regions.

In what scientists predict to be a vicious cycle, the thaw will release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, further exacerbating global warming.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Bush Caught on Tape

by element115
"A Wiretap Requires A Court Order. Nothing Has Changed."
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Cheney Calls for Stronger Presidential Powers

by element115
Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called for "strong and robust" presidential powers, saying executive authority was eroded during the Watergate and Vietnam eras.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Censure motion introduced in House over Iraq, torture

by element115
Ranking House Judiciary Democrat Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced a motion to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney for providing misleading information to Congress in advance of the Iraq war, failing to respond to written questions and potential violations of international law.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Judge Resigns Over Bush Spy Program

by element115
A federal judge has resigned from a special court set up to oversee government surveillance to protest President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program on people with suspected terrorist ties.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Saddam says tortured and beaten by Americans

by element115
"I have been hit by the Americans and tortured," he said during his trial on charges of crimes against humanity. "I have been beaten on every place of my body, and the signs are all over my body."
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Israel claims that Ukrainian Cruise Missiles Transported Via Russia to Iran

by element115
Ukrainian cruise missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometers and capable of carrying nuclear warheads have ended up in Iranian hands after being transported via Russia, said Israel?s Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aharon Ze?evi (Farkash).
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CIA's 1984 Grenada invasion Comic Book

December 20, 2005 by element115
'Rescued from Rape and Slavery' was produced by the CIA and air-dropped over the island nation after US-led invasion.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Entire Region of Norway to boycott Apartheid Israel

by element115
The regional council of the Sør-Trøndelag in Norway has passed a motion calling for a comprehensive boycott on Israeli goods to be followed up with an awareness raising campaign across the region. Sør-Trøndelag has a population of 270,000 out of Norway's 4.6 million.

The decision comes just weeks after a city in the Basque country, Arbizu, passed a similar motion in their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Road to Anti-Americanism

by element115
The sad conclusion is that America can be justifiably seen as an enemy of Iraq.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

The Real Face of the Occupation

by element115
White flags on top of houses and cars, plenty of American and Iraqi military vehicles, too many check points and blocks on the road, many frightening walking patrols, curfew after sunset, heaps and heaps of destroyed houses, shops, offices, the only bridge, hospitals and medical care centers, walls covered with bullets shots, and elections posters?empty faces with bleak looks wonder in the streets.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

The Making of the Enemy

by element115
The coming years, like those of the present and the past, will see the continued spewing of fictionalized propaganda designed to manipulate the fears, hatreds, xenophobia and nationalistic tendencies of the population. The level of control over the masses and power over the nation in the years after 9/11 by corporatists intent on hijacking the country became, to them, a rousing success, thanks to the intense levels of fear and hatred engendered by the horrific events of that day. In the span of a few infamous days the corporatists had unleashed massive psychological warfare upon us, its effects still lingering in the minds of millions. Suddenly, those in power had become the puppeteers of the citizenry, free to manage us as they saw fit, our fragile and damaged psychologies traumatized, our thinking, human minds replaced by our more primitive, mammalian instincts and behaviors. An entire nation had succumbed, thanks to television, to images and emotions no people had ever witnessed, repeated over and over and over again. The making of America?s new enemy had begun.
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The miscreant dynasty

by element115
The Bush generations have enriched themselves while impoverishing the presidency.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

America kidnapped me

by element115
LATimes ---> On Dec. 31, 2003, I took a bus from Germany to Macedonia. When we arrived, my nightmare began. Macedonian agents confiscated my passport and detained me for 23 days. I was not allowed to contact anyone, including my wife.

At the end of that time, I was forced to record a video saying I had been treated well. Then I was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to a building where I was severely beaten. My clothes were sliced from my body with a knife or scissors, and my underwear was forcibly removed. I was thrown to the floor, my hands pulled behind me, a boot placed on my back. I was humiliated.

Eventually my blindfold was removed, and I saw men dressed in black, wearing black ski masks. I did not know their nationality. I was put in a diaper, a belt with chains to my wrists and ankles, earmuffs, eye pads, a blindfold and a hood. I was thrown into a plane, and my legs and arms were spread-eagled and secured to the floor. I felt two injections and became nearly unconscious. I felt the plane take off, land and take off. I learned later that I had been taken to Afghanistan.
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A Quarter Century of U.S. Support for Occupation

by element115
Press Release: East Timor Truth Commission report uses declassified U.S. documents to reveal support for Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor from 1975 until U.N. sponsored vote in 1999.
National Security Archive provides more than 1000 documents to East Timor Truth Commission after Bush Administration refuses cooperation.
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Muslim conspiracy to rule world just nonsense

by element115
Toronto Star ---> George W. Bush talks about "a totalitarian Islamic empire that reaches from Indonesia to Spain."
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An insidious culture of surveillance

by element115
The one enduring lesson that conservatives used to teach effectively is that government that is not checked, balanced, and watched like a hawk can gradually become oppressive.
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Did the Bush Administration Lie to Congress and the 9/11 Commission?

by element115
One of the more puzzling mysteries of 9-11 is what ever happened to the flight recorders of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center towers. Now it appears that they may not be missing at all.
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Anti-Arabs Billboards

by element115
A New York group is sponsoring a billboard in New Mexico depicting a man wearing a traditional Arab head scarf and clutching a hand grenade and a New Mexico driver's license.

The image will be accompanied by the words, "Don't License Terrorists, New Mexico," and should be up within the next few weeks, according to Bill O'Reilly, a spokesman for the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, which is putting up $50,000 for the billboard here, others in North Carolina and future radio and television ads in both states.
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MicroChips: From implementation to integration in 2006

by element115
The big news in the automatic identification and mobility industry in 2005 was "implementation." Companies worked to implement radio frequency identification (RFID) to comply, or prepare for compliance, with retail and government mandates. In 2006, the big news will be "integration."
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Bill May Renew U.S. Weather Control Efforts

by element115
"This is a fascinating subject to me, and the idea that we can actually impact weather is exciting, and I guess, frightening in some ways," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said during a November hearing on a bill that could start up a federal weather modification research program.
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Venezuela gives Exxon ultimatum

by element115
Venezuela has given the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, until the end of this year to enter a joint venture with the state.

Failure to do so will almost certainly result in Exxon losing its oil field concessions in the country.
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150 Pounds of Explosives Missing in N.M.

by element115
About 150 pounds of commercial plastic explosives has disappeared from a private storage site, along with 2,500 blasting caps and 20,000 feet of explosive detonation cord.
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The Destruction of the World Trade Center:

by element115
Why the Official Account Cannot Be True
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Osama Bin Laden and the Leak That Wasn't

by element115
...does not appear to be based on any government leak and made no reference to government surveillance of bin Laden's phone.
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The president must be held accountable.Period.

by element115
The accumulated evidence of the four years since 9/11 has shown that the Bush administration cannot be trusted. If laws were violated, as they apparently were, people must be punished ? including the president.
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Iraqis protest as goverment hikes fuel prices

by element115
Angry Iraqis staged protests across the country on Monday after the government raised fuel prices as much as threefold in a bid to revive the economy.
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CIA Chief Pays Secret Visit to Ukraine

by element115
The CIA chief's visit to Ukraine had not been officially announced.
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Bush shows he believes he is above the law

by element115
The Geneva Conventions have been tossed aside like wastepaper. They are replaced by gross violations of basic human rights at U.S. detention facilities, secret and semi-secret, around the world.
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Bush's Snoopgate

by element115
The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times? eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office.
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Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors

by element115
The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.
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Bush Vows Domestic Surveillance to Continue

December 19, 2005 by element115
President Bush Defends Secret Domestic Surveillance As Necessary, Legal and Says It Will Continue.
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Iran's President Bans Western Music

by element115
"Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is required," according to a statement on the council's official Web site.
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Conflicts of interest

by element115
How Big Pharma influences the FDA's drug approval process at the expense of public safety...
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US Holding Children in Prison Camps as POW's

by element115
After visiting six of the twenty-five or so U.S. prisons, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported registering 107 detainess under eighteen, some as young as eight years old. The Journalist Seymour Hersh reported in May 2005 that Defense Secretaary Donald Rumsfeld had recieve a report that there were "800-900 Pakistani boys age 13-15 in custody."
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Spaceflight from Moscow to New York to take less than an hour

by element115
Russian scientists design an aerospace passenger plane, capable of flying at the speed of 30,000 km/h
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Sharon's stroke prompts political concern

by element115
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon joked with aides and discussed affairs of state Monday after suffering a mild stroke, but his illness raised questions about his ability to lead the country.
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Cocaine plants to be legalised by the first home-grown President

by element115
Five centuries of white rule in Bolivia have ended with the election of the country?s first indigenous head of state.
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The Child Prostitution Sex Ring Involving the Bush Whitehouse

by element115
...the bizarre and very real child sexual prostitution ring involving the Republican elite of Washington.
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The Bush Administration: Greatest risk for terrorism

by element115
Every Day Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are in Office, Our Lives and the Lives of Our Loved Ones are Increasingly at Risk...
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Happy people more successful in life

by element115
Happy people are in general more successful and more likely to achieve favourable life circumstances, say scientists.
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Group claims to have beheaded American hostage

by element115
The Islamic Army in Iraq has released a video which it says shows the killing of Ronald Schulz, a 40-year-old American security consultant taken hostage in Iraq earlier this month. It had already announced that he had been killed in a statement issued on 8 December, which said pictures of the killing would be released later. In the new video, which was posted on the Internet and lasts just a few seconds, the screen is split in two. On the left side the identity documents of the hostage are shown as proof of who he is, while on the right the hostage appears with his face covered.
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Gonzales: War powers authorized eavesdropping

by element115
"There were many people, many lawyers, within the administration who advised the president that he had inherent authority as commander in chief under the Constitution to engage in this kind of signals intelligence of our enemy," Gonzales said in an interview with CNN.
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Saddam Hussein loyalists released

by element115
24 top former officials in Saddam Hussein's regime were freed from jail without charges. They included biological and chemical weapons experts known as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax."
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Leftist claims Bolivia poll win

by element115
Bolivian socialist leader Evo Morales has claimed victory in that turbulent Andean country's presidential election after conservative rival Jorge Quiroga conceded defeat.
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Sen. Reid calls US Congress 'most corrupt in history'

December 18, 2005 by element115
"America can do better than what we've done," said Reid. "The most corrupt Congress in the history of the country. We have such significant problems with what's going on in this country."
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Evo Morales Leads Bolivia Voting

by element115
Bolivia's Socialist presidential candidate Evo Morales, who has promised to become Washington's "nightmare," held an unexpectedly strong lead over his conservative rival in Sunday's election, according to two independent exit polls.
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Rights group says US had secret Afghanistan prison

by element115
A human rights group said on Sunday that the United States operated a secret prison for terrorism suspects as recently as last year in Afghanistan, where detainees where subjected to torture and other mistreatment.
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Senator Says Bush Is Acting Like 'King George'

by element115
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., believes President Bush is acting more like a sovereign monarch than an elected leader by authorizing the National Security Agency to listen in on Americans' phone calls.

"We have a system of law," Feingold said. "He just can't make up the law ? It would turn George Bush not into President George Bush, but King George Bush."
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German Hostage in Iraq Is Freed

by element115
A German television station reported Sunday that Susanne Osthoff, the German woman taken hostage in Iraq, has been freed.
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Israeli PM Sharon rushed to hospital

by element115
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in southern Jerusalem at 7:50 p.m. Sunday evening.

The prime minister, who will be 78 in February, suffered a light stroke and was taken directly to the VIP section of the hospital's trauma room. The senior medical staff of the hospital was called in to treat him.
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Persian Fire

by element115
Chris Floyd ---> So now we know: Next time the fire will come in Iran. The blow will be delivered by proxy, but that will not spare the true perpetrator from the firestorm of blowback and unintended consequences that will follow. Even now, the gruesome deaths of many innocent people in many lands are growing in futurity's womb.
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So, just who is Christian Bailey?

by element115
A 30-year-old Oxford graduate with no public relations experience has been handed a $100m contract by the Pentagon - to plant false stories in Iraqi papers.
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America's Own Chronicle of Its Hellish Descent

by element115
...the descent of American values into various circles of hell. The lust and gluttony for power, the greed for cheap and easy profit from Iraq's ruins, the wrath of our terrified military, of our mercenary "private security" goons, and now of Iraq's government-backed death squads and their hunt for heretics: All of it combines into a three-ring circus of violence with the Tigris for a River Styx and the Potomac for a Rubicon. Our imperial president crossed that one three years ago, with fraud on his lips and hubris in his plastic laurels.
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Fun Bits About American Torture

by element115
In many ways, the U.S. is now just as inhumane and brutal as any Third World regime. Oh well?
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Iran: The Israeli Factor

by element115
The choice before the US and the West is stark and simple : either they continue to work in tandem with Israel and destroy the world or they curb and control Israel's drive for hegemonic power and usher in a new era of peace and justice.
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Electricity generated by mixing sea and river water

by element115
The Dutch Center for Sustainable Water Technology or Wetsus, and Norway's independent research organization SINTEF, working with power company Statkraft, have invented devices that generate electricity by mixing sea and river water.
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Torture's Long Shadow

by element115
...trying to make a distinction between torture and CID techniques is ridiculous. Long gone are the days when a torturer needed the nasty-looking tools displayed in the Tower of London. A simple prison bed is deadly if you remove the mattress and force a prisoner to sleep on the iron frame night after night after night. Or how about the "Chekist's handshake" so widely practiced under Stalin -- a firm squeeze of the victim's palm with a simple pencil inserted between his fingers? Very convenient, very simple. And how would you define leaving 2,000 inmates of a labor camp without dental service for months on end? Is it CID not to treat an excruciatingly painful toothache, or is it torture?
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Narnia's Christian theme worries some Jewish viewers

by element115
The Jerusalem Post ---> "Should Jewish children see this movie or read the books? I'm unsure." said Rabbi Judah Dardik, the spiritual leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland, Calif.
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Christmas paranoia

by element115
...adding anti-Semitism to the list of charges against Christmas defenders.
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How Spy Chips Are Quietly Reshaping Privacy

by element115
"...we are headed toward a state where privacy will be a thing of the past" says Alex Eckelberry, president of Florida-based Sunbelt Software.

"...a chip in your arm that is placed there instantaneously, and is going to be able to help you secure your medical records which will be able to allow you to...be able to get immediate care."

The procedure is "very quick and painless."
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But it's so cold in Alaska

by element115
As Iraq was not enough, the escalating rhetorical war between Iran and Israel may be leading to a "hellish military confrontation" for the whole Middle East.
...it seems Israeli hardliners are very much intent on proving that the Iranian desert in March can be as cold as Alaska.
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Planted PR Stories Not News to Military

by element115
U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group, the Washington-based contractor.

In contrast to assertions by military officials in Baghdad and Washington, interviews and Lincoln Group documents show that the information campaign waged over the last year was designed to cloak any connection to the U.S. military.
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German abduction case gets murkier - did U.S. pay?

by element115
German politicians expressed surprise on Thursday at reported U.S. comments that Washington had apologized and paid money to a German citizen it abducted to Afghanistan and held for months as a terrorist suspect.
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War in Iraq a crime, say legal experts

by element115
Leaders of the United States, Britain and Australia are criminals who have committed crimes against humanity and should be hauled up and tried for war crimes, according to two law professors.

...the international community must file reports against them for genocide and crimes against humanity with the International Criminal Court for violating the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
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Iran tells West to be tolerant of Holocaust views

by element115
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust is a matter for academic discussion and the West should be more tolerant of his views, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
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Bolivia's hero vows to break US shackles

by element115
Evo Morales, a 46-year-old Aymara Indian, leading candidate in today's presidential elections and leader of a left-wing revolution that may soon engulf most of South America.
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Time magazine's "Persons of the Year"

by element115
The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda, were named Time magazine's "Persons of the Year" along with Irish rocker Bono for being "Good Samaritans" who made a difference in different ways.
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Reid Seeks Probe of Bush Domestic Spying

by element115
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called Sunday for congressional hearings and investigations into President Bush's authorization of domestic spying as part of the war on terror.

...he said the president should not have unchecked authority to disregard the Constitution.
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Lebanon finds 25 Israeli cluster bombs

by element115
Army bomb squads are defusing the bombs, said the statement, adding that a 155mm-calibre shell was also found in the same area.

...the Israeli side denied the report, saying it did not use cluster bombs banned by the international law.
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US troop pullout from Iraq to take years: Powell

by element115
"It's going to be years," Powell said in an interview with the BBC World TV Channel on Sunday.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Cheney Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

by element115
Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Iraq Sunday under heavy security.
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Make the List Public

December 17, 2005 by element115
Who Did the White House Spy On?

...this invasion of privacy in the case of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American citizens must be challenged in the courts. What Bush did is engage in an extra-legal act against the citizens he is paid to represent -- and this is criminal.

This list should be made public -- published in full on the Internet.
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Giuliani's cry in the New York Times

by element115
"YESTERDAY the Senate failed to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, as a Democratic-led filibuster prevented a vote. This action - which leaves the act, key elements of which are due to expire on Dec. 31, in limbo - represents a grave potential threat to the nation's security. I support the extension of the Patriot Act for one simple reason: Americans must use every legal and constitutional tool in their arsenal to fight terrorism and protect their lives and liberties."
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Federal agents' visit chills students

by element115
A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
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UN investigator says Syria behind Hariri's murder

by element115
Asked by the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat if he was "perfectly convinced of Syria's responsibility in the murder of Hariri", Mehlis said: "Yes. The Syrian authorities are responsible," without giving further details.
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NSA uses ECHELON against US citizens

by element115
The Register ---> ...and all without the slightest bit of judicial oversight.
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Woman Asks Restaurant To Remove Sign

by element115
The sign at McDonald's on the corner of Falls of Neuse and Spring Forest Road reads: "Merry Christmas, Jesus is the Reason for the Season."

"I care because I'm Jewish, and the reason for the season is upsetting to me," Alpert said.
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Long-term Rummy?

by element115
Senior Defense Department officials say Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has told them nobody should stay for just another year, but that he wants them for the rest of President Bush's second term. That is read as a signal that Rumsfeld intends to serve out the next three years.
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The nanoarmor of the future

by element115
...an Israeli company has created materials made of inorganic fullerene-like nanostructures (IFs) which have amazing shock absorbing properties. During preliminary tests, these materials, which are five times stronger than steel, have successfully resisted to steel projectiles generating pressures as high as 250 tons per square centimeter.
These materials could be incorporated in "nanoarmors" able to protect soldiers or police forces within three years.
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Iranian President's Guard Killed, Driver Wounded

by element115
Bandits killed a guard of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hours before the leader visited southeastern Iran this week.
...another guard and a driver were wounded in Thursday's assault on a road 1,240 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran.

...assassination attempt?
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Bush admits to approving secret spying

by element115
In an eight-minute radio address on Saturday, Bush said he personally approved the interception of communications more than 30 times since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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Urine business

by element115
The man behind the Segway tackles Third World water shortages.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Christmas magic show sparks outrage

by element115
A Christmas magic show on British television claiming to recreate miracles - including making a virgin pregnant - has been condemned by Christian groups.

"The Magic Of Jesus," broadcast on the independent Channel 4, features illusionists Barry Jones and Stuart McLeod attempting to see if eight New Testament "feats" are possible.
The performers sought to raise a headless corpse from the dead, cure a blind person, feed 5,000 soccer fans with five loaves and two fishes and walk on water.
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Why are physicists taking the idea of multiple universes seriously now?

by element115
Inflation tells us that our observable universe likely began in a different vacuum state, that decayed into our current vacuum state. It's hard to believe that's the whole story. It seems more probable that our universe began in some other vacuum state with a much higher cosmological constant, and that the history of the multiverse is a series of quantum tunnelling events from one vacuum to another.
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The US is now rediscovering the pitfalls of aspirational imperialism

by element115
Bush's desire to implant western-style democracy in Iraq is profoundly reminiscent of past British imperial practice.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Bush Picks Controversial Nominees for FEC

by element115
President Bush nominated two controversial lawyers to the Federal Election Commission yesterday: Hans von Spakovsky who helped Georgia win approval of a disputed voter-identification law, and Robert D. Lenhard, who was part of a legal team that challenged the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
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Swiss Open Criminal Probe of CIA Flights

by element115
...spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office, said the investigation was launched earlier this week, but that prosecutors "were aware of the difficulties" they will probably face in obtaining information from Washington.
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Israeli Airstrike Kills One in Gaza

by element115
Israeli aircraft fired missiles Saturday at a car in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one person and wounding at least three others, Palestinian security and emergency officials said.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

Police clash with anti-WTO protesters

by element115
The violent demonstrations on Saturday, the worst seen in Hong Kong for decades.
Police used tear gas, fire hoses and pepper spray in attempts to quell the demonstrations.
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Bush Urges Renewal of Patriot Act, Defends Use of U.S. Wiretaps

by element115
The "secret program" is "critical to saving American lives" and "crucial to our national security," Bush said today. The wiretaps are a "vital tool" in the war against terrorism and the program was improperly revealed to the news media, the president said.
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Rice says Iran referral to UN "only a matter of time"

by element115
Rice also called Iran the "largest state sponsor of terrorism".
Posted in | 0 Comments »

The Wizard of Oil

by element115
Somewhere under the radar, way down low.
There's a land that I heard of once, where the oil still flows.
Somewhere under the radar, folks are screwed.
And the schemes that you dare to scheme really do come through.
Posted in | 0 Comments »

First Mass Producible Quantum Computer Chip

December 16, 2005 by element115
Researchers at the University of Michigan have produced what is believed to be the first scalable quantum computer chip, which could mean big gains in the worldwide race to develop a quantum computer.

Quantum computers can solve certain problems much faster than any possible conventional computer, owing to the bizarre features of quantum mechanics. For instance, quantum computers can process multiple inputs at the same time in the same device, and quantum circuitry can be wired via the quantum feature of entanglement, dubbed by Einstein as "spooky action-at-a-distance."
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